Day 10: Custer State Park, SD to Rapid City, SD

It’s the last night of this Coronadventure.  When we had originally planned this trip months ago, our outbound flight home was at 11AM.  So we reserved a campground closer to the airport.  Now our flight is after 2PM, so we’ll have some time to get organized in the morning versus tonight.

It rained and hailed after we went to bed last night. Being in an RV vs a tent is quite an improvement in bad weather, but hail on the metal RV roof makes some noise and woke most of us up. This morning we set out early this morning onto Wildlife Loop Road in Custer State Park.  It did not disappoint.  We got stopped multiple times by bison hanging out in the road, including one group with a newborn calf and a huge herd of more than 100 animals.  We never did see the elusive bighorn sheep, but really enjoyed the scenery and the wildlife.  

The campground extended checkout until noon, so we went back to our space to park and explore Legion Lake.  We took the kids the long way around to the beach area, which is a trail of about a mile.  It turned out to have some bouldering and lots of side trails to climb and explore.  They totally loved it.  We let them do some lake swimming at the beach and then returned to have lunch and pack up our campsite.

As this was our last day, we spent our afternoon at one of the local adventure parks.  We bought wristbands for all four of us and were able to do all the activities unlimited for the afternoon.  They had a great mountain coaster and a two person zipline, which we rode multiple times each.

This place also had a cave with a one hour guided tour.  Since we have missed out on all the other caves in the area, we wanted to do this tour.  Besides sharing a small space with 20 other masked individuals, the tour was great.  Caves in this area are mostly rock - not a lot of stalactites and such.  But the passages were narrow and the guide was knowledgeable.  Oh, and it was only 50ish degrees in there - a welcome escape from the crazy heat outside.  

Tonight we are eating all the random things from the fridge/pantry, packing suitcases, and looking forward to sleeping in our own beds.  It was a beautiful day, but drizzling tonight so our last night didn’t involve sitting outside by a campfire. We did get in s’mores for dessert before moving inside though!

As expected, we all loved this adventure.  We’ll post some notes about our favorite things and other tips and tricks once we get home.  We’ve enjoyed answering questions from all the other new RVers as well.  We love inspiring more adventures!

Day 9: Deadwood, SD to Custer State Park, SD

 When we planned this trip starting last year, we had a long list of things to see in the Black Hills area.  With COVID restrictions, many of those things are not open, so we’ve had to be a bit flexible with our travel planning.  

Today got off to a rough start, we headed out of the campground around 10 only to realize about 8 miles down the road that our water tank was empty.  So we had to turn around and go back for a fill.  Once that was settled, we only had 80 minutes to sightsee before David had to do a conference call.  We chose to drive Spearfish Canyon yet another breathtaking scenic byway.  That drive ended back near yesterday’s fish hatchery.  There was a giant wooden playground there that the kids had begged us to play on, so they were thrilled to get the chance to run. 

From there, we had hoped to go to one of more of the caves in the area.  But for reasons varying from a broken elevator to social distancing, they were all closed.  Most of the family didn’t want to hike, so that took out many of our options.  We settled on the Hot Springs Mammoth Site. In the 1970s, they were bulldozing a hill to build a housing development and unearthed bones.  They stopped digging and turned the land over to scientists.  Turns out it was a deep sinkhole where at least 61 mammoths met their end.  Over the years, the sediment of the lake became a hill as the less dense rock and soil eroded.  The site is still an active dig site, where they try and leave as many bones as possible where they found them.  

It’s now in a warehouse building (ugh, inside, but cavernous with few people), but we wore masks and kept good distance.  Jason, in particular, has been really into archaeology on this trip.  It was a long way from where we started, but glad we made the stop.

From there, we drove up through Wind Cave National Park on our way to Custer State Park for the night.  Wind Cave is closed, but we decided to drive in anyway.  We were able to take a short hike to the natural entrance.  And it lives up to the legend - windy!  Glad we made the detour.

On our drive into and through the State Park, we saw individual bison, herds of bison, wild turkeys and pronghorn antelope.  We hold out hope for some bighorn sheep sightings, and are going to head out early tomorrow in hopes of seeing them.

