lets try this again

          things to change
               truck- because gas wasnt worth it and it was burning alot of oil.
               motorcycles- we werent useing them and saw no need to.
               camper- TOO BIG.
             
          Solution get a smaller truck, no camper and leave the bikes. one problem jamie likes her bike i likes mine. we dont need them now but we dont want to loose them. So back to oklahoma where we started. we unloaded and decided what we didnt need. no kayaks, no lemon tree, way less tools, no generator, but we are still bringing the bicycles(i have to spell it out because i used bikes in refrence to the motorcycles already). long story chort were bacicly backpacking with a truck.

          sold the truck and the camper, safely parked the bikes and bought a new truck that gets 20 mpg.
 when we were thinking about cars we had a few in mind but it had to be better on gas, 4x4, small enough to get around easily but big enough to sleep in, and I had to be willing to work on it. only one choice. TOYOTA!!!! YAY!!!

         We now have a 95 4runner. not the best set up being a v6 with an auto but i can live with it. the body is good enough that if we do blow the engine then its worth repairing. does need a few things mostly on the front end. little bits of the suspension and cv boots. but those will have to wait we will fix them before we head west but for now they arent a big enough problem.

         right away we made a few changes. space it the main problem with this plan. we will likely be in a tent alot but if were at a wallmart we cant set up a tent. so i built a bed in the back. found all sorts of designs for sleeping platforms online but ended up just making the most simple thing i could think of. Only took one piece of plywood and a couple short pipes i found in the garage. cost about $40. storage is still tight but we got everything in there we need (i think).

                                                                              before

to sleep

for cloths and other things. we each get one side

shared space for cooking stuff, tools, and food.

 

        We're headed back to wissconsin where we left off. not sure what well do there but i know theres cheese and beer. any ideas?

not the big city but still pritty big

      From columbia we headed to a small town called hunnewell with a free camp ground. it was nice and had some jon boats you could use free of charge. but they wouldnt let us take our kayaks out because of  the posibility of transfering zebra mussels to the lake. so we got a jon boat and went out to play. we paddled the best we could but the paddles would fall out of there slots and the wind got pritty bad so we didnt make it to far.

                                      

       next was chicago, or a town just north of chicago called zion. illinios beach state park was there. this was the first paid camping and that wont become a regular thing. we cruised around town a bit on our bikes, found alot of parks and discovered there was a trian that would take us into chicago for $7.25. so the next day we went into chicago. neither of us had ever ridden a trian other than something at the zoo or a mall so this was new to us. it was alittle over an hour ride in to the city but it droped us right in the center.
                                     

                                 
                                   
       right from the get go it was crazy. there were people everywhere, lots of cars, poeple on bikes. it seemed like we were the only poeple not in a hurry to get somewhere. and we were the only poeple who had no clue where we were going.so we just started walking. we found that the bottom floor od all the building were stores and every thing on top were appartments. i cant see why someone would choose to live in a pile of houses when less than half an hour away are empty fields. just my openion but the place looked way to crowded for me to stay very long. we found a walmart right on a corner tucked under a building. i knew they did that with little coffee shops but a walmart, really? but i used this to refuel myself with a 6 pack of hersheys. we got to the river which was my favorite part because ever block there was a draw bridge. they were all built in the teens and 20's.

        pritty cool but eventually it just gave use head aches from all the noise and cigarette smoke. so we desided it was back to zion. but of course the next trian wasnt for 3 hours. so we went and wandered some more and then just sat in the lobby and waited the rest of the time.

 

 

       we got back to camp and settled in we saw a family of dear less than 50 feet from the camper a few times. at one oint jamie went and started her bike and they just lookeed at her then went back to eating. we had a good time but after our little adventure for the last week we have decided we went to big and need to change a few things.

And we're off............

           both moms were there to say goodbye. we loaded up and headed off at 9:00. my mom being crazy like she is set up a photo shoot as she gave as a parting gift of twizzlers and lotery tickets. we took and both were a bit worried about how the trailer will hold up and the truck for that matter.

           as we started going we quickly hit a problem. at around 45-50 the trailer would begin to wobble. great... this has happened before when ive pulled a trailer so i knew what to do. we moved as much weight to the front of the trailer as we could but that bike was just to much and still wobbled though not as bad. we drove like that for a few hours taking old rt 66. most of the speeds were 50 or lower so the wobble wasnt an issue. we get to joplin and decide to check out a map. yea the paper kind. no gps or mapquest on this trip. we pull out and get back on 66 we drive for about 30 min and i ask jamie to see where we are cause someting didnt seem right. she could find us. we saw a sigh that said west 66. o crap. were headed east so we turn around and as were driveing we see a sign.

