Trip Statistics, Trip Wrap-up, and other boring thoughts and facts

We have been home now for a few days...A very hectic few days. 

The kids are really happy to be home. School has not started yet, so they have time to relax and slowly get back to our routine.  They are slowly getting used to not spending every minute with each other, though several times since we got home, I have found them huddled up together in one of their rooms just hanging out. 

Matt and I have found the return to reality to be a little overwhelming. Work and commitments began the day after our return. We immediately missed the simplicity of our travels. 

Below is a summary of our trip along with a few overall thoughts. 

Overall Trip Statistics: 

Dates: Friday, June 10, 2016 - Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Total Miles Driven = 10,282

Total Miles Hiked = 77.5

Kid's Ages: Grace 13, Cameron 11, Caleb 7

Total Number of National Park Service locations (excluding national forests) = 24

• 21 (of the 59) National Parks
• Rocky Mountains National Park
• Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
• Mesa Verde National Park
• Arches National Park
• Canyonlands National Park
• Capitol Reef National Park
• Zion National Park
• Bryce Canyon National Park
• Grand Canyon National Park
• Channel Islands National Park
• Sequoia National Park
• Kings Canyon National Park
• Yosemite National Park
• Redwoods National Park
• Crater Lake National Park
• Olympic National Park
• Glacier National Park
• Yellowstone National Park
• Grand Tetons National Park
• Wind Cave National Park
• Badlands National Park
• 1 National Historical Park
• San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
• 1 National Monument
• Devils Tower National Monument
• 1 National Memorial
• Mt Rushmore National Memorial

Number of Junior Ranger Badges Earned = 19

Major Cities Explored

• Las Vegas
• Los Angeles/Long Beach
• San Francisco
• Seattle

Sunny Days = 52 out of 54 (and the two" rainy days only had intermittent rain or a storm) 

Favorite Parks:

• Glacier National Park - Especially the hike to Lower and Upper Grinnell Lakes
• Mesa Verde National Park - The kids especially like this one touring the cliff dwellings
• Yosemite - Especially the long hike on Day 27

Other Random Favorite Things:

• Time spent in Long Beach with our friends. 
• Time spent with family who visited us in Seattle
• Making good friends at the campground at Glacier National Park
• The Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Seattle/Olympia campgrounds were our favorite
• Mom's favorite place to do laundry was in Oregon on Day 36 where she could do 5 loads at the same time! (Sometimes it's the little things.) 
• Mom's favorite kid moment was Day 29 when the truck broke down so the kids and I hung out at the campground. After swimming, the kids circled their lawn chairs so they could put their feet on each other. They sat there and talked and laughed for three hours. As a mom, that is priceless. 

Blog Statistics:

• 3540 average number of regular readers/week by the end of the trip. 
• This was one of the biggest surprises of the whole trip. I wrote this blog to be printed and used as a personal "scrapbook" of our trip, but several friends and family members asked for a way to follow our travels, so we sent the web address to a few people. They encouraged us to post our blog posts on Facebook. Many shared our Day 1 post and soon I had complete strangers sending me friend requests. So on Day 2 I created an open Facebook page that anyone could view, and posted links to our blog posts there. On Day 53, a complete stranger actually approached us because she recognized us from our blog. It was a bit surreal. We by no means went "viral", but there was more interest than I ever could have imagined... and to think I hadn't even planned to share the link with anyone!!! 

Souvenirs:

Our family is relatively minimalist in nature (which explains how we could live in a camper for a summer). Buying souvenirs from all of these cool places would get overwhelming, not to mention expensive. So we did things a little different:

• Ornament - This is our typical (and usually our only) souvenir when we go on vacations. Instead of getting an ornament for each location or park, we bought a little token and took a picture so we could make an ornament when we got home. 
• Retro 100th Anniversary National Park Post Cards: These were just a fun thing to add to the mix. Bottom line, I could not resist. 
• National Park Passport Books - We bought these little passport books for each of the kids and at each park we made sure to put a stamp in the book.

• Kids Choice - The kids could each pick out a souvenir. We advised them to find something they would have/use for awhile that would remind them of this trip. The boys chose walking sticks, while Grace chose a pair of earrings. They also brought some of their own money, but didn't really spend much of it.
• Matt's Walking Stick - Before we left, our neighbor told us about these little hiking medals you can tack to your walking stick, so we purchased one of those for most parks where we hiked. 

• This blog! - The pictures and writing in this blog are our primary souvenir. Writing a little bit every day enabled us to remember the fun little details and experiences. One month into the trip, I went back and re-read a couple of my first blog posts from day one and two and already saw things that I had forgotten. 
• And of course, PICTURES! We made some of the pictures into canvas prints. They turned out great. 

Our travel wall in our living room. We will need a bigger wall soon.

My favorite picture of the trip.

Cups of Coffee:

• 286 (Matt 232 / Emily 54) ;-)

Matt's Christmas gift? Possibly...

Equipment Statistics: 

• 2007 Chevy Silverado Crew Cab 2500HD Duramax diesel 
• Allison transmission
• "Classic body style" first half of the 2007 model year
• 2013 Puma 30ft trailer made by Palamino
• Two slide outs

Budget (information no one has dared to ask us): 

• TOTAL = $8620.84
• Campgrounds = $2825.83
• Fuel = $2246.98
• Dining Out = $1949.26
• Misc = $1598.77 (includes admission tickets, souvenirs, Annual Park Pass, laundry, etc.)
• Groceries = We do not include groceries in the budget, because we don't consider this a vacation expense, but rather money we would normally spend each month whether we are home or camping. 
• Equipment = I also did not include the cost of the camper, when obviously that played a big part in the trip. Nor did I include the cost of the truck, which my husband needs to farm, so we don't consider it an extra expense related to this vacation. 

Travel Planning Resources:

• My "Bible" for the trip (thus the picture of it in a church pew) was Your Guide to the National Parks by Michael Joseph Oswald. We never went anywhere without this book. Of course this book made sense for us since we were going to so many parks, but even if you are only going to one or two, I still think it is a good value. It is written by a person who has been there and has really sound advice. We were never disappointed when we followed the suggestions in this book. It also gave great 1-4 day itineraries for each park to help you organize your trip if you are limited on time. I would love to provide a longer list of resources, but in the end, this was really the only resource I used, other than Google to search for campgrounds.

How could we take that much time off work?

• We were asked this question a LOT. Everyone we met assumed we were teachers who had summers off. We met several families with teacher parents or professor/minister parents who were on summer break or sabbatical. This was not exactly the case with us.
• Matt is a farmer, so June and July are slower months for him. When he isn't farming, he is a stay-at-home-dad. (He is an amazing at home parent. While most kids with at home moms had normal routines, our kids instead helped dad work on cars, maintain our church property, fishing, farming, and so much more. Lucky kids!)
• I work for a large company and had just finished a large extended project. I had saved up some time off and took it all at once for this trip. I did work eight full days while we traveled, but that was very intentional. It allowed me to check in and help out at work, while giving Matt a break from driving and the kids some downtime to just swim and hang out. Win-win!

Would We Do It Again??? (I mean seriously, was it really that great?)

Now that we are home, people are asking us for the "inside scoop." You know, the real details. The stuff that didn't go on the blog. The moments when someone almost died because they unfortunately asked one too many times, "are we there yet?"  The fighting kids in the backseat. The laundry while on vacation (ugh!). Grocery shopping with all five of us ALL. Of. The. Time. The moments when you realize there is not a marriage counselor good enough to pull you out of this one...

Well, I am sorry to disappoint, but what I wrote on the blog was truly what happened (think back to Day 36 when we went to Crater Lake National Park...or as we now call it, "Hangry Day"). If anything we got along as a family better than we do at home. I think this was because LIFE WAS SIMPLE. There was a lot going on with so much travel, but here is why I think it seemed simpler despite our busy travel schedule:

1. No appointments, school or sport activities, volunteer commitments, etc. We were busy, but we weren't scheduled until we went crazy.
2. We had to work together. It didn't do anyone any good to complain or argue or throw a fit. If we wanted to have fun, we had to play nice with each other. 
3. We had limited possessions. This is HUGE. We didn't have much, but we had everything we needed. The kids didn't have a million toys, but the boys did bring some cars/trucks and Legos. Grace brought books, coloring and crafts. Clothes were limited, so getting dressed was easy. Our schedule wasn't insane, so doing laundry or dishes did not seem like an overwhelming chore. Cleaning a camper is much easier and simpler than cleaning a house. 

So would we do it again? YES!

Suffice to say, this trip went better than we ever could have expected or planned. We had a really good time and got along very well. Of course, there are a lot of factors to consider. Our kids are getting older and busier. We will have an active high school student a year from now and we can only guess what that will bring. Kids will get jobs, have other opportunities, etc. The reason we chose this year for our travels was because we felt our youngest was old enough to keep up and our oldest was young enough to be available. Another big trip in 2017 is unlikely. Our kids want to have a "normal" summer to go to camp, youth mission trips, see friends, play sports, etc, and we are perfectly fine with that. Our next big trip may not be two months long. It may only be a month next time to accommodate our older kids' schedules, but we do plan to go on more "mega" trips. 

This was just too amazing to only do once!

Camping and life on the road

Life on the Road

We thought we would take a moment to write a little story about life on the road and what we thought. 

Many of you are wondering if you could survive it. Let me assure you: You may not. 

But before you shy away from an exciting adventure and good times, 

Read on...And yes, it rhymes. 

To set out on an adventure of this magnitude is fantastic in theory,
But when you add up the cost, is it really that worthy?
After two months of travel, we think so, and here's why:
Our family is stronger, so the means we can justify.

So what is life on the road for a family of five like?
It was like we looked at our day-today and said, "We are on strike!"
Traveling and camping is a busy lifestyle,
But it was good to be away from it all for awhile.

To make it work our parents gave some advice:
Everyone needs to chip in to make this trip a real paradise.
So we divided up the work among all five
It would take us all working together to survive.

Part I: Setting Up Camp

Mom and Dad worked together to get the camper parked.
Dad did the hard work of parking the camper where the site was marked
While Mom waved her arms around with the occasional random comment
She felt like she did a good job because Dad always nodded like he knew what she meant.
[We actually did all parking and hooking up in silence by the end of the trip because we just knew what the other was thinking...it was spooky...and this did not rhyme.]

Once we were parked, Caleb's job was the first to be complete.
He was in charge of the wheel chocks, so he was the first to hop out of his seat!
He knew the importance of his job; it wasn't child's play.
If he didn't do it right, the camper would roll away!

Cameron was our muscle in charge of stabilization.
He cranked the "X" chocks in place to further avoid roll away ruination.
He then plugged us into the electricity
Which we often had despite not being near a city.

Grace was the power tool extraordinaire
And she sure knew how to use the hardware.
To put down the jacks, she used a power drill,
This helped further ensure that the camper would stand still.

Mom jumps into action once the camper is unhitched
She gets the level and makes sure we aren't pitched.
Then it is time to make the camper bigger
With a wave of her wand the sides slide out with vigor.

Part II: At the campground

When we get to a campground and Matt says, "Want to share a bottle of wine?"
This is code for, "I'm out of beer, so wine will have to work fine."
Or, "We've been traveling all day and my beer in the outdoor fridge is warm."
Because we all know wine is not Matt's norm. 

Mom and Dad are in charge of cooking
While the kids like to explore and go out looking.
Once dinner is done the dishes are the kids' chore,
While Mom and Dad go on a walk so we can't hear the occasional dish war.

Laundry was usually a job in Mom's profile
But she didn't mind because she could sit and read for awhile
Being gone this long, laundromats were a must
Though the process (and certain laundromats) can make you question your wanderlust

Many routines were the same on the road as at home
Not everything has to change when you decide to roam.
Reading bedtime stories was often one of Cameron's jobs
And he had us all laughing when he (regularly) chose to read Calvin and Hobbes.



We didn't have many toys, nor did we need them.
But occasionally the Legos caused toy mayhem.
We didn't mind as it was a reminder of our home place
And thankfully when play was done the Legos went back in their case.




Two months was too long for the boys to grow hair without check,
So big sister was happy to buzz them from head to neck.
Matt had a little less of an adventuresome streak.
He drove to town to find a professional who wouldn't make him look like a freak.



There were a few days that Mom had to work
Because for two months, her responsibilities she couldn't shirk.
She made sure she had a good connection and took over the dining table
She was thankful for the work that this trip did enable. ;)

Part III: Driving down the road

Jobs on the road were a different paradigm.
Matt was the master driver as I have said many a time
The words "Talk to me, Goose," he said to Mom frequently
Mom, the navigator, was quick to respond and made mistakes infrequently...sort of.  

