Travels of the Bay family and the Yoda Van

We left Thursday just before 9 AM. We said goodbye to my parents and drove off. Matthias and I were full of emotions when pulling away, but mostly exhilaration and euphoria that this trip we had envisioned for more than a year was finally a reality. We started out by passing through the rush hour traffic I spent every day commuting in. It feels great to have given it all up and hit the road.

We actually spent a lot of time driving the first two days. The first stop was just past Pendleton, Oregon. We stayed in a beautiful area in the Blue Mountains. That evening was just wonderful. The excitement and the warm weather, and the familiar Northwest forest provided for a great evening.

The second day we traveled from NE Oregon to Mountain Home, Idaho. We stopped in Baker City, Oregon which is a neat town. There is a well preserved historical downtown, with a nice shop, Bella, which sells kitchen gadgets, coffee, European wine and organic food. It was a bit tough with Julian whirling his Big Bird through the air, but the owner is very nice and remembered us from the last time we stopped in there over two years ago.

The landscape changes so fast and dramatically once you are out of Seattle. We are staying in Idaho right now on the prairie. We are surrounded by brown mountains and tumbleweeds. The playground here is not the recycled tires/wood chips surrounding we are used to, rather loose brown silt. Honestly, we’re filthy, but happy and still anxious.

Today was also rough at times. We’ve decided to spend a lot of time in the car to get some distance behind us during the first few days, and that it is a little tough for all of us. Today our high temperature reached 100 degrees as we turned off the highway to a visitor’s center (that was closed) and a leaky propane tank (that turned out to only be a safety overflow) in a town where the only grocery store was a Wal-Mart (which we refused to patronize). It is apparent that we are quite far from our familiar home. But then we met a lawyer who worked in Central America as legal council for a group of American missionaries that were murdered (years ago) and knows Mexico and Central America very well. She gave us lots of suggestions and encouragement for a great, safe and worthwhile trip. I watched Julian practice stacking blocks and worked with him to learn to identify colors (he knows which block is the orange block 95% of the time now). Then the four of us all took a walk together in the area and explored the surroundings. We looked for snakes, watched the sun set, found a bunch of ants, played tetherball and swang on a swing. Despite the long day in the car, the loss of a permanent home, and changing our lives 180 degrees, I’m still ready and eager for the next day.

This has been a big week. Julian turned 2 today, and last Thursday I (Allison) put in my notice at my job. My last day is July 31st. Today I sent mail to my group at work announcing that I’m leaving. A bunch of people stopped by to wish me luck, and I got a ton of e-mail from people wishing me well and saying I’ll be missed. I didn’t really anticipate that. I’ve known for a long time that my job was not where I wanted to stay, but today I saw that some of the people I work with are just plain decent people. However, I do still maintain that most of them are the biggest freakin’ wierdos you’ll ever meet, and the stories I take away with me will confirm that. However, it’s nice to leave on good terms with my employer and with my co-workers.

Today we celebrated Julian’s 2nd birthday. He had no idea that it was his birthday, but eventually he put together the words “Geburtstag” (German for “Birthday”) and “Kuchen” (German for “cake”). We’d say “birthday”, and he’d say “cake”! My Mom, Oma Joyce, always buys the boys a cake from Fred Meyer when it is their birthday and we have a party.  William helped cut and serve the cake, and Julian, with a fork in the right hand, shoveled cake in his mouth by the handful with his left. 

The neighbors have 2 kids, Tanner and Toby, whom William and Julian just adore. They are quite a bit older and often have friends over to play. Julian and William love to go over and peer through the trees when they are playing in their backyard. Today William took 2 chairs over, one for him and one for Julian and set them up. They brought sippy cups filled with juice and just sat and watched them play.

We also had dinner with Steven Notter, a friend Matthias used to work with. William and Julian had so much fun playing with his daughter Samaia (sp?). His wife Rahemma (sp?) had to work and joined us a little later. Steven bought a hammock in Mexico in the 80’s and we had a great time hanging out in it. It was 18 feet wide and the whole family fits in it perfectly. We might just have to pick one of those up if we make it to Mexico.

