Since We Have Been Home...

April 2, 2008

Back to work…back to school….Since we have returned home life has been a whirlwind! It is all good, don’t get us wrong. This will be a final blog to let us share our transition back into regular life. We are hesitant to say “real” life because our life on the road was very real, but hardly traditional.

Since we have been back one or all of us have been lucky even to …
· Visit with friends until 2:00 am
· Visit grandparents and great grandparents
· Attend a Martina McBride concert
· Attend a family dance at Leedale
· Attend a Ducks Unlimited Supper
· Go to a movie with a cousin
· Attend a dance at Last West with Grannie
· Attend a dance at the Jr. High
· Stay up all night at friends’ house after dance.
· Meet with Home School Coordinator
· Register and visit Elementary and Jr. High Schools
· Visit at friends houses
· Have a Dr. Appt.
· Sleepover at friends houses
· Enjoy Easter meals with family and friends in Alberta and Saskatchewan
· Get a job in Lacombe teaching grade three
· Get a job with TRICAN (again) – working out of Red Deer
· Play multiple games of street hockey
· Order more correspondence courses
· Attend two Peewee hockey games
· Travel to Saskatchewan…renovate and sell a house (four days…15 hours of sleep…yawn)
· View 12-15 houses for sale in Rimbey
· Purchase a house in Rimbey…yah!
· Enjoy many suppers with family and friends
· Get a haircut
· Get a tooth re-cemented (yikes)
· Travel to Calgary to work with (visit) the TRICAN guys for a week
· Get groceries, visits friends, walk the dog…live life
It is soooo very good to be home! Thank you so much for being part of our journey. We are busy and happy and would absolutely do it again!
Love,
The Hohn's


This is Kassidy, I think this trip has had a great affect on the Hohns; I hopefully will remember it all. We all know there was some rough times like when we went to the Terry Fox memorial site in the picture if you look closely none of us our smiling! But we got through it all, all the scorpions, tarantulas, alligators, and man eating flies (they bite like mosquitoes!) I hope you enjoyed reading my mothers blog, we’ll miss having people read what we type but it had to end sooner or later. This trip has made a scar on my heart and made me think to…………………………………………………………….. NEVER LIVE IN A 27FOOT TRAILER FOR 7 MONTHS WITH 5 PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!! But we made good space of our trailer if we didn’t have the storage my dad put in our trailer would be full to the top! So thanks to my dad! Also thanks to both my parents for making us go on this crazy great trip, thanks to my siblings Ryley and Triana for making the best of this trip, thanks to all of those who gave up their time to come see us, and one last thanks to all of you who read our blog I hope you learned some more about the world and the Hohn Family! Because of our trip when I get older I want to explore the whole planet! So I’m looking forward to it! I hopefully can stop blabbering about our trip and get back to real life.
Love, From: Kassidy

BC Pictures

Wade, Carol, and Courtney were great hosts. We really enjoyed

visiting with them...and their cats

The view as we entered Kamloops...notice how little snow there is here?
Travelling near Kicking Horse Pass. The roads we really good to travel on- considering it is winter time.
W-O-W....lots of snow!
We enjoyed seeing the frozen waterfalls that form along the side of the highway.

On Our Way

Looking across the Fraser River near Fort Langley, BC
Crossing back into the great province of Alberta
Look at all the S-N-O-W!
A beautiful view near Big Horn Dam...we have seen it

many times, but it still is a terrific sight!
Indeed, a very welcoming community.

Nadine and Jeff ( the parents of the cute kids). Happy Birthday to you both.
Jeff...your birthday week is OVER- let it go buddy!
Here I am working to get on Amelia's good side-reading several (hundred) books did the trick.
The "wild" side of the Josh-Man! It only took one bowl of jello to get him going.
The Hohn's "strike a pose" on the river beach near Fort Langley, BC

Various Photos

A view of our soggy campground in Oregon.
Looking back to Oregon as we pass into Washington.
The moment we crossed back into Canada...the picture is not great quality, but the smiles are top notch!
Meet Mr. Josh - our cute nephew...he is is the man! We enjoyed spending some time with him and his cute little sister (ya...spending time with their parents was pretty good too).
Miss Amelia, our adorable little neice. It took a while for her to warm up to us, but it was worth the wait!

Into Alberta

Sunday, March 09, 2008

We just past the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway near Revelstoke, BC…passing Miniatureland…and heading toward the Enchanted Forest. Triana is wondering if we can stop….too bad it is closed this time of year, besides we are too excited to get home to stop! Sorry Triana-the fun part of the trip is over honey. The journey (so far) through the mountains has been good. Last night we reached the summit of the Coquihalla HWY ~ W-O-W is there ever A LOT of snow there. The road conditions have been very good and the temperature reasonable given the time of year…it did get down to 12 degrees in our trailer last night when the battery went dead….burrrrr.

