On Wednesday my family and I took a surf lesson at Broulee Beach near Batemans Bay, on the East Coast of Australia. Our teacher’s name was Meg. We went on a super hot day, and the freezing water felt really good against my tight wet suit. The beach was great! You can hear the waves roaring, then dragging on the bottom and dying. The waves are great and the sand is super soft. We had so much fun! In fact, we liked it so much, we surfed again on Friday!

Here are our surfing photos:

Meg was a great teacher, and she taught us this starting pose.

We finally started to get the hang of it! (This is Kyle.)

It was so great! I did it again and again.

My mom and dad loved it too!

Kyle and I went double, but we ended up capsizing

I really hope I can surf again!

Thanks, Broulee Surf School, for the lesson and rentals.

We got to feed parrots at the Blue Mountain eco-lodge.

12:30: still driving

1:00: Guess what? I’m still driving. This pattern goes on for the whole day.

My family and I are driving from the Blue Mountains to Albury, Australia. Yesterday we were in the Blue Mountains at an eco lodge, and now we are in Albury, one out of two stopovers to Phillip Island.

We drove for 7 hours, 17 minutes in a car we call “The Wup” because its license plate says WUP on it.

Halfway through we stopped for lunch in a small town in the middle of nowhere. My lunch was a very dry fried thing. I wanted ketchup but it was $1 for two tiny ketchup packets. After lunch we got “cudge.” Cudge is a name we made up for an odd mix of caramel and fudge. We stuffed ourselves with cudge and then left.

Cudge is an odd mix of caramel and fudge. yummy

While we were driving we played a game of trivia that soon turned into a competitive shout-off between my mom and dad. They sounded like they were at an auction, screaming out answers before the question even finished.

We also did home schooling: math, writing, and reading.

During the car ride I had an epiphany: this trip has turned me into a gumaholic. I constantly have a piece of gum in my mouth. I can go through five packs of gum in a day and I have. The weird thing is that I always chew the same kind of mint gum: 5 Electro (aka Rain in the USA).

All in all the drive was okay. Guess what? We liked it so much we get to do it again tomorrow! (Not kidding, we really have to do it again tomorrow to go to our second stopover).

ONE DAY LATER…

The next day of the drive wasn’t too bad. It was just like yesterday’s but shorter. This time we only drove for four hours. All the time, it was exactly the same landscape: very barren with eucalyptus trees and wide open plains of sand and dirt.

We were super happy when we got to Daylesford. We were stopping in Daylesford for three days for the Dirt Fest. The Dirt Fest is this giant two-day event with off-road running,  biking and triathlon. We were staying in a cabin at the trailer park where the games were held.

This is the small box cabin that we stayed in for three days.

When we first saw the trailer park, we were sort of underwhelmed. It’s a eucalyptus tree forest with box cabins randomly placed. There’s a huge green field in the middle the size of a football field where the games were held.

On the first day of the weekend, there was a kids’ biking race, then an adult biking race (which my dad did), then a kids’ running race (which my brother and I did), then an adult running race (which my mom and dad did). On the second day, my brother, mom and dad formed a team for the triathlon. I participated as their pit crew (ha ha LOL — I just didn’t want to run). My mom would swim 350 meters first, then my dad would bike a 10K, then my brother would run a 3K, and I would be cheering them on and taking pictures. Our team name was “Got to Try New Things” because we had never done a triathlon before.

The trailer park was a whole lot cooler all set up. The field had all these tents and cones arranged. Also, there were all these huge, macho athletes warming up.

The first day of the games, I woke up to Lady Gaga blasting outside my window. I got dressed and went outside. The race directors had set up speakers and it was all Lady Gaga all the time .

I said good luck to my dad as he was at the starting line. After he set off, I started talking to this girl named Nafie. She lives in Australia and was here for the Dirt Fest too. She is super nice. We went swimming together in the lake. She had this giant inflatable frog that we got to play on; it was so fun!

Nafi, Kyle and I watched my mom swim in the lake practicing for the triathlon.

After my dad crossed the bike race finish line, we all sat on the grass around a podium. It turned out my dad won a third-place medal for his group.

We saw my dad bike in the 20K (12.4 miles).

After the bike race, my parents ran a 10K. My brother and I were alone, so we used the money they gave us and got ice cream at the camp store. When my parents came back, we sat around the podium for the second time that day. My mom got first in her age group, and my dad also got second place in his age group.

My dad finished 2nd in his age group in the 10K run.

My mom finished first in her age group in the 10K run.

Day One of the Dirt Fest was a success. The Smiths took home one bronze, one silver and one gold!

ONE DAY LATER…

To see how the triathlon went, check out my mom’s blog. (I was just too lazy to write about it.)

IN THE END…

About a week has gone by and I’m still driving. In the car we made a list of all the places we have slept in since we started this trip on August 15. That list added up to 52 places! I am really glad I am keeping this blog, because I am already forgetting so many of the places I have been!

After the dirt fest we went to a weird Australia-themed mini golfing place with odd manequins.

