Why Travel When You Can Live There

Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore and Home!

We LOVED being in Washington!  We had so much fun with Laura and then with the Potters!  Our two day visit with them turned into 5 because we were having so much fun catching up!  Being with the Potters is like coming home! 

(Photo credit: Zab Potter)

Yellowstone & Mt. Rushmore:

We left our friends near Spokane and started our drive east towards Yellowstone.  We were back into camping mode and had found a few spots near enough to Yellowstone to make a go of a night with just the tent (remember, our camper died in Seattle!)  As we drove, we were checking directions and also weather reports. 

The weather for our campsite was to be 33F, with an 80% chance of rain/sleet/hail all through the night.  Nope.  Not happening…many reasons led to our quick decision to book a hotel for the night.  As I said previously, finding a hotel that will take 6 people is a challenge.  We happened into a GREAT deal on Orbitz and ended up at a great hotel with an indoor pool and hot tub and of course breakfast.  The room had two queen beds and a pull out couch, so everyone had a bed. 

The next morning, we got up and ate. We packed up the room and headed to Yellowstone.  We drove in the West Entrance and found our way to Old Faithful.  We just missed the 3:23 “show” so we hung out at the Old Faithful area for 90 minutes until the next one.

We learned that a few years ago there was a major earthquake in Mexico that shifted the fault lines straight up to Yellowstone and instead of Old Faithful shooting off every 57 minutes like clockwork, the time shifted to about every 90 minutes (give or take 10 on each side).   We gathered at Old Faithful and literally 100’s of people were there!  

We had imagined that when the geyser started it would be loud and HUGE.  It was neither of these things.  It was a wonder to see, but a little underwhelming.   We knew that we’d be seeing a lot of the park as we drove through it to exit the east side (on our way to S. Dakota to Mt. Rushmore).  The drive through the park was lovely! 

We rounded Yellowstone lake, we saw a mama bear with her two cubs.  We saw a full rainbow.  We saw moose with babies grazing.  We saw a lot of people fishing (brrrr).  We stopped at various spots to look around and snap a few pictures.  

Wyoming is AMAZINGLY beautiful!!  We loved the wide open spaces, the land, the animals…all of it  Here we saw the ONLY bison of the trip (Just walkin’ down the road!!) 

We continued heading east, and decided to make a push for Mt. Rushmore.  Since it was our last official National park stop we were getting eager to start the trek home.  We slept in the car and pulled into Rushmore around 10am.  This was the ONLY park we had to pay to get into!!!!   

We made our way to the viewing area.  We sat and looked at the mountain for a while.  It was a marvel for sure, but I couldn’t help reflecting on what I learned about the Native Americans and that area in the Black hills.   We visited our last gift shop (finally had squash penny again, the west coast parks did not have this!!) and we started our trek HOME!   

We had to cross the whole of S. Dakatoa!  S. Dakota is HUGE by the way!  It took about 8 hours to get to Souix Falls where we again found a hotel.  We knew that we wanted to just keep driving South once we hit the road.  A good night’s sleep was in order.  Rick found a Days Inn… it was the shadiest hotel we’ve ever been to with the nicest room for all of us!!!  It had a King bed, and a pull out couch.  Two kids slept on the floor with camping mats.  The pool was TINY (only 4ft deep all around).  But we had a relaxing night and woke up well rested. 

Push for Home:

Our first day headed south we went from S. Dakota to about 60 miles outside Memphis TN!!!!!  We played with different routes for the ride home, and we wanted to avoid mountain driving as much as we could.  We knew that headed to eastern TN would put us driving through the Smokies, so we opted for the route that was 1hour and 39 minutes longer (according to the gps).  Rick pulled over at 3:30am to sleep.  I woke up around 7:45am and took over driving for a bit.  We found breakfast and then just kept going!  We stopped for a quick drive through lunch at Wendy’s and finally hit Atlanta around 4pm. 

We are currently (this moment) 348 miles from our house!  We will make it tonight and will have been on the road for exactly 30 days!   Here are some interesting facts from our trip:

States driving in or through: 27

National Parks Visited: 14

Number of Parks paid to enter: 1 (Mt. Rushmore)

Miles driven: 11,000

Highest average speed: 80 mph

Lowest average speed: 55mph (thanks to CA’s trailer law…arrggg)

Average miles per gallon: 18.2

Nights we paid to camp: 1 (Richardson State Park in CA)

Nights in a hotel: 4

Nights with friends or family: 5

Nights sleeping in the car: 4

Nights free camping; 16

Number of trailers: 2

Number of flat tires: 1

Miles Off Road: 70 (equaling the death of our camper)

Accidents: 0

Number of super awesome road trip kids: 4

Number of happy parents: 2

Epic trip of a lifetime: 1

This trip has been amazing.  We were continually amazed at the kids who complained NOT once about anything!  We camped out, we pooped in a bucket, we slept in the car, we drove for hours and hours at a time, we didn’t shower regularly (until we got to WA). They didn’t complain one bit.   We loved it too. 

(all the magnets we will add to our collection!)

Free camping is the way to go!  Rick already as some designs in mind for our next rig (we are also debating to get a full size van and converting that for our sleeping needs).  We saw lots of advantages of being in a self-contained vehicle.

