miura-adventure.comLife should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "WOW, WHAT A RIDE!!!!"

Now that we are back and living in the US mid-Atlantic, there is so much to see and do.  We’ve been getting out on the weekends to nearby destinations but really want to explore the Appalachian mountains, Chesapeake Bay, Outer Banks and not to mention the Southern States for some fantastic BBQ.

After keeping an eye open for another classic, we came across an even older motor home under auction that we just purchased.  It’s a 22′ Winnebago Chieftan built in 1972 (47 years old!!!)  with only 61K miles on the odometer and comes from an Estate Sale.  It looks to be lovingly cared for as seen in these photos.  We may upgrade a few small items but plan to keep it in showroom classic condition.  “Wilma” is on its way to Virginia from SoCal riding on a flat bed trailer and we plan on taking her on her first trip come August.   

Stay tuned for our next series of RV’ing adventures.  It sleeps up to 8 so you are welcome to join us on our next road trip!!! 

It is January 2014 and we are in the middle of summer vacation.  The kids are all in “perfectly smushed positions” and relaxing, drawing, reading,  playing on their devices and enjoying the “no agenda” lifestyle.

One of Andrew’s best friends from the states came to visit us on January 1.  The next day we took off for the Porto Real Resort in Rio state.  While the drive was long (okay, very long) it was worth it!  As Ken always tells the kids, “the longer the drive, the better the place”.  After being on so many road-trips in their lives, the kids are pretty good about hitting the road and anticipating the prize at the end of the drive.

 

Rio state is in the north of Brazil and I had now idea how different it would be than our state, Parana, in the south of Brazil.  First of all, it was hot.  Really hot.  When we arrived at 10:00 at night, it was hot.  Odd to think that while we were experiencing “hotter than normal” temps, even for Brazil, the states were experiencing an “arctic vortex” with record setting low temps.   It took us a little while to acclimate to the heat but a quick dip in the cool ocean made us feel comfortable.

 

The last time I posted on our miura-adventure website, Andrew was a sophomore at Morro Bay High School, Nikki was a freshman and Lauren was still in elementary school.   A lot has happened since then and our family adventure continues.  In an effort to keep from being completely overwhelmed with starting where I left off,  I am writing with the most recent events and going back from there.

Since our days on the road in an RV,  much has changed.  The kids and I lived with my mom (“silly grandma”) for a year while Ken returned back to work with Praxair.   In July 2012, we moved back to Curitiba Brazil, a city we lived for 3 years  from 1999 to 2002. Ken has always said, “You can never go back”, meaning how difficult it can be to move back to a place where you lived before. Curitiba was always the exception to the rule so when the opportunity came up to move back here, we jumped at the chance.

It was a tougher transition this time with the kids being older.  But I can happily say that we have all adapted well and we are enjoying our time in Brazil. Andrew is weeding through his options for universities in the states, Nikki is preparing her top 20 university list and Lauren will be going into high school in August.  They all attend the same school, the “International School of Curitiba.” We are living in the middle of the city in a 9th floor apartment.  We have a lovely view and love to  explore all the different “barrios” of the city. The food here is fabulous and we often take pictures of the different dishes we are enjoying.  We will include some of these pictures as it’s all so darn yummy! Thanks for coming along on the ride with us!

 

Well, the kids are now back in school after a fun summer on the central coast.  It’s so great to have two kids at the same school now (Morro Bay HS) .  Last year, all three kids went to different schools and it made for a tight taxi schedule.  Andrew loves being a Sophomore and not being a “newby” anymore.  He is loving playing football and enjoys the discipline of working out 5 days a week.  He always has a project in the works (or 2 or 3).  Right now, he is working on restoring Poohnut’s latest purchase – a old Stingray bicycle.  Andrew has stripped the whole thing down, painted it, bought a new chain and is polishing the metal parts.  He loves jobs like this (especially when there’s a few bucks in it for him!)  He is also working on his RC car, making another longboard and I do believe that’s it.  .  . for now!

Nikki is busy getting used to the rigors of high school  – juggling the academic aspect with the social and athletic aspects.  She is on the Freshman volleyball team and has gotten pretty good at “digging”.  They are a great group of girls on the volleyball team and the games are so fun to watch!  She is now taller than me (5’9″) and likes to infer that I am actually shrinking.  Oh the complements of teenagers.  Most of her friends live within walking distance so I don’t see her often as friends rule in her world right now.

Poohnut still enjoys being with me and I enjoy spending time with her.  There is just a small window left before she is a full fledged teenager and I am holding out all hope that she stays sweet and kind.  The big kids are still pretty good but alas, I am constantly reminded how utterly moronic my behavior is on a routine basis.  Can’t say theirs is any better but I don’t dare tell them that – rather pointless and their ears aren’t always open to my voice   Poohnut continues to love to write. She’s so darn creative (where does she get these story lines?) and even had one of her stories read over the loud speaker at school yesterday.  It was about her favorite tree and her dreams of turning it into a tree house where she could spend time looking out on the bay.  She used a lot of imagery and it was great fun to read.