Here I am at the Sydney Harbour waiting for the ferry to Manly.

A jellyfish

A little while ago, I went swimming in Manly, a beach near Sydney that we took a ferry to. Manly is infested with Portuguese Man O’ Wars, also called blue bottle jellyfish in Australia. A Portuguese Man O’ War is called that because its top looks like a Portuguese battle ship.

We got to Manly and there were signs all over saying to watch out for Portuguese Man O’ Wars. I thought they were just being paranoid because there were crowds of people in the water not getting stung. So, I jumped in and went boogie boarding, ignoring the signs. The waves were huge but the water was shallow for about a quarter-mile out.

About an hour later I came back from boogie boarding and my brother was on the shore. He was crying and on his leg was a giant welt that circled his calf just below his knee. We think he was stung by a dead jellyfish floating on its side, which made it wrap all the way around.

Of course, I stupidly went back out in the water before we had to go.

Of course, a jellyfish stung me.

I couldn’t talk; it felt sort of like a bee sting times a thousand. A giant welt appeared on my knee, so whenever I bent my knee it hurt like crazy. I slowly limped to the showers. For some reason the pain was now moving up in my thigh. After I came out and met my dad, the pain was now in my hip. He took me to first aid station. The lifeguards told me that the poison was moving up my leg and that I should just rest it.

This is the kind of jellyfish at Manly Beach.

My day was okay after that. My dad bought my brother and me ice cream, and then we went home. Now I can say that I got stung by a jellyfish in Australia.

A bat

A couple of days ago, we went to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney to see the fruit bats. We walked around for a while but we didn’t see any fruit bats. As we got farther into the park, we kept hearing all these weird bird noises, but there weren’t many birds around. I had to go to the bathroom so we found one, and after I came out my dad said, “Colly, look at those coconuts up in the tree.”

“What about them?” I said, looking where he was pointing.

One of the coconuts flew away.

“Oh my god!” I screamed. “They’re fruit bats!”

These are a couple of the fruit bats. In Australia, they're also called "flying foxes."

I looked all around and every single tree was covered with “coconuts.” They were everywhere! (Later we found out that there were an estimated 12,000!)

“How did I not notice this?” I asked, really freaked out.

“We didn’t either!” my mom said.

We kept walking through the botanical gardens pointing out all the “coconuts”. The fruit bats are fury creatures the size of Chihuahuas with leathery, translucent wings. They curl up in the day so they really do look like coconuts.

We also saw giant spiders hanging on giant webs (poisonous of course).

Spiders like this were all over the Royal Botanic Gardens.

A play

When I was 9 I saw Wicked in New York, and I’ve wanted to see it again ever since. In case you don’t know what Wicked is, it’s the BEST play ever. How did the Wicked Witch of the West become wicked? How did Glinda become the good witch? How did the Scarecrow become a scarecrow? This story took place all before Dorothy dropped in. Did you know Elphaba (who turns into the infamous Wicked Witch of the West) and Galinda (who turns into Glinda the Good Witch) were once best friends? Amazing costumes, amazing voices, an amazing show.

When we first got to Sydney I saw a huge marquee that read “WICKED”.  I got really excited that it was here and showed my parents, and they got really excited too.

On Monday my parents did Twenty Questions with my brother and me. I know it sounds weird, but it was for a really cool prize.

“Twenty Questions,” my mom said, “ What are we doing on Wednesday?”

“A ten mile death hike?” I guessed. (With my parents, that’s not a bad guess.)

“No,” my mom said.

I love Wicked!

“A water park?” my brother guessed.

“Nope,” my mom said.

The “game” went on forever (or so it seemed).

“Wicked?” I guessed.

“Yes!!!” my mom said.

“Oh my god!!!!!!” I yelled.

On Wednesday we went to Wicked. It was amazing! I forgot so much from the last time I saw it, and it was amazing seeing it again. If you ever have the chance to go, do it.

Here is the Sydney Opera House, one of the weirdest buildings on Earth.

Q: What is your favorite part about traveling the world?

A: Definitely seeing new places, because every place is different. For example, our first stop in New Zealand was Auckland (Auckland is a big city). After Auckland we went to Harris Hill in Nelson, which is in a small town with big fields, a huge bay, and lots of hills all around it. Both places were completely different but I still liked being in both of them.

Q: What is your least favorite part about traveling the world?

Here is my family and my dog with all of our luggage.

A: Besides getting homesick, the luggage. It’s either we have too much and it’s impossible to carry it around, or we don’t have what we need and we’re freezing or too hot.

Q: How much luggage do you travel with?

A: Well, we have 6 small carry-ons: 3 back packs, 1 computer bag, 1 shoulder bag, and 1 camera bag. We also have 5 main suitcases: 1 bag for each of us, and 1 huge black suitcase with all of our home schooling supplies. The suitcase with all of our supplies we call “the black tick.” Everyday we talk about needing to clean it out, but instead it keeps growing and growing. It has stuff we never use but we don’t want to throw away either. Right now the black tick is overflowing.

Q: What’s your favorite place and why?