          so back in missouri again. YAY... so we continue on our marry way. a bit later we decided we would pull over and have a look at the trailer and the bike on the back. just to see how things are going. when i got out the rack i had build for the bike had fallen about 6 inches. it had crushed the tube with out poop tube in it. so after so thinking and some time with a tape measure i determined that the nija could fit in the kitchen. so walla.

         after doing this the wobble was completely gone. YIPPY!!!!!!!! so we took off and were able to use a highway. so we cruised at about 60 the rest of the time. but natrally we got hungry. wheres the food ? in the kitchin of course. wait theres a bike in the way. so i go climbing around and am able to get some crackers, fruit snackes, and some oranges. so that was lunch. from now on i will plan ahead better.


          day 2

          we stayed at my nieces house in columbia MO. they took us out to sub shop and to have some awesome home made ice cream. i got chocolate and it tasted like brownies, thats why it was awesome.

         today my neice took us to rock bridge memorial state park. i love rocks and trails. Sadly they have built these wooden walkways to make it easier to get around but in my opinion it takes alot away from the nature and makes it feel really touristy. the caves were realy cool. and i would love to explore more but toatly forgot all our flash lights so the little light on my camera was all i had for light.

 

last real shower

                 Day before we go. this will be our last night with a real shower, a free washer and dryer, and last chance to use a real toilet. now im nervous. everything that can go wrong is running though my head. im good at prettending ive got it all figured out. we have the next 3 planned out. but after that who knows.
                 We wanted to have one last hoorah with our friends, we tried to get them to go play volleyball but no one wanted to play, or they had school, or they had to work.... such losers :)
So Jonathan and I took the camper on a test run around the block and we both desided that this camper isnt gonna make it the whole way around the U.S. so we're just gonna drive it till it breaks. ha. But we're ok with that... for now. We both have a crazy amount of feelings going on tonight, i feel like everything is gonna be just fine bc we'll be together and we're really good at getting out of frantic situations with cool heads. But at the same time i'm very nervous about everything else bc we've never done this before.... AHHH!!! i just have to remind myself in a few months these nerves will b old news and we will have a better hold on how to do things on the road. And we're both nervous now but, we'll figure it out when we get there.... where ever "there" is. :)

                            heres "mr. exit'' because we dont have anything better

              

Time to go now... kinda

              So the barn is done, we had a party to say good bye to all who love us, and we have gutted the house. so with no carpet and no projects and nobody else we have to say good by to we will be leaving very soon.

              the barn had many emotions,mainly anger, involved but is now its finished and boarded up. And the night we got back home jamie relized her phone was in the prelude... in the barn... at grand lake.... an hour away(ya catch my drift?). so the next day we returned to the barn that we werent going to return to for a while and found the phone hiding under the seat. So then we had to put the wall/door back( with screws might i add, not nails, bc Jonathan HATES nails). so we went home to prepare for the party.

             so the party was on jamies 22nd birthday, there was a bit of confusion as to the reason of the gathering for some ppl. No there was only confusion to Beverly who hosted the party and thought she should turn it into "Jamie's B-day Party" and not what it actually was a " Going Away Party". so now we can say we tried to see everyone and they cant complain.ha. we love you all. XXOxoxoOoXX

           :)Obviously, we have been planning this trip for a while and my mum has decided to attempt to postpone our departure by using us for free labor. so we have gutted the house of all the carpet and go rid of most of the funiture. So now with the carpets all gone our feet are always dirty so we need to leave before she(mum) makes us clean. today while we were pulling up tack strips on the floor she was washing the floors with bleach and it smelled like... bleach. ALOT. idk if y'all knew this or not but, fumes like to stay on the floor.(I really think we should have had gas masks on or something to protect or eyes. i mean even the cable guy was crying). yeah but were ok now... i think.
                                  
           tomorrow we test load the truck. we have loaded the camper (jamies mad because i mispelled tomorrow) with our..... stuff? yeah lots of stuff and a few cloths. (I was not mad i just wanted to inform you of the correct spelling:)( she was mad, i know because even after i changed it she got on her computer to look it up to show me)we also have to finish the motorcycle rack for jamies bike. this will be our last night in this house.Yay! one step closer! ( I wasnt mad i just want these ppl to kinda understand you ;) Anywho... We're gettin excited each day bc its getting closer and closer to _____________(insert witty word for leaving here)        
                                 

          i stole the computer hehehehehe. (you're so mean!)..... This is our first co-post what do y'all think??? ha.......
                                           

Oh yeah btw Jonathan got his hair cut!!!!! WOW! CRAZY!

