Favorite Memories and Trip Stats

Favorite Memories

James – Florida Keys, New York City, Washington DC, Gator Farm
Lucas – Busch Gardens, Gator Farm, Shaver-Hill Maple Operation, Meeting up with the Killams

Isabella – Busch Gardens, Florida Keys, Maine, Joe and Shelly’s

Eve – Texas, Busch Gardens, Boat ride in Miami

Zach – Disneyland, Busch Gardens, Carlsbad Caverns

Elizabeth – Disneyland, Busch Gardens, Swimming in the ocean and seeing jellyfish

Nancy – Visiting family and friends and meeting new people. She also loved the warm weather and humidity.

Rob – I loved it all!

Trip Statistics

Days on the road: 80

States visited: 45 of the lower 48. We missed North Dakota, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Miles driven: 14,700

Gallons of gas consumed: 2,100. The highest price paid was $4.50/gallon in Los Angeles and the cheapest was $3.35/gallon in Wichita.

Overnight stays at Walmart: 14

Pictures taken: almost 2000

Stray dogs adopted: 1

Memories made: countless

Would we do it all over again - ABSOLUTELY!

June 4 – Home

We spent the morning visiting family in Shelton and sharing details of our adventure before heading north toward home late in the afternoon. As we neared Duvall, the kids were cheering in the back of the RV. Although they were happy to be home, it wasn’t as if they were tired of all the travel. In fact, I think all of us would be content to jump in the RV and hit the road again tomorrow.

June 3 – Shelton, WA – Grandpa and Grandma Hunter

Another drive day today as we made our way up through southwest Washington stopping in Naches to have dinner with an old family friend. After dinner we headed over White Pass into western Washington turning north toward Shelton where we spent the night at my mom and dad’s place.

June 1-2 – Nampa, ID – Joe and Shelly Gorman

We stopped in Nampa on our way back into the northwest to visit Nancy’s aunt and uncle, Joe and Shelly, and their kids, Jimmy and Annie. We enjoyed a couple of nice fires in their backyard and we all went to the local Family Fun Center on Saturday and rode go-karts and bumper boats and played lazer tag, putt-putt golf and arcade games. Jimmy introduced us to his serious girlfriend, Leslie, and Annie made a great breakfast for us on Saturday morning. We had a great time here and wish we lived closer so we could see these guys more often.

Shelly, Jimmy, Annie and our crew

Elizabeth eating smores

James and Isabella eating smores in Joe and Shelly's pond

Lucas playing it cool in the drivers seat

Isabella doing bumper boats

Backyard fire

Eve in her bright yellow go-kart

May 30-31 – Yellowstone National Park – Fishing Bridge Campground

Yellowstone is the oldest national park in the country – and the world for that matter - having been officially designated in 1872. The park comprises about 3500 square miles with most of that territory between 7,000 and 9,000 feet of elevation. Most people are likely aware of it’s predominate features – geothermal activity, incredible landscapes and animals – lot’s of ‘em. We spent two full days in the park seeing buffalo – the herd here numbers about 4,000, elk - including a 5 point buck in velvet, antelope, black bear – including a sow with cubs, coyote and big horn sheep. We were hoping to see wolves and grizzlies but that didn’t happen this time around. We also took in Old Faithful and saw all number of hot, smelly pools of water and mud. This stuff was really cool and the kids loved it. We stayed at a great campground right in the park – the spaces were pretty tight but it did make a convenient home base while we were sightseeing. We felt fortunate to have great weather while we were here given that our friends came through Yellowstone less than a week before we arrived and had snow and treacherous road conditions. It goes without say that the RV and snow don’t get along.

Yellowstone is easily within reach of those in western Washington – a couple of 8 hour driving days away. It is a trip very much work making for those that have never been. Make plans to visit!! You'll be glad you did.

The boys and I glassing the hills

5 point elk in velvet - I'd like to shoot this one with something other than a camera :)

Waiting for Old Faithful to blow

Old Faithful doing its thing

Geothermal stuff...