A: I have no idea; every place I go to I love. But, if I had to choose, I’d say Abel Tasman National Park. That’s where I sea kayaked for three days, and if you want to read more about it you can at http://away-together.com/2010/01/07/kayak-adventure-around-abel-tasman-park/

Here’s a movie that my mom made about our family and friends kayaking there:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Q: How old do you have to be to go sea kayaking at Abel Tasman?

A: Truthfully, you have to be 14 years old to go sea kayaking for three days. I really have no clue how we convinced them to let us go.

Q: Where have you been so far on your trip?

A: This list is only the first five months!

1. Fallon, NV
2. Telluride, CO
3. Mesa Verde National Park and Durango, CO
4. Boulder CO
5. Grand Canyon South Rim
6. Sedona, AZ
7. Barstow, CA
8. Pacific Palisades, CA
9. Ojai, CA
10. Buenos Aires, Argentina
11. Colonia, Uruguay
12. Bariloche, Argentina
13. Villa La Angostura, Argentina
14. Mendoza, Argentina
15. Santiago, Chile
16. Auckland, NZ
17. Waitangi and Bay of Islands, NZ
18. Kerikeri, NZ
19. Rotorua and Bay of Plenty, NZ
20. Wellington, NZ
21. Nelson, NZ
22. Karamea and West Coast, NZ
23. Flock Hill on Arthur’s Pass, NZ
24. Queenstown, NZ

I hope I’m not forgetting any!

Q: What do you miss from a regular school and from Piedmont?

A: I think the thing I miss most is the people, my friends, my teachers, my neighbors, anyone I know — my whole social life. I also really miss my house; it’s really fun to travel, but it’s also really hard to always be moving from house to house, hotel room to hotel room, or motel to motel. I also miss after school activities like drama, trapeze or gymnastics. But we do try to find things we can do wherever we are.

Here's Kyle and me doing a bungee jump trampoline in Queenstown.

For example, in Boulder I did gymnastics, and you can read more about it at http://www.collyworld.com/2009/09/flipping-for-cats/

Q: Do you get homesick often?

A: Yes I do; I’ve been away from Piedmont for about five months now and I still get homesick.

Q: How did you feel when you heard you were going on this trip?

A: Well, I was really scared at first. This is what happened: At first my parents just thought of the idea of going away for a year. They didn’t tell us at first, but every day it made more and more sense to them. When they did tell us I thought they were kidding — going away for a year? Why? I got really freaked out because I didn’t want to. I was about to start 6^th grade! But every time we talked about traveling for a year, we got used to the idea and even excited! So finally after all of the planning, our year-round trip happened.

Q: Do you feel like it’s going to be hard to readjust from such a flexible schedule?

A: Yes, definitely.

Q: Are you having fun?

A: All the time. Like I said, I do get homesick, but I’m still having fun. I get to do so many fun and amazing things that I would never get to try if I didn’t go on this trip. For example, zorbing or petting eels or going to WOW, and you can read more about it at http://www.collyworld.com/2010/01/new-adventures-in-new-zealand/. 

Q: Where are you?

A: Right now I’m staying with some family friends in Queenstown, New Zealand.

My parents looking dopey in Queenstown after a "terrifying" ride on the luge. (It was only terrifying to my mom.)

Q: How is Queenstown different from the city of Piedmont?

A: It’s really different because it has a giant glacier lake with mountains and glaciers all around it. There are sheep everywhere!

Q: How has your travel been so far?

A: Well we just celebrated our half waypoint on our trip and so far everything has gone great. No real problems have happened like losing luggage, getting really sick, or anything like that.

Q: What foreign languages have you heard people speak?

A: I have heard Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, German, and Maori.

Q: Is it hard getting used to sleeping in a different place frequently?

A: Not for me, I can sleep at any time, anywhere, forever.

Q: Now much do you home school (hours per day)?

A: We don’t really keep track of the hours because we are learning all the time. We’re going to visitor centers, seeing and learning about monuments, going to national parks, and reading nonstop. But, when we are doing “schooling schooling” (math, writing, science), we try to do an average of three hours a day. I know it might sound short, but we home school on weekends and vacations too.

Q: Have you gotten carsick yet?

A: Definitely. We have to do really long drives sometimes, so I like to read in the car, but I end up getting really carsick and having to pull over. I haven’t thrown up yet though.

Q: Is it annoying to have to be with your brother the whole time?

A: I thought I would be really sick of him by now, but instead I am really glad I have him to talk to or else I would be soooooo lonely and bored!

Kyle and I crossed a swinging rope bridge fifty feet up in the air above a river. I'm glad I have him to talk to and do stuff with.

Q: Is it weird talking to people in other languages or accents?

A: It’s okay in English-speaking countries, but it’s a little harder in others. All you really have to know is please, thank you, etc. I know a little bit of Spanish and I am learning Italian too. Good bye! Adios! Arrivederci!

Kayaking and camping in Abel Tasman National Park for three days was so fun and amazing.

