3 weeks on the road in Colorado

Here we go again. 2016 family summer road trip...this may be our last in our current rig Eddie. 2 days at my Aunt Karens in Central Valley. Swimming for the kids, riding UTV's and driving the ol 4runner around was great. We headed to Capitol Reef National Park and stayed at the Fruita campground the next 2 nights. What a great place to camp. All the apricots you could eat right off the tree. We headed down to Torrey for the Apple Days parade and a not so great burger. We did a good hike to an arch with the kids. Next we headed in Colorado for a night in Fruita...kinda sketchy in Fruita and the campground was alive with a billion flesh eating mosquitos. We stopped at the Colorado Nat Monument and watched the fireworks. On to Montrose were we have been having fun swimming and getting out on our bikes. There was a live band and BBQ right here at the KOA. We are heading to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park tomorrow then onto Gunnison for a few days. So far so good, I hope these kids will remember these times with their old Mom and Dad :)

Back on the road again 2015 Summer

We are at it again. Road tripping in the 29 foot land mammal called Eddie. We had a late start to our trip Saturday because a tire valve decided to rip off just as we hit the freeway. With a late Start we ended up in Elko at Janas cousin SueAnn's house. It was a great stop for the 4th of July. We headed to downtown Elko for a BBQ and fireworks. Nothing but nice folks in Elko for sure.

Day 2 got us into Oregon after a very long day of driving. We ended up at Junipers RV resort just outside of Lakeview.

Day 3 we secured a spot in Klamath Falls KOA for the night..and oh boy what a crap hole. So far that was the low point of the trip other than the pool I felt like I needed to stay inside the motorhome. Cade and I took a bike ride to the Post Office downtown. I will never say Glendale Utah is a ghetto after rolling through the garbage part of town.

Day 4-5 We headed to Crater Lake National Park. We stayed at the Mazama Campground inside the park. We had a ton of fun at Crater riding our bikes and the girls even made some friends. We headed to the lake after a short decent on a short trail. The girls swam and we made the ascent back up with light grunting.

Day 6 - We made it to Grants Pass And staying in a great little campground with some natural waterfalls and swimming holes. The kids have goats to feed and the rain just cooled off the hot day.

Back to life as we once knew it

"The things you own end up owning you"- Tyler Durden

5 weeks on the road..sorta. The last week we had a couple days at home before ending the trip in Idaho. I was VERY tempted to head north to Canada.

Being home now for a solid week has given me time to think a lot about our trip and how we are living our lives. I have some major changes to make, at home, at work, and at play. We can all live with a lot less. This world makes us all believe we need things to be happy. I house full of crap that we don't need and a job we show up to everyday to keep that crap and get more crap.

We rode our bikes more, watched zero TV, ate out less, ate dinner together as a family. We hiked to lakes instead of surfing the web. We played games together and explored new places we had never seen.

I think the biggest thing we took away from the trip was we are all happier when we haven't scheduled our lives away and we spend time with the ones we love. I can only hope for more of that precious time.

Macie Moon

Craters of the Moon.

We spent another day at Downata since the kids were having so much fun. Then we headed to Malad where we have some family land. We have a family reunion next weekend, but I don't think we will stay all week, but we will be here for the reunion.. Its damn hot here. High Uintas have been calling me and the road may take me there soon. My parents met us in Malad and brought our car so we have a little more freedom to roam in the minivan.

Our little Macie had her 7th birthday yesterday. It was nice to have my parents come up with presents and a cake to make her feel special.

pop da loon

Cade likes to sing and "pop-da-loon" is a instant classic. Craters of the Moon was OK. We wont be back again so I made sure to get a bumper sticker for Eddy. They have some short trails but instead of having little information plaques along they way its political rants about humans damaging stuff and pollution eating away lichens. I got super tired of it quick. Just teach me about what I am looking at for hells sake.

We headed to Pocatello the next day to to stock up at the Wally word and Costco. We ended up staying at Scout Mountain campground where there are trails and cool air. Today we are in Downata Hot Springs. Awesome place seriously. An oasis in the Idaho desert. 

One more National Park

We decided to head West from Victor through Idaho Falls and into Arco, Idaho...aka known as a really strange place. Red neck, martian chasing, nuclear radiation kinda town. The Targhee National Forest heading out of Victor is a place I could see myself having a cabin one day. Tomorrow we are heading into Craters of the Moon National monument. Not sure were we head from there..probably south towards Malad or maybe we just keep going west until we hit the ocean.

This kid is a handful!