Female big horn sheep

James and Zach standing near a fort the kids built at our campground

May 29 – Cody, Wyoming – Walmart

Today was a travel day as we made our way from the Black Hills in South Dakota to Yellowstone National Park. Nancy and I celebrated our 13^th wedding anniversary today with a family dinner at Granny’s Family Restaurant in Cody. It won’t go down as the most romantic anniversary. Cody is a great little town with a strong western theme.

May 27-28 – Custer State Park – Game Lodge Campground/Legion Lake Campground

We began our second day in the Black Hills with a visit to Crazy Horse.  This huge carving was started in 1948 by Korczak Ziolkowski who was an assistant sculptor at Rushmore. The scale of the Crazy Horse monument is amazing. The Mt Rushmore sculpture is about 90 feet high whereas Crazy Horse is slated to be around 600 feet high when finished. The pace is slow going here – it took them 50 years to finish Crazy Horse’s face - because the work is being completely funded by private donations and entrance fees. They have a nice visitor’s center with an Indian museum, restaurant and a number of displays that discuss the carving. In the afternoon we headed toward Custer State Park. There is a wildlife loop drive about 18 miles long that takes you through the heart of the park’s buffalo herd. It was quite a sight to see them particularly given that it is spring and there were many newborn calves. We ended up finding an open spot at Game Lodge Campground inside the park. Interestingly the lodge next to the campground was the summer White House for Calvin Coolidge in 1927.

We met up with our friends, Chuck and Michelle Killam and their family, later in the day and all the kids got a chance to play. At night we all headed back up to Mt. Rushmore and saw the monument at night. They had a great program prior to lighting the monument where they honored all the veterans in the crowd. Great stuff. We enjoyed seeing Rushmore at night but, if you have the opportunity, I’d recommend visiting during the day for a better view of the sculpture where the details of the monument are more visible. That night we made our way back to Custer State Park where we stayed at Legion Lake Campground. We got to the campground late at night and when we woke up in the morning there were 3 massive buffalo right in the campground not 50 feet from our RV. AWESOME!! Once they moved on the kids rushed over to one of the trees they scraped against to pick up some buffalo hair to add to their collection of artifacts.

A side view of the sculpture as it stands today. See the bulldozer on the flat spot in front of the face and the excavator in the lower right corner of the picture? Yep - it's big!



A scale model of the completed sculpture




This big guy was 50' from our campspot. We just stood and watched he and his buddies quietly grazing.




Mother and newborn calf. The herd at Custer numbers about 1400.



May 26- Keystone, SD – Empty Parking Lot

It was a busy day today - we took in 2 great sights and also panned for gold!

The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, SD is an active archeological dig in what was an old sinkhole. This sinkhole formed thousands of years ago and was filled with warm water from an underground spring. The warm water allowed grass to grow around the rim of the sinkhole year round and some of the mammoths and other critters that were drawn to it fell in. Archaeologists, thus far, have excavated about 1/3^rd of the site and found about 60 mammoths. They allow tourists to walk in and around the site and view the work in progress. Many of the skeletons are left on display laying in the sinkhole as they were when they were uncovered.

No trip to the Black Hills would be complete without a gold panning experience. Gold was what originally brought settlers to this area in the 1870’s. We went to Wade’s Gold Mill in Hill City. These folks are the real deal. They actually designed and built their own gold mill that they use during the summers to sift through dirt from their claim. They welcome visitors and for a nominal fee they will give you a gold panning lesson and all the dirt you want to pan. The kids loved it. Although they didn’t find any gold, they did find a bunch of garnets and neat looking rocks.

We also visited Mt. Rushmore. This is such a great piece of Americana. We visited about 4 years ago and it was just a spectacular the second time. We took time during this visit to take in the museum. Here they provide a lot of information about how the monument came to be and the details of its construction. Very interesting stuff. It goes without saying that the methods they used wouldn’t be up to OSHA’s standards! We visited the small town of Keystone in the evening and got a picture of our family in cowboy garb. We spent the night in the parking lot of a closed restaurant.