First of all, I would like to apologize for not writing a blog post in so long. So much has happened and I can’t keep track of all of it! Plus, we were on the road a lot. We recently left Nelson, New Zealand, where we lived for two weeks, and went on a three-day kayaking trip in the ocean next to Abel Tasman National Park! If you want to read more about our kayaking and camping, you can on our family blog. Here are some of the cool things that finished off my 2009:

ZORBING

What is Zorbing? What even is a Zorb? My mom calls it overpriced and overrated, but I call it fun.

zorbing |ˈzôrbi ng |
noun
a sport in which a participant is secured inside an inner capsule in a large, transparent ball that is then rolled along the ground or down hills.
ORIGIN 1990s: from zorb, the invented name for the ball, + -ing.

-New Oxford American Dictionary

Or, in other words, a big inflatable hamster ball that is rolling down a hill super fast. My brother and I went on the Zorb in Rotorua, on the North Island of New Zealand. But really we weren’t tall enough for the Zorb so instead we did the Zorb-dro. The only difference is that you are not strapped in to the Zorb-dro — you’re just bouncing around loose — and there’s water in it too, so you are flopping around while getting soaked in freezing water. It was incredibly fun! My mom made a movie about it that you can watch.

Click here to view the embedded video.

HARRIS HILL

The view from our cottage on Harris Hill near Nelson. There were lots of animals such as cows, goats, pigs, sheep, llamas and ponies.

My family and I stayed in a cottage on Harris Hill, an amazing farm on top of a hill on the South Island of New Zealand. You look outside and see the blue bay surrounded by green mountains and a clear blue sky. Kyle wrote a really good description of it and helped make a movie that you can check out on our family blog.

THE JESTER HOUSE CAFE

The Jester House Cafe is THE coolest and weirdest cafe I have ever been at in my life. We had heard numerous recommendations about The Jester House Cafe so we decided to drive there.

The Jester House Cafe's "tame" eels were actually kind of aggressive.

The hour drive wasn’t that nice but IT WAS SO WORTH IT!!! When you first go in you see flowers and flowers, and then you walk across a bridge and under the bridge is a river. That is no ordinary river because IT’S FILLED WITH EELS! And, you can feed them too! After you cross the bridge you see a giant chess set and all around it is a beautiful garden with a forest on one side and a playground on the other and tables scattered all around.

My brother, Kyle, and I immediately ran to the eels. The eels are black and feel like a wet bar of soap, and they are really fun to pet. You can buy a little container filled with brain (that’s what they eat — but I don’t know what kind of brain it was; maybe it was pig brain) and two Popsicle sticks. How it works is you put your bait (the brain) on the end of the Popsicle stick and put it near an eel’s mouth. My first time didn’t go so well. The eels have really strong jaws so when they get hold of the stick they don’t want to let go. So, I put my stick near a giant eel’s mouth and without missing a beat, it clamped its jaw on the Popsicle stick. It soon turned into a game of tug-of-war. I didn’t want to lose my stick so I pulled really hard, pulling the eel out of the water! I was still holding my stick, which now had a dangling eel at the end! I got really freaked out so I threw the Popsicle stick on the ground. The eel (still hanging on to the stick) slithered back into the water. I never got my stick back.

WOW: THE WORLD OF WEARABLE ART MUSEUM

At the World of Wearable Art and classic car museum, one of my favorite dresses was this car outfit.

The World Of Wearable Art Museum has the weirdest, most unusual, wackiest fashions I have ever seen. Some of the different categories the designers designed for are glow-in-the-dark, wooden, bizarre bras, tropical paradise, recyclable, and way more. I saw dresses with wooden skirts and tops, outfits with ear plugs all over them (the earplugs made the outfit look like an alien cactus), a dress made of tea bags and coffee filters, a glow-in-the-dark hat shaped into a UFO with aliens coming out of it, and soooooooooo much more! My favorite outfit was a dress made 100% out of wood. It looked old fashioned because the wooden skirt looked like a hoop skirt. It was beautifully crafted.

Along with all the amazing fashions, the museum also has classic cars. We saw all different kinds of cars from the 1910s horseless carriages to a sports car with doors that opened upward that was in Back to the Future. It was amazing!

The dress in the middle is made fully out of wood and is definitely my favorite! The dress to the right is made of metal, and the one on the left is made of tea bags and coffee filters.

NEW ADVENTURES IN NEW ZEALAND

I have been having so many adventures, not only in New Zealand but everywhere else I have been to. I am coming up on the halfway point on my trip. This school year is flying by and soon it will be over. I love Piedmont, but I also love traveling. If I never did this trip then I never would’ve been able to do any of this stuff, and that is definitely why I love traveling.

Our RV is so cool. I love it!

About a week ago, we got our rental RV. Basically, there is a kitchen, a couch, table and benches, a loft, a bathroom, and all these closets and drawers that we keep our stuff in. We are touring the whole North Island of New Zealand. The RV is really bumpy and rattles a lot because of everything in it. My dad is stuck with driving it, so it’s the hardest for him because he has to drive the biggest car he has ever driven while driving on the wrong side of the road!

