We are on the road!

Last year, my Mom and Dad joined us on the farm.  This year, my sister Rhonda and her children Aaron, Zoe, Bailey and Reagan, joined us on the farm.  Her husband Justin is there when he is not working in the oil field in Williston, ND.  Additionally, my sister Brenda, her husband Edward and their children Trenton and Taryn joined us. 

On a date night on August 18^th, while discussing where my sister Brenda, and her family might spend the winter (they had been living in our camper in the front yard…not really feasible after early November) Sheryll suggested that we buy a motor home and leave for the winter, allowing them to “winter over” in our home.  This motor home trip is an idea we have been dreaming about since around 2006 when our friends Bruce and Kim Orr told us about their motor home trip.  After that, the ball began rolling pretty quickly.

On September 2^nd, I flew to Detroit, MI to purchase our 2007 Damon Challenger and drive it home.  We purchased an 8 seat mini-van to pull behind it, as our 15 passenger is too heavy.  We almost fit in it! 

On Sunday, October 27^th, at 4pm, we pulled out of our driveway to start our motor home trip south.  We will be gone all winter, heading southwest to southern California, and then heading east across the southern states.  According to Bruce Orr, our children are now “Road Scholars”.  J

The day of departure...

Teddy loves the freedom of motor home travel!  And big sister doesn't mind it either...

We travelled to Dickinson, ND, intending to spend the first night in the parking lot of the Walmart there.  However, they had banned all overnight RV parking due to the oil field impact.  So we pressed on, driving until midnight when we were passing through Bowman, ND almost to the South Dakota border.  Trevor said, “Why don’t we see if that truck stop will let us stay there?”  So I pulled in and asked, and they said, “Help yourself!” 

The next day we drove south, and as we were approaching the split to go through Newell, SD my sister Donna who lives in the Black Hills called and asked where we were.  We were just north of Newell, and she said her husband Jerry was just south of Newell headed for Minot!  So we met him alongside the road, with barely enough room to get our rig off the highway.  He stepped inside the motorhome and we visited for a bit before heading on.  The next day I texted Mom and said, “Mt Rushmore today, and dinner with Donna and Jaralei tonight!”  She texted back and said, “While you’re having dinner with Donna and Jaralei there, we’ll be having dinner with Jerry here!”  Too funny.

We stayed at Hart Ranch southeast of Rapid City, SD.  It was a great RV resort, but the weather wasn’t great the first couple of days.  We went to the South Dakota Air and Space Museum, Mt Rushmore, and relaxed for a day at Hart Ranch playing at the park and putt putt golf range.

Who's the old guy with the glasses?

We left on Trevor’s (and Tyler’s) birthday, Friday, November 1^st and headed for Gillette, WY to visit Jim and Jewel Hawkins.  However, we didn’t get very far!  As we pulled out of Hart Ranch, the winds were gusting and unrolling the tarp that goes over the slide-out and it was flapping against the side of the motor home.  I called a local RV place to see if they had any tips for dealing with this.  They said, “Yes, get off the road!  The winds are forecast 30-50, gusting to 60.  Our drivers who deliver motor homes can’t drive if it’s over 30.  We recommend you wait it out.”  So we went to a WalMart parking lot and spend several hours there, leaving for Gillette a little after 5pm.  The rest of the trip was uneventful, but it was a bummer to be traveling after dark…makes it a little tough to “see the country.”

When we arrived in Gillette, Jim, Jewel and Joselyn met us at the Flying J and led us to their church.  At their church they had an RV parking spot that was awesome.  We had full hookups…it was very nice. 

We had a great visit with them, attending their church on Sunday morning and then departed for Casper, WY where Sheryll’s cousin, Vicki Johnson lives.  We had a great, albeit short visit with her, and then continued on to Rock Springs, WY where we spent the night in a Walmart parking lot.  Again, driving at night was not optimum, so hopefully we won’t be doing that much for the rest of the trip.  But we feel somewhat pressed to get farther south, as it got down to the low 20s last night in Rock Springs.  Upon arrival, we also discovered that one of the tie-down straps had come off one of the wheels of the van, and it was almost coming off the tow dolly.  Oops!  Thank you, Lord, that it stayed on!  We’ll be checking those a little more regularly…

The next morning we drove to an RV park in Ogden, UT.  It was a beautiful drive through the Rocky Mountains.  We arrived at the park, set up and hopped in the van to go and tour the Sweet’s Quality Candy factory in Salt Lake City.  It was a fun tour, led by a young man who had done his LDS mission to the Ukraine and spoke Russian. 