The past few days in Langley and Abottsford have been nice – yet kind of sad for us. It has been very, very nice to be back in Canada (even though fuel and everything else is more expensive) and it has been great to visit family, but it means the end of our journey. As much as we have been looking forward to being “home”, it seems surreal that the adventure is complete. As parents, (beware this is mushy part) we are so very proud of our kids and how well they have embraced the experience of being with their parents 24/7 for the past 7 months! We will always absolutely treasure the memories and closeness that this trip has afforded us. The bond we share goes beyond the locations that we visited and really centers around the opportunity to spend almost every day to day moment together talking, laughing, nagging, arguing, learning, exploring and just being together. We know how fortunate we are and we want to thank our kids for the wonderful memories of a lifetime.

p.s. Jay just mentioned to me that he is going to switch his shoes the next time we stop as he is noticing and I quote “it doesn’t seem like Croc weather anyone”---ya think???

p.s.s A special thank you to Jeff and Nadine (Darla’s sister) and Wade (Jay’s cousin) and Carol for hosting us the past few days. We enjoyed visiting with you, your kids, and cats so much. Congratulations to Wade and Carol’s daughter, Courtney, on her recent engagement to Anthony (who by-the-way has an AWESOME truck for sale- call us…we have pictures). Hello to Danna (their other daughter- who is away at school in Kamloops…did you see us wave when we drove by?) A big Happy Birthday Jeff (today) and Nadine on the 27th…no more singing, we promise. Hugs and Kisses to the Josh Man and Miss Amelia---we miss you already!!

Kassidy's Poem

North American Tour
By Kassidy Hohn

N eighbors and friends say goodbye,
O ur loving family cried and cried,
R yley even shed a tear,
T hat crazy trip is finally here,
H ow can it be here so fast?

A mazingly, the trip days are coming to its last,
M om’s going to pee her pants,
E veryone’s pants have ants!
R imbey is one great town,
I ce and snow won’t knock us down!
C an we make it no one knows?
A lso we hope the roads aren’t closed.
N ow were coming home,

T ours over kids, now run on home,
O n our trip we’ve seen eews and awws,
U ntil we fell in the Wizard of Oz,
R eally now were on our way!

Into Canada

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Under cloudy sky and upon damp roads we leave Oregon today. The coast line is beautiful…it is rainy season here, but it is sooo humid! It rains on us everyday and that is inside the trailer. We try to keep up with the wiping of the windows, ceiling, walls, and cupboards, yet it continues to drip on us. There is nothing quite like waking up to a drip, drip, dripping on your head…when you are laying inside your home. We are eager to dry out, as our clothes are starting to mildew…eeeewwww!

We feel like today is the day we are beginning to head home. We start out today-planning to make it across the border back into Canada. It is day 200 on our trip-wow…where did the last 100 days go? We are anticipating that we may be awhile at the border-the trailer is significantly fuller than when we entered the States back on October 14th.

We will spend some time in Langley and Abbotsford over the next few days before we attempt the journey over the mountains back into Alberta. Jay’s cousin Wade and his wife Carol live in Langley and have offered their driveway as a place to call home while we visit. We appreciate it, as it is difficult to find a campground in Canada this time of year. Staying so close to them also provides more opportunity to visit before hitting the road again. Darla’s sister Nadine, husband Jeff and two cutie-pies, Josh and Amelia, live in Abbotsford - we are so excited to see them now that Josh is talking so well and Miss Amelia is running around. Ever notice that once you have kids Nadine... it's all about them.

Welcome to Oregon

Everything you hear about the beauty of the Oregon coast is true. It doesn't matter if it is raining...the coast is beautiful.
Ry...just enjoying the view
Hohn explorers!
We found 173 dollars! It was sand dollar heaven...literally. We haven't inquired whether we can use them to purchase items at local stores yet.
Did we mention we love the ocean beach...there is always something to discover.

Hohn's met the Johns' in Arizona

Cherri captured this great photo of Jay and Robert serving sandwhiches pool side to the women and children. Where was Cory you ask? Upstairs, of course, making more food!

Thanks to Cherri for providing the pictures...the Hohn's FORGOT their camera...too excited to see some familar faces.
The kids at the end of a very long and fun day spent in the pool. It was a wonderful day.
Triana and Chelsea - our little water babies. All the kids spent hours in the pool and they had the wringlers to prove it!

Welcome to the Pacific

A beautiful view of the Pacific just before sunset.
The swells of the Pacific are significantly larger than the Atlantic. Along this part of the coast there are warnings to stay out of the water as there are "sneaker waves" that are deadly and can pull you quickly into the ocean. There are also information boards regarding earthquakes and tsunami's- which is new to us...and somewhat disturbing. Needless to stay we remained well back from the ocean.
As you can see, Triana was not the only one "GROSSED" out by the dead sea creatures. Kass shared the same opinion...sad...yet gross.
The Klamoth River can be seen flowing into the Pacific in the bottom left of this photo. There were many sea lions feeding at the mouth of the river, but we could not get any closer because the sandbar is privately owned. The Ranger we met at this look-out point said that there has been gun incidents regarding tresspassing along this sandbar ...we decided to view the animals from "safe"a distance.

