Our first big road trip family vacation in a few years. 
The first major, planned out, long time on the road post-divorce (well, almost) and it was everything I’d hoped it would be: an immersion of our personalities in all the situations. Though we make a lot of Instagram-perfect photos, we know life is rarely “perfect” when the rubber meets the road. It’s those times of togetherness when we grow by working through the challenges of disappointment, minor crises, irritability, and potty breaks.

A background:

My father has recently retired/moved from Chicago, where be bought his house in Wicker Park in the early/mid 1970’s, and relocated with his wife to Fairbanks, in rural Southern Indiana– a region so different and self-identifying I’m compelled to follow AP style and capitalize “Southern.”
He asked if we’d be up for a summer visit. My first thought was “yeah, we’ll take the Argosy” which was shortly followed by ever-increasing gas prices, and the brick-against-the-head reality of the time and discomfort of driving across the country with a camper in tow, especially with an already-strained time budget. And there was also the fact I haven’t made much progress refurbishing the Argosy. SMH.

And, my Uncle Louie, Aunt Laura, and cousins Maria, Julia, and Alicia were due for a visit in Sacramento. Sooo… we planned the trip and made it all happen. I’ve been quite busy this year reinventing my career as a carpenter, taking my licks, and settling into our new house, in Idyllwild.
We made plans for a road trip for the California leg, and a flight to Indianapolis to visit my father and his wife. We recently adopted a new-to-us adventure van–  a 2003 Volkswagen Eurovan with very low miles and a degree of disrepair balanced with potential to become a great camper. It’s a perfect match for this family. 😉
I was overcooked and ready to vacate. And I had to bust tail until the very end to make it happen.

We started a day late

And headed out to Montana de Oro State Park, near Morro Bay. We scheduled 2 days here, so as to settle into the groove and not feel terribly rushed. Tessa joined us for this leg of the trip, and we rode bikes, explored the beach, and my little guy took a big spill on his bike.. on pavement. He got up and said “I’m not going to ride my bike so fast anymore… well maybe I will still go kinda fast.”
We were besieged by local raccoons, who attempted to enter our Yeti cooler (that’s bear-proof ya know) but still managed to terrorize an evening. We caught one particularly brave raccoon taking a marshmallow out of our supply bag while we were making s’mores a mere 10′ away.
We prevailed over the trash panda by use of copious quantities of ground black pepper, sprinkled around our picnic table. It seems the pepper works like a sort pepper spray against the raccoon’s sensitive nose.
We enjoyed the glorious ocean views here, and some highlights:
— I forgot to bring the right kind of butane for my camp stove, so 5 stores later we bought a new Coleman.
— My older boy (the mature one) got a Nerds Candy stuck in his ear canal. Yes, a nerds candy. The little sugary pebble things. Pretty deep.
“I didn’t mean to put it in that far” he said. (“how far did you intend to put it?!”)
We prevented a trip to Urgent Care and I eventually got it out via suction (yep… my mouth) and the tip of a zip tie. All part of an ordinary, average parenting skill set, right?
Montana De Oro was pretty great.

Santa Cruz
We enjoyed an easy day on the road to Santa Cruz, stopping for lunch in Morro Bay.
We headed to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. When we arrived at the check-in kiosk and handed over our printed out online reservation, they politely told us we had made the reservation for the wrong week. SMH. Thankfully they found us a spot, and it was beautiful.
We went for a nice walk, the boys rode bikes, and we got some proper showers. Henry Cowell Redwoods is so very, very nice. This place rules. It really, really does. There isn’t a bad campsite in this whole place. Seriously. I can’t wait to go back.

We had coffee with my friend John, a contractor, who gave me a pep talk on all things tiny house. And yes, I would very much like to build a tiny house. Soon. Immediately if not sooner. Anybody want to buy one on spec? I’d be delighted to build one.

After Santa Cruz (did I mention I love this place?) we dropped Tessa off at San Jose Airport and dined at a nearby Chick Fil-A for the first time, in an area with more Tesla’s per capita than anywhere I’ve ever been before, even LA.
Then we took off for Sacramento and experienced traffic unlike anything I’ve ever seen before… even LA. Bay Area traffic, you’ve got game! The little one almost pooped himself in the van. But we worked it out.

