We're off like a hurdle of turtles!

My mom used to say that as we rolled out of the driveway for every vacation. I can't help but say it to myself now. Today we spent the morning getting everything ready and were packed up and ready to go by noon. I completed sewing projects for my sister and sewed curtains for the bus that cover the front two windows and windsheild. We went to my sister's for a 4th of July BBQ at 4:00. Thanks for the the work you put into the BBQ Sand.
Here is Flower eating her first piece of corn on the cob! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!!!

At 6:00 we rolled on out of town. We were supposed to leave Saturday morning but opted to go as far as we could tonight leaving us more time on Saturday for some of the fun things we have planned. It's now 11:30 and we made it to Boardman. We are at a reststop for the night. We have 165 miles till Portland. :)

I am going to attempt to write at the end of each day. We have so many fun things planned everyday that if I attempt to write about all of that when we get home the post would be entirely too long and I would go crazy trying to write about that many days ay once! I am super excited for everything we have to look forward to on this vacation! We are treating this as our last vacation as a family of three. Obviously that may not be so but there's no way to know! We are just trying to make it really special for Flower.

Here are some photos of the bus makeover.
This is the new cabinet. I don't have my 'before' photos because those are on my computer and I'll explain that in the next blog. However, the old cabinet used to cover almost all of the right side of that window. It went all the way up to the ceiling behind the drivers seat. This new cabinet has opened it up so much and made it brighter, and in turn, made it safer to drive since we now have much more visibility! It's a much deeper cabinet and also has a handy dandy drawer for cutlery, pens, crayons, etc. They also built a one inch lip around the top so that we could put things up there without them sliding off. KG also put a shower caddy on the side to hold lotions, bug spray, sunscreen etc. It works perfect! It also has hooks to hang our keys. I made the curtains and KG hung wires that we got from Ikea last year. They came with clips and we clipped them right onto the curtains and viola! Love them! I made these curtains last year. The old curtains were on a track system with metal button type enclosures and plastic hooks. To make things simple, I just cut the part of the old curtains that had the buttons/plastic hooks and sewed that strip onto the top of the new curtains. It doesn't look the best and the plastic hooks are breaking off. We plan to make a stop at the Ikea here and by more of the wire pully/hooks and replace all of them!The speakers used to sit on the cushion in the back which becomes part of the bed when the seat is pulled out. When we would sleep we had to angle our feet to the center to avoid kicking them. KG got crafty and fashioned some neat little doodads that are holding them up! Love it! Can you see the wood bracket that is a few inches long? It's on each side of the dome. That is where a shelf used to be that we removed. It was as deep as that lip above the speakers. It stretched the width of the bus. It's only purpose was to hold a cushion that goes with the upstairs bed. When we'd sit up we'd smack our foreheads, sadly numerous times. We never got used to it. We also had to duck down if we put our heads on that end and then we'd smack the bad of our heads when we'd lay down. Anyway, now it's gone and we cannot believe how much more open it seems back there! I can hardly wait to go to bed and wake up without a goose egg on my head!
Goodnight!

P.S. Next on our list is to replace both front seats, re-upholster the back seat and upper bed cushions, replace the floor, add tweaters in the front and a subwoofer and it will be magic! The project of this bus has been so much fun and absolutely love it!!!