Sometimes Kyle and I like to play cards in the loft where I also sleep.

It is like a rain forest here; there are lots and lots of trees and it rains all the time, but we are really lucky because we have had sunny weather. It’s almost Christmas here and it is really warm. I’m wearing flip flops, t-shirts, and shorts every day, but back in California where I live it’s snowing near sea level!

The RV is so cool, but there is only one thing cooler than the RV: the RV parks.

All RV parks that I've been to are awesome.

Park #1: The first RV park we ever stayed at was just outside of Auckland (pronounced “Oakland”). It had a beach and a lot of grass. What’s the cool thing? Right next to the RV park was a water park! It had 12 pools and 10 huge water slides. After I was done schooling for the day we got to go to it! One pool was really warm because of geothermal heat. It was dark in that pool because it was a movie room too!

The first RV park that we went to had a big rock in the ocean that looked like a turtle so we called it turtle rock.

Park #2: The second park wasn’t that special; it was just a normal RV park with hook-ups, grass, parking spaces, and picnic tables.

Park # 3: The third park was really fun. It was almost at the top of the North Island. There was a really deep river and above it a rope swing that you can swing off of and into the river. It was so fun, I kept trying to jump off but ending up not. The RV park also had a huge play structure with a climbing wall, a rope course, a tight wire, and bars that Kyle loved to play on.

Park #4: The fourth park was definitely my favorite. It had 4 trampolines, a zip line, a river, a play structure, and a soccer field. I probably went on the zip line 50 times; it’s not that high, it just goes super fast.

This park was my favorite. It had a really fun zip line...

... and trampoline that I loved to go on.

Park #5: The last park was a little closer to Auckland because we had to return the RV the next day. There was a nice view of the beach, so we cooked nachos and ate outside.

Another interesting thing about all the RV parks I’ve been to is the people. I’ve been with people from the UK, Germany, Holland, Japan, Australia, USA (like me), and guess what? Every single person I’ve met has been super nice! For example, I babysat a 19-month-old girl from Holland who was learning to speak English.

Besides the RV parks, we have been taking field trips too. For example, we took a trip to learn about the Maori, the original people in New Zealand. We had a super nice private tour guide at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, where the Maori and British agreed to let the British rule and bring law and order to the land.

Our tour guide showed us the original flag of New Zealand. The four stars represent the Southern Cross, which is the constellation the Maori used to get to New Zealand.

I am so sad we had to return the RV because this has been so fun and I really recommend it. My mom made a movie about it that you can watch:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Davy and Daryl ride over the Continental Divide with their dad.

What would it be like to travel about 20,000 miles on bike? These guys are finding out! Daryl and Davy Vogel are 11-year-old twin brothers biking from Alaska to the bottom of South America with their mom and dad. After 30 months of bike riding are over, they will have broken the world record of Youngest Person to Cycle the Pan-America Highway! They started in June 2008 and are now in Ecuador. They just reached the Equator a few days ago!

When I saw their website, familyonbikes.org, I thought what they’re doing is so amazing that I did a Q&A with them by email.

Q: Before this trip did you bike ride a lot?

Davy: Yes, a lot.

Daryl: No, I rode it to school a bit but not much.

Q: Tell me about the world record you’re trying to break. What is it like knowing you guys are so close to breaking it?

Davy: It’s really good. Some of it is so we can get this trip over with but I still want to get the record.

Daryl: We are trying to be the youngest to cycle the Pan-American Highway. I guess I don’t think about it much.

Q: Where do you sleep overnight and do homeschooling?

Davy: We sleep in hotels most of the time and we do math and journals occasionally.

Davy and Daryl studying in Arizona.

Daryl: Now we usually stay in hotels but before we camped off the side of the road, in campgrounds, in people’s houses and sometimes in a hotel.

Q: When my family and I travel we have 5 suitcases and 4 carry-ons; what do you carry with you when you bike and how do you carry it?

Davy: I carry four panniers (bags that go on side of the racks), one bag that goes on the top of my rear rack, and my personal things on my handlebars. My mom has a trailer, four panniers, one big bag, the pot on her front rack, and her handlebar bag. Dad and Daryl have a trailer, four panniers, the tent on his rear rack, a handlebar bag, and Daryl keeps his things in three handlebar bags.

Daryl: We carry what we need, some light items that we like to have, and Davy and I carry some toys. We carry it in panniers and trailers (look at our pictures).

Q: What do you do when you are not biking?

Davy: Play or sleep most of the time. Sometimes we work on math or do journals.

Daryl: Lots of things–breathe, talk, do work, rest, you name it.

Q: What is your biggest motivation for when you don’t want to ride at all?

Daryl and his dad, John, in Colombia with all their bags.

Davy: Walking.

Daryl: Maybe that if we don’t we will have to abandon the trip.

Q: When I am traveling with my family, our biggest fear is getting our stuff stolen. What is yours?

Davy: No idea.

Daryl: I don’t know–getting hit by a truck?

Q: What is it like having a twin brother? Do you ever get sick of him?

