Waibel Team Adventures

02/08/2024

02/08/2024

July 2024 was full of chaos! I’m not sure we’ve ever had a more challenging month. We moved, Auggie turned 8 and got a new bike, baseball season finished up, Auggie spent a whole week with Grandpa and Grandma at their VBS, Eloise got contacts, and we spent every free moment we had unpacking and organizing.

If you make it to the last photo, you’ll see Eloise handing out the sermon notes at church (I’ll post the video separately). It had been an especially hard week, and Lolo decided to pass them out without me even prompting her. Then Auggie joined in! They brought smiles to lots of folks walking through the doors and definitely put a big smile on my face! ❤️

27/06/2024

Introducing… Irenah Ruth as the newest member of the Waibel Team.

Born in mid March, she’s now three months old and has already felt the sand in between her toes. ❤️

We apologize for the long social media break. We promise to fill in the gaps and hope to use the platform to recapture memories once again. Thanks for sticking around. 🤟🏻

22/07/2023

Auggie turned 7 a few weeks ago, and we can’t begin to express how much joy he brings to our family. He is kind to all, adventurous (with the right amount of caution), smart, and energetic! The world is a brighter place because of you, Auggie.

Over the past year, he graduated Kindergarten, mastered riding his bike without training wheels, and played baseball, soccer, and basketball for the first time!

Some of his favorite things are: eating bacon (it’s gotta be cooked perfectly - crispy but not too crispy), playing legos, camping, and riding his bike.

11/07/2023

Our Sunday Best!

23/06/2023

I have felt a little stuck lately. Like my wheels are turning full force, but the mud is thick and sticky, and the more I turn the further I sink.

Then, I woke up next to this and felt like I needed to share. Look at that girl glow. Thanks for drying up the mud, Lolo. ☀️

*Yes, we’re working on saying goodbye to the pacifier (bop).

08/06/2023

6/10 2:30 pm: WE ARE HEADED HOME! Rocky Top Ford was able to do for us what Ford Motor Company had obligation to do but couldn’t. We are so very thankful for their fast work on getting the alternator into place and the truck up and running. While this experience has been less than ideal, the timing has been terrible, and the customer service from Ford Motor Company was lacking, Rocky Top Ford, the KOA, and the people of East Tennessee as a whole have been more than willing to assist us and have been great to work with.

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments! Lessons learned are:

- Speak to your dealership in person! More than likely they’re trying to do the right thing for you, and understanding and compassion are much more easily communicated face-to-face.

- Don’t let Ford Motor Company be a middle man and do not expect them to get you home. Know what your options are before you head out. Retrospectively, our best option would have been to rent an Enterprise Truck earlier this week and travel with our family, dog, and camper home, and let Ford figure out how to get it back to where it has to be returned. We did not know Enterprise Truck existed.

- If you know what you’re doing and can get an aftermarket part, you can fix your vehicle yourself without voiding your warranty, but it will void the warranty on the part that you fix. If they can prove that your part caused an issue, the factor warranty may not cover you.

- Ford Motor Company has offered us a “goodwill offering” of an extended warranty on our truck for two additional years or 75,000 miles. I’m uncertain how I feel continuing to give them my business, so we’re currently undecided on what our next steps will be.

Thanks for sharing and thank you to everyone who helped to get us home. I hope to never update this post again. 😊

————————

6/9 10 pm: Ford Motor Company indicated that the correct alternator arrived and that Rocky Top was actively working on the repairs, so we headed to the dealership with the help of the campground. That wasn’t true. There was no alternator yet, BUT going to the dealership turned into a blessing in disguise (after some car sickness and a mild anxiety attack). They were able to get us in a car for the night, and we’re sooo very grateful!!

No, this doesn’t mean we get to go home, but at least we’re covered in case of an emergency. We’ll know more tomorrow on what our ETA home looks like.

(Older updates below original post.)

—————————

Hi fellow campers, friends, and Ford Motor Company! We’re stranded 14 hrs away from home with our camper because our new 2022 truck broke down under bumper to bumper warrnaty. They’re saying it’ll be months before we can get our truck back. We’ve tried to work with Ford customer support for a vehicle for days but why haven’t found a solution. Help pls!

Things we’ve been advised to do by Ford Customer Sevice agents:
- Rent a U-Haul to tow the camper and travel home with my kids and dog in the travel trailer. 🤯
- Rent a vehicle via Enterprise and tow my camper home, which breaks the Enterprise policy!

