Day 1 – moving day through Texas
Our typical routine was to leave Sunday after all of our church’s worship services, so it’s usually mid-afternoon before we can be on the road. I took Nick to get the new RV, which we now park at Premier Park Place in Rockwall.
We pack most things into the RV ahead of time except for our clothes, food, and other last minute items, so we still needed to load that once we got the RV to our house. The boys have become a huge help with this! They helped me get all the final items loaded, included our new grill and some firewood (heavy lifting! Man – it’s nice to have a teenager now!), while Nick helped his parents hook up to their new dolly that would be pulling their car.
When we thought we were ready to go, Nick realized that the wiring for the lights to our tow vehicle were installed backwards, so he had to take the time to fix that. This is just one of the moments I am so grateful for his willingness to problem solve and trouble shoot until he reaches a solution. So many times already on this trip, we’ve experienced moments that I know would cause so many people to give up and quit – his tenacity always inspires me!
We finally got on the road at 3-something and headed out! As usual, we stopped at Buccee’s in Denton on our way out to grab food for our dinner before driving as long as Nick and his Dad felt like they could drive before needing to stop for bed. We made it to Clarendon, Texas and stopped at an Allsup’s truck stop, where we boondocked for the first night.
Day 2 – Moving day through New Mexico and Colorado
Although we originally planned to make it to Cheyenne, WY by Monday night, Nick’s spontaneous nature came up with the idea for us to surprise the kids with tickets to a Rockies’ baseball game on Monday evening. So I cancelled our reservations in Cheyenne, and found a park in Loveland, CO, which ended up being a great find! It was about 45 minutes north of downtown Denver, and was preceded by a Buccee’s where we fueled up for the next day, and then went ahead and unhooked and got settled at Loveland RV Resort. We really enjoyed this park! It had an unusual amount of trees, which I loved, and was a great location right off of I-25.
We told the kids about our surprise, loaded up and headed back downtown to Coors Field to watch the Rockies play the Nationals. Although neither team is that great, Nick made the statement, “Baseball is baseball.” And indeed it was. We had a good time, ate pulled pork sandwiches, Dippin Dots and funnel cakes, and left in the eighth inning to drive back to bed for the night.
Day 3 – moving through Wyoming
We started a little later on this day because Nick needed to do some work before we headed out, and then once we thought we were ready to go, and following Nick fixing a few issues on his parents’ rig, we discovered a screw in their tow vehicle’s tire. Rather than risk it coming out and creating a lot of damage while driving, Nick and his Dad went ahead and took it to be patched. The rest of us walked around the park, threw horseshoes, and played putt putt. We were on the road again shortly after 10am.
We then spent the rest of the day driving through Wyoming. I enjoyed listening to Theo of Golden on audible while watching the rolling hills, countless horse-filled ranches, and winding rivers out of our windows.
In the past, we have done some homeschooling, or “road schooling” while on vacation, spending only our moving days doing school. It usually gives the kids something to do on the days we spend all day driving. However, for many reasons, our summer has been SO full, and we haven’t started our school year yet (in the past we start in early July and usually have 3 weeks under our belts before vacation). Since none of that happened this summer, I chose to only pack our math books and some read alouds. The three older kids have done a little Math each moving day, starting by reviewing concepts they did back in May, and I’m hopeful that will help them dive back into a full school load once we get home from vacation.
We timed our drive to where we arrived near the historic site of the Battle of Little Bighorn around dinnertime. Although we didn’t have time (or the parking space) to stop at the historic site, we did stop for dinner at Custer’s Battlefield Trade Post Cafe, which advertised buffalo burgers and Indian tacos. Mom and I shared an Indian taco and it was yummy!
The hiccough that came with this stop was the parking lot. Nick always has me check on satellite imaging the places where we are considering for stops since our rig is so long (45 feet just with the coach), and we cannot backup our tow vehicle. We saw what looked like a large circular parking lot big enough for us, and the cafe description said that buses and tour groups were welcome, so we thought we would be good to stop and park here.
Well as soon as we turned off the highway, we saw how sketchy both the entrance and exit to the dirt parking lot were. Nick slowly made his way into the parking lot to circle, but immediately saw that the exit was even rougher with significant pot holes and drop offs that meant he would bottom out for sure.
Before we went inside to eat, Nick and his dad walked and looked and talked for several minutes. We then walked through some teepees where the girls explored, and entered the cafe to order food. I knew Nick was busy studying our predicament and trying to decide what path to take in order to try and leave.
After a yummy dinner that everyone enjoyed way more than Nick did, ha, because I know he was trying to problem solve, we headed back out in sprinkling rain, and Nick left me outside to watch as he attempted to leave the parking lot. Rather than take the dirt path out, he chose to go over a curb with a one foot drop, hoping his chance of hitting bottom would be significantly lesser. He gave me instructions to tell him if he got within 6 inches of hitting, which he did once he got to his back wheels. He stopped the rig and got out to look at it, but finally just told me planned to go on over and wanted me to tell him how bad he scraped. I watched him inch along and although his back mudflap touched grass, he never scraped a single part of our rig, tow bar or tow vehicle! We couldn’t believe it! Just another problem that I admire him for figuring out! I was so proud!
We only drove another 80 miles or so and stopped for the night at Laurel, west of Billings. We originally hoped to get to Bozeman, but our extra drive south of Cheyenne made us ready for bed a little sooner than planned. We boondocked again this night at another truck stop.
Day 4 – Moving through Montana
I awoke on this day to Nick having slept little due to another problem he needed to solve. While winding down the night before, he began to notice the generator surging. By the morning he had figured out that it needed an oil change. He topped it off momentarily with oil, and we noticed an instant different in the power behind our AC units. So as we headed northwest again, he called ahead to an O’Reilly’s in Bozeman and asked them for all of the filters and oil he needed so we could stop and get it for him to change later on at our RV park. Navigating downtown Bozeman to get to O’Reilly’s was a feat in and of itself and he truly never ceases to amaze me with how he problem solves in the moment situations that are challenging!
Today’s driving was gorgeous and easily my favorite part of the trip so far. There are about 5 ways to go up to the west side of Glacier National Park, and after researching, we decided to go through Missoula, and then ease up alongside Flathead Lake – I’m so glad we did! The highways weren’t that bad and we enjoyed the view around the lake – it is absolutely massive and so beautifully blue. We passed orchard after orchard of cherry trees! I really hope we’re able to buy some cherries and cider at some point before we head south again – we just didn’t see any parking while we were in our rigs for that route.
One of the biggest issues happened when we arrived at West Glacier KOA RV Resort. I was pleased to book this back in December, but apparently needed to book it even earlier, and learned today that it would have benefited us for me to place a phone call to make sure we got the site we needed. Apparently issues can happen with the online KOA reservation system. Although I gave our rig dimensions as 45 foot, and *still feel pretty sure* I chose full hookup, for some reason, we were locked into sites that were too small for our rig, and that didn’t have sewage! I could see how busy and full the park was already, and one glance at the KOA workers’ expressions made me fearful we wouldn’t have a place to stay! I started looking in vain for other RV parks, but of course everywhere is full at this peak part of the season. Thankfully, Kelsey (same name as my college roommate so I won’t forget it!) spent probably half an hour looking and moving people around in order to at least get us a spot where we could fit with full hookup for 2 of our 3 nights. The good news: we get to stay in this RV park and we have hookups! I was really nervous we wouldn’t even get to stay. The bad news: we aren’t by Nick’s parents anymore, and they don’t have sewage, so Nick will need to take their rig to the dump station maybe before we leave. The plan currently is for us to move to a new spot on our final night here.
Lesson learned: they told us that calling to make a reservation is always best, and the earlier the better. This is a great resort campground, only 20 minutes for the entrance to West Glacier, so it’s worth booking early and getting the place you want!
After getting each of us settled, Nick got out his new grill and I put together hobo meals – one of our favorite, quick ways to have a good dinner! I previously chopped the veggies for this so all I had to do was assemble the ground beef, veggies, seasoning and pat of butter in the foil packages, and Nick cooked them while his mom put together a fresh salad for us all to enjoy. For dessert we had mom’s cherry bread, and it was the perfect ending to our meal.
While waiting for the hobo meals to finish, the girls and I walked over to the center of the campgrounds, and saw a hot air balloon demonstration, which was fun! We also laid eyes on the many play areas and swimming pools, and listening to some live music. We’ll return to this area tomorrow evening, for sure!
jami lee gainey 