Davy: Yes, and a LOT.

Daryl: He likes to bully me.

Q: What do you guys think of homeschooling?

Davy: Boring.

Daryl: It’s like school but I don’t have to hear the same thing over again.

Q: What do you remember the most from your trip so far?

Davy: Probably Honduras. We traveled with another biking family with two kids and spent a lot of time at the beach there. We also visited Mom’s friends from when she was a Peace Corps Volunteer (http://familyonbikes.org/blog/?p=943)

Daryl: I don’t know.

Q: If you could pick one thing that you could do again from your trip, what would it be?

Nancy, the mom, biking through Honduras.

Davy: I can’t answer that, it’s way too hard because everything is really neat in its own way.

Daryl: A river hike in Belize. We followed a river through the jungle and me and Davy got to float most of it. (http://familyonbikes.org/blog/?p=894)

Q: What is your least favorite part of this trip so far?

Davy: I don’t know that one either. There are good and bad parts of all of it.

Daryl: Getting stuck in the same place for a long time because of Davy. He has had problems with ingrown toenails so we have to stop and wait while he has surgery.

Q: I heard that both of you guys like to play sports. When do you play and who with?

Davy: We played a lot of soccer at home and when I get the chance I like to go pass a soccer ball with Daryl.

Daryl: In Mexico we played a lot with the kids at restaurants because they usually had a ball. Here we’re lucky to get one.

Q: When you are in the middle of nowhere and you have a flat tire or you are hurt or just something bad happens, what do you do to deal with it?

Davy: Let Dad fix the tire or switch with Daryl on the tandom.

Daryl: Either fix it, ride to somewhere with the tools to fix, or take a car to somwhere with the tools to fix it.

Q: You haven’t seen your home town Boise, Idaho, since 2006. Do you ever get homesick–and if so, what for?

Davy: No.

Daryl: Sometimes, for just about all the reasons there is.

Q: Where was the hardest place to bike through?

Davy riding through Texas with Christmas decorations on his bike handle bars.

Davy: Probably going up into the Andes. We had to climb up 7500 feet in 33 miles. That was a long, hard climb! (http://familyonbikes.org/blog/?p=1086)

Daryl: Maybe up this really long, really steep hill when it was hot. It was in Guatemala and it was a dirt road and dust was everywhere. That day was really hard! (http://familyonbikes.org/blog/?p=907)

Q: I saw in an article on your site that you have a dog named Dash; does he come along with you?

Davy: He would have but he got run over and died a few weeks before the trip.

Daryl: He died.

Q: If someone is planning to do a big bike trip like yours, what is your advice for him or her?

Davy: No idea, Mom and Dad did all the planning.

Daryl: I don’t know, you need to talk to Davy about that.

Thank you guys so much and good luck!

Kyle and me on the bus in Argentina.

Leather seats wide enough for two people? check
Polyester fleece blankets? check
Half-stuffed pillow? check
Seats that recline 180 degrees? check
TV playing weird movies? check
Seat belt damp with cleaning fluids? check
IPods, Kindles, and laptops out and ready? check
On a bus? check!

Yes it’s true, on a bus. When people think of a bus, the words that probably pop in their heads are: crowded, smelly, hard plastic seats, lucky if you get a seat, and most of all, gross. Not this bus.

The only part of this bus that was smelly was the bathroom — but it’s cool it had a bathroom.

The bus station was super busy.

When my parents told my brother and me that we were going on a seventeen-hour bus ride north from Bariloche in Patagonia to Mendoza, which is Argentina’s wine region, I thought they were kidding. I was wrong.

First, we got all of our stuff together and took an hour-long taxi ride to the bus station. Finally we got there and had to wait 45 minutes in the station because the bus wasn’t there yet. Then it arrived.

The bus was a giant blue, black, and gray two-story bus called Andesmar. It reminded me of the double-decker tour buses in England, but this one had a roof. Our seats were on the first floor, in the back. No one showed up to take the other seats, so we had the whole downstairs to ourselves!

I was expecting it to be more bus-like — you know, just seats — but instead it was like an airplane, but better! It had huge leather seats that could go all the way back to make a bed. It had those polyester fleece blankets and half-stuffed pillows that are surprisingly really comfortable. It also had those little lights and air-conditioning vents above each seat, and instead of flight attendants there were bus attendants.

When the bus finally arrived, we were all really excited.

A Sony flat-screen TV mounted on the wall was playing a creepy movie that was in English but had Spanish subtitles. The movie was The Witches of Eastwick; I do not recommend it at all.

On the bus I started and finished a book, went through two packs of gum, watched two movies on TV, watched a movie on my IPod, listened to songs on my IPod, and ate.

I also played toothpick bingo. A guy on the bus passed out toothpicks and mini bingo sheets the size of Post-Its. When a number on your sheet gets called, you pop it out with your toothpick. A guy who works on the bus called out numbers in Spanish, and my mom translated the numbers in English to us. After about three numbers I got bored so I quit, but my brother kept playing and was one away from winning when we heard a guy on the top floor shout out that he won.