The kids only had to do one thing once the seat belts went click:
For goodness sake!...Give the parents plenty of warning if you are going to be sick!
They did a great job spending so much time in their seats
As long as we stopped regularly for some eats.

Eating on the road varied
Sometimes it was a relaxed picnic, but usually it was a bit more harried.
We often ate at a rest stop or truck stop cramped with the slide outs pulled in
And sometimes we didn't stop but ate in the truck, but that ran our patience thin.

Part IV: Tour of the Camper

The camper turned out be exactly what this family did need
And our expectations it did regularly exceed.
At thirty feet, it wasn't a small trailer to tow.
We had plenty of room even after it was packed full.

The kitchen offered all of the comforts of our house.
Making foods we were used to made for happy kids and spouse.
We made spaghetti, pizza, soup and muffins
Even cookies were baked for the three ruffians.

The dining area was shaped like a horseshoe
And with a large window has a great view
There was room for all five to sit
Even after 2 months of vacation food, we all managed to fit

The bathroom is compact as you knew it would be
If you are taller, be careful when you sit or you might bump a knee
The shower has a tub which came in handy
And also had a skylight which was dandy.

The parent's room was as boring as you would expect
But had lots of storage for all that we would collect.
The closet was not exactly a walk in,
But it fit all of our clothes so we called it a win.

The kids' room was cozy and nice 

Each had their own bed, as there were bunk beds trice.

They could go here to hide and read when they got tired of others

We all know we need alone time away from mothers, sisters and brothers!

Part V: The End

So the question we are most often asked: Would we do it again?

The answer: Of course, because there is much to gain.

We are blessed beyond measure that we will always have this memory to share.

With this awesome family, we would go anywhere! 

Day 54 - Badlands National Park and HOME!

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Posted from: HOME!

Miles driven: 703 miles

Total trip miles: 10,282 miles

Our last day. It is hard to believe. No one wants this trip to end...Actually, truth be told, now that we are at the end everyone is excited to be home to see family and friends and sleep in our own beds. 

We didn't have time to stop and get this picture earlier, so we waited until we were pulling a 30 foot trailer before we pulled of on the side of the road to get the shot. We do like to make things easy for ourselves! 

I'm not sure we had driven 20 miles before we saw a Wall Drug sign. Welcome to I90!

Here we are at our final park of the trip, Badlands National Park. Our plan is to drive through the park and get back on the interstate to head home. 

The goats tried to slow us down a bit.

It was a lovely sunny morning! No one could keep their eyes open for this picture...Though come to think of it, it could also be because we woke up at 4:30 AM to get on the road.

The park was so much greener that we remembered it. By the way, Matt is holding Caleb in all of these pictures because he doesn't have any shoes on.

The visitor center was open by the time we got there. We planned to just spend a couple of minutes there, but they had a archaeology center open where you could watch them actively dig fossils that were uncovered in the park.

We could barely drag Caleb away from this dinosaur head. I think he would have happily stood there all day.

On our last day, a few hours before home, we had officially traveled 10,000 miles on our trip.

Everyone cheered when we crossed over into Iowa. It was a beautiful site!

Matt's parents and my dad were our welcoming committee. Matt's parents made us some signs.

How true these are...

Matt's parents brought us dinner. We cannot say how nice it was to come home to this home cooked meal.

I walked around outside too look at the yard. A large weed that was allowed to grow as big as it wanted while we were gone.

We are finally home. It is still unbelievable, but very very nice. I will miss living in the camper. That might seem odd to some, but living in the camper was a simpler life. Traveling was also a simpler life. We were not running from one activity/volunteer engagement/meeting/etc to another. We rarely checked email. Our phones did not ring. We set our schedule each day as a family. We lived in close quarters, but had time to ourselves. We had to work together and get along to make it fun for everyone.

So though we are glad to be home, we will miss life on the road and the closeness we shared.

Day 53 - Wind Cave National Park

Monday, August 1, 2016

Posted from: Blackhills, SD

Miles driven: 85

Total trip miles: 9,579

When vacationing in the Blackhills, there is an endless list of "must see and do". Wind Cave National Park gets a little lost in the shuffle. We visited this area four years ago. Wind Cave was closed due to a wild fire. We had planned to visit either Wind Cave or Jewel Cave (a national monument), but with Wind Cave closed, reservations for Jewel Cave were booked out several days. So we went to a touristy cave. It was actually pretty good, though we noticed on this trip that it is now closed. 