no borring trips

         a month or two ago, i cant really remember. I could if i tried but watever. we went to a wedding in st louis Missouri. we wondered the city a bit before the reception and found some cool stuff. we both like graffiti and old building and there was alot of both. we also went to the arch and while there we saw something i found amazing. now this picture is "of my mom" except its not and thats why she looks so comfused.its really a picture of the lady in the back.... in a stoller. on top of that shes a bigger lady. and it made my day to see it.

       while there we found a bike trail but had no bikes so we were forced to walk. bummer. but we found this awesome bridge that lead to a locked door. if you look close thats a face with a ball in his mouth. im sure theres some message but i like to think he got stung by a bee on his toung.

       
     after the fun and games we headed back to tulsa we had expected to find a campground and pitch a tent. but apperently there arent many around there and they werent open anyway. we wound up at a rest stop sleeping in the car. it was an rx7. they are tiny.  the next moning we headed out and were makin good time. goin a bit fast.(not sure how fast the speedo doesnt work hehe), down a steep hill, being followed by a semi. and pow and thump and every other noise that makes you think you blew up an engine.the car started shakeing like crazy making and a very loud hum. ontop of the broken exaust pipe from the day before. i thought i had blown a tire. i pulled over out of everyones way and got out to look at what happened. the tires were fine so i poped the hood, nothin, so i get in and start the engine. runs great. so i get back out thinking mabye something stuck under the car. nope nothing. so i get in and start to drive and now its a clunk, clunk, clunk. so i knew it was a u joint. so i limped it off the highway. and go to a flat spot to work on it. i had lost a cap and some rollers but the other bits were fine. so i looked arounf to see what i could use as a cap. i could have got a tow to a shop oor even an oriellies but wheres the fun in that. so i find some bits of scrap of aluminum, some bailing whire, and a nut. i jammed the aluminum in the hole and used the nut to keepit frome flying out and tied it all together with the wire. wala. we made a phone call . to a friend who found the nearest auto parts store. 10 miles away. so we took off trying to go slow. had quite the line of angry trafic. made it about 8 miles and started shaking agian. so we just limped along and found our way to the store. of course they didnt have it. so they ask all the local shops nobody has it. the closest one was in springfiend nearly 200 miles away. so we get to looking at the books and fine a pto ujoint that is just a hair to small. i can live with that. but the bearing were bigger. so i decided to throw out the bearings and make a bushing. globed it full of grease and prayed. we took off and made it home with out an issue. worked so well that i acctully forgot about fixing it for a week.

  this is how it goes on most of my trips. when i went to colorado for the first time without my mom. the clutch went out in salina Kansas on the way home. when we bought the camper we had a radiator hose blow on jamies truck. when driving home from north carolina jamie was towing my bug. the tire was rubbing the wheel well. crow bar and it was fixed. later that night blew the radiator hose. cut it down near the thermostat. and made a new thermostat gasket with a cereal box(left that for weeks). had the scout out a grand had a stick go though the radiator. drove the burban to texas had both belts fall off. dont know how but they did. its allways interesting and the clutch was the only time i couldnt find a way to get home.(got a ride from a friends parents with a trailer). so yea its allways fun.

         the only car that has never let me down is my good ol 81 honda prelude. any one who knows me knows this is my car. i never plan to get rid of it even if it gets hit by a trian im gona fix it. assuming i escape first. but in 6 years its never failed me and its been to colorado, north carolina, virgina, texas,and everything in between.

 

Barn...Shed... Shop...Whatever.

So about 5 months ago Jonathan and I were given some land by his step-dad out at Grand Lake in Disney, Oklahoma. Which is super crazy and ironic bc when we were in highschool we use to go out to this part of the lake and rock crawl, ALOT! So lets just say we were super pumped that this land was given to us. 


So with that being said we've been trying build a barn( or a shop if your Jonathan) and its taken us alot longer then we expected(waiting for concrete to dry and trying to dig where the ground is just one solid rock slab takes awhile). And we've changed the way and improvised how we were gonna build it about 10 times.... Super disheartening. But we worked on and tried to keep our heads up and now we almost have a COMPLETE BARN!!!! YAY for determination! 


We stayed out there for 3 days straight and we got the land completely level( our land is pretty much one big hill), built a shell, and almost have the roof completely covered with tin!


The whole point of us making this barn is so while we're on the road all of our stuff will be stored away and safe. So after its done being made we'll pretty much be able to leave whenever we want( so everyone can stop askin us)ha. But we ran out of supplies so now we have to wait til Craigslist has some more free supplies. :) 

I wonder if i could squeeze in 'complete' or 'completely' in this post a few more times.ha

This is like the first thing Carbon did when we got to the land. ha. He was hot and just wanted to cool off in his little doggie pool.

