MadisonWisconsin

Cute! Cute and more cute! I love Madison! Thank you Chris my friend from Facebook for making me want to check it out! So nice to be outside of the woods for a little while, just as it is a nice thing to be out of the city for awhile! This little college town has quite the heart! Very diverse community, a nice place for hippies, college bound, professionals, alternative folks.. I love it… When in town, be sure to check out State Street~ a very hip area, street performers, quaint shops, and restaraunts line the streets.  Then head over to the Student Union… Grab a pitcher of your favorite beer, I will suggest Hoppolicious, a Hamburger, sit on the lake terrace and listen to the band play. Family friendly, tons of people, a great place to relax and hang out… easily you could spend the day and get lost in time here! Williamson Street is its own little mecca itself, this runs parallel to an amazing lake. I am sure there are many other cool niches in this town, but, this one I know being we slept on the side of the road here for a couple nights!  Coffee Shops, Bakerys, Bars, Victorian close knit homes! Love it! Almost don’t want to leave, but, at the same time… it is time to move on…. being somewhere more then 4 days doesn’t sound appealing to me right now, unless it is SLC…

Our first night in Madison, Chelsea-Rain found an open mic night at Escape Coffee House and Art Gallery on Williamson St. Very exciting as a few short months ago, she wouldn’t even let me hear her sing! She did great! Only was to have 3 songs prepared, Alex (the man in charge) asked her to continue and play more, I believed she did about 5 songs. She sounded great through the microphone, looked cute as always and Alex and the owner, Dwayne, invited Chelsea to come back and play Saturday, which was last night.

10 songs down… and my girl did awesome as I knew she would, prior to her going on, was Adam Pitt~ wow! this kid could rock it! Chel is still new to playing in front of others, that seeing this boys stage presence it made her a little nervous.  We had a fabulous time in Madison, met some amazing people we will never forget. Got to hang out with my friend Chris Johanowicz… and let me say having a friend in town to show you around is invaluable! Thank you Chris!

~ well, waking now and off to Michigan~ we are picking up another inverter while we are there. With $300 to our name … Well $290 after we buy coffee, wish us luck!

xoxo

Tara

Blue Earth MN, Blew Tire!

ack! yep, scary sound! Pop, Bang… Tire SHREDDED on the Freeway!
Thank Goodness, 16 miles away was a free fairground in Blue Earth Minnesota to camp in… 48 hrs free, showers and hookups! RAD!

Made some calls today, got tire fixed finally for only $109! complete! woohoo! yes, it is used, but, it shall do! not to mention, we are running on – $150 in the bank right now! yikes!

Today we made it to Preston, MN – Camping at Maple Springs Campground, nice folks here, gorgeous piece of land, hiking, wild flowers and a creek stocked with trout!
Nice…
We shall be here for 3-4 days. Thank Goodness we do have internet, but, we do not have cell now… ugh, only to have all 3 for once, satellite, cell, internet!
We are safe and relaxing for a few days here, it is a well needed rest, yet at the same time, I am very antsy to continue moving… I really don’t like chillin’ too much it seems..well, at least right now.

I am normally opposite, but, at this point,I am more like, “hey, lets go sight seeing..etc.” Very excited to keep moving… is it because I think getting back to Salt Lake will come faster? I just don’t know…
hmmm…
or maybe because we anticipated the trip for so long, that I just want to see it all…..

Things are good, I will focus on writing, and making some tie dyes for the next couple days, the kids and Billy will fish and hike, I am sure

As for right now, we sit cozy in the livingroom watching the Hannah Montana movie with my boy

Enjoy the Evening and as always
xoxo
Tara

It's a sunshine day…

Everyone is smilin’ Sunshine day! hehe

Hey now folks, what a long strange trip it has been, you have been updated thru some clippets and snippets.. as internet has been dicey and hard to come by, as cell service.

We are now in Wall, South Dakota, outside of World Famous Wall Drug. I will have to tell you more about it tomorrow. As we have not been yet. A good friend, Glenn Stewart from Blue Turtle Seduction (my fave band) suggested we visit! and here we are. Parked in a family clinic lot..in front of the Sunshine Inn Motel, with FREE wifi… ahem, yes… you know it..

It is working quite well too!

We left on Aug 8 th for the Grand Tetons, really had a great time there… met a fabulous family… well, group, that may as well had been family.

Solo, Rebekah, Zack, Juliette, Gabe, Christian and Solo’s Mom, Mustang mama!

This group was magnificient.. I introduced myself as they set there tent up next to us on our first day in the Tetons… Friends forever now I am sure. Solo (pronounced Sooloo or Sulu) was quite enamored by the bus, he was fabulous, brought us dinner and invited us for breakfast the next morning. What a great guy! Solo and Mustang mama (haha) are originally from Madagascar..We got to hear amazing stories of life there and in Africa. Rebekah and her family were there for the trip as well, it was such a pleasure to meet them all, I quite enjoyed Rebekahs company, she is very distinguished, educated and quite mentally stimulating to talk with. Mom, was a great woman, she was the Madagascar women you’d find swaddled by a campfire telling stories… oh, how I loved her! Then I found out she drove a Ford Mustang in her Native land! love it! love her!