The next morning was November 5^th, Courtney’s birthday.  We got up and had a leisurely morning, with several showers and the kids playing at the playground. We left and went to Chik-Fil-A for Court’s birthday lunch.  Then we left and headed to Elko, NV, driving across the Great Salt Lake.  We stopped for Courtney’s birthday dinner at Wells, NV at a restaurant called Bella’s.

We spent the night in a Walmart parking lot in Elko, NV.  The next morning we got up and left for Fallon, NV.  We arrived at Alan and Tracy Harrison’s house in the early afternoon.  We had a great evening of visiting with them.  The next day we got up and had a normal morning, and in the afternoon we went to NAS Fallon and walked through the static displays they had there, and at Alan’s suggestion we went up into the observation deck of the control tower.  It was great fun watching the jets take off and land. 

Toby Thomas called and asked if we wanted to shoot skeet the next day with Lou Mellott.  So the next morning we got up, and Trevor, Tucker, Tanner and I went with Alan, Toby and Lou out to shoot skeet.  It was a great time!  We shot and laughed and goofed off, then went out for pizza for lunch, and then went to Stockmen’s rentals to operate an excavator.  Alan told the boys he needed help “digging a hole” and acted like they would be using shovels.  Then when we got there he let each of us take a turn operating the excavator.  We all had a great time.  At the end was a test to see if you could pick up a five gallon bucket by the handle with the teeth of the excavator, and then set it down in a certain spot.  

While we did this, Tracy took the girls and younger boys shopping, and they had a great time as well.

On Saturday, November 9^th, after lunch we went to the Churchill County museum and learned about the history of Fallon and Nevada. Toby and Connie Thomas joined us there.  Then we all went out to Sand Mountain, and Alan brought along their four wheelers.  Everyone had a great time riding on the sand dunes and visiting.  After that, we came home and had pizza together at Alan and Tracy’s house.

On Sunday we went to church and saw lots of old friends, including the doctor who delivered Courtney, Galen Reimer.  After church we went to Toby and Connie’s house for lunch.  Later that evening they suggested Sheryll and I go on a date while they kept the kids.  There had been conversation about an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, so on the way home we stopped and picked one up for everyone to share.  Unbeknownst to us, soon after we left, Alan and Toby and the older boys went to pick one up.  So when we walked in with ours, they were just finishing up theirs.  It was pretty funny.

Toby and Tanner

Teddy liked the ride until I went up the side of a dune and back down at an angle.  Then it was, "Mama!"

On Monday, we went to Toby and Connie’s and Connie fixed us breakfast.  Toby had gone to work that morning.  Then we went back to the RV to clean it while Connie kept the little kids.  Then I took Trevor and Tucker and we drove the RV to Stockmen Rentals and used Alan’s tools to wash and wax it.  Then that night we went to Toby and Connie’s for supper, and Alan and Tracy brought the second ice cream cake for dessert.

On Tuesday, we prepped to leave, said our goodbye’s to Alan and Tracy, and headed out.

Chillin at Toby and Connie's with Trev's new IPad

We met Connie on the outskirts of town, and she led us to the historic town of Virginia City.  We walked through town, and then drove on to Reno.  We at at In-N-Out burgers, and then went to tour the National Auto Museum, formerly known as Harrah’s Auto Museum in Reno.   It was a great time, something that appealed to young and old.  Then we went to dinner with Toby and Connie at Panda Express.  They led us to a Walmart where we planned to spend the night.  The sign at the entrance said, “Absolutely  no overnight parking.  Period.”  Wonder what they meant by that?  We followed them to a school by Connie’s Mom’s house, hoping we could park there.  But we couldn’t put the slide-outs out.   So we said our goodbyes and headed out.  We checked on parking in some casino parking lots, but they had RV parks there so said no.  So we drove on to our next stop at Minden Lake RV park in Nicolaus, CA.

We got into a routine in Nicolaus.  We did some schooling, cooked on our camp stove, and went shopping In Nicolaus which was 28 miles away.  On Saturday evening, we went on a family walk around the lake in the moonlight.  We visited the Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento.  The highlight of our stay in Nicolaus was touring the facilities of our favorite Christian radio station, K-LOVE located in Rocklin, CA.  They are great folks, and everyone had a great time during the tour, which included meeting a couple of the DJs we listen to.

 You might be a redneck if...you barbecue under an umbrella?