Triana's Day - we made it to the Pacific

Today we had brek fast then we got ready for the day. We cleaned out clothes and got rid of some. Then we had lunch. Then we went for a drive. We went to a Redwood tree that you could drive thru. We barely fit then we went to a beach and got to touch the Pacific ocean. Then we went to another one just a mile up the road. We saw a dead sea lion! GROSS! So we just avoided it and went to another part of the beach where there were no sea lions. We walked for a bit then went to a look out point (by the way we left the beach) (back to the story) and we saw ALIVE sea lions from a long way up. We looked at the amasing view for awhile then we went back to the trailer, had supper, then we all went on the computer. Then got reddy for bed, then got into bed. Well I got to go so bye bye.

California Redwood Forest

Jay is off to explore an opening in between two Redwoods. We were happy that he returned after his investigation.... he did leave us the keys...just in case.
A gigantic Redwood along the scenic tour off of HWY 101. The tallest Redwood stands 380 ft tall. The largest diameter of a Redwood is 23 1/2 ft. I just love how grand they are!

The view from the highway. It was beautiful to drive through.

The kids thought this tree was very cool. A fire had caused some damage and created a nice cave in the middle of the tree. We learned that the Redwood is resistant to forest fires and it's outer bark layer is 12" thick...wow that's as big as most of our Poplar Trees!

No-the kids did not cause this tree to topple over, but they did enjoy climbing on it since it was done.

Mission Inn, Napa Valley, Old Faithful Geyser

The kids at the entrance of the Mission Inn - Riverside, CA

1 of 25 Historic Hotels in America

Richard Nixon honeymooned here.

Mission Inn: a beautiful hotel with wonderful grounds. Many influential people visit the hotel annually and it is a popular wedding location. The nicest part about the hotel was that it was "tourist" friendly. We could walk throughout the hotel learning about the history and not feel out of place.

As we left the LA area, we quickly encountered miles of orchards and vineyards on our way to Napa Valley. We believe these are Cherry trees in bloom. There were quarter sections of land filled with the dark and light pink blooms. Awesome.

Along the Napa Valley the vineyards were being prepared for this years grape crop. There were many miles of vineyards and wineries. This time of year there were not many tours offered-only wine tastings. As none of us are wine drinkers we appreciated the scenery and kept driving.

Old Faithful Geyser of California. It is said to erupt faithfully every half hour. While we were there it went off about 12 times in one half hour. Apparently, the more it rains the more frequent the eruptions...it has rained a lot this spring! The water is hot coming out (of course) ...the girls were amazed that small fish and minnows live in the small pond surrounding the geyser. In the background you can see the once active Mount St. Helena....not Helen's, but Helena.

Southern California Sights

Some of the green hills of southern California.
The kids treated us to a day at Knott's Berry Farm - it was a fun, roller coaster filled day.
The campground ranger said these "lovely" creatures are Turkey Vultures. They don't look it, but they are so cute. They wag their tails and pant like puppies.

UPDATE: (*OK- so after further investigation and some help from a good farm girl (thanks Holly) we have discovered these are, in fact, Muscovy Ducks- those campground rangers will tell tourists ANYTHING!)

P.S. We always thought they "looked" a lot like ducks!

Sunny California

Sunny California? The Golden State? I don’t think so. So far we have been welcomed by snow, wind, rain and more rain. It is still warmish – that’s a good thing.

We have also been fighting the flu…not sure who is winning…only a few more of us to attack. The inclement weather is a great for getting lots of book work done. Jay will be ready to write three final exams by the time we arrive home. We are staying in Riverside, CA- an outer LA community. It is a very nice area (the rain certainly makes it green) –it is the first campground in a long time that allows campfires. The small wildlife also appears abundant- we have encountered two skunks, several bunnies, geese, and turkey vultures, which are the absolutely ugliest yet cutest waterfowl ever. Not sure if that is their real name-but the camp attendant says that’s what they are. Attached are some pictures of the vultures and geese. We opted to “just say no” to taking pictures of the skunks- it’s for everyone’s best interest. The outside hose compartment on the trailer still stinks from the skunk in Saskatchewan….last August!


We are all excited to be home soon. Time seems to be moving very slowly lately. Especially for Darla who can’t wait to get back to teaching. Apparently our kids are so wonderful that she just wants to jump right back into the classroom with many more kids. We are planning to visit the Redwood Forest, shop in “tax-free” Oregon, and stop in the Olympic Rainforest in Washington over the next few weeks.

Take care,
The Hohn’s

More School Photos

Ryley's desk- we are going to ask the superintendent if it has the required amount of head room for a student Ryley's age.
Do those not look like the tracks of a 3 ft long raccoon?
Triana sledding in the California sun.
Kassidy's turn...notice Ryley absence? He refused to participate. Don't worry - we took participation marks off for this activity. No one said anything about having to be cool when you sled on the ONLY snow available for hundreds of miles. It was the annual Snow Fest at Silent Valley RV Resort.
Ryley was too cool to sled, but not too cool to wear pineapple leaves on his face to the local Valentine's Dance. Kassidy was glamorous!

Life in California

Entering the Banning Pass and the awesome view of the Wind Farm Turbines.
Even more wind turbines...they were really working the day we drove through because it was VERY windy!
Triana and Kassidy's desk at school (aka: the kitchen nook and dining room table)
Jay's Desk at school- looks sorta like the master bedroom.
hmmm