This trip was born about 20 years ago. Actually the dream was born even longer ago than that. A good friend of mine from school went on a western trip with her family one summer. She spoke of it with rave reviews and I was especially intrigued with her photo at 4 Corners -being in 4 states at once. From that moment on, I said "Some day I am going there." My family traveled for missions trips, but we didn't have a lot of money for pleasure trips back in those days.
Fortunately I married a man who also dreamt of seeing the west some day. Over the years, we would talk about the trip from time to time. Our kids would ask "When are we going?" and we would always say "Not until you are old enough to get along in a confined space without fighting." Trips to Grandma's house, with the normal dose of backseat bickering, were still a trial at that stage. We wanted our children to be old enough to remember and appreciate the trip. But for the past 20 years we have been tucking money away from every paycheck to pay for the trip.
Now that the kids are young adults, it was time to make the dream come alive. We thought about going last summer, but were planning a youth missions trip instead. When implementing that trip went south, we belatedly wished we would've pursued our western trip instead. Selfish, but infinitely easier. With one son dating, we realized time is running out and we vowed to make it finally happen in 2016. Little did we know then we were getting it done in the nick of time.
Implementation Step # 1: to buy or rent an RV? We soon discovered rentals are hard to come by in the Midwest, and generally cost-prohibitive for extended trips like ours. For awhile I stalked the online RV listings, but every time I found the "perfect" motorhome in our price range that didn't look too vintage (think undependable for the long haul), the men of the house would turn up their nose because it was a Ford chassis or some other incomprehensible reason to the female mind, or it sold just before we called. So we worked out a deal where R. did the RV shopping and I did the itinerary planning. Then we both were happy, believing the other was handling the stressful part.
In December we found a 1997 Fleetwood Southwind, and after 'kicking the tires' on Dec 31, we brought her home and garaged her over winter. (Our newly completed addition intended for the semi was commandeered by a motorhome that fit like we had built it just for her.) Eekkk! We are really doing this!
Meanwhile I was ordering travel guides from 20 states and checking out stacks & stacks of travel books from the library. In theory I thought my kids would get involved in planning, but when I asked them to each make a list of their top 5 places they want to see, all I got was "what all is there to see? you make a list to pick from" So that is how we rolled -I did all the research and put together a checklist, then made an itinerary from their votes. Basically good ol' mom is excited about all the cool things we can see, while everyone else is happy to remain in various states of cluelessness where we're going right up until we hit the road.
And then there are all the experienced travelers offering advice: "Are you going to ------? You just have to see it!" Or "You just can't see everything in one trip. Oh hey, are you going to ------? You really need to go there!" And the conflicting advice: "---- is so beautiful! It is a worshipful experience to be there." vs. "----? We were there and we didn't think it was anything great." The one solid piece of advice we got was- when you are taking a trip like this with your family keep it moving and hit as many places as you can, find out what appeals to your family, then later go back to those favorite places and spend more time seeing them completely. Because everyone is different and appreciates different things.
After hours & hours of planning, and more hours & hours of scrubbing to get rid of the previous owner's dirt & the animal dander covering everything in the motorhome, we were ready to hit the road. We went camping locally one weekend to give it a trial run and 'get the bugs worked out'. Which was a good thing.
Inside, from the front looking back...
Inside, looking toward the front...
Originally we had planned to leave right after school let out in May, but there were a couple scheduling conflicts so we set D-Day for Tuesday, June 14. We spent the weekend at a family gathering out of state -while JS stayed home to propose to his girlfriend- then we had Monday to pack up and prepare to be gone for a month. I wouldn't really recommend either as a way to kick of the trip of a lifetime.
Day 1
We had planned to hit the road around 8am, but when 'someone' goes out for breakfast with their fiancé and doesn't come back till 8:30, no one can leave till 8:40.
Pre-trip cheerfulness...
On the way at last! Go west, young man, go west.
And a toast to our trip...
We didn't drive very far until the black tank started releasing an awful stench that permeated the entire motorhome. Eventually we concluded the tank may not have been empty when we purchased it, then it sat all winter until it was very "ripe" and the highway speed created a vacuum that left us 'stewing in the juices'. We bought some bleach to speed up the sanitizing process, and fared better after that. However when a stone hit the windshield somewhere in the state next door, we did not fare so well -it soon started to crack.
The first day of a trip like this is all driving -to get past the "been there, done that"s.
We drove through some rain and right into the 92* heat wave.
We got to our first campground -a KOA- near St Louis around 6:15pm.
We were hoping all our RV parks will be this nice & clean.
2 comments:
O wow. This looks interesting! So glad you're 're-taking' the trip with us along :)
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