Finally gone. First stops: Maryland Renaissance Faire and Gettysburg

After a long time fighting to get all our stuff packed and ready to go, and putting all our things back in the storage unit, and having a goodby party, we finally left!

Here is our dear friend Dan, who helped us so much. Where would we be without him!!

   Our first stop was The Maryland Renaissance Fair. We camped at a KOA near by the night before with our friends Jessica and Steve and had a really nice cookout and a few beers.
The next morning we left for the faire. Ricardo has performed at the Virginia Renaissance Faire for a coupld of years so we wanted to check out this one. We arrived there early morning and stayed pretty much until it closed. We all had a great time and drank quite a bit, haha.


Here we are after a few beers already.

After that day most of us went to a restaurant near by and after having dinner, we asked the manager if we could stay the night in their parking lot. He didn't have a problem with it so that's what we did.

The next morning we left for Gettysburg. I don't know if you guys have been there but it made a big impression to us to even think what these men had to go through! We lived in Fredericksburg VA, so we have several battlefields in that area (4 to be exact), but Gettysburg is quite a sight!
After arriving there we took a tour with a very nice Park Ranger and he pretty much in an hour and a half explained to us the whole 3 days of battle. We walked about a mile to Cemetery Ridge where a lot of the fighting took place where Pickett's Charge was aiming to break the union lines. It was sad to imagine the desperation of the Southern army and their commander Lee to try a charge like that. They were away from their supplies, poorly nurished and dying every day of disease and figthing and they literaly had no time to keep moving and fighting another day. The whole thing was rather depresing but the area and the battlefield and monuments are really beautiful.

Here is a picture of the battefield with General Meade and his horse "Old Baldy" on the right.

After the tour we had a nice lunch in the visitor center and then we took another tour of the second and third days. We walked quite a bit that day and saw many monuments. All throughout the day we could just not imagine all the suffering and death that this battle caused.

Here we are with our tour guide at the area of the battlefield where Pickett's Charge took place.

A better view of Pickett's Charge. The small group of trees on the right is the spot where the charge briefly broke the union line.

And here is a view of the battlefield from Little Round Top, where one of the bloodiest skirmishes of the whole battle took place.

After the a long day of walking and listening to stories of grat valor, courage, atrocities and pain, we had enough and that evening we left for Lititz, PA. We will wonder for a long time why we as people do these kind of things, regardles of the reason. As a wise general once said, "War is Hell".

Animal (mis)Adventures

  ***First a disclaimer... this post does not have many pictures because I forgot to bring my camera along to the airport (yes, due to the frantic state I was in, I also forgot to bring along my cellphone, credit card, etc.).  Also, apologies to those who dislike people who spend whole posts on their kids and pets on a blog site.  Since the animals are now in Chile, this will be the last "Pet Post" you will have to endure, at least for a while...

But for those of you who wanted a Pet Update...

When the day finally came to say goodbye to the pets, I was a nervous wreck!  I gave them the "relaxation" drugs recommended by the vet, drove them to the airport, and tried to keep them calm as we went through check-in and security.  Bean was meowing and trying desperately to claw her way out of the crate, Flanny was huddled in the back of her crate with a wide-eyed look of terror, and Daisy just sat there, looking  at me with her big, brown, watery eyes, head cocked to the side, with a look that said, "Why are you doing this to me?"
As I tearfully watched them wheel my babies away, I couldn't help but wonder - am I putting them through too much?  What if the airline loses my pets?  What if one of those pet travel horror stories I'd read about online happens to MY babies??
It was a long, restless night, but we finally received word the next morning that everyone had made it safely to Santiago.  Daisy, Bean, and Flan were eating, sniffing, and exploring like nothing had ever happened (at least that's what they told me...!)  Whew.  Part 1 of the journey, over.  Just a 12-hour bus ride to Puerto Montt to go.  What could go wrong??

Part 2...the bus.

A couple days later, Perla (Ricardo's mom) and Tia Patty bravely gave the aminals more drugs, put them back into their crates, and headed to the bus station for the long trip.  But when they arrived at the terminal the bus people gave them a hard time about bringing animals (even though they had previously said it was allowed!).  The bus attendants begrudgingly loaded the animals in the back of the bus and Perla and Patty climbed aboard, thinking that was that, the animals were taken care of and they would collect them again in Puerto Montt.
HOWEVER, (bet you knew that was coming), soon after the bus started rolling, Daisy started to whine.  And when Daisy whines, she is relentless.  As Daisy whined louder, and louder, and louder, the other passengers started giving annoyed glances and complaining to the bus attendant.  20 minutes later, Daisy and Perla were kicked off the bus, left standing at the side of the road.
My mother-in-law is not a large woman.  Daisy in her crate is almost as big as she is!  But somehow she managed to transport Daisy in her crate all the way back.  It seems that travelling all the way to Puerto Montt was just is not the stars for Daisy, at least not at this point.  Plane tickets are WAY too expensive, and there's no way we're going to risk a repeat of the bus fiasco any time soon.  Fortunately, Ricardo's Aunt Ingrid agreed to take Daisy for the time being.  She has three dogs herself and apparantly Daisy has melted the hearts of the whole family there (just wait til she eats a whole pizza by herself)!  We have gotten several updates from the family, letting us know that Daisy is doing well, playing with the other dogs, and learning Spanish. Probably better than mine by now :)

The cats, meanwhile, continued on the bus with Tia Patty and are now living cozily in Puerto Montt in Casa Perla (Ricardo's mom's hostel).  Perla herself took another bus and was able to return home some days later.  Although separated from Daisy, the cats have begun to venture outdoors from time to time, but spend most of their time lazing and taking up entire beds doing it (yes, they do that.)  Perla sent these pictures of the cats declaring themselves owners of various beds/blankets in the hostel:


Flan

Beanie

And so we are relieved to know that the animals are enjoying their new homes, and looking forward to the reunion when we arrive in Chile after our journey!

Almost Set (?!)

Last trip to Shenandoah

Whew!  With just over a week to go, we have been moving/selling our things, making some last minute preparations and purchases, and running through to-do lists to make sure we haven't forgotten anything.  Knowing us, of course, we will realize at least 10 things we've forgotten only after we've hit the road. :)


The first update I would like to inform everyone of is the new link added to the right hand side of our website ("SPOT Tracker").  This is linked to a new GPS emergency device that we purchased.  Clicking on the link opens a new website with a map of our most recent GPS update.  If it works as advertised, it will let our readers know where we are currently.  Try it out! 

Next update is to thank Jocelyn's Mom and Dad for their help moving our things out of the house and into storage.  They worked tirelessly all day Friday, but fortunately Saturday we had time to rest and enjoy AON's William Wallace gig and some bowling and pizza afterward!

Go Mom!  Strike!!

Big Daddy and Ricardo (Hi Cavan in the background!)

Lastly, we have sent the pets on their way to be waiting for us when we arrive in Chile.  Thank you to Ricardo's Mom and Aunt Ingrid for flying up and bringing pets back with them.  It was a lovely visit but soooo hard to see them leave.  Below is a picture from camping in Shenandoah, and also the last pictures of the pets on the day they left. 

Aunt Ingrid, Ricardo and Mom Perla before it started to rain!

Poor Doodles! :(

Bean chillin' before the flight

Flanny will miss her throne!

Stay tuned for updates on how the pets are doing in Chile!