 

Sacramento & Folsom
Really cool town. Bikes everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Not a stupid expensive place to live, yet. But as I understand it, Bay Area equity is changing that, rapidly, with the same effect us Californians have on so many other places. Like Idyllwild. Or Idaho. But I digress. Sacramento, Folsom, area; it’s pretty great. Good vibes up there. It’s worth a look. And it was amazing to see my family and be good to our roots.

My uncle Louie (not his real name btw) planned out an action packed visit for us, with the train museum, a train ride, the fish hatchery, and plenty of time with the cousins. My cousin Maria and her bf, Shaw, hosted a fun grillout, and my ever-extroverted younger son made fast friends with a boy his age there, got rowdy, and had to say goodbye. I went to church with my awesome cousin Julia. My Uncle Louie is the best, and it was so very good to visit with my cousins.

We hit the sites, ate the food, and drank the beer at Urban Roots Brewing where I even broke my no-beef rule for a day, and liked it.

So Cal, So IND
Next, we zoom-zoomed back to Idyllwild, in one big push down the grapevine, then zoom-zoomed the very next day to Ontario Airport, bound for Indianapolis. I was overdue for a haircut, tried a few quick-cut places along the way with no success… so I watched some you tube videos on “how to cut your own hair” and gave it a whirl.

The airport experience was entirely new and exciting for the boys, a highlight in itself despite my own discomforts with TSA and the herd experience of commercial travel.
Boy #1 has been on airplanes before, but he hadn’t remembered it. The excitement of flight and the energy of an airport abuzz in activity has been one of my lifelong joys, and a really fun experience to share with these guys. They took turns at the window seat for take off and landings (we had a layover at the busy-busy DFW, where we rode the tram) and enjoyed our new favorite fast food, Chick Fil-A.
The Grampster picked us up in Indianapolis and zoom-zoomed us down to Fairbanks.

Fairbanks
We had so much fun. For serious. Well, there were bug bites. And poison ivy. And humidity. Like for real, humidity. And crankiness (both child, and adult) and awkwardness and unclear expectations and family dynamics. Ya know, real life. I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

We blasted around the property on a Kawasaki MULE, built a bonfire, caught lots of amphibians, visited old barns, shot BB guns, and… this is big for me… drove the Porsche 911 for the first time, ever. I’d been waiting my whole life to drive this car; my father bought it new in 1976, babied it, celebrated it, and loved it. But there were about 17 years when he and I didn’t see each other (the not-instagram-perfect life) and suffice it to say, the next best thing is, chronologically speaking, the best thing. When the opportunity to drive the ’76 Porsche 911S came up, I jumped on it. It was good to visit my father and have the boys spend some time with him; all of us in a new chapter of life.

The Bonus Adventure
We got to the airport in Indianapolis on time, crazy early for our 8am flight (this is EST mind you) and our flight was oversold. Maybe because of the 737 MAX grounding? I dunno. They started offering flight vouchers for volunteers… we ignored it. Then they pressed with urgency, and it turned out our 3-in-1 seats were particularly attractive to the gate agent, so we made some bargains. Long story short, we stayed another day, had a ball, and now have flight vouchers to go pretty much anywhere we want to for our next trip.

We stayed another day, on American Airlines’ dime. We adventured more around the airport, ate “free” food and celebrated the joy of an airport hotel room. (“look dad, they even give us FREE earplugs!”)
The airline lost our luggage, and we took an Uber for the first time (my 3rd time maybe) to go shopping for swim trunks, made fast friends with another traveling family at the hotel pool, and had a ball being together.
Our flight home had one last bonus treat– because of the nature of our rescheduled flight, we had to sit in the very back, last row of the airplane. Naturally, it took a long time to deplane, and by the time we got to the front, the First Officer was apparently done with his postflight, and was accommodating of our request for the boys to get a quick tour of the flight deck. It was our last, unexpectedly perfect twist of events before wrapping up our summer vacation.