One thing we did learn is that this is worth doing again!  We have plans for an East Coast trip next summer… we would like to see Acadia National Park and then camp our way home visiting friends along the way (Ellen and Mike, Helena and Pat, Susan and Bob, Lyndsay and Mike, and anyone else who would like to see us!)

Thanks for traveling with us!  We are looking forward to our own beds and waking up in our own home!  Our summer was parsed with a month on the road and month at home before we head back to school (Aug. 3). 

It's been a GRAND Adventure!

Lynsey and Rick and of course the G4orces!

 

 

 

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Washington State

We made it to Seattle and Laura!  We had such a wonderful time with her!  Her hospitality was amazing…letting all six of us invade her house for two days.  Showers were had, laundry was done, food was eaten.  Fun times were had by all! 

We arrived past midnight on Thursday morning.  We got the kids settled in the living room and we crashed on the most comfortable futon in the world.  We awoke to the sounds of laughter as Laura was out hanging with the kids.  She took Thursday off from work to spend it with us! 

We went to the store and bought some breakfast food and had a nice brunch of pancakes, eggs, bacon and fruit.   Rick ventured out to do some maintenance on our trailer and as he opened the back drawer ALL the welds failed.  This meant the end of our camper trailer.  There was no way to fix it at this point.  Rick, being the MacGyver man he is, always counted on something like this happening.  So a Plan B was always in place.  He found a cargo trailer and we cross loaded all of our stuff…took the tent off the camper and we are all set.  Our journey can continue, just minus the camper trailer.   The upside to this is that we have more storage room in the new trailer.  So our van is a bit more spacious, less bits floating around and more leg room!  

Laura treated us to some REAL NY Pizza for lunch!  What a treat!

We spent the rest of Thursday riding a ferry across Puget Sound!  It was beautiful!  We wander the ship, and explored all the decks.  There is something to be said about watching 200 cars load on and off a ferry boat. 

We got home and had a late dinner (despite the sunlight) at around 10pm. We grilled then had s’mores (Laura’s first campfire of the season too!)  We surprised the kids with a few new movies for the trip and they stayed up late watching one of them. 

We got up and packed up and are now headed to Yakima to catch up with our friends the Potters.  For you Harry Potter fans, yes, the Grangers and the Potters are friends!    We will head out on Monday for Yellowstone and then Mt. Rushmore.  We are in the home stretch of our journey. 

We looked at taking a Ferryboat to Alaska, but that was not in the cards for this trip!  We are planning our route home and figuring Rick and I will take shifts driving through the mid-west and make a major PUSH for home as fast as we can!   While there is no hurry, we are pretty sure we will all be ready for home the minute we pull out of S. Dakota!   

First Day of Summer

The Majesty of Redwoods:

We began driving north after our stop in Santa Rosa. We were excited to find Chateau Montelena (of the movie Bottle Shock with Bill Pullman, Alan Rickman and Chris Pine) We stopped in for a visit. It is a beautiful estate I wanted to do a wine tasting, but it was too pricy, but I did get a free splash of a nice chardonnay! The connection to the movie was fun for us and it has been a highlight of California!

(Napa)

We haven’t been too impressed with California for camping or with the people. Of all the places we’ve been, we were SURE CA would have the BEST free camping and the nicest people. NOPE. Someday we’ll be able to share more openly about our experiences with human feces and our family…(in the “extra features” of our book perhaps)

 Coming into the area of Redwood, we were headed for Humbolt (AVE. of the Giants area) but found a state park just before Humbolt (Richardson State Park) We were happy to pay the fee to camp in and among the Red woods! It was a beautiful site!   We had our first campfire here; complete with S’mores!

(Camp site at Richarson State Park, CA)

The next day we made our push to travel the rest of the way through the redwoods and get closer to Crater Lake. Along the way and up the coast we stopped to play in the Pacific Ocean! It was FREEZING, but a lot of fun! Hard to believe we started in St. Augustine (Atlantic) and were now playing in the Pacific!

(in the Pacific Ocean!)

 

 

First Day of Summer: SNOW

Funny story… well, it would have been really funny if it hadn’t been 10pm in the dark on a mountain road (well, really the side of a volcano..but more on that in a minute..) As we left Redwood, our next stop was Crater Lake (Oregon, b/c there is also one in Colorado according to our gps…) We knew it was going to be a long haul and we’d need a place to camp somewhere in Oregon before we went to the Lake.

Unlike California, there were several places near Crater Lake to free camp. We found one next to a pond/lake that used to be owned by a logging company and when they sold the property they had a clause in the contract that the area around the pond always been kept free and open to the public for camping and fishing.  

The GPS was set, we had 4G service.. we were on track! Then we saw a VOLCANO!! Not an active one… but a HUGE cone shaped volcano. There was a scramble to look up what volcano we were looking at.. Rick decided to use the voice feature on his phone and said “OK google…” I had discovered that it was Mt. McLaughlin… “Ok google..what is Mt. McLaughlin?” The google voice let us to a few internet sites and that was that..