Things we’re going to need very shortly:
- A campsite. We have to leave our KOA campsite today! The spot were at has a different family staying it in tonight.
- Food! Our kids are 6 and 3. They can’t walk miles to a grocery store very quickly or easily.
- A tow vehicle! This is the only item we’ve requested of Ford, and the one thing they continue to delay.

Ways you can help!
- Share this post and tag Ford!
- Know anyone in Tennessee with a tow vehicle who would be willing to take a drive to KC with a family of 4 and a dog? DM us!

————————-

6/8 12 pm: A few updates for those asking:

They’ve escalated to a supervisor (who btw is very nice, but still can’t solve our biggest concerns.)

The KOA has agreed to let us stay a few more nights.

Our dealership back home ordered the part (alternator) immediately and has it today. The local dealership where our truck currently sits did not bother ordering the part because they said it was back ordered.

Our home dealership is going to overnight the part to the dealership our truck is at.

The dealership with our truck will then place it in the truck when they can.

They’ve told us we can “hope” to be out of here by Tuesday morning. And that’s only if the new alternator fixes the problem.

Reasons why this is still a problem:
- We currently have no way to drive anywhere to get groceries, etc. What if my kids need a dr?
- My daughter has a specialist appointment for her ears at a Children’s hospital on Tuesday and we won’t make it at this rate. We’ve been waiting almost a year to get this appointment.
- We have jobs, and we need to do them.

My solution for Ford Motor Company:

- Allow me to trade in my 2022 Lariat F150 for a new vehicle that can tow so we can go home! And ideally help cover the difference in costs that you’ll already spent to tow/rental/accommodations/food/etc.

Open to other suggestions to get us home! But would ideally not like to have to pay significantly out of pocket since I trusted Ford, their new vehicle, and their warranty.

————————

6/8 3 pm: Rocky Top Ford where our F150 has been residing, has claimed they can now get the back ordered alternator tomorrow morning and have it in the truck tomorrow by EOB. We’re still not sure this is the only fix needed to get our truck running. We have not been provided a rental car or loaner vehicle and have been told by Ford that we must stay put here in Townsend, TN.

————————

6/8 10:30 pm: Just providing an update:

We’ve worked all day to arrange something with Ford and Rocky Top Ford discussing some of your suggestions - things like towing with a Enterprise truck, having a private party take us home, trying to find an Uber in Townsend, seeing what Ford will reimburse, using a third party to fix the alternator, etc.

Ford is not great with returning calls and when they do it seems as though there’s many approvals they have to get before they can provide an answer.

Where we left off:
- Rocky Top initially declined to replace the alternator because they told us it would take months to get the part, and they’re moving dealerships so they don’t want our dead truck on their lot. They arranged for our truck to be towed to our home dealership for around $3k. (6/9 update and clarification: After meeting with Rocky Top in person, Rocky Top helped to explain that they were unable to even order the part until we spoke with Ford Corporate, not necessarily that they declined service!)

- Our home dealership emergency ordered the part for us before the truck even arrived. It got there today!

- Rocky Top had not yet towed our truck to our local dealer, so now our local dealer is overnighting the part to Rocky Top.

- Rocky Top promised to have the new alternator before EOB tomorrow, but it doesn’t look like the part is going to make it in time according to the tracking number. (6/9 update: The alternator made it, but was the wrong one. Apparently our truck has two.)

- Rocky Top’s GSM response to our troubles with his dealership taking three days to diagnosis the problem and then refuse to order the part was, “I’m sorry this ruined your vacation. These things happen. I have compassion for you.” And then stated he’ll be out of the office and unable to assist us tomorrow.

- We also aren’t certain the alternator is the only problem because we don’t know that the dealership was able to ever run the diagnostic test because the battery was so dead.

- We do have many locals and campground neighbors offering to take us to get groceries and some have even volunteered to drive us to a hike or two so we can enjoy our stay however long it ends up being. We hope to take up the drive to groceries offer tomorrow.

- Additinally the Townsend / Great Smokies KOA Holiday has been a BLESSING! They arranged for us to have several extra nights in our campsite, have had workers go out of our way to check in on us, and even transport us. We’ve been to a lot of campgrounds, and they are by far the most welcoming.

- There’s a local ministry group holding a Bible camp at the campground this week and our kids have been invited to participate. They’ve loved it and are signing John 3:16 on repeat.

- We feel fortunate to be where we are and thankful to have met the people we’ve met through this experience. Well… everyone except Ford. 😉

- My biggest concerns continue to be getting home for our appointments and getting back to working not in a camper. Also, it’s unnerving to be in a strange place with young kids and no way to get them around if they were to need something.