 This is the track hoe and the beginning of our building

 Is was just a funny picture under the seat of the track hoe

 Barn

 Jon Jon up in the roof. How cute is he?

hot days and a lemon tree

        we have been working pretty hard this week trying to rap up our crap. and by that i mean my crap. jamie has her stuff but i have a little problem with saving things. part of my hope from this trip is to change whatever it is in my head that just cant let stuff go. obviously when you live in a trailer you cant have to much stuff. alot of the work weve been doing has been out side and right now at 9 in the morning its 90 outside. it will be well over 100 by noon and for the last couple weeks its been around 105 everyday. i dont like a/c myself but that is really hot. thats why when we do leave here were going north until were not sweating anymore. the hope is that well be leaving in about 2 weeks but you never know.

         so earlier this year i was going to atwoods to by some gloves for my job. as i was walking in a small bag caught my eye. it was full of cute little onions. they were a dollar and i had to have them. then i found some garlic too. yay me. i planted them and quickly everyone i knew started questioning me. the main question was what will you do with them when you leave. well my solution was to put them in a big box and just put the box inside while were moving and outside while were not. well all the garlic died and the onions stopped groing a few weeks ago so that made it alot easier. now i dont have to worry about plants on the trip.
         well then one day i decidedto sell my old little kayak i made when in school. It was to narrow so it fliupped very easily,leaked and was really uncomfortable. i put it up for $30. the next day i get a call saying "would you like a 3 year old ponderosa lemon tree?" so of course i say sure. so we do meet up and these people are kinda odd very nice but odd. after talking a few minutes the lady comes over to show me something. she reaches into her pink fanny pack and pulls out a stack off pictures. they are worn, the corners are anll bent. clearly she takes them everywhere. i look at the pictures and they are all of sunks. they had 7 skunks living in there house. i told them i had allways wanteds a pet racoon. she told me that racoons are bad pets. i cant see how anything could be much worse than a skunk but ive never had either. someday mabye i will.
         so now that i have the lemon tree all the questions start back up. and all the anwers are the same but of course everyone thinks im crazy just because i wanted a lemon tree. seems like they would be used to this stuff by now its not unusual for me. lucky for me the one who doesnt mind is the one im married to. she even likes my tree.

             

hi im Jonathan

its my first time to post so hello to anyone who may read this. Im a car guy so i will likely write about the truck and bikes and all that good stuff alot.

  so the truck we were gona use was my 78 ih scout ii traveler. after some hard thinking i decided we would get another truck. i love that truck and thats exactly why it will be parked safely here in oklahoma while were out going everywhere else. I just dont want to have a major breakdown and have to sell it and also parts a quite hard to come by. so we started shopping and found ourselves an 83 chevy suburban. now my order of trucks would be toyota, ih, nissan, ford, dodge, then chevy. perfect.... if it breaks i'll just throw it away. well we've had it about a month now and agian im in love so im screwed. at least parts are easy and cheap.

       Ok so its an 83 4x4 3/4 ton. 1500 bucks. and yes i do trust it. if i had to guess id say 30,000 miles before a serious breakdown. made that roof rack to hold our kayaks and whatever else we cant fit in the truck. im sure as i become more familiar with it so will you. but for now thats the truck.

     And the camper. its a 78 fleetwood prowler. found it in oklahoma city back in febuary.  theres only so much i can say... its a camper... anyway heres a pic.

       jamies got a 250 ninja shes bringin and ive got a yamaha/honda/kawasaki 350 im bringin. i just gota have something to fart around with and i figure i should leave our tow rig alone.

       i quit my job monday so now were really getting close to leaveing. the hope is to leave the begining of augest but me and jamie learned a long time ago if you set a schedule it will be wrong so for this trip we have never set a date officially. although our origianl goal was april(lol). plus if we rush the trip then the whole point of the trip is ruined.

also i hated english class and it shows. so forgive the lack of punctuation, grammer, or spelling.

ok im done now. until next time byby

You Only Live Once So Do Somethin' Crazy

So i was talking to the hubs about the camper a few months back about the normal stuff like " How are we gonna get the pooper cleaned out?" and " How should we decorate?" and "What should we color the bathroom?".... And we came onto the subject of our water tanks and the fact that we only have a 6 gal. hot water tank.....Hmmm. Well idk about y'all but i take pretty long showers and use a bit of hot water. Like ALOT more then 6 gal. And Jon Jon has been growing his hair out for a few years now and its getting pretty long too so either we need to spend a bunch of money and get a bigger hot water tank oooorrrrrr we could *snip* *snip* our hair for FREE.... So i took the initiative to be the first one (and bc I've never had short hair before i thought it would be fun). I cut off a foot of hair and I'm gonna give it to Locks of Love or some foundation like that. I hope they can put it to good use :D 

Before:

After:

My foot of hair: