Our families 8 week RV Trip

[TurboJeep]

So here is our first BIG family trip. We bought a 2011 38' Fleetwood Expedition 38B last Oct. We are pulling a Jeep Wrangler as a toad. Going will be me(the driver), my wife, and 3 boys (ages 12,11, and 8). We've done a few trips now with it with complete success. Longest trip so far has been a week. Have driven it from Jax, Fl. to NJ and back too in a few days.

My wife has planned this trip since last summer. What do the experts(y'all) think about this trip? We leave June 22nd and come back Aug. 10th. We have some concerns about the trip. I feel like we may be just driving the whole time is my biggest one. Anyone willing to chime in. There are a few possible changes we may make. We can't extend the trip due to school for the kids. All reservations are made but still have time to change them. Thanks for any advice....





Day 1 Leave Jax, Fl. and drive to Gulf Shores, AL.

Day 2 Leave Gulf Shores, AL and drive to Henderson, LA.

Day 3 Leave Henderson and drive to Houston, TX.

Day 4-5 Sightsee in Houston

Day 6 Leave Houston and drive to San Antonio, TX.

Day 7 Sightsee in San Antonio

Day 8 Leave San Antonio and drive to Carlsbad, NM.

Day 9 Sightsee in Carlsbad

Day 10 Leave Carlsbad and drive to Tucson, AZ.

Day 11 Sightsee in Tucson

Day 12 Leave Tucson and drive to San Diego, CA.

Day 13-14 Sightsee in San Diego, CA.

Day 15 Leave San Diego and drive to Yosemite NP
Not sure yet. Is Yosemite worth only one night?

Day 16 Leave Yosemite and drive to San Francisco

Day 17-18 Sightsee in SF.

Day 19 Leave SF and drive to Ave. of the Giants

Day 20 Leave Ave. of the Giants and drive to Crater Lake, OR.

Day 21 Leave Crater Lake and drive to Seattle, WA.

Day 22-23 Sightsee in Seattle

Day 24 Leave Seattle and drive to Coeur D' Alene, ID.

Day 25 Leave Coeur D' Alene and drive to Missoula, MT.

Day 26 Sightsee in Missoula
side trip to Glacier National Park

Day 27 Leave Missoula and drive to Yellowstone NP.

Day 28-30 Sightsee Yellowstone and Grand Tetons

Day 31 Leave Yellowstone and drive to Salt Lake City, UT.

Day 32 Leave Salt Lake City and drive to Moab, UT.

Day 33 sightsee in Moab

Day 34 Leave Moab and drive to Grand Canyon

Day 35-37 Sightsee Grand Canyon

Day 38 Leave Grand Canyon and drive to Las Vegas, NV.

Day 39 Sightsee in Vegas

Day 40 Leave Las Vegas and drive to Sedona, AZ.

Day 41 Leave Sedona and drive to Albuquerque, NM.

Day 42 Leave Albuquerque and drive to Amarillo, TX.

Day 43 Leave Amarillo and drive to Oklahoma City, OK.

Day 44 Leave OK City and drive to Little Rock, AK.

Day 45 Leave Little Rock and drive to Meridian, MS.

Day 46 Leave Meridian and drive to Perry, Ga.

Day 47-50 Party at the South Eastern ShinDig

Day 51 Drive home to Jacksonville, Fl.

[TurboJeep]

Get me the heck out of Cailfornia!! These people can't drive for squat!! 24 hours and we gone! Trying to update the blog but the "WiFi" at this place in San Fran is worse than dial up. Gave up on my laptop posting this and switched to my phone. Lol. Thanks for the words on the blog and info for next year. The kids will update the blog next time we have decent Internet. Until then... Happy trails everyone.

[patperry2766]

Next year look at Mueller SP, Cheyenne Mountain SP and Ridgway SP. All are in Colorado. Ridgway SP has 3 campgrounds, Elk Ridge (site# 186) is the one you want to try to get into.