Tonight’s campground is on Legion Lake.  Lots of nature to explore here, and the kids took to the hills for quite some time.  There is also a small beach here, so we hope to get in some swimming tomorrow.  And the fire haze seems to have lifted, so we were able to have some stargazing time. The kids really appreciated staying up late and lying still enough to see the stars in a dark sky.

Day 8: Buffalo, WY to Deadwood, SD

Back to the Black Hills of South Dakota!  We planned a loop and will visit here for the next few days before flying out.  We even passed this campground, Fish N Fry, many days ago on the way from Mt Rushmore to our campground in Spearfish.

Today, our first stop was trekking around Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming.  This crazy landscape was formed many years ago by an underground magma source.  After erosion and lots of time, it’s the spectacular formation we see today.  After taking advantage of the RV to make lunch, we did the complete 1.3 miles trek around it.  It was very hot, so we really enjoyed the refreshing ice water from the RV fridge and freezer after the loop.  

Our second stop was at the DC Booth Historic Fish Hatchery.  We bought the boys a $1 bag of food to split, and it was 20 minutes of entertainment.  The facility grows fish to stock ponds and enhance wild populations, and illustrates some of the history of the US Fish & Wildlife Services - so there was a lot to see.  The boys are growing up fast, but give them a bag of fish food and they are young again.

Tonight's campground is the Fish N Fry, where we successfully fished for our dinner and had a great evening. It has probably been our best overnight stop - the boys and I fished for dinner in the campground's stocked pond, which the campground then cleaned and deep fried. 

We paired it with our famous-to-us grilled shrimp and pineapple teriyaki camping meal that we used to make when we went camping before having kids.  

eyond that, the kids had pool time, and we played family horseshoes in the campground pit.  We ended the night with a roaring campfire and s'mores on our very spacious spot.  The boys were a great team today, and it is awesome to see their relationship developing on this trip.

Day 7: Cody, WY to Buffalo, WY

We got started late today after enjoying the amenities at the Cody KOA.  They had an outdoor pancake breakfast and the boys spent about an hour in the pool.  I got a few cups of real hot coffee and we all enjoyed the slow start.

And then we got a little lost.  We had an actual printed map of Wyoming like the olden days of the 1990s and it showed us a road that led down through the Bighorn National Forest.  So we routed ourselves from Cody in that direction. Except we never found the turn.  Even the GPS would not give us a route that went south through the forest.  We checked the actual road, Google Maps, Waze, and Apple Maps - nothing showed the trail the printed map showed.  So at that point it was turn around or plow ahead, and so we decided on the northern route.  It turned out to be a good decision.

We ended up driving the scenic byway of the Bighorn National Forest, out to see the Snell Canyon and through amazing mountain scenery.  

This was quite a road, full of switchbacks and a mandatory brake test for RVs before the descent.  Besides the walk we took, the kids missed most of it, as usual, but David and I absolutely enjoyed the scenery.  While we never did see a wild bighorn sheep, we did spy a pair of moose from the roadway.  With a quick brake and swerve into a park campground, we were able to see them up close.  I was a bit disappointed to not have seen moose in Yellowstone, so success!  

We made two stops today (plus the short Moose break.)  One at Snell Canyon and the other at Fort Phil Kearny, which is the site of the worst defeat of the US Army at the hands of Native Americans outside of Little Bighorn.  We learned a lot at that stop about how an 1800s western fort was operated.  There were only three other people there, so great social distancing.

We made a grocery run this morning for the rest of the food and drinks to get us to Friday and our return.  David also chose the world’s best value party sub, $7 for a 2 pound Italian sub that will feed us lunch for two days.  Sure, it’s taking up most of the fridge, but it’s worth it.  Lunch is the least convenient in the RV because you don’t want to have to find a place to stop and cook (though still better than not traveling without your own kitchen and bathroom!) Sandwiches are the usual choice.  

Tonight we are in the Buffalo Wyoming KOA.  The fire danger is so high that we can’t even light inside our fire ring.  We bought a cheap propane grill on Day 1, and so tonight it was called into action for some burgers on the grill.  The burgers were local grass fed organic ones, and they still taste great on a $25 Walmart portable propane grill. Tomorrow we head back to South Dakota for a few days to see the Black Hills and surrounding areas.  The kids are loving the trip and cannot wait to plan the next one.

Day 5 & 6: Yellowstone National Park

We spent two amazing days in Yellowstone National Park, mostly off the grid and immersed in the natural wonderland.  So, this update will cover both our days.  Tonight, we are in Cody, WY, making our trek back eastward to South Dakota.

We knew from research that the most popular park spots - Mammoth Hot Springs and Old Faithful, fill up quickly and can get crazy.  So we planned our days so that we could get to each of them early.  We entered through the North Gate of Yellowstone around 8AM on Saturday and didn’t have to wait in line.  (Surprisingly, we rarely encountered traffic outside of parking lots the entire trip.)  We found an RV parking spot and headed over to the trails of the Hot Springs.  We weren’t 100 yards from the RV when an elk crossed right in front of us. I actually had to grab Ryan so he didn’t get too close.  It was a fun wildlife encounter right upon arrival. 

The Hot Springs were spectacular.  The minerals change the color of the landscape and it’s all still active.  One section actually looked like snow.  We were able to see the formations from below and then parked at the top to take in another section.  

David downloaded an app called Just Ahead, which was recommended to us by the campground in Gardiner.  The narration works off GPS and downloads the content locally, so while we had no cell service for two days we did have our drives and descriptions of the geology on the speaker system.  It was so helpful to find cool hikes, but also to understand how things were formed and the origins of the park.  

The app recommended a walk by a river to look for beavers.  We saw some abandoned dens, but also frogs and tadpoles.  It was peaceful and fun.

We were making great time, so we went over to the Yellowstone Canyon.  We hadn’t planned to see it on this trip, but are very glad it worked out.  The canyon is huge with views from both sides.  David was able to parallel park the RV and we had some time to look around.  Not the most socially distanced spot, as only about half the crowds of the park were wearing masks.  People were generally good about moving along and not crowding.

We spend the evening of Day 5 at the Madison Campground in the park.  The kids had a fairy gnome house project to finish for a virtual camp, and they spent over an hour gathering materials and building a rather impressive house.  We left it there, as the boys decided ants could live in it and be protected from predators. 

This camp had no hookups, so our first night boondocking ever, and despite batteries everyone had a screen-free night too.

Sunday morning (Day 6) we set out early for Old Faithful.  The Madison campground had an old landline phone that you could use to call the hotline for geyser times, so we knew we could make the 8:56 eruption.  Old Faithful showed up a little late, closer to 9:10. It was fun to see, and we were happy we got to see a geyser erupt!

We headed over to sign the kids up for the Junior Ranger program and found out that the Grand Geyser was scheduled to go in an hour.  This one has a +/- 45 minute window, but the kids wanted to wait it out.  They worked on their ranger books and the Grand Geyser blew on the early side of the schedule. 

It was very impressive - much larger than Old Faithful - and most of our favorite things of the trip.  There were lots of other geysers and geological features in that area. We were there for almost three hours.

There is a 300 acre forest fire in Yellowstone that started yesterday, so they closed the south loop road. We had to change our plans and take the long way around to head out the East Entrance.  We were able to see some more vent fields on the way, including a mud volcano.  That route also took us through a valley with herds of bison.  We saw dozens of solo males over the two days, but these were the only herds.  They felt very traditional Yellowstone.

The drive out through the East Gate was long and isolated.  While there were some nice views of Yellowstone lake and mountains, there wasn’t much in terms of stops.  We had about a two hour drive over to Cody for the night, and enjoyed the landscape on the way.  

We cannot recommend Yellowstone enough, it was one of the most amazing places we have seen.

Since Jason is now in fourth grade, we are seeing these parks on his National Park Pass. We will have another one next year for Ryan, so we are already looking at options.  

Tonight, we enjoyed some hot showers and bounce pad fun at the KOA.  Tomorrow we set out to Buffalo, WY.

Day 4: Billings, MT to Gardiner, MT

 Today was a staging day to get us right outside the gates of Yellowstone. And after two long driving days in a row, this was also designed to be a bit of a break.  We relaxed and lingered until almost 11AM at our campground.  We played some washer toss and frisbee, and let the kids play one more round of mini-golf.

Today we stopped at two Montana State Parks.  The first was Pictograph Cave State Park, a set of caves with old carvings and paintings.  Jason absolutely loved it, and talked about growing up to dig and discover old things.  It was good to get in a bit of a hike as well.  Short, but good stop.

 We also detoured over to the Greycliff Prairie Dog Town, a refuge for a family of black tipped prairie dogs.  We bought Ryan a new camera today after his died yesterday, so this was a great stop for him as he adores prairie dogs.  These animals were more skittish than the ones we saw in ND, but still adorable.  

Our campsite tonight is in Gardiner, MT.  This is the town at the North entrance to Yellowstone.  We topped off the tank and settled in for the evening. The grocery store was in walking distance, so David and Jason made a run for some firewood and grillables.  Hopefully, that will top off the supplies for the rest of our trip, but we’ll see. We had dinner outside and got to enjoy a few mule deer visiting the campground.

Tomorrow we head into Yellowstone!  We have a campground inside the park for tomorrow night, so will spend most of the next two days in the park, exiting out the East entrance on Sunday.  We can’t wait to see the nature! The haze from the California wildfires is likely to obstruct the starry skies unfortunately, but otherwise should be great weather.  

We are likely to be off the grid while in Yellowstone.  The park is the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined, but only has five cell towers.  Being off the grid is not something I’m used to or good at!  We’ll check back in on Sunday or Monday. 

Day 3: Medora, ND to Billings, MT

50!  Today, David visited his last state in his quest to see all of them.  He goes by the rule that you need to spend the night or visit a major tourist attraction, so while we celebrated at the side of the highway at the Welcome to Montana sign, victory was actually achieved at the Pompeys Pillar National Monument.  Congratulations to David on this lifetime achievement and we were glad to be on some of the journey with you.  The kids even made a gold 50 sign!

Today was primarily a travel day - four hours to get us in range of Yellowstone and the rest of the planned stops.  There is not much between Medora and Billings, so we had to do the long leg.  We stopped about halfway for lunch and David’s Zoom call.  He took that from a gravel parking lot right off the interstate.  I’m sure the coworkers were jealous.

Our tourist stop today was at Pompeys Pillar, a large rock formation with historical carvings and signatures.  Clark, of Lewis and Clark, carved his name into this rock when he was returning east after the famous expedition.  It is the only surviving artifact of that entire journey.  The actual climb to see the signature was closed for repairs, but Ranger Ryan and the rest of the team there was very helpful and informative.  The kids earned their first ever Junior Ranger badges and are inspired to earn more. 

We are spending the night at the Billings KOA, which is the first KOA ever. It has a pool and a mini golf course, so we were able to get the kids out of the RV for some campground activities.  We were able to grill a big dinner and regroup from a long day on the road.

This RV is working out well.  There is a u-shaped table and a two seater couch, so we had the kids switch seats during the drive.  They are also resurrecting games they made up on our last trip.  it’s nice to see them back in the groove.  We have a TV in this RV, but told the kids it only shows movies from the computer.  It’s up in the loft, so they cuddled up for a movie night tonight.

Tomorrow, it’s a short two hour drive to a campground right outside the North gate of Yellowstone.

Day 2: Spearfish, SD to Medora, ND

Today we made it to David’s 49th state: Legendary (self proclaimed) North Dakota.  We set out pretty early by our standards around 9, and stopped to pick up our 2nd Walmart order.  David ran in for the things they didn’t substitute and we were on our way north.  Far north.  On our way we passed the monument for the geographic center of the US and took a few selfies.  The actual center is apparently on the grounds of a missile silo. Typical.

The drive up to North Dakota was the most boring yet on our coronadventures.  We were on a one lane each way highway and the scenery never changed - barbed wire fences of grassland.  Sometimes there was a steer, but generally it was the same thing over and over.  For hours.  Except when a large truck passed, then the draft made the RV swerve.  Poor David, he was a trooper today.

Once we got to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, it was like being transported into another world.  

The hundred of miles of flat land turned into a huge canyon landscape.  We were just amazed at how quickly it showed up and how huge it was.  We spent hours driving and hiking in the park today.  We saw wild horses, bison, prairie dogs and some kind of grouse.  It was 95 degrees here today, so we did a bit of hiking, but couldn’t brave too much.  We got lucky with the wildlife being near the road.  The boys took a ton of pictures and Ryan spent a long time negotiating for a prairie dog habitat for the backyard.

There are still no overnights allowed in parks in North Dakota, so we are at a campground right near the entrance tonight.  There is a well-known buffet and show right near here.  We treated the kids to food, but elected to skip the tourist show.  The restaurant was on the top of a plateau and the views were amazing.

This is truly the land of the mask-less, and it is making us be extra careful when we are out and about.  I noticed today that Ryan was putting on a mask when people got close without being asked, so the nagging is sinking in.  We are very thankful for the RV as roving hotel room and it’s built-in bathroom.  

Tomorrow, we arrive in Montana.  State #50 for David.  It’s mostly a long driving day, the last planned one of this trip.  Lots of country to cover with not a lot of anything in between.  We are hoping for better scenery, or at least wider roads.

Coronadventure 2 - Day 1: Arlington, VA to Spearfish, SD

Yes, it’s another Day 1.  We have just embarked on the RV trip we had planned for all along - the grand finale of my quest to visit all 50 states.  We booked an RV in South Dakota, and will loop into North Dakota, west into Montana, down through Yellowstone and Wyoming and back into South Dakota.  We are on this adventure for 11 days.  We have been talking about doing this trip since before we had kids, and had booked it pre-COVID — amazing that it’s finally here.

We took a 7:30AM flight this morning and were in Rapid City, South Dakota by noon, Mountain time.  

We had the RV delivered to the airport by the rental compnay, so no Ubers required on this side.  

Of course, they were missing our dishes and towels, so we ended up driving over to the RV shop to grab those.  Due to Covid and the just ended Sturgis motorcycle rally, we had zero interest in going shopping for supplies upon arrival.  We packed a bunch of items we saved from the last adventure and planned out two curbside Walmart pickups earlier this week - we got one upon arrival and we’ll get the second tomorrow morning.  Great Walmart pickup service made for a social distancing win.

We got a nicer RV for this trip.  We rented a 2018 Jayco Redhawk 29XK from a local dealer, and the kids are amazed compared to the Cruise America Standard RV we took across the country.  This one is 7.5 feet longer, has a bathroom you can actually stand in, and has a slide out in the main living area.  This is valuable square footage while parked.  The bench seating is a U shape, which we also think will be better for the kids on the road.  They love it and have already stashed their things all over the place.  It also has a v10 with more horsepower than the last one, which is making the drive easier.  It also has cool features like self-leveling jacks built in, an awning and outside speakers. 

Funny thing about your second RV trip in a year, we were fully loaded and on the road in almost no time.  This means we were were able to go see Mount Rushmore on Day 1!  Everyone says it’s smaller than you expect, but we disagree.  The viewing area is nice and there is a loop walk that lets you get much closer to the action.  Besides the rampant lack of masks (ugh), it was a nice stop.  

We saw the entire place in an hour and were back on the road.  Mount Rushmore is actually in a small town that was full of old time photos, wax museums and t-shirt shops.  Thankful for the mobile house to bring us to a nature evening.

Tonight we are in Spearfish, SD.  Real place.  Found a quiet RV park with solid social distancing that only takes checks or cash for payment.  On this trip, we are using the RV for everything, including showers.  Too much risk out in the world.  We stopped at a local restaurant for takeout bison burgers and Rocky Mountain Oysters for dinner.  If you don’t know what those are, enjoy the Google.

I’m blogging out under our fancy RV awning (another upgraded feature), which is protecting us from the drizzle.  Too cloudy to see stars, but we’ll get a clear night soon enough. Congrats to David for state #48.  Tomorrow we head to North Dakota to tackle State #49.

What We Learned On Our First RV Trip

A few months after our first RV trip, it is fun to look back and think about what we learned.  Since our trip, we have talked to a number of people inspired to plan their first trip and ask for our thoughts.  If you are planning a trip - do it!  We’ve captured some of our advice below, and hope it helps you with your trip planning.

