10/29/07 Colombia Falls -Meadow Lake Golf Resort

What an interesting trip, the seasons of life, growing up, buying your first house, pouring all your love into it, painting and decorating and buying furniture, having babies in it, celebrating all the holidays, I remember my most favorite time was Christmas, sitting on my oh so comfy couch watching the blinking lights on the tree, meditation is was, I would sit for hours, early in the morning and late at night, staring at the lights, full of warmth and joy and gratitude. Looking at all the ornaments on the tree, many made by my kids, many gifts from friends, all full of love and memories.

I loved everything about that house, the light that came flooding in from the backyard, all my plants, my beautiful blue tile kitchen, the cooking classes we held there and ginger bread cookie making parties, the awesome playroom we built for the kids, the tree house built with love, the amazing sunsets, the gorgeous french doors that Bill painted so well that glistened, the lilies that Lee gave me from his garden that bloomed year round, the flower bed in the front yard that i put in, labor and childbirth, the red trim around the house and the red front door with the little reminder sign to take your shoes off, the mantle the Johnny built for us, all the parties, Kevin and Edie singing and playing, the house full of love and friends and memories... Everything.. and then the season changes and it's time to let it all go.. my kids have the best memories of that house.. who can blame them for struggling to let it go.. and now we are living in the RV.. life on the road is very different.. simpler, quieter, better views and scenery, more diverse terrain, more adventure, different that's for sure.

After 10 months of vacation renting our furnished house, we found a long term tenant (who may even buy the house), it was a huge task to empty the house, but the good news is we sold a lot and got to donate a ton to the those who lost their homes in the recent fires. It's got me thinking about all I have to be grateful for definitely.

And after 4 months living in the RV traveling from California to Nevada to Oregon to Washington to British Colombia to Idaho to Montana.. we are checking into a super deluxe 2 bedroom condo at the Meadow Lake Golf Resort in Colombia Falls, Montana. They have it all, game room (with playstation, pool, ping pong, air hockey), pool, 3 Jacuzzi's, tv, movies, and a bed! Reese says he had the best night sleep of his life last night. Nothing like 4 mos in the RV to make you appreciate a house huh. I've heard you never truly appreciate things until you lose them. I am totally enjoying our life now and completely appreciating the great life we had in our house too! It feels like a win win plan.
We've got a week to enjoy a home, relax, stay put, and when we pull out, we'll have 21/2 weeks on the road venturing through Montana, Wyoming and landing in Colorado where we'll be staying for 10 weeks. We have rented a condo right on the mountain at Winter Park for a month (I figure the boys will be expert skiers by then), a big house to spend the Christmas holiday with Martha, Alexis and all the kids, we even get Ronnie Alexis's mommy, what's Christmas without a grandma! I am hoping my sister and my cousin Dean will come visit us in December. Then after New Years we'll head for Boulder to a beautiful condo right downtown for the month of January. We'll be able to really check out the AA community, the homeschoolers, the Osho group there and the Adyashanti tape group that meets every Tues night. And we can still ski a few days a week with our ski passes. I am hoping Colleen and her kids will come see us in Boulder! I't gonna be a great winter for sure, different, I've never lived in snow, an adventure i'm sure, something new, new friends, new sights, i am so grateful for it all! And.. you've got to let go of what you have (or who you think you are) to have new experiences, let it go, let it go, open up to what is.. and i'll tell ya, the view from our condo in Montana is something else!

10/26/07 Kalispell Montana

We got in touch with the local homeschool group here and we headed for the boys and girls club friday to go roller skating, so fun, Reese made a lot of friends, they had foosball and air hockey too and I had a blast skating. It was so fun, we went back for 3 more hours that night, Luc is so awesome, totally picked it up in one night, even found a teenage girl to skate with him. Reese spent the evening hanging with the boys and chasing a girl, a 12 yr old ,he is so cute, she kept saying, ladykillers these boys are gonna be..
brought back so many memories i have of skating as a kid, friday night at the skating rink.. checking out the boys.. so much fun..

