I will be honest, in the entirety of my life I have not traveled very far. I was born in Germany, lived in Kansas as a young child, and eventually we moved via Amtrak to Western Washington on a train. After that I only left Washington state two or three times, and those trips were to Vancouver B.C. and Portland, Oregon. Basically three hours in either direction from where I lived.
For our honeymoon my wife and I went to Kauai, Hawaii, which was the first flight I had been on in 30 years (prior flight was from Germany to USA when I was 2). Needless to say I did not get around very much. Sure I enjoyed the regular two hour trip to Ocean Shores as much as the next person, but that does not really qualify as "travel".
As our kids continued to grow older, Shawna and I realized we were running low on time to travel as a family before our two oldest are grown up (16 and 13). The goal of traveling was not to simply go see some random places, the underlying motivation was to build memories as a family that would last a lifetime. These shared memories would help to make bonds and create stories our children would remember when they're older.
Some of my fondest memories with my siblings were when we would go camping. As stated above, we did not travel much, but we certainly did get out of the house and into the outdoors. Camping was one of our form of building shared memories. Whether through Boy Scouts, or a family trip to Mt. Rainier, it feels like we camped all the time. Reality is that we camped once or twice a year, but the memories were that strong.
We wanted to find a way to combine some of the aspects of camping and travel. You guessed it, we bought an RV. What could be better than packing 6 people, along with a hefty amount of our belongings, into a 31' Motorhome? It turns out not much.
Was every aspect of our 10 night - 11 day road trip worthy of story or, as Samwise Gamgee would desire, to be put into song? Depends on who you ask, and which parts of the trip. Whether we were watching the sunset over the Grand Canyon, or eating authentic street tacos in Fillmore, Utah (yes I said authentic), certain parts of the trip resonate with each person, which leads to great reminiscing.
My personal favorite was going from swimming in sunny Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, one day, and then driving through a snow storm in the Rocky Mountains on our way to Garrison, Montana. Don't get me started on driving through a wind storm in Arizona followed by a sand storm in Utah. We had several fun days driving.
What I loved the most about the trip was doing it together. Our first road trip turned into an amazing adventure, and now it is an experience that we will share forever. What types of experiences are you making with your friends and family that will create shared memories.
Let’s hit the road again!