When planning to take a year long hiatus to hit the road with your family, you imagine fun family adventures such as hikes in beautiful rainforests or sunny walks on the beach. You also imagine every one of your plans falling into place! We have already figured out that that rarely happens when you don’t have reservations and are 60′ overall.

The latest thing we didn’t think about is weather and acts of god and how they could affect plans.

The forest fires in Northern California and Oregon are awful this year. When we left Alaska we didn’t think that by the time our route got us into Oregon, two of the major attractions would be full of smoke. If we had arrived two weeks ago it wouldn’t have been so bad, and maybe a few weeks from now the situation could be better. But because we are 60′ overall we aren’t as nimble about switching plans as we could be.

Below is a picture from Crater Lake where we visited yesterday:

And this one is from Klamath Falls, our current location.

Another thing we have had to adjust for is campsites that should fit us, but don’t!

Twice in three days our plans had to change because we pulled in to find the sites aren’t set up with enough turning room to back our behemoth of a rig into. So, we quickly rallied and located new places to stay. Once we were lucky and the site was awesome; the other doesn’t have the same warm fuzzy feeling so far. We could have had a much nicer spot if the county fair wasn’t this weekend (see more timing issues).

The lesson learned this past week: patience and resilience are required to stay sane on this journey!

~S