Less than two months!

As we enter the month of June and school is starting to wind down, this trip is starting to seem less like a dream and more like a, "HOLY CRAP, WE ARE ACTUALLY DOING THIS' kind of thought.

As you may remember from a few posts ago, we bought an RV, (it was sort of an impulse buy) and didn't quite fit what we thought we wanted. Needed a ton of work and we had since decided that we were looking for something we could pull. We ended up selling it, (to a retired diesel mechanic, YAY-win- win!) and started the search...

Johnny finally got himself a truck- a great big, hauling Dodge Ram Quad Cab 1500- it's quite a beauty! We also bought a 19 ft Hybrid Trailer (where the ends pop out). We figured this would be a better fit so we can drop it at a campsite and do groceries or anything else that may come up while being on the road for two months.

Many have been asking about the various parks we ended up booking- I have listed all the campgrounds we are staying at, just in case any of you fancy a trip to the Canadian Wilderness. We would love the company and will have more then enough room on many of our sites.
We will start our adventure at our property, Lake Wahwashkesh- North of Parry sound,

Canada
July 29-Aug 1- Wahwashkesh
Aug 2- 4- Grundy Lake (booo! we were too late for Killarney so got a campsite close by)
Aug 4-5- one hotel stay in Sault Ste Marie
Aug 5-7-White lake Park
Aug 7-10- Sleeping Giant Park
Aug 9-12 -Lake of Woods Rushing River
Aug 12-13- Hotel stay in Winnepeg
Aug 13-14- Saskatchewan Landing
Aug 14-17- Banff
Aug 17-19- Jasper
Aug 19-21- Cutlas Lake
Aug 21-24- Vancouver-Capilano RV Park
Aug 24-26-Whistler RV Park
Aug 26-29- Tofino Bella Pacific Camp Ground
Aug 29- Sept 1- Victoria BC- Gulf Islands National Park

USA
Sep 1st- 2nd -Seattle- one hotel night
September 2-4th- Olympic National Park (Elwha Dam RV park)
September 4th -8th- Winging it
September 9-10 Jedediah State Park
September 10th- 13th-Winging it
September 13-18th- Yosemiti

From here we have to meet my dad and step mom (Jerome and Carol) in San Diego, July 29th for a two day visit where he will be driving the Truck/camper home. We fly into Panama on October 2nd.


I have been told that the internet is spotty in some places but will try and update the blog with pictures much more regularly, as we are into the trip- for now I just figure to only inundate you with our actual booked plans, in case some of you need an excuse to come and visit:)

Did I mention we will be staying in Playa Del Carmen for 4 weeks over Christmas???

Yellow fever, Dangue fever, Malaria, Oh MY!

Vaccinations

A couple of weeks ago we had our visit to the travel clinic here in Toronto. After a couple of hours of paper work we left with nothing but a prescription to our Malaria pills and an appointment to come back in June for our needles. Unknown to us, some vaccines are only good for 6 months, so better to get the shots as close to the trip as possible. When budgeting, be sure to price this into your cost, it sure is expensive! $2100 for the malaria pills alone, thinking the rest of the shots will cost about 200/pp. YIKES! A necessary part of travel, and something we have to take very seriously when travelling with the kids. Maybe my younger days I may have skipped the Malaria pills, but its just not worth it.

Provincial, National and State Parks

A few weeks ago Johnny and I sat down and spent the entire weekend plotting, mapping and booking our Canada/ US portion of the trip. This is definitely something you cannot do "by the seat of your pants" especially when travelling through Canada during its 150 anniversary year, Canada Parks is really marketing all that this beautiful country has to offer, for good reason...some of the most beautiful places are right in our own backyard. That said, each, province, state and country have their own booking timelines. Some of the Provincial and State Parks you can't book yet, while the National parks are open for business. Makes for a very complicated booking nightmare. You have to figure out when you will arrive at a place, how long you will want to stay and what site you want in the park. We decided to only worry about the parks we absolutely want to see: Kilarny, White lake, Sleeping Giant, Lake of Woods (Rushing River), Banff, Jasper, Lake Louise, Cultas Lake,Capilano Provincial Park, Whistler, Tofino,  Gulf Islands (near Victoria), the Redwoods, Jedediah state park and Yosmite 

Phew! If there is a park I missed and you think is a must see please let me know and we can try and fit it in....

The Planning

Well here we are, almost 6 months to the day of departure and the actual planning has begun. Many of our friends are asking how do we plan for such a long trip? There is no one answer. I have been spending all my free time reading other peoples blogs, scouring the internet for advice and tips, packing list, things you can't "live" without, basic necessities that will make our life living out of a suitcase less torturous.

I found a website http://www.bootsnall.com/ while researching Families travelling the world. When you sign up with them they have great advice and travel tips, best of all they have a master checklist that can help get you started. Johnny was most worried about our house, but amazingly the perfect couple found us! They will live in our home for 1 year (if your reading this Janie, you won't believe how happy I am that we found each other!). They are in Toronto for 1 year on a work assignment, and have two little ones. A perfect match!

We had our first hiccup this week, turns out the RV is a DUD! We gambled and lost on that one...still going with a trailer of some sort, but thinking now we might get something to pull rather then drive in...I will keep you posted with our next plan.

