My BIG Summer Trip
 

Was it BIG? Oh yes.

My eldest decided he was done with living in Pennsylvania. He and his wife and 3 children had a nice home, he had a good paying job but lots of headaches with his job and he felt like he was not living his dream. So he began looking for a big change and ended up buying some land and a home in norther Idaho, about 50 miles from the Canadian border. There is a fairly well known town of Sandpoint about an hour from his new place. He called me up and asked if I would help the family move. He would drive the Toyota Sequoia with the family and I would drive the Toyota pickup with the family dog, a big well behaved black lab. We ended up having to also pull big U-Haul trailers since the mover underestimated and couldn't get everything in the truck.

We made a good but slow pace as we headed west from Hazleton PA through Chicago, the traffic was slow at times with construction and rain storms and we had to stop for the kids and dog a bit more than I prefer. They have 3 kids, a 5 year old boy and 8 month old twins, a boy and a girl. Mom figured out how to breast feed them in their car seats as they drove down the highway but we still usually stopped for a sit down lunch and the occasional gas fillup and diaper change.

Once we got into Wisconsin we picked up the pace as traffic was better. We took the southern route through South Dakota into Wyoming, Montana and then Idaho. I did most of the planning and booking for hotels looking for dog friendly ones using TripAdvisor.

We got to the new home and unpacked and returned out trailers and then went to my daughter in law's parents home near Seattle for a few days as we had to wait for the movers. My wife flew in and we went back and met the truck and spent a week helping get things unpacked and put away.

Overall it was a nice trip and after we were done with them we drove to Bremerton, Washington to visit with my daughter and her husband who just had had a baby boy a few weeks earlier. Flew home and set to editing pictures, here are a few.

1. As you can see the dog took up most of the seat he slept in as well as the shift console.
2. The road out ahead
3. At a roadside stop I watch some of the kids.
4. My one little granddaughter was an early riser so I would take her in my room while her mom got showered and the boys slept a bit longer. I set up a little studio on the bed for portraits

Here are a few more:

1. Dinner somewhere along the route, as you can see twins are a challenge.
2. My grandson Eoin has a great imagination and kept occupied while we waited for food.
3. The house on 16 acres of open and forested land.Very remote, no cell phone service and only a few neighbors.
4. The stream that runs through the property.

Thanks for taking us along. Sounds like the clan is settling in the Northwest.

OK, a few more:

1. Me and my son
2. The dog!
3. They plan to mow the front area and make the kids playground there.
4. It's a big A-frame and has a nice deck.

Last batch:

1. My daughter, her husband and baby Ronan.
2. Ronan and his grandpa.

Very very nice!

Thanks for the tour, and of course, the visit with your lovely family.

Little bit jelly right now.

Beautiful house! Did he change careers too, or is he able to do the same job as before from up in the hills? I can't help but think about logistics with remote dream-homes like these. How far to the nearest grocery store? To the kids' school?

So it's decided that we're all meeting up at Chris's son's house when the zombie apocalypse hits, right?

No, he went from project manager for one of the nation's biggest hydralic pump companies (a good move from the nuclear subs in the Navy he served on) to living off the land and working for a big real estate group that helps people relocate to more remote areas.

My son has become a bit of a survivalist. Not sure how to explain but he would rather rely on himself than others so he is adding all kinds of things to his new home. Wind and solar power, a green house, a huge garden, a pond from the stream with fish. They homeschool so no nearby school is needed. Basic grocery is 20 miles away, bigger stores are a bit farther, there is even Costco and Trader Joe's in Spokane about 90 miles away. His home came with a huge diesel powered excavator for clearing the fields or roads.

I say, whatever. The kids will have a great experience there.

Dream on, in case of an apocalypse you won't be able to get near Idaho. :lol:

Looks like heaven

Yeah a nice thick slice of heaven.

Not to mention snow in the winter. :)

We spoke with one of the neighbors while I was there and he said it really isn't too bad where they are. The area to the west in Eastern Washington is pretty dry so they don't get a lot of rain or snow but enough to keep things growing and green. He said January and February were the coldest months with temps from 0 to the mid 20's at night and 3-4 feet of snow at the most.

Where my son lived in PA it was colder and more snow.

Really nice Chris. Jealous.