[tragusa3]

Just read the blog. Good stuff, especially the comments written by the kids just before leaving!

Enjoy Yosemite!

[TurboJeep]

We are saving Colorado for next summer with some friends who just bought a 38' as well. Want to knock out West coast this year, middle US next year and east coast year after.

So we made it here to Yosemite. Staying at Yosemite Pines for tonight then moving to Hodgdon Meadow tomorrow. Couldn't get into HM tonight. What a road up here man. Haha. Not exactly RV friendly but made it no problem. Somehow one of the pins of out BlueOx tow bar wouldn't come out. Don't know if towing it through the switchbacks lodged it in there or what. Wife is going to drive it down.

When turning down 120, some guy in a Honda Civic at the stop sign was shaking his head at me in disgust. Oh I'm sorry... I'm 3000 miles away from home. Sorry I'm not in a car. Sheesh. Some people. Can't wait to go explore Yosemite over the next few days.

[patperry2766]

I noticed that you didn't note doing anything in Colorado. If your plans have any flexibility, you really need to find a way to do the Hwy 550 "Million Dollar Highway" in Colorado. You could cut across from Moab and take it down to Durango.

It wouldn't take you too far out of your route to the Grand Canyons, and it would give you a chance to stop at Mesa Verde CO to see the old Indian ruins.

[TurboJeep]

Okay..... that's it. I'm NEVER coming back to Campland by the Bay. This place is a freakin' zoo man. There was just a mega brawl at the end of our row. The place is just full of thugs man. I don't even feel safe here. Get me outta here! Don't even know if I can leave when I want to tomorrow morning bc a guy with a 5th wheel with a back porch decided it was cool to pull the hitch part half way into the travel lane so the porch could be inline with the back part of his parking spot. May be able to back out but who knows man. This place is completely our 2nd disappointment of the trip. I have no clue how the place can be rated so well. Again, maybe it's just the holiday who knows but we will NEVER come back nor would I ever recommend this place to anyone with young kids.

On a side note, what a killer day!! Went to "seal beach". Seals weren't out bc there was no sun today. Went on a tour of the USS Midway then watched the fireworks on the carrier deck. What an AMAZING display San Diego has. Don't know if we can ever top this one. Their show is rated #10 of the top 10 list. Hopefully one day we can see #'s 9 through 1.

Tomorrow we head to Yosemite for a few days. Can't wait to get outta here. So long San Diego!

[TurboJeep]

Sorry. A little sleepy and drunk last night. Lol. Here is the link to the blog.

http://ourfamilyadventures.travellerspoint.com/

[tragusa3]

Great update, but where's the blog link?

Glad you all are enjoying the trip!

[TurboJeep]

I have taken about 173GB of pics and videos so far. I've had a GoPro camera in the front window since we left. We turn it on when we hit beautiful parts of the drive. I will make a video of the whole trip in mega speed. Lol. Would love to load some of my "god camera" pics but the internet has been pretty subpar. Here is the link to our blog. We again haven't had to chance to update it much but will before we leave here since this has been the best internet so far. I'm probably going to update the first post in this thread from now on. Should have reserved the first few posts in this thread.

So we left home and drove to Orange Beach, Al. Stayed at the State Park there. Was a nice place. Had some amazing seafood that night at a killer little local spot.

Then drove the next day to La. and stayed at the Cajun Palms or something like that. This drive SUCKED! Was pouring rain like crazy. Our damn bay door kept popping open on us. Lol. Nothing like having to jump out in 5 O'clock rush hour stop and go traffic in a torrential downpour to close it. My wife is the best. One thing I don't understand is people driving in the rain with their hazards on. It's illegal!! It's also distracting. I was following a Toyota Camry who was following a Semi in front. He was keeping up just fine, there's no need for your hazards to be on!!!! Big pet peeve of mine. We woke up the next day and took the boys(12,11, and 😎 on an airboat tour of the La. swmap. Boat guide fed and was petting a 12' gator named Old Willie. Got some great footage of that too.