Yep - they are big!



Mammoth skull and tusks

Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln

Gold panning lessons

Trying to strike it rich



Eve carefully sifting through the contents of her pan 




Dirt, rocks and a stream - Zach says it's too good to be true!



May 25 – Sleepy Hollow RV Park – Wall, SD

How could you go through South Dakota and miss Wall Drugstore?? We couldn’t. This place is the quintessential tourist trap – they sell all kinds of souvenirs and have a bunch of attractions geared toward kids including props for pictures, a gold panning experience and a huge, fake T-Rex that comes alive every 15 minutes. Zach won’t forget him anytime soon! This is also the first stop on our visit to the Badlands of South Dakota and the Black Hills.

May 24 – Nebraska City, NE – Walmart

Today was a travel day and another glorious night spent in a Walmart parking lot. It seems appropriate that we camped next to a huge field of corn :).

May 23 – Lindsborg, KS – Ken and Sarah Moburg

Ken and Sarah are cousins on my mom’s side. They live in a log home that they built on 80 acres about 1 hour north of Wichita in a small Swedish town called Lindsborg. We enjoyed the opportunity to visit them and enjoy their rural homestead. For dinner we broke out the provisions that we brought from Maine including fiddleheads and brown bread. The rural setting provided another great opportunity for the dogs and kids to cut loose and spend some time outside. The next day we all made the 2 hour drive to Topeka to visit Sarah’s mom, Glenna, and her sister Susan and Susan’s kids Hannah and Jackson. We spent some time visiting and then headed to Bonkers, a Chucky Cheese equivalent, before we started driving north late in the evening.



The gang at Bonkers with Susan, Hannah and Jackson




Elizabeth on the Kansas prairie




Nancy, James and I with Glenna, Susan and Jackson





Ken, Sarah and the gang





I love this shot - the kids are helping Emily feed the chickens. This is a happy bunch!



May 20-22 – Wichita, KS – USI RV Park

We made it into Wichita in the late afternoon and found our way to a spot in the RV park that family friend, Pastor Mike Nolan, had reserved for us. We spent a couple months in Wichita about 4 years ago and were excited to make our way back here to check out some of the places we visited. While in town we ate at Texas Roadhouse – our favorite kid-friendly restaurant, hit the Gander Mountain store and took in a movie at Warren Theatres. We also went to The Alley where we did indoor go kart racing, bowling and a laser maze. Nancy and the kids also visited Tanganyika Wildlife Park - this is a small zoo where they allow you to actually pet some of the animals. The kids got to touch the giraffes and rhinos and they got to feed lemurs. Pretty awesome experience. We also had a great time in Wichita catching up with Pastor Mike who has been a great friend to our family. While in Wichita, I noticed that one of the front tires on the RV was wearing unevenly. I had it checked out and found that a ball joint had failed. A few hours later we were back on the road. Aside from a flat tire in Utah, this is the only equipment failure we’ve had on the trip – not too bad.









Luke inspects the Rhino's horn




Elizabeth feeds the lemurs








Pastor Mike and the kids



May 19 – Bentonville, AR – Walmart Flagship Store

Today was a travel day as we made our way toward Wichita. We managed to make it to Bentonville, home of Walmart, and spent the night in the parking lot of the flagship Walmart store. I tried unsuccessfully to locate a Walmart magnet to add to the collection that we are gathering from the various places we’ve been. We’ve got a pretty cool display put together in the RV that should serve as a reminder of our trip for years to come.

Check out the logo below. You really do "Live better" at Walmart...