We found RVing to be way easier and less intimidating than we expected.  We are still planning and excited to do our next trip in mid-August out of Rapid City, South Dakota.  We are definitely better prepared for that one.

I’ll summarize some thoughts from our #RVLife blog post:

• Four people in 250 square feet or less can be tight.  
• Our kids found sleeping in the RV in the loft and convertible beds to be magical.
• Rental RVs can be lacking in creature comforts.  Ours didn’t have a backup camera, bluetooth, or USB ports.  The AC outlets usually don’t work while driving, so plan accordingly for charging while driving through an adapter.
• Driving more than five hours a day is exhausting for everyone.  If it's windy, bad weather, curvy roads or traffic, four hours is a lot. 
• Plan your cooking.  RV’s usually don’t have ovens (a few have convection ovens in the microwave) and lots of campsites don’t have grills.  
• Dumping the sewer is easier and less gross than expected, but still bring disposable latex gloves.  
• Gas mileage is not great.  Expect ~10mpg.  That can add up.  

Driving

Driving the RV was easier than we expected. The 25’ model we rented was easy to navigate, even in parking lots and gas stations.  You have to pay attention, but it's achievable.  On the positive, when driving you sit up nice and high and have a great view of the road which makes driving easier.  More challenging, the 25’ RV weighed about 6 tons, which means it doesn’t start or stop very quickly.  It also doesn’t climb hills well.  There were a number of times that we were doing 45 mph uphill in a 70 mph zone.  If you are renting a larger RV, get one with a V10 or Diesel.  The V8 felt underpowered at 25’.  The most unpleasant surprise however is wind.  A 25’ long by 12’ high vehicle catches any winds from the side, blowing the vehicle around.  Driving it in gusty winds can make it difficult to keep it in its lane.  Driving in the wind is a two hands on the wheel, 100% attention process.

For a cross country trip, think about time zones.  We didn’t and it can mess up check-in times or when things are open.

The RV

It is great for the kids to be able to sit at the table with seat belts, giving them space to play.  However, the table is pretty slick, so every bend in the road sent things flying.  We ended up buying drawer liner to put down to grip stuff to the table.  On our next trip we’ll also pack a collapsible bin or two to store small things in.  There were also only cupholders on the console of our RV, so the kids’ water was always rolling away.

We were pleasantly surprised that propane goes a long way.  We used ½ tank the entire journey, and we had the heat on each night.  The fridge runs on propane when you are driving, but that didn’t use much at all.

If you are renting an RV from Cruise America or a local dealer, they likely rent linen or kitchen kits.  They are very convenient, but often not a good deal.  You can likely go to Walmart and buy the equivalent for much less than what it would cost to rent it.  We rented the kitchen kit for simplicity, but bought our own linens between Walmart and Goodwill.  For our next trip, we’ll pick up the RV and head right to Walmart to pick up supplies, and will donate them at Goodwill when the trip is done.  Also consider paper plates and utensils, it’s a small sink to clean in.

Campgrounds

I'd recommend getting a Good Sam membership.  It gets your 10% off at a number of campgrounds, and they have a good trip planning tool and campground database.  We also use the (free) rvparky.com and app for campground searches and reviews.  If you are going to stay in a lot of KOA's its worth paying their annual membership fee to get 10% off there too.  KOAs are pretty much always good campgrounds, but they do command a bit of a cost premium.
When we planned our campgrounds, we were focused on having “full hookups” every night.  We learned that isn’t needed.  For one night, it was easy to plug in and run on the water tank, and to hit the dump station on the way out of the campground or entering the next one.  We did have power every time, but we are now more comfortable at being able to “boondock” (camp without connections) for a night, which we will need to do in Yellowstone in August.  That will require “generator living”, which we didn’t get to experience on the trip.  Generators are loud, so most campgrounds have restricted hours for running them.

We found that wifi at parks is not very reliable.  We had a few nights at parks with wifi that we ended up connecting on Mifis or tethered phones.  We will bring a mifi on our next trip too. Because I’m a geek, we also travel with a travel router.  The nice feature of doing that is that you can connect your devices to it once, and then just connect it to the campsite wireless each night.  Convenient, but not necessary.