Until an hour later when we should have been pulling into our camp site and we were on the side of a mountain…looking at the GPS the destination said “Mt. McLaughin” WHAT?????? We had followed the road/trail up to the point where there was a gate across saying “No entry” with impromptu campsites on the side of the road.  When Rick had done the voice search, the GPS thought we wanted to go there and changed our route! UGGGG! So… an hour later we were finally at our site….we set up in the dark, got changed (the low was 49 last night). We were all thankful to not be sleeping in the car!

(Our site after our detour to Mt. McLaughin)

We set out at 7am to head to the Lake… which didn’t open until 10am…. The site we had found was actually NOT right off the road we needed but 70 miles away from the park. Free camping is a blessing, but sometimes these sites are really out of the way!

We found a gas station and grabbed some snacks and of course gas. We splurged a bit on snacks…this was also breakfast!

Needless to say Crater Lake was shockingly beautiful! Most of the park’s roads are still socked in with snow…they had 48 FEET of snow this year (just above the average of 44ft!). The east rim road has drifts that are 15ft high. The north rim road is closed for construction. We could go up to the Rim Lodge with great views of the lake.   On the way up to the lake, we stopped to refill the cooler with SNOW! We are curious to see if this lasts longer than a bag of ice.

On the way into the park, we pulled over for stop and a play in the snow!! Once in the park, the kids found drifts to sled down…getting soaked but having tons of fun.. they honestly could have cared less about the amazing lake.. they just wanted to play in the snow. The vote was unanimous...we should move to Oregon!  

(Picture taken with my phone! The Lake is just that amazing!)

On a whim, I contacted a friend (I was a Youth Ministry intern in FL when Amber was in 10/11^th grade) who moved to Portland a few years ago. She was able to meet us for dinner with her husband Luke and sweet baby girl Caroline! It was a lot of fun to catch up. She is as sweet as ever and great to catch up!

We now are headed NORTH to Seattle to spend a day and two nights with Laura (Rick’s cousin). Laura is awesome! The last time we saw her on “her” side of the country was 17 years ago…we had just finished Young Life Training in Portland OR and she came…picked us up in Portland and took us home to Seattle for a few days before we then bused to LAX to fly out to Thailand. She was the LAST family we saw stateside for two years! We’ve seen her since then, but it’s always fun to visit her in WA! We are excited to catch up with her!

Then we will get to see the Potter’s! Friends from Thailand, who when we met them had just had their first child (who is now 17!!). We became fast friends and have remained close. They welcomed us to live with them for four months in-between seminary and finding our job in Texas. They have four girls and are just an amazing family! We have seen them a few times over the years, but this is the first time we’ve seen them since they moved west a few years ago.  

After these visits with family and friends we begin our eastward journey to Yellowstone and then Mt. Rushmore! The kids are holding up well as we basically live in the car! Some of these days are really long (like today..some 9 hours driving).  Today we had our first flat tire (on the trailer), Rick did a quick four minute change and we were back on the road! Thankfully, he planned ahead and we had all the tools needed to change the tire quickly and safely!

 

A Good Night's Sleep Goes A Long Way!

California gave us no joy as far as finding free camp sites. ALL the ones we checked out on the website were no good. We kept plugging forward to our next stop (first Sequoia then Yosemite) but just couldn’t find any place to set up camp.

Finally….coming into Yosemite we found a site that was absolutely PERFECT. Goat Mountain Snow Play area had it all. Plenty of flat spots (even a huge parking area in case a spot in the woods didn’t work. We were “home”. We got camp set up…made some lunch (make your own burritos) and Rick and I promptly took a nap. Sleeping upright for two nights made us all stiff and sore.

Once we were up we decided to go explore Yosemite in the evening. We went to two sites that were close to our camp. The river is raging here.. two people have been lost this season already, the Ranger said “Don’t even go to feel how cold it is, it could sweep you away!” Our first site was a swinging bridge that crosses said raging river! The kids took turns crossing it (I went across with Toby).   Then we went in search of a set of falls.

(Campsite at Goat Mt. Snow Play Area: Perfect spot just outside Yosemite!)

We found a small shop, right outside the park, and got a treat (a cold drink and candy bar). Sleeping was pleasant, the temps were in the 60’s. Keighley and Isaac slept in the little tent for fun. I was the first one up, and we got packed up and I made pancakes. We left the packed camper at our site and went to explore the park.

There are two things that surprised me about Yosemite. The first, was how many people LIVE in the park. We saw 7-10 housing/residential areas that had 20-30 homes or apartments or cabins. There was one whole camp called “Housekeeping Camp”. We even passed an elementary school. The park is HUGE. We also saw park police, road crews, and of course shop keepers and other personnel to make this place run.   Perhaps in my younger days it would have been a lot of fun to live and work in a National Park. In fact, in college I applied to be a park Chaplin one summer. I got accepted to go to Acadia national park, but turned it down for an internship in Florida instead.

The second thing that surprised me, was this was the first park we’ve been to this summer that felt like a tourist trap. I can understand why Yosemite is one of the more popular parks, it is amazingly beautiful. There were so.many.people. Every where we went there was traffic, lines and lots and lots of people. At times, we felt Claustrophobic.   Even to get to the visitor’s center, they closed a parking lot b/c it was full and we parked along the road and took a trail up to the center.  

We did manage to see the things we wanted to see. We hiked to Bridal Veil Falls (amazing!), we drove through Yosemite Valley and saw El Capitan and Half Dome. We did not do any climbing 😊.   The park was beautiful.

(Yosemite Valley: my tribute to Ansel Adams)

*U

(Bridalveil Falls: Ansel Adams Tribute)

(El Capitan: Ansel Adams Tribute)

(the G-Fources Taking a break)

We headed back (45 miles) to pick up our trailer, made a quick hotdog lunch and headed to Redwood. We decided since we needed to do laundry we’d surprise the kids with a Hotel stop. This meant real beds, hot showers and a pool!!! We found a Best Western IN Santa Rosa CA that would take a family of six (Orbitz by the way deals with large family rooms… all the other sites say you have to get two rooms with more than four people…we didn’t want to be separated from the kids. We paid a bit more for a two room suite, but it was lovely and the pool was right outside our room!)

The night was wonderful! They even had a hottub which we ALL enjoyed! Laundry got done, showers and sleep were had. We even checked out at the last possible time (10 til noon!) We made a stop at a Trader Joe’s (boy have the prices gone up since TJ’s became trendy!)  

Up next post: Redwoods and Crater Lake!

The Terrified Parent

We made it to Arches National Park!  Noah was most excited with this, his one desire was to be able o CLIMB something out here.   The day we were leaving from FL, Noah stubbed his toe on Rick’s motorcycle, he really jammed it (cut it in fact) Of course, he didn’t TELL us the extent of his injury (he simply said “I jammed my toe…ouch”) We didn’t think anything about it until we were leaving Saguaro that he said his foot really hurt.  We took a look and sure enough, it was red and infected.   Fast forward to Arches, he really wanted to be able to climb but he was in a lot of pain.  He managed to push through the pain to climb…

The drive in was spectacular…and that was before the visitor’s center!  We stopped and grabbed a few souvenirs (we collect magnets of places we’ve been, our collection has grown a lo t on this trip.  We gave each kid a journal/sketch book to keep their thoughts, drawings etc.  Noah has turned his into an amazing scrapbook.  He collects stickers at each place to decorate the cover, and he draws and journals so that by the end of our trip he’ll have a scrap book ready to show off!  (I am doing something similar as well…)   

While at the visitor’s center, we watched the Ranger Video, which was really good (some of the others have not been so great).  Then we headed out to explore.  Thankfully a lot of these parks have drive through tours. The heat and the desert make it hard to stay hydrated and hiking miles and miles would not be great for any of us.  So we were able to drive and stop and get out and explore the areas. 

We stopped at Double Arch.   It was about a ¼ of a mile hike down to the arches.  Keighley walked ahead with Noah.  Toby and Isaac took their time bouldering along the way.  We got to the base of the arches and Keighley had already climbed to the top!  Rick and I have both been thinking about how these trips are very different as a parent then they ever were for us as kids.

 I remember as a kid, sprawled out in the back of our Honda Civic Hatchback (we put the back seat down and made a bed to hang out on while my mom drove) I remember a few long trips down South (from PA) to visit my aunt and uncle (once in Williamsburg VA, and another time in NC).  We would take my grandma with us.  One time, long before ipads, iphones, gps and car DVD players, all we had to play with was a manual tape recorder (not even in the car stereo deck)  My sister and I thought it would be fun to tape the conversation between my grandma and mom.  To this day I have NO clue what they said or what they were talking about…but I do remember both my mom and grandma being none too happy that their conversation had been taped!  

Traveling as a kid meant no worries…just fun!  As a parent, it’s nothing but WORRY… especially when your four children are climbing  30 feet up a sandstone wall.  It was terrifying watching Toby (my baby) descend that wall, even though I was at the bottom to help!  I hadn’t climbed in years, and decided NOT to climb the high part for fear I couldn’t get myself down.  As it was, I crab walked down the part I did climb so I wouldn’t lose my footing.    All four made it back safe and sound!

We spent a good amount of time tooling around and climbing double arch.  It was a highlight for sure!  We got back in the car and drove back toward the entrance (stopping a few more times to look at some of the arches from the “viewpoint”.  Devil’s Garden area was closed for road repairs, so we didn’t venture to that end of the park.   

As we left, our next stop was the Grand Canyon. It was a few hours away and we knew we’d need a place to camp for the night.  We found a BLM site on the way in Panguitch UT.  Turns out, our site was literally 10 miles from Bryce Canyon.  Bryce wasn’t on our original itinerary, but we couldn’t pass it up…even if we just spent a few minutes looking out at the canyon.  Which is exactly what we did!  Noah’s foot was still in a lot of pain and Keighley had pulled a muscle at the Sand Dunes, so longer hikes weren’t on our list anyway!  We paid our respects to the gift shop and went to the first stop on the drive through Bryce Canyon.  It was AMAZING!!!  The sun was just coming up over the canyon, the area was awash with new light and we were in awe!    

 

We also drove through Red Canyon which was also incredible!

 We thought the ride to the Grand Canyon would be long and terrible (I had only come into North Rim from the south..) But coming down 89 from the north, it was a surprisingly beautiful drive.  We had gotten up early enough that we got to North Rim around noon.  

I had been to the North Rim about 7 years ago.  I had taken our youth group on a mission trip to Page, AZ to work with the Navajo for a week doing “Habitat” type work (painting, roofing, construction projects).  On the way home, we made an overnight stop in Flagstaff before we headed back to TX, we did a stop at the North Rim.  Nothing had changed in 7 years!

We had to park a little ways down from the main area, and took a great trail from the parking lot that followed the rim.  We hit the gift shops and then went to check out the lodge. This is a lodge of epic portions, the likes of which the Bass Pro Shop and Cabella’s are modeled after.  Built in the 1920’s it is a spectacle to behold in and of itself.

The Lodge is a restaurant, but also has a great lounge area with really comfy chairs!  There are two patios off the lounge with Adirondack chairs to view the canyon.  From there, there are entrance points to a trail that overlooks the canyon.  Noah didn’t want to do the trail to the overlook, so we left him in the lounge and took the others. 

Another terrifying moment, taking your 11 year old whose favorite past time is “bonking” and practicing parkor, on a Grand Canyon trial that has no railing.  Did I mention we couldn’t even see the bottom of the canyon?  Rick kept hold of Isaac until we were at a part that was FENCED at least waist high!   The overlook was beautiful!  I got a few pictures and then started to get vertigo and headed back.  The altitude has been messing with me…I get this wooshing in my ears, headaches and if we are above 7000ft I start to get nauseous.  I blame my husband…for giving me four kids who have wrecked any sense of equilibrium I used to have!

(this is where I discovered the effects for photos on my phone!)

We all met up back in the lounge and decided that we had seen all we wanted.  It was time to make our big turn WEST!   We knew we were headed toward and through Las Vegas and had a wild hair to try to get a hotel room for the night…just to show the kids the spectacle that IS Vegas!  Being a “large” family, we couldn’t make it work.  So, using the free campsites page (finally have consistent internet on our phones again!) we found two sites that would work for the night.  Both turned out to be no go’s.

 It was getting late when we pulled into the last potential site.  The night time sky was INCREDIBLE!!!!  We were in an area with NO light pollution.   The milky way could be seen, so Rick and Isaac hopped out to try to get some shots.  The kids and I fell asleep!  When Rick got back in, he was giddy as a school boy, the shots were AMAZING!     We are talking NASA-Hubble Telescope-AMAZING!

With no where to camp, and Rick getting too tired to keep on the road we found a truck stop to sleep.   We woke up around 5:30am and headed to Barstow for breakfast.  All of these places have been the background to any story Rick has told about his Army days!  It was a lot of fun to finally put a picture to those stories!  We passed signs for Ft. Irwin, we saw the train depot where a unit was unloading their gear to head into the Fort. 

Barstow was fun, we stopped at the world’s busiest McDonald’s for breakfast (they also had a Dunkin Donuts).  It was nice to stretch and relax for a little.  Speaking of “relaxing”, CA has a law that says any auto towing can only go 55mph… so we are going NICE and SLLLOOOOWWWWW down the highway as we head for Sequoia National Park!  

 

 

Beautiful Sites

It’s been a few days since we’ve had 4G and internet access!!  It appears that our phones don’t have that in Colorado.  But we are in Utah now headed to Arches National Park…first let me fill you in on what we’ve done for the last few days!  

THE SAND DUNES:

The Great Sand Dunes were amazing!  They are a bit of an oddity, these 700 foot dunes with a backdrop of snow
capped Rocky Mountains.  If we lived in the area, the Dunes would be a play place for sure. In spring/early summer a creek runs through the park as a result of snow melt.  You have to cross this creek to get to the sand dunes.  The creek is at most a foot deep, so it is perfect for wading, and playing (especially after spending time up on the dunes).

We crossed the creek and started our walk out toward the dunes.  The kids ran ahead, and I lost track of where they were!  We soon found them…way AHEAD! Rick and I trekked up a small dune, and I was done… being at 7000ft I was struggling with breathing.  So Rick went on ahead, and I waited and watched them play on a higher dune.  There was lots of sledding, snowboarders and people running and rolling down the dunes.  It was great fun!

We all met up and headed back to the creek.  The kids, even without out swimsuits, cooled off in the creek for about an hour!  They were COVERED in sand and soaking wet…but happy!  We got cleaned up at the van.  If we had an RV, we would have had a private place to change and get cleaned up.  But we don’t have an RV.  Rick, thinking ahead, not only constructed a portable potty, but also a privacy room to go with it.  It looks like an outhouse, but not as smelly!  We haven’t set this up at our campsites because of wind, but in the parking lot of the Great Sand Dunes it was a perfect place to have a privacy room for the kids to get changed!    

In order to save some time on the road, we have taken to making lunch in the car as we drive.  Occasionally we stop for a burger, but most of the time we stop by a grocery store and grab stuff for lunches.  I have become quite adept at making sandwiches on my lap.  We grab a few condiments at gas stations and viola, we have lunch!  We did this as we drove to Mesa.  