- Hopefully, we’re closer to getting home tomorrow! We’ll update when we know more.

—————————

6/9 10:30 am: Rocky Top Ford received the ordered alternator this morning. When they opened the box, they noticed it was the wrong alternator.

We’re back to square one on waiting. I’ve contacted the Sales Manager at Rocky Top get an estimate on the trade in value of my truck and contacted the supervisor at Ford Motor Company to begin discussion on how to get us and our camper home again with or without our truck.

We’re still looking into Enterprise Truck, Rental Cars, U-Haul, etc, but all appear to be one way.

31/05/2023

We’ve found things worth sharing and plenty to enjoy with each of our travels, but it’s rare that one screams “home.” Charleston, however, did just that.

Coming up with a top 3️⃣ here was HARD!

🥇Downtown Charleston: I think that with every place you visit, the downtown tells a story that you won’t find anywhere else. With Charleston, you don’t want to miss the story!

🥈Pitt Street Bridge at Sunset: I’ve seen some beautiful sunsets, like Poipu in Hawaii, 30A in Florida kind of sunsets. Maybe it was because of the surprise factor, but this place ranks in the top 3. I mean dolphins, the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, and a beautiful walkway. It doesn’t get much better.

🥉The Angel Oak Tree: A 300-400 year old tree with branches that you have to fight the urge to climb on like a child (mostly because you’re not allowed to). We didn’t get to spend long viewing it due to its opening hours, but this is the kind of tree you sit under and just dream.

Okay, I can’t help it… 4️⃣ Folly Beach. Not in my top three beaches, but beautiful! With marsh on one side and beach on the other, this is a beach to explore. In fact, we got to touch an eel while there. (For safety reasons, I’m not sure I can recommend that though. 😉)

Have you been to Charleston? Did you love it? Will you come visit us if we move? 😂

Convince me NOT to move in the comments.

29/05/2023

Top 3️⃣ Musts for Savannah, GA:

🥇 Explore Downtown - It really doesn’t matter what you set out to do downtown, you’ll love wherever you end up. Just be sure to wear your walking shoes and walk through every square you can locate! Try parking at Forsyth Park (It’s free!) and walking all the way down to River Street. If you’re looking to have a coffee in your hand as you walk, we recommend .

🥈 Visit Tybee Island - The beach itself is not in our top 10, but the island culture is great. Start with coffee at , check out the , and come hungry to .

🥉Fort Pulaski - There’s something special and patriotic about stepping back in time with . Even our kids enjoyed walking the old walls and checking out the cannons.

Have you been to Savannah? What would you add to our list?

15/05/2023

‘Honor your mother’…Today, we recognize the awesome mom Kate is to our Waibel Team.

To recharge, she enjoys sleeping in and reading. She loves ice cream, coffee (pour over from home), hiking, and the beach. She is the best baker!

Thank you, Kate, for loving our family so well. Our hope and prayer is that you are honored every day! ❤️

09/05/2023

We had the opportunity to connect with this family and walk them through our Waibel Team Towing Report and Consultation as they navigate towing a new camper.

It’s amazing how God can use things that often feels so small to accomplish BIG things! Please join us in praying for this family as they embark on this journey!

17/03/2023

A carousel of sunsets.

Do you think that the luster of a beach sunset is lost on those who get the privilege of witnessing it every day?
… I hope not!

Hanging on to the hope of many more as we drive back to colder weather.

01/12/2022

Happy Dec 1st to all our tall camper friends. We hope you enjoy the holiday season as much as your next shower.

26/11/2022

Happy third birthday to a very special girl. You are fierce, determined, strong willed, outspoken, endearing, fearless, spontaneous, encouraging, and generous. You encompass a warm light that pulls others toward you, and then you keep them entranced with a mixture of suspense, excitement, and maybe just a little fear. To know you is to love you. To parent you is to wrestle an alligator.

May you never back down or be silenced, LoLouise. You have so much to share with the world, and we can’t wait to watch you take it on this year and every year after. We’ll do our best to keep up. ❤️

25/11/2022

Happy Thanksgiving!! 🦃

We had a fun visit to the farm and ended the day with a snack board and a Christmas movie!

We’ve all been a little under the weather but have so much to be thankful for. We hope everyone had a blessed day filled with food, friends, and family!! ❤️

Check out our stories for more of the Adventures

02/09/2022

Check out Dad and Eloise making pita bread over on Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ch96qJsgV0C/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Waibel Team Adventures shared a post on Instagram: "We made .eat.in.color gyros for dinner this week! Eloise helped make the flatbreads and everything turned out great. Cooking makes a princess very hungry, so chips were a great snack before the final product was ready. What's an easy meal you....