May 17-18 – Paducah, KY – Auben and Darlene Goode

Auben and Darlene are good friends of Nancy's family and they welcomed us to their home in rural Paducah. We parked our RV in their driveway for a couple of days and got a chance to visit and stretch our legs a bit. The dogs got a rare chance to be off leash for an extended period of time and they loved it. We got a great tour of the town while we were here. Paducah is a river town located right on the Ohio - the riverfront is really nice and the town has done a lot to revitalize the downtown area in recent years. We also enjoyed some Kentucky barbeque from Starnes that Auben claims is the best you can get. I didn’t argue with him. We don’t get to see Auben and Darlene very often so Nancy and I spent most of our time out in the yard talking with them while the kids played yard games and canvassed the property looking for bugs, insects and animals to pester. We’ve found throughout our trip that the weather has been near perfect everywhere we’ve been. Kentucky was no exception – we enjoyed the 80 degree weather which was tempered with a nice breeze both days we were there.

James, Lucas and Zach on the riverfront

Auben, Darlene and the gang



Zach and Elizabeth playing in the yard



May 16 – Nashville, TN `– Seven Points Campground

We stayed the night at an Army Core of Engineers campground. Like state parks, these tend to be inexpensive but they lack some of the conveniences of modern, full service parks. This one was on a reservoir and offered huge campsites with mature forest all around. Pretty nice – we would have liked to spend a few days here.

Our first stop in town was the Country Music Hall of Fame. We are country fans and felt right at home here. There were displays and a lot of information from early country musicians all the way through today’s favorites. The museum was fantastic but small. A large addition is currently under construction. Next we walked the few blocks to Broadway which is lined with honky tonks and souvenier shops. Even at mid-day all the bars along Broadway had live music on stage. Pretty cool. We ate at Puckett’s Grocery which is evidently a local’s hangout a couple blocks off the main drag. After a quick stop at the Ryman Auditorium we headed north of town to the current home of the Grand Ole Opry. The night we were there it was hosting high school graduation. Fortunately there was a mall next door that had, among other things, a Bass Pro Shop so we went shopping.

The tribe on Broadway in Nashville

Lucas and Elizabeth goofing off

Jim with "Arfie" the dog. Nancy and the kids thought he needed a dog too.

May 15 – Morgantown, WV – Walmart

Today was a travel day. We made our way down through West Virginia and Kentucky towards Nashville. We’re definitely taking our time to enjoy all the beautiful scenery our country has to offer. I think the kids have had their fill of historic sights for a while. They’ve all had great attitudes but we hear a chorus of questions like “Is this another park/fort/battlefield?” as we approach each stop in our journey. We answer and then the next question is “Will we be able to ride our scooters?”

May 14 – Lancaster, PA - Walmart

At this point in our journey, we have finally started moving back west. Although we still have another several weeks on the road we are having such a good time that it’s a little sad to think that it will soon come to an end.

We spent the night in Lancaster – home of the Amish/Mennonite communities – and spent some time during the day driving around and seeing the countryside and the farms - very picturesque. We continued to make our way west driving into Gettysburg in the afternoon. Much of the Gettysburg battlefield is part of a national monument today with tributes of all shapes, sizes and types included to honor our forefathers and the men that fought and died there. There is a fantastic visitor center that we enjoyed. It has a 19^th century cyclorama that displays scenes of Pickett’s Charge which was Lee’s final effort to defeat the Union Army in the battle. They say that there were over 50,000 men either killed or wounded in the 3 day battle at Gettysburg. We visited the national cemetery that is located on one of the battlefields which was the site of, among other things, Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. It’s startling to see so many unmarked graves. Like many of the other battlefields we’ve seen it’s hard to get your head around the historic battles and the related death and bloodshed contrasted with the beautiful countryside that we see in these same places today. The visitor’s center and museum at Gettysburg are perhaps the best we’ve seen. Between the cyclorama which was originally painted in the 1880’s and restored several years ago and the first rate museum which showcased all sorts of things related to the Civil War and the Battle of Gettysburg, we really enjoyed the stop here and feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit.

Row's of largely unmarked graves. The remains of soliders were taken from battlefield graves and reinterred here in a national cemetery.

Monument near the site where Lincoln delivered the Gettsburg Address