As mentioned, RVs don’t have ovens, and not every campground has a fire pit or grill.  If you need that at the campsite, make sure you plan accordingly.  We were glad to have purchased food that we could easily do stovetop or microwave.

Packing 

Campgrounds usually have great space, particularly if you aren’t in a massive Class A 40’ RV.  If you have soccer balls, outdoor games, etc., you usually have space to play them.

We found that there was a big difference in daytime and nighttime temperatures on our spring drive and I was glad we had fleece and warm pajamas.  Even with the heater on, the RV was drafty at night.

Little things can go wrong, so be prepared.  Duct tape and basic tools can be helpful to have around.  We had some issues with our table converting properly, and didn’t discover it until after the campground host had closed for the night.  We thankfully found some tools sitting around in a maintenance golf cart that we were able to borrow, but would have been nice to have them.

Bring a flashlight. You will undoubtedly have to go check something at night, and its way better than using your phone flashlight.

If you plan to use a cell phone for your GPS, having a window suction cell phone mount is really helpful.

Laundry requires quarters.  Bring a roll!  And a small amount of detergent.  Also pack a small bag to carry toiletries to the showers if you plan to use them.

There are a lot of small overhead cubbies, so food was easy to put away.  The kids games and such were more difficult.  Again, we’d pack small cubbies for next trip.  Backpacks and totes were also a good way to keep organized.  The storage underneath was massive and easy to fit our suitcases in.

Pandemic Planning

If you are thinking about doing a trip during the Coronavirus pandemic, a few more thoughts!

It is really nice traveling with your own toilet and shower.

Be aware that weather has a big impact on trips, especially when social distancing.  It’s a small space, especially when everyone is in it.  The RV we rented was 25x8’, including the driver’s cab!  Evenings where we couldn’t get out and do things were tough on the nerves.  For our trip, that included some really cold nights, but rain or excessive heat could have the same effect.

Our RV trip during “social distancing” definitely changed how we planned.  It reminds you how much of our tourism revolves around museums, stores and restaurants.  We drove past so many interesting local establishments ranging from Native American crafts to local woodworking to local markets.  Eating local is one of our favorite ways to learn and experience a culture.  For our trip in March, there were many more unknowns about how the virus spread, so we stocked the RV up and didn’t eat out much.  For our next trip, we’ll likely do takeout from local establishments a bit more to support them and experience the culture.  Like at home, it’s an interesting balance of wanting to support a local business and keeping distant.

It also impacted our food choices.  We couldn’t stop for lunch anywhere - no indoor dining and our RV didn’t fit through most drive thrus.  We had to pull over in a parking lot and cook lunch in the vehicle.  We hadn’t shopped for that initially, so we had to get creative.  Next trip, we’ll plan our some lunches that can be assembled in the morning and eaten on the road or just reheated at a stop.

Looking Back At Our Favorites

We talked at dinner thinking back about the trip and some of our favorite stops.  There was a lot of consensus around the table.

For campgrounds, despite the very rustic bathrooms, the winner was the Lake McClellan Campground in Alanreed, Texas.  While it was the least expensive and most rustic campground, it had a huge field right on a beautiful lake.  The scenery was amazing, and there were only four RVs in the total of sixty available spaces.

Interestingly, the campground is now closed due to coronavirus concerns, and this was one of the places we felt the most socially distant on the entire trip!  The runner RV park up was the opposite side of the spectrum:  The Route 66 RV Resort outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico.  This is one the top rated RV parks in the US.  While it didn’t have the beauty of the lake, the RV park was well manicured and had great service and features.  The kids enjoyed putting on the putting practice green, and we made a great dinner on the gas grill they provided.

For sightseeing stops, Christine and I both picked the Petrified Forest National Park.  In all of our travels, we’d never seen anything like it.  It had great walking trails and beautiful landscapes.

While the kids enjoyed that, they both put the Elk & Bison Prairie  at Land Between the Lakes, Kentucky as their top choice (and was the second choice for the adults.)

We certainly enjoyed the scenery out west for our favorite driving legs.  As east coast residents, it was interesting to see the desert and cactus landscape evolve over the course of a few hours.  