Written by Matthias.

We had about a week to practice before Allison needed to go back to work on July 5^th.  Some of things that we needed to find out were:

I (Allison) was granted a 2 month leave of absence from my job at Microsoft to participate in an exchange sponsored by the Rotary Club. On this exchange I traveled for 4 weeks with 5 other Americans, one Rotarian and 4 normal people (ha ha!). We stayed with host families and the Rotarians showed us around their area. Some examples of things we did along the way: tour of the Munich airport, German war museum in Ingolstadt, Deutsches Museum, city tours of Salzburg, Regensburg, Ingolstadt, Augsburg, Munich, boat ride on Chiemsee, tour of the Ludwig castle on Herreninsel, tour of the abbey on Fraueninsel by a Benedictine nun, hike in the alps, trip to Kufstein and a tour of the Riedel glass factory, orchestra rehersal in Augsburg, etc, etc, etc. It really was an amazing tour and Rotary picked up the tab for the entire trip.

While I was on the trip Matthias spent one week with my parents in Woodinville and then he flew to Germany as well. He spent time with his family and did some traveling on his own – spent a few nights in, Switzerland. He took care of William and Julian on his own for those 4 weeks and I think I will be eternally in debt for that.

After the trip we all met up in the Allgaeu region of Germany. We stayed on a farm and took small day trips around the area. William and Julian loved collecting eggs from the chickens every day. The weather was pretty bad – mostly rainy and on the last day of May we woke up to about an inch of snow! We then spent some time with our friends Martin & Evylene in Switzerland. Evylene’s family has a mountain cabin in Wallis and we spent 2 nights there. It has to be one of the most beautiful places on the earth. On our way back to Germany we spent a night in France on the Wine Road in the Allsace region. There are lots of small/private vinyards and wine makers in this region, and the villages in this area have been preserved in the old style and it is beautiful. We stayed in Obernai in a hotel just above where the Tour de France will be starting on July 3rd!

Back in Germany we spent a lot of time visiting with friends and family and we also caught a lot of the World Cup soccer matches.

We didn’t actually get tickets for any games, but just being in Germany when Germany in hosting the World Cup is an amazing experience. In all major cities in Germany they have big screens set up where people can gather and watch the games. We watched the Germany-Poland game in Stuttgart. In the square where the game was being showed there were roughly 70,000 people – more people than fit in the stadiums the games are being played at. In Berlin 500,000 people were on the streets for that game. Germany won in about the 92nd minute, and the crowd went crazy. And after the game the entire city center was filled with people celebrating and singing and waving German flags. German flags are everywhere, which is very unusual for the Germans since they tend not to be very patriotic (understandable after their history). Experiencing the World Cup in the hosting country is something I think everyone should experience in their lifetime.

Acclimating to life in America has been hard for Matthias and I. However, William and Julian seemed to just keep rolling with whatever we do and wherever we go. We are writing this blog on the road – we’re camping for a week before I have to go back to work. We’ll be in eastern Washington and southeastern British Columbia where temperatures in the upper 90’s are awaiting.

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We own a house and we’ve decided to rent it out.  I (Allison) will be taking a lot of unpaid time off work and it will help us cover our mortgage if we can fine a renter.  We need to fix up our yard and get the house ready to rent out.

Transportation to and beyond
Last summer we purchased a 1982 Volkswagen Vanagon.  One of the previous owners of our car put a sticker of Yoda from Star Wars on the front dash board and we now refer to our van and “The Yoda Van”.  This van has a pop-top and sleeps 4.  There are cabinets for clothing storage, a small refrigerator and a small stove.  It’s pretty much been in and out the shop since we got in July 2005.  It took us 7 tries to get it through emissions, there was a leaky gas tank, exhaust fumes inside the car which would cause a smoke detector to go off while driving, faulty heating system and a myriad of other small problems.  It sounds like this vehicle is in rough shape, but considering its age I think it is in pretty good condition.  We’re finally ready to take it out on the road.