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!