Epic Trip 2018 - Starting the journey
Friday, June 22: We picked up the RV from Cruise America at a little before 1 PM. I had been going back and forth between the 25' and the 30' rental (their medium and large) but they had a good deal on the 30' so I went with that.
I had gone 2 days before and let them know that we were traveling a long ways and asked if we could get a unit that was going to be up to the task. Sure enough - we were greeted with a practically brand new unit that only had 4,000 miles on it. The seats were all leather (or a synthetic?) but still had the "new car" smell.
We brought it home, and I went back to work in the office for the afternoon and Karson and the kids set to work loading everything. We had been loading stuff into the living room so a lot of it was from there straight out into the RV. We ran the shore-line directly into garage and plugged it in so that we could get the A/C running. However, we kept throwing every breaker that we tried. I found one that was a 30-amp breaker, and it kept throwing that one too.
(Note to self - I have wanted another outlet on the wall in the side of the garage where the breaker panel is. I think I will throw a 50-amp fuse outlet on that wall. That is where it will need to be for the future Tesla anyways, right? 😀
So at 3 PM after Karson's and the kid's hard word, we were loaded up and ready to roll. We loaded the kids in and took off. It was a particularly hot day, and as we were in the valley, the A/C in the RV wasn't keeping up with it to the back. So the kids were mostly huddled around the front since that is where it was coolest. But it was obvious right off the bat that we were glad that we had the 30'.
Part of my worry had been how the extra length would drive. We had rented a 25' from a private person in Oct 2017 that was the same model as the Cruise America RVs (I think it had been an old one) and it had driven alright, but was a bit stressful. Granted we had gone thru the mountains to Zions Park ... but now as we took off into the mountains right away I already enjoyed driving this more. It could be that it was brand new, so the steering and suspension was all brand new. But it had a good ride, and there wasn't a ton of rattle.
This was the route that we took.
We had plenty of food and not having to stop to pee is great - so we could just keep on moving. The mountains thru Payson and to Holbrook are a little stressful with an RV, but I settled in and was good. By the time we were to Holbrook, we hit the Interstate and now we were cruising!
The first day wasn't bad. Everyone was pretty excited to be in the RV still. Everyone settled into their spots and went to sleep. The back was warm, and we kept the middle vents pointed back and the A/C cranked to try and help, but the furthest back bedroom was still really hot. Karson ended up opening the side windows and it helped a little but not a ton.
At 12.45 AM I pulled into a truck stop, filled up with gas, and went around the truck stop and ended up pulling in beside some trucks across the street. I closed up the windows, kicked on the generator, slept for an hour, and then got up and turned the generator off. (You get charged $3.50 / hour for generator use. Not terrible, but you want to run it sparingly.)
Saturday, June 23: I woke up at 5.45 AM, pounded a 5 hour energy, and pulled out. The theme of the day: JUST . KEEP . DRIVING! We drove, and we drove, and we drove.
Karson and the kid took turns up front "entertaining Dad". I had lots planed to listen to, but everyone kept cycling thru. We had some great conversations ranging from gospel topics to Church history ... to conversations with Nate ranged a lot about cows, and horses and things we were seeing. He was really blown away with how green everything was as we went thru the day.
Lunchtime we made it to Oklahoma City. Dinner time was St Louis, LA. We made it thru Indianapolis, IN and I started going cross-eyed. (Note: Indiana has the W.O.R.S.T roads ever! Their engineers have no clue how to make a transition from bridge to road. It would jam the entire rig EVERY time!) It was about 2.45 AM, and we had gone almost 1,200 miles that day. The truck stop was packed! I parked in 1 spot, and just climbed into bed beside Karson when a trucker honked that we were in his way to get out. I moved the RV to another spot, kicked on the generator and A/C, and crashed in the back.
Our route for day 2 (we made it about an hour past Indianapolis ....).
Sunday, June 24: My alarm went off at 5.45 AM, and I snoozed it till 6 AM, and then another 5-hour energy, and back at the wheel. This time, everyone stayed sleeping, and I drove for a while by myself. It was a pretty foggy morning.
I was glad for the time alone. I listened to Elder Kim Clark's great talk "Embrace the Plan", and then listened to Elder Holland's testimony of the Book of Mormon in "Safety for the Soul". I was spinning up another talk and then my kids got up. 👱 Matt and Grace were the first 2 up today, and I was trying to get a selfie, but failed. The fog had burned off and it was bright.
The goal today: Palmyra, NY or bust! Pretty much right as we hit the NY state line, it started raining. It was raining quite a bit.
Being Sunday, and being that we try really hard with our Sabbath observance, we talked a lot about where we were going, and why we were going there. We then lined up the kids, and had them watch "The Restoration" so they could get the Spirit of it before we got there.
We made it to the RV park in Newark, NY right at 3 PM. This was our route this day.
We hooked up the RV, did showers, and got ready to head to the Sacred Grove. We paused for a quick selfie in the RV before we took off:
After about an hour, it started raining harder. So we made out way to the visitor's center and then decided to do the tour of the Joseph Smith homes.
I will write a bit more about the Sacred Grove after we go today, but the kids enjoyed the tour.
I had gone 2 days before and let them know that we were traveling a long ways and asked if we could get a unit that was going to be up to the task. Sure enough - we were greeted with a practically brand new unit that only had 4,000 miles on it. The seats were all leather (or a synthetic?) but still had the "new car" smell.
We brought it home, and I went back to work in the office for the afternoon and Karson and the kids set to work loading everything. We had been loading stuff into the living room so a lot of it was from there straight out into the RV. We ran the shore-line directly into garage and plugged it in so that we could get the A/C running. However, we kept throwing every breaker that we tried. I found one that was a 30-amp breaker, and it kept throwing that one too.
(Note to self - I have wanted another outlet on the wall in the side of the garage where the breaker panel is. I think I will throw a 50-amp fuse outlet on that wall. That is where it will need to be for the future Tesla anyways, right? 😀
So at 3 PM after Karson's and the kid's hard word, we were loaded up and ready to roll. We loaded the kids in and took off. It was a particularly hot day, and as we were in the valley, the A/C in the RV wasn't keeping up with it to the back. So the kids were mostly huddled around the front since that is where it was coolest. But it was obvious right off the bat that we were glad that we had the 30'.
Part of my worry had been how the extra length would drive. We had rented a 25' from a private person in Oct 2017 that was the same model as the Cruise America RVs (I think it had been an old one) and it had driven alright, but was a bit stressful. Granted we had gone thru the mountains to Zions Park ... but now as we took off into the mountains right away I already enjoyed driving this more. It could be that it was brand new, so the steering and suspension was all brand new. But it had a good ride, and there wasn't a ton of rattle.
This was the route that we took.
We had plenty of food and not having to stop to pee is great - so we could just keep on moving. The mountains thru Payson and to Holbrook are a little stressful with an RV, but I settled in and was good. By the time we were to Holbrook, we hit the Interstate and now we were cruising!
The first day wasn't bad. Everyone was pretty excited to be in the RV still. Everyone settled into their spots and went to sleep. The back was warm, and we kept the middle vents pointed back and the A/C cranked to try and help, but the furthest back bedroom was still really hot. Karson ended up opening the side windows and it helped a little but not a ton.
At 12.45 AM I pulled into a truck stop, filled up with gas, and went around the truck stop and ended up pulling in beside some trucks across the street. I closed up the windows, kicked on the generator, slept for an hour, and then got up and turned the generator off. (You get charged $3.50 / hour for generator use. Not terrible, but you want to run it sparingly.)
Saturday, June 23: I woke up at 5.45 AM, pounded a 5 hour energy, and pulled out. The theme of the day: JUST . KEEP . DRIVING! We drove, and we drove, and we drove.
Karson and the kid took turns up front "entertaining Dad". I had lots planed to listen to, but everyone kept cycling thru. We had some great conversations ranging from gospel topics to Church history ... to conversations with Nate ranged a lot about cows, and horses and things we were seeing. He was really blown away with how green everything was as we went thru the day.
Lunchtime we made it to Oklahoma City. Dinner time was St Louis, LA. We made it thru Indianapolis, IN and I started going cross-eyed. (Note: Indiana has the W.O.R.S.T roads ever! Their engineers have no clue how to make a transition from bridge to road. It would jam the entire rig EVERY time!) It was about 2.45 AM, and we had gone almost 1,200 miles that day. The truck stop was packed! I parked in 1 spot, and just climbed into bed beside Karson when a trucker honked that we were in his way to get out. I moved the RV to another spot, kicked on the generator and A/C, and crashed in the back.
Our route for day 2 (we made it about an hour past Indianapolis ....).
Sunday, June 24: My alarm went off at 5.45 AM, and I snoozed it till 6 AM, and then another 5-hour energy, and back at the wheel. This time, everyone stayed sleeping, and I drove for a while by myself. It was a pretty foggy morning.
I was glad for the time alone. I listened to Elder Kim Clark's great talk "Embrace the Plan", and then listened to Elder Holland's testimony of the Book of Mormon in "Safety for the Soul". I was spinning up another talk and then my kids got up. 👱 Matt and Grace were the first 2 up today, and I was trying to get a selfie, but failed. The fog had burned off and it was bright.
The goal today: Palmyra, NY or bust! Pretty much right as we hit the NY state line, it started raining. It was raining quite a bit.
Being Sunday, and being that we try really hard with our Sabbath observance, we talked a lot about where we were going, and why we were going there. We then lined up the kids, and had them watch "The Restoration" so they could get the Spirit of it before we got there.
We made it to the RV park in Newark, NY right at 3 PM. This was our route this day.
We hooked up the RV, did showers, and got ready to head to the Sacred Grove. We paused for a quick selfie in the RV before we took off:
The kids were excited. It was raining, off and on, but back inside the grove the natural canopy mostly kept the rain off. We walked around back in the Sacred Grove for a while. We just visited and enjoyed the Spirit of it. But the weather tomorrow is supposed to be a lot better, so we were planning to do our devotional tomorrow (Monday). So we were just hanging out and enjoying it. (Matt was enjoying it. Not sure why he didn't smile).
After about an hour, it started raining harder. So we made out way to the visitor's center and then decided to do the tour of the Joseph Smith homes.
I will write a bit more about the Sacred Grove after we go today, but the kids enjoyed the tour.
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