For a while I got bored, so I looked out the window, and there was a really pretty sunset.

For a while I didn’t have anything to do, so I looked out the window and saw lots of pretty desert-like hills and dry land, and a pink and orange sunset.

The bus also serves food, just like on an airplane — but I discovered that bus food is worse than airplane food by far. This was our first super long bus ride so we didn’t know everything we were suppose to do to prepare; for example: BRING YOUR OWN FOOD OR YOU WILL HAVE TO EAT THEIRS!

First they gave us a snack of soggy crackers and cookies that were like baby crackers with an odd filling. I didn’t eat any.

The snack was handed out at 6:00, close to when I would usually eat dinner back in Piedmont, and the real dinner wasn’t served until 11:00! I was absolutely starving! I could barely stay awake. My brother had already passed out while waiting. Finally, after forever, it came.

Kyle passed out while waiting for food.

First there was a cold appetizer consisting of a roll of bread that was so hard and stale you could use it as a hammer. Also, there was mushy roll of ham that fell apart when I picked it up, complimented by fake sweaty cheese with cut-up potato and carrots. And last but not least, orange and slimy flan. I ended up just eating the bread. After that I was bored, so I opened the sugar packet and dumped it in the flan. Then I did the same with the all the condiments and then the food. Before I knew it, all of my food ended up in the flan.

The appetizer...so not appetizing.

Finally, a half-hour later, the hot food came. I really didn’t know what it was going to be; I thought it might be a hot dog or a hamburger or something like that, but no. It turned out to be chicken-fried steak. What is chicken-fried steak? It is fried, dessicated, thin steak covered in oil, breadcrumbs, and mayonnaise, lying on mashed potatoes with a pound of salt mixed in. I opened the foil covering and almost puked on it, but trust me, it would have blended right in. I didn’t eat any of it besides the mashed potatoes (which turned out to be pretty good, just a little over salted).

The main course...a.k.a. mystery meat...a.k.a. chicken-fried steak.

After dinner they played another movie at 12 midnight, but my family and I were so tired that we asked one of the workers on the bus to turn off our downstairs screen.

Midnight: time for bed!

Finally I went to sleep. The next morning I woke up at 8:00 to a chorus of talking, buses all around me, and most of all, my mom shaking me to try to get me up. I sat up and looked around — we were in Mendoza, where we’re now spending a week.

I loved going on this bus. If you ever do a super long bus trip like this one, I just have one tip: bring your own food.

“Colly, just give it to me,” my mom says.

“Are you sure? It’s disgusting!!” I say.

My mom thinks I’m overreacting, so just to prove it she takes a bite. “Oh my god!!!” she says as she chucks it out the window of the car. “It’s like candle wax covered in chocolate! That is terrible!!!”

“I told you, it’s really really gross!” I say.

Meanwhile, my dad and brother are laughing at us like crazy.

Right now you might wonder what we are gagging on: chocolate.

I am in Bariloche. Bariloche is in the Andes Mountains, the Andes Mountains are part of Patagonia, Patagonia is in Argentina (and Chile), and Argentina is in South America. The weather here is crazy! It can be sunny, rainy, or snowy all in the same day, and it has been.

Here I am in the rain outside Bariloche's chocolate museum, or "el museo del chocolate."

Chocolate stores dot every single block here! I went to one and it was huge — it had a deli, ice cream store, but mostly chocolate. The store’s name was Tourista. When I went there, I got a dulce de leche chocolate (dulce de leche means “sweet of milk” and is basically caramel) and a marzipan chocolate. I didn’t really know what marzipan was — I thought it was like the Spanish word for marshmallow or something. Later on, when we were driving in our rented, falling apart, cracked Hertz car, my brother and I wanted our chocolate, so my dad gave it to us. First I had the dulce de leche and it was so good! Then I had the marzipan and, well, that’s what I was gagging on. Now I know what marzipan is: egg whites and ground almonds, but it tastes like candle wax.

Since there are so many chocolate stores and chocolate factories in Bariloche, one of the oldest and largest, called Fenoglio, made a chocolate museum. We went to it and toured the factory and learned about the history of chocolate. We saw cacao bean shells, which are light brown and about the size of your thumbnail, and inside they’re a really dark brown, almost black, and that’s what chocolate is made out of.

We learned about how before chocolate was made into a solid bar in England in the mid-1800s, it was a liquid. Bariloche became famous for chocolate because after World War II, one Italian couple moved here and started Fenoglio, and then more Europeans started coming and making chocolate here too.

I helped my mom make a movie about the chocolate museum in Bariloche. It took a long time to put together, and we still haven’t finished it yet because when we went back on the computer to work on it, all the work we did the first day was completely gone. The iMovie program keeps not saving the movie, so instead we just chose some short clips and stuck them together in about a minute before publishing this. I hope you like them.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The cabana is super cozy, and this is where my family and I eat; Kyle and I homeschool here too.