Luggage

My friend Kath (who I mention often on this blog), told me about the hours she spent researching the "suitcase, backpack or duffel" dilemma. There are solid arguments for all three, but in the end we went with their pick...the rolling duffel. Rolling duffels are definitely the way to go, they function like a suitcase with compartments and wide openings to quickly grab items, yet they carry like a duffel when in a pinch and can't easily roll (some rolling duffels even have ability to strap on backpack pack straps). After spending two weeks in Florida this Christmas, using our rolling bags for the first time, I have to say I am really impressed and glad we went this route. I have been told from countless blogs there are very few places in this world that you can't comfortably roll your bags. With two kids, in tow, having something they could easily help with if needed will be a huge help.

What to Bring

Surprisingly I have had so many people ask me what I am packing. Maybe it's the curiosity of how do you plan for such a long adventure? As we get closer to our departure I will be sure to post a extensive list on what we are bringing, feel free to have a look if interested, or skip that part:) 

Vaccinations

6 months out, we now have to get our travel needles, UGH! In Ontario travel vaccinations are NOT covered by OHIP or our insurance plan, From what I hear they are not cheap, definitely willl have to plan that cost in your budget. We have an appointment next Friday, I will let you know how it goes.

Budget

stay tuned, even we haven't figured out that one

"Oh The Places We'll Go"

Many of our friends want to know our travel deets. What you may not know is Johnny and I love the beach, and as our Blog title suggests, we plan to be around beaches or somewhere hot almost the whole trip. Even though this is a pretty rough itinerary- here is an idea of the places and a rough time estimate of where we’ll be (just in case you're thinking of joining us!).

Where are we starting?

We bought a 1989 Ford RV, pretty sweet eh?

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So here’s the plan; sometime next summer, we hit the road, heading across Canada to BC, then south along the west coast of the US. We have two months (nothing really planned). I will be booking some of the more popular parks- Jasper, Banff, Yosemite, Death Valley, Redwood, Joshua Tree., but otherwise we will have a pretty open itinerary. Dad is going to fly down to LA to meet us for a few days and drive the RV home, (lucky us!).

From LA we get on our first plane to Panama. Once again pretty loose itinerary, we have two months in Central America and plan to hit Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize. December 3rd we have to be in Mexico as I already rented a house for us in Playa Del Carmen for 5 weeks.

From Mexico we fly to Hawaii stay for about 5 days, then on to Australia to visit or friends Nick and Kathy, (they are in Sydney). After Sydney, we then will fly to New Zealand, hopefully we will rent a car and stay in the south for about a week. Then to Indonesia with a stopover in Vanuatu (Johnny really wants to do some diving there). We plan on being in Indonesia for about 3-4 weeks. Many of our friends told us that it is so beautiful and still pretty cheap. Hopefully my girl friends will join us in the Gilli islands, and then from there we will hit Malaysia. After Malaysia on the the rest of SE Asia. From here we will maybe hit Sri Lanka. Finally our last leg will be the European tour where we will hopefully stay for about 2 months.

There you have it! As I mentioned, this itinerary is very loose and subject to change. Only the big legs will be pre booked and rest we will play by ear (oh the horror!).

Here it is broken down with dates (Tentative!):

August - depart Toronto

Sept - Enter the US drive down the coast

October 3rd- LA- Panama

October 10th Panama -Costa Rica (overland?)

October 24th- Costa Rica- Nicaragua (overland) -Possibly meet Annie in  San Juan Del Sur)

November 7- Nicaragua to Hondouras

Nov 14- Hondouras -Guatamala

November 21- Guatamala- Belize

Dec 3 Arrive in Playa Del Carmen Mexico for 5 weeks!

January 7-Mexico-Hawaii

January 12- Hawaii- Sydney

January 19-  Sydney-New Zealand

January 25- New Zealand- Vanuatu

January 29- Vanuatu- Indonesia (Lombok, Sumatra, Java Bali and Gilli (maybe Annie and Nic to join us here)

March 1st- Indo- Malaysia (Langkawi, Perhentian Islands and Penang)

March 7- Malaysia- Cambodia

March 12-Cambodia- Vietnam

March 19 Vietnam-Thailand

April 19- Thailand- Sri Lanka

April 24- Sri Lanka- Goa

April 29-Goa-Greece

May -June- Rest of Europe

July Return to our property in Northern Ontario

This is a LOOSE itinerary, we are flexible and understand that things never go as planned...we would be happy for any of our friends to come visit us somewhere, and we will make sure we are in that spot during that time...(come on...how many of you are just dying to go to Thailand? Here's your chance!

The Countdown Is On!

We just booked our first flight! Yikes! I can't believe the time is coming for us to start actually thinking about our trip. For years it has always been a topic of conversation,
"Your doing what?"
"For real? A whole year?"
Now it's almost here and
I'm
Freaking
Out!

Most who know me will say I'm pretty laid back, a little flighty even, but secretly, I'm a control freak that has to have everything just so. Johnny is total opposite, "live by the seat of his pants" type of guy, "we'll book it when we get there" "lets wait and see".

Not sure how this year is going to pan out, but I'm excited at the thought and know whatever happens it's going to be GREAT!

The Lambers in Fort Myers Beach Decembers 2016