We also met some homeschoolers at a local park and spent the day with them. I try everyday to find kids to play with, good thing my boys are so adaptable and can make friends in a minute and play with anyone. That is a gift.

On Saturday morning we headed to a park and they had a candy hunt just like on Easter, we got our booty and momy headed back South to Symes Mineral pools. It got very cold in the last few nights, we've been running our portable heater all night and we bought flannel sheets and an extra blanket as well. But nothing quite compares with soaking for 4-5 hours a day in that hot mineral content 106 degree pool. It really quiets you down, awesome place to get very still, I go deep within, don't talk much and relax very deeply, until i cease to exist.. at least for a little while.

Strange day, i started out going to an AA meeting in a treatment center, it was great, the speaker was a guy with 5 mos sober, the secretary had 13 years and went out and was back 3 years with a totally new appreciation for all of life. He was on fire doing all kinds of service and it was great hearing from the folks in patient too. It made me very grateful, I've also been reading some newspaper headlines lately of moms losing their kids and going to jail and all kinds of drama cause of their drinking and the insanity that follows, but for the grace of god.. I am forever grateful to be sober, what a gift!

10/23/07 Glacier National Park

We woke up this morning and after several cloudy days it was sunny and not a cloud in the sky. After 3 days of soaking we were in close to a comatose state and well i guess the sunshine motivated me, I knew today was the day to head back up North and visit Glacier National Park. Unfortunately they close a lot of roads (for road repair) in the fall and we were not able to access the most talked about areas, but we drove 16 miles of the Going to the Sun Road, took a short hike and then watched the sunset turn the mountains purple, spectacular!

The next day we went hiking and biking in the park, taking in the full autumn views, it was so quiet and peaceful barely anyone in the park, I had a full on religious experience watching the sunlight on the trees and the reflection on the lake, the boys built rock towers and dams in the creek and we had to rescue Luc when he got in too deep.

I dropped my camera leaning out my window to take a picture, gotta head to costco tomorrow to get a new one.. ouch, gotta love those unexpected expenses.

Good news is I got an awesome camera and a bunch of warm sweaters from Costco and no sales tax in Montana, gotta love that.

10/21/07 Hot Springs, Montana

After a day in Kalispell we headed south an hour to Hot Springs, Montana. We stopped at Symes Hotel and Medicinal Springs and spent 3 days there. We parked the RV right next to the big pool of mineral water and I soaked 5 hours the first day, it was divine. They had it all, RV hook ups, a restaurant, live music, a big fire inside to sit by, 3 soaking pools, gorgeous scenery, nice folks, really a sweet spot. I was diving deep into my new Barbara Kingsolver book, Prodigal Summer, it's awesome! I just love her books, i bought The poisenwood bible to read next, they are so well writen, great characters, and i learn so much too.

Another great book i just finished was Follow the Cowherd Boy, by JA Joshi. I met the author at a book signing, she said the book was about India and Spirituality and a story about a 16th century princess and her spiritual path, i just loved it, a book about devotion and being truly who you are in the face of great pressure to be who the world wants you to be or to conform and be like others. I related a lot to the character.

10/19/07 We're in Montana Now

The drive after getting off the ferry ride across Kootenay Lake was so beautiful, a perfect exit from British Colombia which was the most spactacular scenery I've ever seen. A huge wind blew in and millions of gold leaves blew across the road as i was driving, I've never seen anything quite like it. Mother Nature's version of Cirque de Sol, oh my god, I kept saying oh my god, branches were flying and leaves leaves leaves, wow.