Something else I will really remember is where I’m staying. In Bariloche we are in a cabaña. It’s really cozy  just like a little house; there are two bathrooms, one bedroom, and a kitchen. My parents sleep in the one bedroom, and Kyle and I sleep in the living room, on the L-shaped couch that doubles as two separate beds.

Kyle and I sleep on the L-shaped couch that doubles as two separate beds. Kyle is reading on the Kindle as I use the Iphone.

Back in Piedmont, my family almost never watched TV during dinner, but at the cabaña there is a TV  facing the table, so, at dinner we always watch American TV reruns like The Nanny, Will & Grace, Everybody Loves Raymond, Seinfeld, That 70’s Show, and Scrubs. My favorite shows are Seinfeld, That 70’s Show, and Scrubs. Since we’re in a Spanish-speaking country, all the shows have Spanish subtitles, and while Kyle, my dad and I watch the shows, my mom reads the subtitles to practice Spanish.

At the cabaña there are dogs everywhere! There are three tiny white dogs named Snowball, Booboo, and Lulu, and there is a brown and black mix named Lunita. Also, there is a lab named Suzie and two other dogs (that I don’t know the names of), and one cat named Shadow. All of them are so cute! Kyle and I love to play with them.

Not only is the chocolate sweet, but the cabaña and lots more in Bariloche is too.

This is us at a closed, cheap, weird, dino park.

Some of you might think that traveling for a year is your dream; home schooling, being with family, it all sounds great. Others may think that doing this is your worst nightmare and you would never take the time to do something like this; you’re stuck with your family, and it’s way too much work of moving from place to place and never stopping. Before I left I was thinking both of these ways and I still am. I am really sorry if it sounds like I’m whining — I love traveling with my family, but it isn’t all happy, it’s really hard too.

Most times we get lucky and do really fun stuff, but sometimes we have no clue what we’re doing, and it turns out terrible. For example, one day we had to wait in a Hertz car rental for about an hour. We finally got our car — we were trying to get the cheapest one possible, so it had an egg-beater engine; it was cracked in the back; there were no back doors so we had to climb though the middle to get to the back seat. My brother and I were really hungry, so my mom went to the store and got us these health bars. I tried an apple one, and it was the worst thing ever! I literally was on the verge of throwing up. Then we drove for about 30 minutes. We were excited to go to this outside dinosaur park, because we thought it had dinosaur bones and statues. We wanted to go on this one day because it was the only day it wasn’t raining. But I was so carsick driving there. We finally got there, and it was this stupid, cheap, deserted ’70s park — and it was closed! From a distance, we could see these paper-mache statues with faded paint and a huge yellow Lays Potato Chip flag in the middle of it for some reason. Then we drove more and my parents made us go on this hike they thought would be a mile but turned out to be about a quarter mile (which was a good thing).

If you ever decide to do a long trip like this, you should really read this. I think it will help you. You see, traveling is really hard, but at the same time super fun, so here are some of the pros and cons of travel.

Pro

My dad took this photo at the most beautiful place on earth, at least I think. What is cool is that it's spring here but it's snowing.

You get to see the most wonderful places in the world like Argentina, Australia, Greece, and so on. For example, so far we have seen the Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, and lots more beautiful places. Right now we’re in Patagonia, in the town of Bariloche, and there are tons of snowy mountains and huge lakes.

Con

You get really homesick and don’t get to see Piedmont for a year. I miss my dog, house, my friends, Mulberry’s, the Piedmont Pool, and trapeze arts.

Pro

Here I am walking with my mom in Buenos Aires; I love spending time with my family but I am getting sick of them and sick of walking everywhere!

You get to spend a lot of great time with your family and do really fun stuff with them; for example, go to a chocolate museum (I am about to do that!).

Con

You get sick of them after a while and really miss other people a lot. It gets really tiring hearing the same people talk to you every day and not talking to your friends.

Pro

You get to experience new things outside of the USA such as street fairs and festivals.

Con

You miss holidays, you don’t get to dress up on Halloween or have regular holiday traditions on Christmas and so on.

Pro

You get to home school and it’s way shorter, and for me it is a lot more relaxing too because it’s more flexible with deadlines and I have a weekly schedule rather than daily schedule. Homeschooling is about two-five hours but you get the same amount of work done. You get to learn outside of the classroom.

Con

You really miss school and the teachers and kids there. I miss some of the activities that they do.

Pro

You get to read a ton (I read on the Kindle because we can’t carry too many books with us).

Con

You miss out on seeing movies and books that aren’t on Kindle. For example, I like the Twilight books and was excited to see the New Moon movie but can’t. Also, we can’t get the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book.

Pro

You get to see new TV shows that aren’t in America.

Con

Most of the channels are in Spanish.

Pro

You have the greatest friends ever to email who keep you updated on what’s going on.

I am spending a lot of time with my brother Kyle; most of the times we get along, but we fight a lot too.

Con

You miss your friends who email you, and it makes you sad reading about everything, and you wish you were there. For example, most of the emails I get are about school and Halloween.

Pro

You get to travel for a year and have a great time even with some hard parts; there is no con to that.