YTJ's Travels: The Maiden Voyage

Once upon a time, there was a family who loved adventure...

My husband, Chris, our six year old son Lucas, our beloved 8 year old dogs, Kona (black lab/husky mix, or as Lucas calls her, a husky-labit) and Ernie (a golden doodle who missed out on all the doodle genes), and I love most any activity that takes place outside. We love to bike, hike, camp, ski, climb, swim, and play together. For years we dreamed of getting a camper van that would get us to these places and make camping slightly easier. That dream came true in February of 2013, when Chris sent me an e-mail with a Sportsmobile converted Ford E350 4x4 bad boy with a V10 on Valentine's day (the man knows what this girl likes!). We were able to purchase the van, which was parked in Alaska, from Seattle with the help of Chris' brother, Chad, and his wife Gretchen, who live in Anchorage. They graciously parked the van in their driveway for the months in between our purchase and our vacation plan to pick it up and drive it home.

On May 31, Chris, Lucas, and I flew into Anchorage, where Chad picked us up in our new van, which his 3 year old son had aptly named "Whitey", which we shall spell YT in hopes of being more politically correct. Before we hit the road, we had some repairs to make; and with the right friends with the right tools, we were able to have the van road-ready on Monday evening. We celebrated with Chad, Gretchen, Erik, Amber, and the kids, and hit the road Tuesday, June 4.

^^ Craigslist Pictures of our sweeeeet van!

Said goodbye to our pups for two weeks before we left. It was quite the ordeal to get them taken care of for two weeks, as Kona is a true escape artist (Houdini reincarnated??) Chris and I went to Whistler for our anniversary a couple years ago, and left her and Ernie with my Uncle in West Seattle. He is a huge dog lover and almost always home, so we though she would be great there. Apparently, she got bored or was ready to come home or something and escaped the day we came back while my uncle was in the house and she was in the yard. She went missing for 15 days, and Chris, Lucas, and I searched for her daily in the area. We posted hundreds of signs and all over craigslist, the west seattle blog, and anywhere else we though could gain her case some attention. We got sightings reported every other day, so we didn't give up, and on the 15th day, we were rewarded. She was found in a dog park in west Seattle, with a broken leg, and seriously malnourished. Chris and I raced there from work, and as we were combing a wooded area, she literally jumped through some brush into Chris' arms. She was crying and licking our faces, and we cried too. We are still so very grateful to have our girl home. For this trip the neighbor's teenage daughters and Chris' aunt watched both pups and they got to stay home. (This was an excellent solution, and both dogs were healthy and HOME when we returned. Thank you girls!!!!!!!)