December, 2011 - Postscript

Since the end of our 'Great Big Fat Roadtrip' in August 2011, we embarked on a new adventure in New Zealand, Vanessa's country of birth.

A new adventure awaits

This blog has taken a necessary back seat while we found a house, cleared our container through MAF and customs, enrolled our children in school and kindergarten respectively and settled into our new lifestyle.

We look forward to living off the grid as much as possible; to us that means growing a vegetable garden, home made baking, jam making, home kill meats, gathering kai moana (seafood) and living a more balanced life.

Who knows where this new adventure will take us and whether it will inspire another epic blog.

Thanks for coming along for the ride that was "Our Great Big Fat Roadtrip".

Day 59: 23 Aug, 2011 - Boston, MA to San Francisco, CA

'Our Great Big Fat Road Trip' has officially ended; what started with a bang, much excitement and anticipation of what lay ahead finished with little more than a sizzle, unless you count the earthquake that was felt in Boston around 2pm as we sat at Boston's Logan International Airport waiting for our 3pm flight to San Francisco, California.

We arrived back after 8pm but with the 3-hour time difference, our kids were feeling it, such that Nadia slept soundly outside Domestic arrivals as we waited for Marco to arrive with the rental car. 

Nadia catching some zzzs

Our travels took us from California on the west coast of the USA through Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and New York. We had a sojourn to Toronto in Canada before heading back into New York State and onwards to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine before completing our journey in Boston, Massachusetts.

18 States, two countries (if you count our side trip) and 59 days later we were back in California. While it seemed like a long time to be travelling, the reality is that we wished we had more time!! We were envious of the few families we met in RV Parks who were on their road trips of a lifetime taking some 1-2 years to see all lower 48 States. Now THAT is a serious road trip.

We did it!

An interesting and crazy busy week is on the horizon; we are staying at Uncle Tommy's in Palo Alto, have a whirlwind round of doctors, dentists and other visits coming up...but most importantly a farewell picnic to organize with our California friends who have been our 'family' for almost 8 years. 

It is one last hurrah before we embark on our next big adventure...life in Aotearoa / New Zealand.

Day 58: Farewell to 'Slowly But Shirley'

Talk about a late night - the packing and repacking continued well into the night and we emptied many belongings into Geoff's garage - several of which we hoped would fetch some holiday $$ for his kids on Craigslist.  

We departed promptly at 8am; Vanessa and kids dropped off at Dedham to catch a commuter train into downtown Boston for a day at the Boston Children's Museum while Marco rendezvoused with the RV buyer.

We said our goodbyes to 'Slowly but Shirley' at the train station; not sure if the children fully realized that would be our last ride in her but the train was a welcome distraction and we waved goodbye.

Bye bye 'Slowly but Shirley'

The train ride turned out to quite uneventful, there were many stops and it was a slow ride into the City. Once there we caught a taxi to the Museum.

Pedal Power

This was the epitome of children's museums in the USA; the Exploratorium in San Francisco is awesome, the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose is amazing BUT this was mind blowing...three levels of things to see, do, touch and experience...simply not enough hours in the day to fully explore or complete the suggested 100 things to do...so we played, we ate, we bought stuff and then we played some more.

Nadia in the Bobcat

Busy building

No surprises - it's an airplane!

Eventually we dragged our exhausted selves out of the Museum to wait for Marco...all had gone well with the sale and he had a big fat cheque to bank and with that, our RV-ing had officially come to an end.

Goodbye to Slowly but Shirley, Hillary the Hippo, Bella...our coast to coast ride of a life time. We sure had fun and will miss you!!

Squeezed into a mid-size rental we followed part of the Freedom Trail north to our hotel for the night in Saugus; it was clean, cheap and close to the airport. 

Dinner was a little nugget - a neighboring grill that specialized in Brazilian steak. 

Day 57: 21 Aug, 2011 - Off to Cape Cod, MA

Missy and boys left early to catch up with friends in Connecticut and Geoff offered us the use of their family car to drive to Cape Cod...a destination long on our wish list but one we had decided to forego as we needed to be accessible for prospective buyers. The phones did not exactly ring hot, so we decided to accept the one offer on the table (to huge sighs of relief) and jumped at the opportunity to sightsee.    

Cape Cod is located at the eastern tip of Massachusetts; just as the southernmost tip of Florida is majestic from a distance - so too is Cape Cod. Check out this satellite picture: 

Notably famous as the home of one of America's enduring dynasties in Joe and Rose Kennedy, it is infamous for P-town or Provincetown, the east coast destination of choice for the rainbow brethren. 

From Little Attleboro, we drove across  Bourne Bridge at Cape Cod Canal and made our way to Herring Cove at the tip. We passed sandy beach after sandy beach and were tempted to stop several times but kept on until we arrived. In our haste to leave, we forgot to take our National Park Pass so after the trek coast to coast, we had to pay to enter Cape Cod National Seashore.

We thoroughly enjoyed the beach and waves - the kids befriending other children to search for shells as we sun baked. In the distance we could see ferries making their way to and from Boston. Pure bliss and more so because we MADE IT! Yay!!

West Coast meets East Coast 

Race Point Beach

As the wind changed direction we decided to head to Race Point Beach near the Municipal Airport with a quick stop at Province Lands Visitor Center. We missed the Visitor Center by a few minutes and continued on to the beach. An unexpected surprise for Matteo was to see small aircraft making their approach over our car. The beach itself was nicer but our stay was short as the kids gave us the 'we're hungry' call. Next stop Provincetown for dinner...or so we thought.




This place was CRAZY - the streets were packed with tourists such that our top speed was less than 10 mph. Semi-naked bodies cavorted in front of the car, loud music blasted from many directions and the kids eyes were as wide as saucers as they took it all in. Funny but not really kid-friendly sights. We stopped at a shop to purchase the obligatory fridge magnet and made for Little Attleboro 2 hours away, with dinner reduced to a roadside diner.

Provincetown Flags

We made it back to Geoff's after Subway sandwiches en route and once kids were in bed, continued to clean and pack the RV - after all we would farewell our beloved Shirley the following day.

       

Day 56: Wompatuck State Park, MA to Little Attleboro, MA

Woke up in the State Park and back to our usual RV diet of cereal, fruit and milk.

We didn't stay for long as we needed to meet potential buyers for the RV. Off to the neighboring township of East Weymouth, MA we spent time on Craigslist and other RV websites...as well as waiting for potential buyers who'd arranged to meet us.

This day grew into one of frustration as firstly we found our Craigslist ads had been 'ghosted' meaning that while the post was active, it was not visible to anyone. Secondly, the folks who'd arranged to look at the RV did not show up. Argh.

Time to get creative and find someone local whose IP address we could use to post ads onto Craigslist locally. We ran through all the contacts we had and came up with two people; both long shots but worth a crack. Four degrees of separation later we connected with Geoff (our good friend Graeme's brother) and found ourselves driving to Little Attleboro, MA, an hour's drive south west and north of Providence, MA. In the neighbourhood really!!

Who knew that we'd connect with a St. Stephen's (Tipene) Old Boy and his family?! We pulled up and within 5 mins the kids were awake and making new friends with Geoff's boys. Marco worked his magic on the laptop and we had new ads posted within minutes...now to play the selling game...

Happy Campers - Nathan, Luke & Nicholas

Missy and Geoff were great; our kids settled in like part of the furniture and before long we were eating pizza, drinking beer, discovering all the treats at the local store and planning to stay over!!

Sweet Dreams!

Day 55: 19 Aug, 2011 - Boston, MA here we come!

One of the saddest days of our adventure - saying goodbye to this little piece of paradise in South Gouldsboro, Maine and to Kristi who opened her home to us and all this area has to offer. We had the most memorable time and won't forget this beautiful place anytime soon.

After breakfast the kids put the final few stars on our Map of the USA charting our travels and we also joined the dots from California to Maine...to Boston...not sure when our next chance would be to finalize but no real surprises from here on in.

Map of our travels

After a teary farewell and with heavy hearts, we hit the road - no looking back - time to get into selling mode. 

First stop, Brunswick Maine, ~135 miles south towards Portland for a potential purchaser walk through. We'd advertised the RV for sale on Craigslist and Facebook but had no real bites...this one seemed promising.

Interestingly we were very close to Durham - where we'd met with Matty only several days earlier. We arrived and met the potential buyer so the kids and I left the guys to it and headed for the farmer's market and to find a bank...we'd driven across the country with a bag full of coins - remnants of the kids' piggy banks that we didn't put on the container to NZ.  We found a bank and exchanged the coins for $109!! Nice.

After an hour or so, Marco found us in the park where we had lunch. The good news was that he received and offer, the bad news is that it was well below our asking price. 

Something for us to ponder as we pretty much retraced our journey from New York a week earlier and drove from Maine, through New Hampshire towards Boston, Massachusetts and south east to Wompatuck State Park for the night.

View Larger Map

We drove through some beautiful neighborhoods before arriving at the State Park at 7pm...past dinner time but we were able to rustle up a pasta meal while the kids played in the nearby surrounds. The mosquitoes were out in full force so the kids didn't stray too far.

Only 4 more official nights on our adventure and we don't have a buyer locked in. We were starting to get a little stressed.

Day 54: Last full day in Maine

We awoke to another day in paradise but the realization had set in that 8 weeks of our 'Great Big Fat Road Trip'  was quickly coming to an end. We had to prepare our trusty 'Slowly but Shirley' for sale, and with that, apart from a decent clean, start the process of deciding what to give away, sell or pack for our return to California and onwards to our new life and adventure in New Zealand.



View Larger Map

Crab Catching

Our day was interspersed with some fun -  we had a Skype date with Melissa and Mason in California, kids enjoyed some more seaside exploration and mining for sea glass, crab catching (Matteo went on to catch over 20)...and that was just the morning session.

More Sea Glass Discovery

After lunch, Grandpa Brad took the boys to a nearby pond for a swim while Marco and I started on the job of cleaning, packing and more cleaning and more packing. Nadia wasn't going to miss out on the action and did her part hosing down the RV.

Nadia cleaning the RV

Dinner Finale

For our last dinner, we headed to Chippers Restaurant in neighboring Hancock.

Ness had to indulge in, yes...more lobster...this time lobster tails sandwiched between crab cakes. Oh la la!

We rolled out after a wonderful meal and back at Grammy's settled in to a couple of movies until bedtime.

For us, it was more cleaning and still more packing. Such is life.