As we left the Sand Dunes we were literally covered in sand from head to toe, we were in desperate need of showers and laundry.   The drive from Sand Dunes to Mesa was incredible.  We drove over the Rockies, passed the Great Divide.  We saw SNOW and even played in it.  The drive, while beautiful, was longer than the GPS said!  We pulled into the Mesa Area late.  Without gps or internet, we couldn’t find our boondocking site.  We decided to pull into the National park and see if we could find an open spot.  The campground was said to have 250 spots.  Sure enough, 6 miles into the park  we found a site.  All the offices were closed, but we saw SHOWERS and LAUDRY facilities!  

Mesa Verde was the ONE spot on our trip that I was most looking forward to! Being a 5^th grade teacher who teaches US History, I do a HUGE Native American unit.  We read Sign of the Beaver, I spend extra time talking about all the areas, tribes, culture everything.  It’s a lot of fun, and the kids are always fascinated by the Pueblo’s and the cave dwelling peoples.   

We set up camp and went straight to bed!!  This was by far the coldest night yet.  At our last stop, I managed to find long underware tops for everyone.  These have been invaluable! It was in the low 40’s!! The sky was amazing…again!

The next morning we got up, packed up, made breakfast (pancakes, bacon, eggs and potatoes with cheese).  We decided to do showers, laundry, Rick did some maintenance on the van and trailer, and cleaned out the van.   Those showers were amazing.  They were FREE, no time limit and wonderful HOT water!! 

We wanted to do the tour with the Ranger to see one of the cliff dwelling sites.  We have a few injuries, so going on a 2 mile hike with multiple ladders was not an option.  We chose the Cliff Palace tour.  IT was perfect!  It was 130 feet down (stone steps through a crevasse).  Then we were IN the dwelling, we got to walk in around it (a few chosen spots). Then we ascended back up steps and two ladders.  It was a lot of fun!   It was a 5pm tour so the lighting was perfect for pictures.  The tour was $5 per person, but worth every penny!  If you ever make it to Mesa Verde, give yourself time to enjoy the park.   This is the only man made attraction we are going to see this summer, but it’s ancient ruins of an amazing civilization.   We have now seen ancient ruins in Thailand and America! 

 

Having a late tour meant leaving late, we decided to keep moving toward our next spot instead of staying in the park another night.  I thought I had found a great spot just an hour down the road, instead it was just a LONG scary road with no camping sites to be found.   We found a gas station, finally had some 4G access and looked up some campgrounds.  The first place we stopped was $40 (NO WAY)  The second place we found was in a national forest, a non-staffed campground with 15 or so pull through sites (no hook ups, but we don’t need them)  It was about 11pm so set up was quick and dirty (just bedding and the tent) We put the rain fly on for warmth and we were comfy cozy! 

This morning, we got up around 7:15am, started packing up, had breakfast (breakfast burritos, which have become a favorite!!!) and headed another hour up the road to Arches National Park.   Utah is beautiful!

Ski Santa Fe...Even in the Summer!

 This post is a few days behind...but we had NO internet while in Colorado!

We traveled from Petrified forest in the direction to the Great Sand Dunes.  We found a spot just outside of Santa Fe, NM.  Boondocking is maybe the coolest thing we’ve ever done. We started our family foray into camping by going to a State Park in TN.  We LOVED IT!!  We all loved it…cooking over an open campfire, the creek, the hiking. We made some pretty great memories there in the two years we went.  

State parks are great!  They are better than staying in a National Park.  State parks have facilities (SHOWERS, laundry, flush toilets etc)  and they often have activities going on throughout the summer that you can jump into as part of your staying in the park.  National parks don’t’ have those same amenities.  Some have campsites, but NONE of them have “hook ups” for an RV or even a pop up like ours (running water at a campsite is great!)  And most have flush toilets, but no showers.   

For this trip, we knew that staying in the Parks (State or National) would be a huge drain on the budget.  The cost ranges from $15-28 per night, and while that is not a terrible cost, it adds up when you know you will be on the road for 40-50 days.    The other downside for our trip was the schedule.  To stay at a state or national park you need to reserve your site, for National parks it’s at least a year ahead of time. We had already missed the deadlines to get those sites.  State parks also fill up quickly.  We also didn’t want to be limited to any one area.  We wanted the freedom to stay longer or go as we felt like it.

Rick decided to give google a try and see what he could find on the FREE side.  He had read an article about camping in Norway, where anyone can camp 150ft from any building.  He wondered if the US had anything like that.  Sure enough, he landed on the free campsites page and our planning began.  By planning we mapped out our first site (Saguaro AZ) and the rest we are doing as we drive. (I literally JUST found a spot for tonight).  While I would love to have a shower at every site, I was just as excited to find a free option for our summer adventure.  We are all making do with limited facilities.

Boondocking Site #4:

 

Last night, driving from Petrified Forest we knew we wouldn’t make it the 4 hours up to Colorado.  So we found a spot just outside Santa Fe.  I should say UP from Santa Fe because or site was at 10,000ft.  It was the parking lot of a ski resort that is open to free camping in the off season.  There are 5 or 6 actual sites, mostly for tents but there was plenty of wide open spaces in the gravel parking area.  We pulled up into a fairly level spot (in the dark).  We set up camp pretty quick and got into our warm clothes because the temp. was already in the low 60’s…it dropped to the low 50’s overnight.  