20/08/2022

Our little guy reported that he had a great first day of Kindergarten earlier this week. To celebrate, we made homemade “McDonald’s” hamburgers and fries. He insisted on making us all chocolate chip cookies all on his own, so we had those too. He was his bubbly self the rest of the evening and talked for hours in bed (instead of sleeping) about all the things he got to do at school.

Yesterday, he had his second soccer practice ever. Parents get to stay and watch, so we do. He listens well, he follows directions, he’s respectful and kind even when the other kids are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. He got a special treat at home for continuing to be an example to others rather than getting involved in their antics.

Today, he brought something up about his teeth, which if you know Auggie, you know he’s very sensitive about.

For those of you who don’t know, shortly after his baby teeth grew in, we learned that the enamel on his front four teeth was.. well gone. We were told sometimes a fever or certain medication in early pregnancy can cause this. His dentists wanted to put him under general anesthesia at 2 years old and crown his teeth. Bryson and I said no. Instead, we found a dentist that would be willing to use silver diamine fluoride to stop the decay. The downfall? Black teeth. It can be painted over with a while filling like material, but it has always eventually chipped off.

Come to find out someone at soccer told him he has dirty teeth. And before that, someone at school had said the same.

I was expecting tears or for him to show some form of anger or sadness having just been, what many people would consider, insulted. At the very least, I expected him to express self doubt.

There was none.

He simply repeated others telling him he had dirty teeth as a casual fact, like one might say “I ate oatmeal for breakfast.”

There was obviously immediate concern from Bryson and I. We tried to probe. We tried to assure him we could go get the white filling material painted back over his teeth if he wanted. We told him he was handsome over and over again.

And to all of which, he replied… “I just corrected them, and told them it’s only a chipped tooth, not dirty.” “I like my teeth the way they are” And “I know I’m handsome.” Then he went on to play with his hot wheels as though my mom heart wasn’t shattered and also so incredibly proud.

Proud of his confidence. Proud of his self worth. Proud of the way he can correct others without being defensive. And if I’m being honest, a little proud of Bryson and myself too. We have no idea what we’re doing or how we’re doing it, but Auggie (and his sister Eloise!) are absolutely the best versions of ourselves.

06/08/2022

In case you missed it in our stories, we’re sharing our itinerary for our coming trips!

Give us a follow if you’d like to see what we have planned for each city, and head to our stories for an announcement. Then, mark your calendars!

28/07/2022

You’re going to have to navigate to Instagram for this one because I forgot to save the video before I posted. Sorry!

Any questions you may have for us about how we do this thing? Please comment or DM us!

Waibel Team Adventures shared a post on Instagram: "How do we manage to work remotely, homeschool our two kids (kindergarten and preschool), and travel? It’s a little trail and error and a whole lot of grace. The biggest thing that has worked for us is to MAKE A PLAN! If you’re diving into a day...

23/07/2022

How did we responsibly budget for three months in Hawaii?

For starters, we had the benefit of working remotely, so we continued to earn as we traveled.

Knowing we’d have income coming in, we calculating our salaries for the period of time we’d be gone, and deducted by the regular bills we’d still need to pay even if living in Hawaii (tithing, home, electric, gas, car, etc).

We then looked for housing and plane tickets, as those we’re the two biggest expenditures. Followed by car rentals. The goal was to have enough money left over from our income during the 3 month stay, that we would not have to draw from savings for items like food and expeditions. So did we do it??

Well, tbh, we had so much fun in Hawaii, we didn’t take the time to do our budget, BUT because we chose affordable air b&bs and rental cars BEFORE the trip, we did not feel like we were living above our means.

We provide a more detailed account in stories if you’re interested.

Comment with you’re biggest traveling budget tips. We’d love to know.

15/07/2022

Before and After: Travel Trailer Dinette

Our travel trailer came equipped with a booth dinette. While we had sat at the dinette a few times for our first few trips, we realized we desired to sit outside more frequently when eating (less crumbs!).

We also desired to create additional sleeping space. However, the makeshift bed the table was designed to create into was miserable. The cushions came apart and you fell through the cracks. Instead, we ordered a foam mattress topper, grabbed some twin fitted sheets, and comforter of choice, and some euro pillows, and VOILA: a comforter sofa/bed that’s made our small space feel roomer and more homey.

Head to stories if you’d like a play by play of how we created this space.

14/07/2022

We're trying something new. Follow along here or on our Instagram account.

In Paradise • Moments We Live For