We were happy to have time to visit our family and friends in the Southern Caifornia area.  We started off  in Dana Point  and had a great get together at the Coty’s beautiful house – the house that Brian built!  We got to sit down and dine with the Coty’s and the Litwinski and Lynch family.  We have some wonderful memories with this whole group and it was good to relax and reminisce.  Ken and I visited the place where Ken asked me to marry him,overlooking the harbor in Dana Point.  I remember it well. . . I had to ask him to repeat his question as he was a bit soft spoken in his approach!  (Was there some underlying fear there?!)  We visited  our nephew, Paul, (now 20 years old) as well as my sister Robin and her husband Steve.  Oh how I wish we could all live close to each other again!  Poohnut always seemed to find a good tree to climb and dreams of having a house one day with a big tree house.  We trekked down to Los Angeles one day and visited Ken’s Mom’s grave site.  We  have so many wonderful memories with “Tun”.  It was really nice to sit in the sun and remember our great time with this special mother and grandmother.   After our time with Tun, we had a super yummy lunch at one of Ken’s favorite eateries, the original Tommy’s.   While heading up north, we were  happy to host the Jaeger boys at our campground one night.  The following day, the kids all went over to their house in Wood Ranch and had fun swimming in their pool.   Great times with some very special people!

 

When we first talked to our good friend Jonathan about helping us lease our AZ house, he came up with a “deal”.  In exchange for his work , we would allow him to borrow our RV for up to a month near the end of our trip.  Deal!  The planning consisting for the turnover consisted of driving lessons which Jonathan passed with flying colors.  (Although I think he still wondered (as do I) how this big (huge) house makes it down the highway, especiallly around corners with little shoulder!  Ken and I worked hard to prep our baby and turned it over to the pears one sunny and HOT (talking 105 degrees) AZ day.  They were so excited and we were so happy to get to have them fulfill a dream.  It was surreal to see our RV with the van take off down the street!  While they were on the road, we stayed in their 3500 sq ft house for a few days where we kept losing Hobie.  Really!  Then we headed up to the central coast to spend time with my mom.  We celebrated Nikki’s 13th birthday and she got the camera she’s been dreaming of for months.   While the Pears had a great time, they lasted only about 2 weeks and were happy to return to the creature comforts of their AZ home.  The RV lifestyle isn’t for everyone but we are happy to have shared the experience with this wonderful family!

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It’s HOT in Phoenix but the mountains above Phoenix are the perfect escape as it’s usually 20 to 30 degrees cooler than Phoenix. We’ve heard great things about Show Low and now we know why.  Fools Hollow State Park in Show Low is one of the nicest state parks we have visited and we were lucky to find a camping spot right on the lake.  We parked in a double spot, designed to be shared when you travel with other families. The park was fairly empty as it was mid week so we had no fear that someone would choose to park right next to us. Well, a day into our stay a nice older couple with a new RV and not much experience in the whole camping etiquette thing, decided the spot right next to us (and I mean TWO feet from our front door) was perfect for them. I tried to persuade them to consider other spots as after all, did they really want to be that CLOSE to us? We aren’t that friendly! My talk was futile and they went about setting up all their stuff.  Then their children and grandchildren arrived. Yippee!!  At least we only had one night left to spend at the park and were planning on taking off early the next day.  When we ventured out of our RV at 6AM to enjoy our last morning coffee overlooking the lake, we woke up all their little yappy dogs and thus woke up their whole camp. Unintentional of course!  Maybe next time they will decide not to park so close to another family.

We were almost scared to travel down the mountains and into the heart of the Phoenix area. We weren’t used to the heat and hoped we wouldn’t all shrivel up into raisins!  We stayed at Desert’s Edge RV Park and, while the kids play with their friends, Ken and I prepped our RV for the Pear Family to use for the month of July. Jonathan managed our property in Anthem AZ for the last two years. His only payment was the use of our RV during the summer of 2010. We were happy with the exchange as we would love to share this wonderful lifestyle with another family.

We loved being able to literally stand on the corner in Winslow AZ highlighted in one of our favorite Eagles songs.  The town was surprisingly upbeat with a fun little downtown consisting of a main street.  We enjoyed some great Mexican food and sat at the same booth where Harrison Ford dined some years ago.  Definitely worth a stop if you find yourself en route from New Mexico to Arizona!

Santa Fe New Mexico

We’ve always wanted to check out Santa Fe as it seemed like a great combination of artisans, culture and desert beauty.  Our campground, on an Indian reservation was simple but clean and was a great base for visiting Santa Fe.  Santa Fe is nestled in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the foothills of the Rockies.  The town  didn’t disappoint and it was more than we expected.  The main street gave us a feel of authentic Mexico and the churches were old, beautiful and full of history and character.   Ken and I visited the city one day on our own and strolled down each street, popping into little courtyards full of shops and little cafes.   It truly gave us a feel of being in another country and we look forward to visiting the town of Santa Fe again in the future, perhaps staying in the beautiful “La Fonda” hotel as well!