The drive UP to the site, even in the dark, was spectacular. Lots of switchbacks and we even saw a group of deer on the side of the road.   We had thought it was a pine forest, but it turns out it was also birch and maybe aspen.  

After we got set up, Rick, Noah and Isaac went for a star gazing walk.  They got some great shots of the area at night.  It was fun to listen to their banter and laughter.  Toby, Keighley and I stayed in the tent for warmth.  We stargazed through the open tent (no rain fly) and dozed off to sleep.  Keighley and I had some ill effects from the altitude (Climbing Everest is NOT on my bucket list).   Mostly headaches and shortness of breath. All of which disappeared the lower we got.

 As we came down the mountain we even saw SNOW!!!!  We jumped out and used our shovel to play a bit.  Noah made some snow balls and the kids threw it around for a bit. Crazy seeing snow in JUNE in the middle of the desert!

Being in NO hurry, we slept in until about 9am and slowly and leisurely packed up and headed out around 10:30am.  We are now on the road to the Great Sand Dunes, hoping to sled down the hills and create more memories.  

Standing on the Corner in Winslow Arizona!

Last night we found ourselves in Winslow AZ, of course we played “Take It Easy” as we drove through town!  We found a GREAT dispersed camping site just outside Winslow that is connected to a city maintained day park (right by a River with swimming and fishing.  Where we stayed was across the creek.  There were plenty of open spaces, level (even paved!) with a dumpster and some even had bbq racks.  We decided to stay at the boat ramp area (it was a HUGE level place and NO ONE WAS THERE!)  We had found a cute spot right by the creek, but as we got out another RV’s generator was buzzing LOUDLY on and off… who wants that all night?  So we moved to the boat ramp area (down a hill and behind a berm…so no noise from loud generators). 

As we set up, the sunset was spectacular and the moon rise even more dramatic… with all the dust in the air the moon rose pink.  We got set up (had Wendy’s for dinner, so no need to set up the kitchen).  We got in the tent as the air was cooling down to 60F.  We played a few rounds of Phase 10 and off we went to sleep.  It dropped down do 56F last night..brrrrrrr!  Thankfully we all have great sleeping bags and were nice and cozy all night.   

The mosquitoes seemed to be confused last night.  Either we all smell so bad they didn’t want ot bite, or they wanted to come in our tent for some shelter … no matter they were present but were not biting. 

Since we are still on FL time, we were WIDE awake at 5am local time (which was 7am for our bodies) So we got up and packed up and went looking for breakfast.  We also found laundry and a grocery store.  So we did our laundry (tonight is SHOWER night… and there was much rejoicing in the land).   

Today we did the Petrified Forest!  We are in NO hurry on this trip.  We want to take our time and really enjoy all the sites and see what there is to see.  Driving into the park there are plenty of places to buy “REAL PETRIFIED WOOD”   We came in the “back” entrance (the “Rainbow Forest” side).  Here we took a short hike through the Giant Logs Trail, it’s a loop beside the visitor’s center to learn about, see and touch the petrified wood. It was really windy, our hats kept blowing off.  The hike was nice, Rick and I attempted to recreate a famous picture of Albert Einstein and his wife from 1917.

We were excited to discover that there is a 28 mile road through the entire park.  All we had to do was drive and pull over for pictures or the various points to stop and see the park.  This park is known for petrified wood (obviously) but in particular spots like Agate bridge (a 200 foot petrified log that forms a bridge) and Newspaper Rock with 600 petroglyphs on it from various tribes.   We took the drive at our leisure… stopping often for pictures and seeing the sites.  We took a detour around the “Blue Mesa”, where we were actually UP on TOP of the Mesa for a bit.  It was beautiful.  We ended our drive through the painted desert, also striking and beautiful.   

The kids are AWESOME!!  I am so thankful that they ALL not only enjoy road trips and being in the car together for hours on end.  But they are genuinely interested in the places we are going.  They like looking at the nature and hearing the information about the history.  They have good questions and want to know more.   

Yes, we have a DVD player going at times... because there is only SO MUCH you can do for hours on end… but we also read, journal, play games (who knew the dollar store road bingo would be such a hit!), and sing! 

They are rock stars at camp set up and tear down…we have each found our roles…Rick and Noah take care of getting the tent platform set up…Keighley and I then help them with the poles.  The Littles (Toby and Isaac) are in charge of getting the bedding set up (the pads are self inflating so they have to inflate them) open all the windows in the tent and get us ready for the night.  I do the cooking, while Keighley and Rick set up the table and chairs.  On the pack up side, Noah and Rick tear down the tent, the littles roll up the mats and pack bedding, Keighley and I pack the back of the van (we are pros at this!!) and off we go!

Our journey continues, we have reached the 3000 mile mark!   We are on the road to the Great Sand Dunes National Park (Toby’s 4^th Grade pass is awesome… park fees range from $15-30 per vehicle.  His pass gets us in for free!)   We will stop somewhere outside Albuquerque tonight (or push it a bit further) and drive into Sand Dunes sometime tomorrow.  After Sand Dunes we will make our push West to California! On the way we will see Mesa Verde, Arches, and the Grand Canyon (with a stop at Four Corners on our way).    