We really enjoyed the trip from Mesa, AZ to Holbrook, NM and the next day’s journey from Holbrook to Albuquerque.  (The kids did not have a vote in this category, because they had zero interest in passing scenery.) You can see our entire journey on the map if you want to revisit it with us!

Day 10: Hagerstown, MD to Home!

We are home!

We woke up and got right on the road from Hagerstown.  Without rush hour traffic, it was an easy drive home despite the rain.  We spent some time before bedtime last night packing our clothes and getting our supplies into bags.  That enabled us to quickly unpack when we pulled up to home.  We cleaned the RV - inside and out.  We had to return it clean, and the outside had gotten pretty dirty from some of the more rustic campsites.  Washing an RV in the middle of the rain must have been an interesting sight!

Once unloaded and clean, I took the RV and headed out again to fill the propane.  From there, I headed to Cruise America and returned the RV, where it was off for a deep clean for its new owners.  Christine and the kids drove from the house to pick me up (no Ubers for us these days).  We got back home at 12:15 PM, and need to unpack, do laundry, and prepare for social distancing from here.  Additionally, we had the hardwood floors done while we were in Arizona, and still haven’t unpacked into our new kitchen, so lots of work to keep us busy here!

Our RV adventure covered 2735 miles over 10 days.  We were in 11 states - Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia.  The map is available here if you want to see it.

We’ll likely have some more thoughts to share about the trip, but wanted to let you know we arrived home safe and sound.

Day 9: Gassaway, WV to Hagerstown, MD

We woke up to a beautiful morning on the Elk River in West Virginia.  When we arrived last night it was cold and drizzly. The campsite had two sections - a top one that mainly had long term stays, and a lower lot on the river with more open spaces.  We opted for the lower lot even though it didn’t have a bathhouse or wifi. Christine and I both braved an RV shower this morning and it was fine. Not ideal, but doable (and necessary).  

While it was a bit muddy this morning, we spent some time playing along the beautiful river bank before heading out.  The kids had fun letting out some energy on the swings and hammocks while Christine had some work calls.

There was a Kroger right near the RV park, so we stopped for perishables for home on the way out of town.  We haven’t been home for almost two weeks, so figured it was a good opportunity to get bread, fruits and veggies.  The likelihood of COVID-19 being in a grocery store in rural West Virginia was drastically lower than in high-density Arlington.  The store was really prepared, with someone dedicated to sanitizing carts and signs telling patrons to keep six foot distance.  

From there we headed to Prickett’s Fort State Park.  It was a beautiful afternoon to be outside.  We got to see the fort from the outside (doesn’t officially open until April), as well as take a nice nature walk along the water.  We were surprised how many cars were in the parking lot, but most of them were there as it has a number of hiking trails. We didn’t see anyone around the fort, and the people on the trails were doing their responsible social distancing.  Our trail was empty!  

We got in the car, and routed home to Arlington, VA.  We were less than four hours from home, and could be home for dinner and spend the night in our own beds.  The kids love looking at Waze and see how far the GPS says we have to go. “We have almost four hours to our campground?!?!”  We told them it was to our house, expecting them to be excited to be home after the rough day yesterday. We were wrong. They insisted on one more night in the RV, which was awesome.  We found a campground in Hagerstown, MD and got there before 5 PM. We picked a campsite on the river with no one on either side (hooray for social distancing!) and had time to set up and play some games.  The campground delivered pizza and wings, so we figured we’d support a local business and ordered them for dinner, which also freed up time from cooking to have more family time. The kids invented soccer golf, which is like mini-golf with a soccer ball and driftwood stick “clubs” we picked up at one of our stops.  

It was a beautiful night, so we spent most of it outside. I’m typing this from the picnic table next to the campfire.  

We have had a great adventure and are so grateful for the family time that this terrible situation has given us.  We know the kids will look back fondly on this trip and that we truly made the most of the opportunity. Thanks to everyone for joining us virtually, and we hope to follow along on your experiences in the future.

We need to have the RV back in Manassas, VA by 11 AM.   We are little over an hour from home. We will set out early to go home to unload and clean the RV.  We can then take a car and follow the RV to return it to remove the need for a long Uber ride home. Our adventure is coming to an end.