Stayed in Tetons for 2 nights @ $19 night~ then off to Walmart for another 2 nights in Rapid City, South Dakota… our 2nd day in we met a great couple, in a super sweet rig they just bought in Minnesota. Joe and Renee! These two… oh my … the odd couple to look at… he- about 6ft 4 or something and her, like 4 foot 6! haha… Renee, my girl, cute as a button, with the personality that just keeps on givin’… Joe.. big guy, with a huge heart! These 2 hail from Louisiana, and yes, we will go and see them again!

Today, we went to Jewel Cave national monument outside of Custer, South Dakota… The cave was pretty cool, I did enjoy the experience.. it was about $8 for adults, $6 for kids, I believe and yes, worth it. The kids loved it. We did the 1hr 20 minute, scenic tour. about 720 steps.. and 400 feet down.. the cave was lined in Calcite Crystals and was a chilling 49 degrees.

Yesterday, we attempted Jewl Cave, but, tickets were sold out (do reserve your spot in advance), so, we backed it up and went to view the Crazy Horse Memorial that had been started. It was very cool, but, for $27 a car load, it will be much cooler when the sculpture is complete. We decided not to pay the $27, turned around in the lot and called the children to quickly come look at the memorial. You can do stuff for free, see! haha

We then went about 15 mins up the road and spent some time at Mt. Rushmore… It looks much bigger in the movies, it looked so fake in real life, I guess it is hard to conceptulize that something like that is “real” ya know. So, after a nice ice cream and visit with the fab 4, Abe, George, Tom, and Teddy, the kids joked about Mt. Drunkmore… Starring, Sam Adams, Jack Daniels, Capt. Morgan, Jose Quervo … My goodness, I take no responsiblity for these children! haha…actually, they are totally awesome and I take full 100% responsibility for them, and no I don’t have a drinking problem….YET! hehe

I will post some pics of the trip so far in a separate gallery area. Hoping the internet is strong enough to handle it.

The dog and cat are doing great, house is filling in nicely, we are doing ok.

oh, before I sign off I want to give some props out…

Walmart- I hate it but, thank you for giving us a free place to park

Spokane Creek Rv Park- Keystone, SD- AWESOME! Great place to camp, pool, mini golf and my goodness the staff is the best ever! Lacey and Vicki, Wally! you guys made our time there delightful

Big Pine Campground- Custer, SD- Great place to camp, cozy, great restrooms, would definitely recommend

Passport America- Campground membership! worth getting! use my name.. Tara Bove… so we get a referral bonus! It is worth every penny! $49.95 for the year, but…. I saved double that already with the 2 campgrounds above! You will save 50% off most RV parks!

Love to all and to all a goodnight

xoxo

Tara

Rapid City… South Dakota

Where the women have mullets, Goatees and Grasshoppers in their teeth!

yikes! haha

Sorry, this will be quick as we snuck into a hotel lobby to use internet… Slept the last 5 nights in Flying J lots and Walmarts… our ATT aircard won’t work, internet is a thing of the past.

Got a nice swim, shower and some hot tubbing in at the local YMCA.. Scored a Free pass asking to tour the facilities… This saved us $30!

Went to Story Book Island , which was a blast, even Chelsea-Rain loved it… Photos will be posted shortly. The bus, is running great.. It is trashed though, we still need to organize and fully move in. Spirits have been good..

I will update y’all soon… Maybe I will come back to Holiday Inn Express tomorrow for a mail check and some complimentary breakfast

hehe

My love to all
xoxo
Tara

Batten Down the Hatches!

Pulling out of the driveway, tears clouding my vision

Drawers opening and clanging about, doors opening and closing, dog trying to jump on the driver’s lap or out the front door

This was very eventful….

Full of crying, yelling, falling, being hot, being cold….being sad… letting go. Things were not going well, Billy and I had an argument prior to leaving that was pretty heated and I still was not over it. I wish I could paint a perfect family portrait for y’all. But… hahahahaha… I am too honest for that

Stopped at Fort Hall Casino and slept for the night, made our way into Jackson the next morning… Beautiful Day~ Enjoyed Pizza and Subs for dinner, walked around town like tourists and then off to the Tetons to camp.

Ok… So this is where William lost his mind…. First he was not happy that I was crying about leaving Salt Lake… so this brewed into a problem… then his stress mounted as he didn’t know where to go to camp…. Which means he drove into Tetons from Jackson back and forth 4 times.. until finally relaxing and going with the flow.

I know I have my things too, don’t get me wrong, oh boy, if you only knew my “issues” hehe!

Bought the annual National park pass for $80 and paid for 2 nights of camping $19 / night.

No hookups, but, we didn’t need them, we were to busy enjoying nature and relaxing.

Sage and Billy went on lots of bike rides, Chelsea too

The girl and I wrote songs, organized photo albums laughed and had a blast.

Canoe Rental for $14 hr on the final day… Billy took the kids out, then I switched and took them out while he waited, probably was better we didn’t go together… oars make good weapons and the little islands are great places to hide a body… oh, sorry~ I lost my train of thought.

It was beautiful to be in the center of the lake looking towards to majestic mountains. The water has such a freeing feeling about it. I have felt trapped for so long…I needed this. I am a Sagittarian I crave space, openness, joy, and freedom.

Batten Down the Hatches…. We are ready to roll on outta here! Vents down, brake light check, secure everything on shelves, drawers secured shut with a makeshift wood contraption, ready to go…but, very hard to leave as every passerby wants a tour of Da Bus, to take pics and chat about their own dreams… I do hope maybe this will inspire some to live life to the fullest. I will. I am…. And I most certainly will be.

Xoxo, T

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