Trip Report: The Perfect Family Trip!
EDIT: I wanted to add this link here at the beginning. Ragusa's Summer 2014 Trailer Hello friends! We have been home for two months, but I am just now feeling like getting to the trip repo...
Forum Discussion
Thanks Twain!
I received this PM a while back, and thought I'd put it on the thread.
From: coleman-colorado-pup
Sent: 07/17/15 10:35am
Subject: perfect family road trip
I would like you to know that I have read all 23 pages of this trip report and so enjoyed it! also watched the video and was great....
I have a question that maybe you could answer in the forum...others may be interested...can you give specifics on eating all your meals at camp or rest areas etc....eg. kind of a daily menu of sorts and logisitics of storing refridgerated foods when not at campsite and cooking and cleanup especially at rest/picnic ares. we only have a popup and usually on road trips we just eat all meals out, although we watch the budget!...my husband teaches and i am a school nurse so we have summers off and want to travel with pop up more often.
wondering if you had an extreme type cooler? did u onlu use block ice? where did you wash dishes at picnic areas? i think one time you did chili dogs at picnic area when away from camper?....this is the one area that I desperately need help with.....did you all take alot of dried foods etc....also, I know you gave the budget for the trip and i realize everyones menus are different...some eat steak every night!....but just curious by eating all meals at camp/picnic areas approx. how much you spent at grocery stores for the 6 weeks.
thanks so much if you can answer this for me....darlene btw we live in east tn so neighbors
Logistics of storing food:
We did this, trial by fire. We had pre-cooked enough meals to get to the Flagstaff area (about 4-5 days). That is, realistically, all we had room for. It was nice to not have to cook on the road. Plus, we slept at Walmarts and were able to get things each night. We could also grab treats like ice cream and not have to worry about storing it.
When we got to the Walmart in Flagstaff (pain to find), we bought about 5 days worth of food to get us through Grand Canyon. This meant that we had two ice chests and the fridge completely full. The coolers are the extreme variety, and kept ice for about 3 days in the desert heat. I hadn't thought it through enough, raw meat became a concern as soon as we pulled away. So, I cooked all of the meat the first night. This worked out well, and I think we threw away a pound of pork that had gotten too old. It is a pain to have your storage so jam packed...lots of shuffling, but you probably know that. For the second half of the trip, we didn't buy so much at one go. We ate less meat that started off raw. It was worth it to shop at the more expensive mom and pops so as to not be so crammed.
We ate like we do at home. I'd say mid-priced food. I'd be guessing at what we spent, but here goes...I think about $800-900 for the six weeks.
We always made sure we had things we could pack in backpacks for lunch. This was not just to save money, it was a huge time saver and made planning our day out much easier. I couldn't imagine traveling these areas and having to get to a restaurant every time you were hungry. It would cut the number of things you saw down to a small fraction.
We used disposable plates and utensils, but did have to wash pots. Not sure how my wife planned out washing those. They were always clean though. :)
My advice is to not over think it (like I did). You'll figure your own system in the first few days.
I received this PM a while back, and thought I'd put it on the thread.
From: coleman-colorado-pup
Sent: 07/17/15 10:35am
Subject: perfect family road trip
I would like you to know that I have read all 23 pages of this trip report and so enjoyed it! also watched the video and was great....
I have a question that maybe you could answer in the forum...others may be interested...can you give specifics on eating all your meals at camp or rest areas etc....eg. kind of a daily menu of sorts and logisitics of storing refridgerated foods when not at campsite and cooking and cleanup especially at rest/picnic ares. we only have a popup and usually on road trips we just eat all meals out, although we watch the budget!...my husband teaches and i am a school nurse so we have summers off and want to travel with pop up more often.
wondering if you had an extreme type cooler? did u onlu use block ice? where did you wash dishes at picnic areas? i think one time you did chili dogs at picnic area when away from camper?....this is the one area that I desperately need help with.....did you all take alot of dried foods etc....also, I know you gave the budget for the trip and i realize everyones menus are different...some eat steak every night!....but just curious by eating all meals at camp/picnic areas approx. how much you spent at grocery stores for the 6 weeks.
thanks so much if you can answer this for me....darlene btw we live in east tn so neighbors
Logistics of storing food:
We did this, trial by fire. We had pre-cooked enough meals to get to the Flagstaff area (about 4-5 days). That is, realistically, all we had room for. It was nice to not have to cook on the road. Plus, we slept at Walmarts and were able to get things each night. We could also grab treats like ice cream and not have to worry about storing it.
When we got to the Walmart in Flagstaff (pain to find), we bought about 5 days worth of food to get us through Grand Canyon. This meant that we had two ice chests and the fridge completely full. The coolers are the extreme variety, and kept ice for about 3 days in the desert heat. I hadn't thought it through enough, raw meat became a concern as soon as we pulled away. So, I cooked all of the meat the first night. This worked out well, and I think we threw away a pound of pork that had gotten too old. It is a pain to have your storage so jam packed...lots of shuffling, but you probably know that. For the second half of the trip, we didn't buy so much at one go. We ate less meat that started off raw. It was worth it to shop at the more expensive mom and pops so as to not be so crammed.
We ate like we do at home. I'd say mid-priced food. I'd be guessing at what we spent, but here goes...I think about $800-900 for the six weeks.
We always made sure we had things we could pack in backpacks for lunch. This was not just to save money, it was a huge time saver and made planning our day out much easier. I couldn't imagine traveling these areas and having to get to a restaurant every time you were hungry. It would cut the number of things you saw down to a small fraction.
We used disposable plates and utensils, but did have to wash pots. Not sure how my wife planned out washing those. They were always clean though. :)
My advice is to not over think it (like I did). You'll figure your own system in the first few days.
