Thinking about a trip across country
I am probably being too ambitious based on my set up but I have been itching to take myself and my family out west for a family camping Trip. Here are my two major concerns and maybe you fine folks ...
Forum Discussion
It is doable, if the family is inclined to see it as an adventure rather than a hardship. In 1961 we did it with four adults (two in their 70s, we were helping my grandparents settle a land transaction) and six kids ranging age 3 to 15, nine passenger station wagon hauling a 20-foot travel trailer (16-foot box with a bed over the hitch), which could sleep all of us, six two to a bed, the youngest four on a 5x7 foot gaucho. It would seat only four, so we were much dependent on campsite and roadside park accommodations, and sometimes two or three of us would opt to sleep in the back of the station wagon. Detroit, U.P., across northern tier to Montana (destination west of Missoula). Side trip to Glacier, Yellowstone on the way home through Wyoming, S Dakota, Iowa, Chicago. Two weeks.
I would not do a 30 hour drive to Yellowstone. No more than 10 hours a day moving, interesting stops along the way to keep the kids from feeling imprisoned, looking for interesting places to overnight. You know your own kids, but maybe you've not tested them to this degree.
Truck sounds good, just broken in. Check hoses and belts, tires and shocks. You don't gain that much more space with a Megacab or anyone else's crew cab.
A new fiver has potential to introduce new problems. I would want a season on camping before taking it on a long road trip. If the old one is getting crowded for sleeping, there is probably room to make up another bunk on the floor.
Now is probably a good time for the trip, ages are right for seeing it as an adventure. A couple more years until the oldest starts seeing it as hardship (until old enough to share in the driving, which makes it fun again).
I would not do a 30 hour drive to Yellowstone. No more than 10 hours a day moving, interesting stops along the way to keep the kids from feeling imprisoned, looking for interesting places to overnight. You know your own kids, but maybe you've not tested them to this degree.
Truck sounds good, just broken in. Check hoses and belts, tires and shocks. You don't gain that much more space with a Megacab or anyone else's crew cab.
A new fiver has potential to introduce new problems. I would want a season on camping before taking it on a long road trip. If the old one is getting crowded for sleeping, there is probably room to make up another bunk on the floor.
Now is probably a good time for the trip, ages are right for seeing it as an adventure. A couple more years until the oldest starts seeing it as hardship (until old enough to share in the driving, which makes it fun again).
