Here’s the core of our family that’s Hit The Road for much of the time since autumn 2007. I’m of course missing from the picture since I was the photographer of this poor-quality photo. But at least we have our family adventure chronicled!
When we first started our travels in Sept 2007 we took our youngest 7 children crammed in a mini-van and a station wagon with all our worldly possessions (I think we left about 5 big Rubbermaid boxes at my moms) and drove from Qualicum Beach, BC (on Vancouver Island) to River Bourgeois, NS (Cape Breton).
Early in the new year 2008 we had (re)acquired both of our older girls, and by autumn we had given our rusty mini-van away and had our sights on spending the winter in Arizona.We split up temporarily. Everette and Danaka drove from Cape Breton to Maricopa, AZ in the station wagon then flew to Vancouver, meeting up with the rest of the family who had flown there the month before.
We bought a used 15 passenger 1 tonne Chevy van in Vancouver area (with low mileage so we could pack it on, I think it was about 32,000 km) and the next day we set out for AZ, all 11 of us.
After a winter there we ditched the station wagon, Layne moved to White Rock, BC with my mom, and the 10 of us drove to Atlanta to visit friends, explored Amish communities in Pennsylvania, and returned to Cape Breton where we housesat for a year.
On these trips we were staying at cheap hotels preferably that had a suite of some sort or we’d have to rent at least 2 rooms which got very costly, or we stayed with relatives/friends along the way, or drove all night so we didn’t have to pay for a place to stay.
In May 2010 we returned to BC with our van and 10 kids, Everette started a business in the capitol region and we ‘settled down’ to life in Sooke, BC as renters.
Business still going but drastically slowing down for the seasonal slump, we decided to hit the road.
Give this dream a chance.
We left our house Oct 28th, 2012 with our youngest 7 children, ages 5-15yo and all our stuff packed tightly in our van.
After a stop to visit our daughter and her family in Portland, we detoured to Bend, OR where Bobbie Culpepper rigged us up with 2 rooftop tents, 2 vestibules & 1 awning from Cascadia Vehicle Tents. Superb service and good instructions (plus complimentary pizzas & breakfast the next day) got us set up to sleep all 9 of us (plus room for more) and we set out on our new adventures with Rooftop Tents.
Here’s a video with some thrilling action shots (NOT) of the nuts and bolts putting the tents together.
Acrobatic Thoughts 
,this is awesome,kids have grown alot since I saw them ,remember how Mitchell loved fish chowder,I have some to day if you want to drop in lol,safe travels ,will keep checking.
Yes Joyce, the sun and just enough rain has seen the kids sprouting up since you saw them. Many of them are now young adults we still enjoy having around.
We’d love to have been able to drop by for some fish chowder, but a tad bit out of the way you are. We’re learning to make our own fish chowder these days with Mitchell’s catch, and I must say our first attempt in the slow cooker turned out marvelous.
Glad you ‘joined’ our adventure. Enjoy the read.