Nearly half a year of planning meant we were pretty chill as we rolled on out of my parents’ driveway in Central Mass on June 19th. Our trip would take us from coast to coast and back in six weeks, with a dog, two kids and a husband working on the road.
The summer after quarantine, the huge issue was finding campground space to fill every single day well before we left. If you know me, you know that my MO is to have no accommodations set in advance – barring places that are in high demand – and spend time during the mornings I want to depart a locale seeking out desirable campsites/hotels in a driveable radius. Well, when I went to book the high demand campsites for this trip, in February-ish, it became clear quickly that everybody in America got the same idea around the same time.
My two main goals were to see Glacier and to see my family in the Seattle area. I looked for an RV spot at a place that a) took reservations and b) was full-hookup (or close to it) near Glacier first. For the whole summer there was only one spot that met that description, from 6/28-6/30. So, we took that spot and then I looked for campsites near our family in Washington for the Fourth of July weekend. That was where it got tricky. Long story short, we had to divert to Hells Canyon, ID, then take a spot at a random state park in mid-Washington, before arriving in Kitsap. After that, the rest of the trip fell into place.
Important to know, folks: If you are going to Glacier, Yosemite, Rocky Mountain, or any other popular National Parks, you must pay attention whether or not there is a timed entry system. And you must do this months in advance. You cannot get into Glacier after 6 am or before 5 pm without a timed entry ticket. I missed the window for the first 75% of tickets and had to get up at 8 am Mountain Time two days before and keep trying for one of the remaining timed entry tickets over and over in a pop up window until (thankfully) we got one. I read that not everyone is quite so lucky.
We were so blessed to have loving and trusting parents who loaned us both their truck and RV, so our up-front cost was taking care of all the pre-trip service a month before-hand to make sure we were safe on the road. As far as clothes, food, and RV gear, I won’t bore you. The main thing we kept in mind was how to keep the RV as light and as clean as possible while four humans and a dog shared the space.
Leading up to the journey, there was a lot of apprehension about how to drive and maneuver this 26-foot trailer, so there were practice sessions in parking lots and on the road. They went well, but we did have a lot of worries about getting into an accident beforehand. Spoiler alert (I’m writing this nearly two weeks in) it is not scary at all. You just really have to think in advance about where you will be eating and getting gas or supplies.
Another thing of note: we prefer having a truck towing a trailer versus a straight up motorhome, because there are certain sceninc roads that a standard RV would be prohibited from traversing. It’s also nice to have just the truck to take into towns and cities for sight seeing. Detaching and re-attaching the trailer from the truck every couple of days as we go is not particularly cumbersome; we have the whole thing down to an art. Also, the business of hooking up a sewage line and removing it, isn’t nearly as gross as it could be.
Most of my posts from here on out will be a combination of life on the road and the sights we see along the way. The good, the bad and the somewhat ugly. Here’s hoping it’s mostly good…
Setting the Heather Alight 