When we arrived in Creston it was 4pm, sunny and we were ready to boogie back to the US, we crossed in Porthill and what an encounter those federal agents, the front line of defense of our country. We had to exit our cars, wake the kids up from naps and sit for 45 minutes in the office while they went through everything in our cars, it felt so violating, just cause we wanted to take a trip to Canada for 2 weeks, this is what we signed up for. They were quite pleased to confiscate 2 lemons, 3 avocados and 2 cans of soup bought in canada that had signs of meat (mad cow disease). Imagine if we'd ate that stuff we probably would have died. So rest assured, you are all safe, the government is on the job! what a joke! I think the basic idea is this.. Everything bad in the world is out there, not in here mind you, don't worry about that at all, just keep all the bad stuff out and we'll all be safe! And those agents, they believe it, I don't though, I think what is most harmful to us is right here in our very own borders thank you very much.. To top it off I discovered 100 miles down the road that I'd left my wallet at the border and had to call them and ask them to mail it to me in Montana. oh joy..

We were in Idaho for about 20 minutes before crossing into Montana, we ate dinner and spent the night in Libby Montana and headed to Kalispell in the morning.

10/18/07 Ainsworth Hot Springs - Paradise!!

About an hour North of Nelson is a primo hot springs.. Ainsworth.. a hotel with all the amenities.. a giant 98 degree pool and a 105 degree smaller pool attached to a cave with all kinds of springs running in, very unique and an ice cold 38 degree dip.. I discovered the secret.. you sit in the ice pool for as long as you can, i made it about 2.5 minutes, then hop in the hot pool and wow, it's a kundalini rush of energy that lasts for 10-15 minutes.. i did it over and over!!

So.. Canada is expensive.. grocery store food is move expensive, gas is over $1 a litre, 3.9 liters in a gallon, and the biggest kick is how excited the Canadians are about the Loonie being higher than the dollar right now I guess it is 1.04, i remember recently reading how much you saved going to Canada for vacation, i guess that was over a year ago?? well those days are over.

Our one reprieve was the free ferry ride we took across Kootenay Lake on the way back down South, it is about 5 miles accross the lake and takes 30 minutes or so.. the boys and I were playing up on the top deck and waved at the Captain and next thing i know, they are waving us up to the deck. We got a tour of the whole Captains Deck and the boys got to see the whole operation they were very nice, what a treat!

10/17/07 Welcome draft dodgers to Nelson BC

One of the big scores for the homeschooling camping trip we took with all the Oregon folks in Sept.. was we made some friends!! One of the families there who used to live in Hood River Oregon now lives in Nelson BC. 4 hours North of Spokane, Nelson is a bit remote, but it was right on our path to our next stop Ainsworth Hot Springs.. check it out.. http://www.bchotsprings.com

We called our friends .. we're here.. ready to play?? sure they said, come on over.. Lorraine and Brian have a house up the hill from town, they are very much in process of remodeling, the house, 2 barns, and the garden?? Brian is very busy! Reese was so excited to see Logan 14 and MacKenzie 11 and Luc was really happy to play with Logan's 10,000 legos. Logan, Reese and I had a game frenzy.. playing Masterpiece 2x ( i loved that game as a kid) and then we got the whole group to play Bananagrams into the night.. I love that game!! Their house has a view of the Kootenay Glacier and is in the midst of a forest of golden trees, just beautiful.

Lorraine is a nutritionist and member of www.westonaprice.org , a non profit group that promotes natural healthy eating.. boy looking into her refrigerator was an experience, everything natural, no packaged items, very inspiring. She had great stories about health issues her family (and many many others) faced and how they all went away when they changed their diets. I am not there yet, especially living on the road, but i was inspired enough to make some changes and we've been eating more fruits and vegetables in the last week.

We had fun exploring Nelson, a radical liberal town with lots of hippie types and political vibe. Steve overheard several conversations in the coffee shop about how they don't want to buy anything from the US, they don't want to show support in any way for the politics coming from the US. I was told that Nelson was the town that all the draft dodgers came to avoid the draft. They had a Buddist center there and a load of alternative food, spiritual, etc..
Apparently homeschooling is the majority in Nelson, the community is huge and very active.

We so enjoyed visiting friends, recharged our batteries and reminded us that you can feel at home whereever..