what lies ahead: adventure and the connection between the new ads and our family

Do you remember that time our family spent a year reading all of the Little House on the Prairie books?

And how, at the end of that year, we loaded up the kids and drove north and then west and then some more west and then south and then east and made a big sloppy loop back to our home?

It was a good good year loaded and piled with sweet and lasting memories and it’s lodged squarely and safely inside my heart.

The next year we read through the Narnia series.  (Which proved to be timely and profound and emotionally perfect for our hearts that year.)

This year we have been reading through another series of true books called the Ralph Moody series.  (I like a Wildwood school year to be marked by a specific novel series.  But I’m running out of ideas – I’ve got Tolkien and Anne of Green Gables in my line up.  What else though?)

Ralph is a young boy growing up around the same time as Laura Ingalls Wilder.  His family moves west to run a ranch and to help improve his father’s poor health.  Ralph’s dad passes away and Ralph is left to help provide for his mother and his five siblings.  He’s a great boy – clever and witty, generous and brave.  And he’s a fabulous story teller.

As we’ve read through the stories and heard Ralph speak about Pike’s Peak and the Garden of the Gods, you know I had this idea that I just wanted the kids to see these places.  To do what Ralph did.  To live on a ranch and take care of livestock and to see the Colorado mountains and rivers from the vantage point of horseback.

Which made me think — Dude Ranch.

You know – a kind of family vacation meets family camp meets active horse ranch meets western adventure.

It seemed too big of an idea to pull off.  Too big of a hope to put out there.

But I googled it anyway.

With the Prairie Adventure, this little piece of blog real estate was a giant factor in our planning and affording that excursion.

It’s even more of a necessary and valuable tool now.

I sort of wish this is the moment that I could have those giant screens like they do on Fixer Upper and I could pull back the screens and reveal my news in some dramatic fashion.

I don’t know how to do that with words.

Instead, I’ll just say this —-

The Wildwood Halls of Ivy has one pretty gigantic field trip planned for next month.

It’s going to be as Ralph Moody authentic as we can get.  There’s horses and the wide Colorado River at the base of Pike’s Peak.  A rodeo and corrals and cowboy grub and of course we’ll be wearing cowboy hats and cowboy boots and talking cowboy slang (as soon as I figure out what that is).    And more – there’s fishing till my boys’ hearts implode with sheer enthusiasm and there’s a human (not me) who will clean that fish and cook that fish and feed us that fish for dinner and there’s beds and a cabin and hot tubs for overaged wanna be cowgirls like myself that will surely overestimate how long my bum can handle a saddle and a trail.

And I think it’s fair to say – the whole lot of us probably could not physically be any more excited than we actually are.

That’s the answer to the question — why does your sidebar ad feature Lost Valley Ranch?

I’ll giddily share with you our preparations for our trip – I’ll be employing my own Road Trip Tricks of the Trade (surely we can find all fifty states for our map on this journey!) and the handy Bag System.  And I’ll overshare the photos of kids in cowboy hats riding horses.

But all the sharing will have to be done before and after the week at Lost Valley.

Because do you know what is a part of making Lost Valley so other worldly magical?

No cell service.

As in – the ranch is at least an hour or more from “town”.  The driveway is dirt and takes more than twenty minutes to traverse.  You pull in and you check out.

So – you know, before we go I’ll share our stories.  And when we leave the ranch, I’ll share our stories.

But while we are there – we are just going to be living our stories.

Now of course it takes a bit of time and a lot of traffic and an achingly large number of miles to get from South Carolina to Colorado.

Which is where the other new ad banner comes in.

That little yellow one?  The KOA banner?  The credit for this choice goes to Beth – it was her idea.  I was like, “Goodness, if only I could make a plan for lodging as we drive from east to west.”  And Beth was like, “You could camp – have you stayed at a KOA?  They’re everywhere.”

I’m pretty sure I could say I have never stayed at KOA before.  But after this summer, I’ve got this strong suspicion that KOA and Keigley are about to be best buds for life.  My bae. (Oh my word – I literally JUST discovered what “bae” stands for.  It’s so silly.)

We are staying at KOA campgrounds on the way there and the way back – a little connect the dot game going on – and I can’t wait to write about each city and each campground and share with you guys how car camping like that works out across the country.  Our sites are already booked and each one is so varied – and so pretty – that I can hardly wait! One campground’s claim to fame is being the highest elevation of any KOA in America.  Ah – those views.  I’m already anxious to hang my hammock and just bask in the vastness of those mountains.

And that, friends, is my big news about the new ad banners and their link to our summer.

I am completely overwhelmed with gratefulness and hope and excitement.  

(By the way – and just for fun — would you guys help me come up with a hashtag for this adventure?  You know, something western but maybe literary?  Or horse related, ranch related or western adventure related?  Yehaw!  And many thanks.)