Wind Cave does not accept online or phone reservations. You must be present to win at this particular cave. So we got up early to catch the first tours. We were told that if you got in an early tour you will usually go with little to no wait, but if you go later you will possibly have a 2 hour wait. 

Our usual picture, but this one cracks me up because at least they honestly put the "curvy road" sign right at the entrance. Noted. 

Taking pictures in caves is tricky. This cave allowed flash photography (most don't because the flash can be disorienting), but still...Caleb was kind enough to demonstrate how hard it is to keep your eyes open when the camera is going crazy with the flash. This was the best picture...yup. The absolute best. Rock on. (pun intended)

Cameron was my poser for this picture. Not bad. The temperature in the cave was in the 50's, so it was comfortable with a sweatshirt.

We gave up taking pictures with people. We took this picture for Matt's sister. She studied mollusks. In this rock is a fossil of a mollusk. A mollusk from the ocean. In a cave. In South Dakota. Science geeks everywhere can feel free to geek out now.

The cave was cool (literally), but young Junior Rangers cannot just stop at the obvious attractions. They must explore beyond the beaten path. This resulted in us taking a short mile long hike through the prairie. Never mind the heat and bugs (both things we had become used to living without in the western states), we hiked through that prairie in full sun like true rangers. (Okay, Mom complained a little...but whatever.) There was a really neat sign/picture on the trail that showed how the cave was laid out below where you were standing. That was interesting...but I didn't think to take a picture. (A bug or heat stroke probably distracted me.)

The prairie flowers were beautiful.

We sat on the front lawn of the visitor center while the kids worked on their Junior Ranger booklets. While we were sitting there, a ranger came along and sat down beside us. He had elk collars with him and a radio scanner. We had seen him out in the field with an antenna earlier and Matt shouted out and asked him what he was doing...We are children of the 80's (Looney Tunes era!), so I totally imagined him turning to us and saying, "Shhhh! I'm hunting wabbits!" No instead, he explained that he was testing his elk collars to make sure they were working properly before putting them back into use.

So now this same ranger is sitting in the grass with us giving a really interesting explanation on how the process works. I know that tracking elk does not sound riveting, but it was truly fascinating. And this guy really knew his stuff. He describes how they catch the elk to collar them. Employees of the National Park Service are not allowed to partake due to the danger. They hire "cowboys" who ride along in a helicopter and jump out to wrangle an elk to the ground. They then have a few seconds to take blood, measurements and put the collar on. Though this sounds a little crazy, it is better for the animals than using tranquilizers.

After all of our adventures (and heat exhaustion...oh and bug bites), the kids earned their Junior Ranger badges. It should be noted that this was the only park where the Superintendent of the National Park, Vidal Davila swore the kids in as Junior Rangers. He was a very kind, patient, quiet and humble man. It was only after he walked away that the lady behind the desk said, "It isn't every day that our Junior Rangers are sworn in by the superintendent." Of course, that was the moment that I realized by pictures didn't come out. So we walked back over to where he was standing and asked if he would pose for one more picture. He seemed happy to do so.

We left Wind Cave and stopped at Crazy Horse Monument. A storm was on the horizon, but we decided to check it out.

It first appeared that it hadn't changed a lot in four years, but as we got closer we could see that quite a bit of the rock had been moved since we were here last.

While we were standing on the deck, it suddenly began to rain and hail. We ran for cover and thankfully it didn't last long.

Grace is just as fascinated with the bead display now as she was four years ago.

The storm passed and we decided to go out to a winery for our last night on the road. It was a beautiful evening, and very hard to believe that this was our last night on the road. We have decided to drive the whole way home tomorrow.

While standing in line to purchase a glass of wine, a lady standing behind me looked at me and said, "Crazy Happy Lifestyle?" I was a bit shocked and said, "What?" She looked embarrassed and said never mind, but I said. "No, I meant, that's my blog!" She got an excited look on her face and said that she had been reading about our trip along the way. I was so surprised. She was from Kansas City and a friend had shared one of our Facebook page posts. I didn't even know her friend. It was odd to think of how many people had been following us along the way.

We sat down and our families chatted and played games for the rest of the evening.

A beautiful last evening on the road...