Until Next Time! 

Saguaro National Park: (the g is silent)

This was our first National Park on our trip!  Arizona is HOT…at 8am it was already in the 90’s with the high expected to be around 104 today.  The park opened at 9am and we were there by 9:15.  We wanted to beat the heat…but didn’t really!  The park itself is simply a mountain side FILLED with the Saguaro cacti!  It is beautiful.  The desert is filled with a stark beauty that will take your breath away.   We learned a lot about the different types of caucus and animals from Ranger Rick (Really, that was his actual name) Turns out he was also from Daytona Beach in FL and we ended our conversation talking about springs we should visit when we get home (always amazed at just how small the world really is). 

The Saguaro cactus is an incredible plant (but I would compare it more to a tree!)  They can live to be 200 years old… they only start to flower between 35-65 years old and they don’t grow their “arms” until they are 50 years old!!!!!  They can be over 50 feet tall and produce 40 MILLION seeds in their lifetime.    

 

We did a short loop around the park (the road was tough for our camper, but we saw all we wanted to) it was WAY too hot for any long hikes.  We explored the visitors center, watched the introduction movie, and bought a few things at the gift shop (to include prickly pear candy, and jelly, a magnet to add to our collection and I found a Saguaro cookie cutter!!)  All in all, it was a wonderful park. 

 

Our campsite, boondock site #2 (Snyder Hill) was great!   It is a BLM site (Bureau of Land Management) camping there is free for up to 14 days.  The site was 20 minutes from the gate of the national park.  Boondocking means there are no facilities, showers, hook ups or anything!  You pack in what you need.  This is what our camper was built for.  Rick designed our camper with a full kitchen (two burners and a grill all propane powered) We have a 7 gallon water tank, and room for pots, pans, cooking utensils and of course spices and other supplies to cook and clean up.  We also have  our own bathroom (a 5 gallon bucket with a proper toilet seat…filled with bags that we can then dispose as needed).  Rick also built an outhouse structure that folds up like IKEA  furniture and flat packs under the camper for travel.  This has also made emergency stops really easy.    With all of these features, boondocking is easy.  We just stop at a grocery store before we set up and we are ready to roll. 

 

 

The Snyder Hill site was a lot of fun. We arrived about two hours before sundown.  We got set up, the kids explored.  We did fruit and salad for dinner.  Then I taught the kids how to play Phase 10 (Dutch Blitz is next!!)  The temperature when we arrived wat 100F.  Thankfully, it cooled down to about 70 so sleeping was very pleasant.  In fact, it was colder than we keep our house in the summer.  We slept with the rain flap off(there was a 0% chance of rain) and the FULL moon was a bright night light for us.    

We are headed to Petrified Forest today.  Found another spot to boondock tonight, should be nice and the low for tonight is 55F!! 

Balmorhea

Our first night of boondocking was a success.  We are using the website: Freecamping.net to locate dispersed sites around the areas we want to stop in.  The site we found last night was not on their list, but close (We added it on the site!!!) 

We were cursing along I10, and realized that the original site we had looked at was just too far off the road to make it worthwhile (gas and time wise).  So, after stopping for dinner and breakfast supplies in Ft. Stockton we started looking for a spot to camp for the night.  The great thing about free camping is you just find a spot and set up.  No reservations needed and of course…its FREE. 

We did check out an RV park..but for $47 for the night there was NO WAY..  We found a state park and thought maybe we could pull into an empty spot for the night, but they were all taken, but found a number to call with questions.  The guy on the end of the line told us about a “dispersed camping site” just down the road.  We were so thankful for his help!!   A few miles away we found THIS:

 

IT was amazingly beautiful!  We got set up, Rick helped get the kitchen up and going so I could cook dinner while everyone else got the tent up and beds out.  As we went to light the burner there was a RUSH of gas and we soon realized that the gas line junction had popped open…and NO gas for cooking tonight! 

Rick had made a chimenea so the kids quickly gathered drift wood and we got a fire going.  I used the grill grate to cook the beans and grilled the hot dogs over the fire.  It worked really well!  We had hotdogs, beans, cantaloupe, chips and potato salad for dinner.   No gas also meant no breakfast (pancakes, eggs and bacon will have to wait)  But no worries… we’ll get breakfast on the road in the morning.  

 

We spent the evening enjoying the lake and the amazing weather.

 

With a 13% chance of showers, we took the rain flap off…the breeze in the tent was great…kept us nice and cool.  Around 2:45 Rick and I both woke up to wind… and decided that we should try to put the rain flap back on.  We were almost done when we decided that rain was coming and the tent would not make it through the wind… we got everyone up and torn down in about 20 minutes.  At one point Toby yelled “BUG OUT” (just like on MASH).  The kids did GREAT!  We got packed up in record time and in the van by 3:13am!   

We are on the road now, headed toward Saguaro AZ.    We may pull over to sleep some, but we are excited to get to our first national park!

Picture Post

BROTHERS!  Enjoying some time before we leave Chris and Isabel's! 

Our lunch stop on I10 (Above) 

Kids enjoying Lunch (Below: Toby, Keighley, Isaac, Noah from left to right)

GROUPIE (no selfies for us...whole group shots only :)