Then left for Houston for 2 nights. Went to the Johnson Space center. Kids loved it too. So did I. Seeing the shear mass of Saturn 5 Rocket is an awesome experience. Went out to dinner again that night at a place called Taste of Texas. Wow what a place. Fantastic. It's a really nice(expensive) steak house. They took us on a tour of the kitchen. We got to pick out our steaks. People were friendly. Was a very warm welcoming into Texas.

Next stop was San Antonio, Tx. We got there and took a tour of the Alamo. Kids weren't too enthused about going but ended up loving it. My oldest knew the history so he got his brothers into it. After that we took a river boat tour of down town's Riverwalk. San Antonio is a beautiful place. Next day was fun. We went to Schlitterbahn Water Park. You guessed it. Kids loved it. Stuck a GoPro on my kids head going down the water slides. Cool footage. After that we went and ate Puffy Taco's. Don't ask. Lol. Some place my wife wanted to go. Happy wife happy life.

Then came the drive to Carlsbad, Nm. Wasn't terrible, but it was long. Arrived at KOA there. Nice place. Decided to take the Jeep down this trail to the river. Yup, I got stuck. I didn't listen to the guy who escorted to our spot to watch out down there. Wife wasn't happy. Lol. First thing she said was don't get us stuck. I have a habit of getting stuck in my younger years 4 wheeling with friends. Spent many a night stuck. Haha. Kids loved it, wife didn't. Get back to find the Sat. TV. isn't working. Looks like the dish took a dump. I don't hear it honing in on the sats when I flip the switch. Grrrr.... kids and dad aren't happy.

Then the next day went to the Living Desert Zoo. The family that pulled us out recommended it. Great place. Later that day we went 750 feet into the Planet Earth. It was unbelievable. The pics I got are unreal. What an amazing place. My calves are still killin' me. Left to grab a bite to eat before going back to watch the bats fly. After dinner we went to Walgreens real quick. The sky looked like Armageddon.... and it hit. HAIL STORM followed by flashing flooding. It was crazy. For 10 and a half minutes I filmed us all in the Jeep getting HAMMERED by hail. Luckily both Jeep and RV survived without damage. So drive back to watch the bats fly, only they didn't bother flying that night. Frist real bummer of the trip.

So left there and went to Tuscon, Az. Stayed at the Coronado State Park. What an amazing camp site with mountains all around you. Just beautiful. We woke up next day, ran a quick errand, and our family discovered a new fun activity. GEOCACHING!! I bought a handheld Garmin for when we hit Moab. Thought it would be a good idea. Found 7 of 7 caches we looked for. There were 2 in the Park we stayed at. I kept seeing these trails up in the mountains so I grabbed a book at the ranger station of trails. Found a nice 26 mile trail which was a green easy trail. Took us up to 8200'. The views were astonishing. Parts of America that people hardly get to see. Just a great time. Kids want to go offroad again. Even the wife had fun.... until I told her if we went off the road we would tumble down and die. Lol. She didn't like that.

Next day we were off to California for the first time in my 40 years of life. Holy******what a drive. I was warned about the I-8 through the mountains. The RV was struggling. Had it to the floor for 8 or 9 miles. Went a whopping 43mph at the top of 3rd gear for miles and miles. There went my fuel economy. Lol. Hottest the engine got was 223* then would drop to 217*. Usually it slowly will creep to 215* then drop to 192* Tranny stayed at 199-203*. We finally arrive about 5:00pm local time. Took us a little more than 8 hours to make the leg. Stayed last night at Chula Vista RV spot. What a killer place!! Loved it and met some great people.

Went today to the SD Zoo. Amazing place. HUGE! Not RV friendly. Lol. We changed our trip some and had reservations at Campland on the Bay for today through the 5th but couldn't get last night here. So wife found last nights place for the night. I wish we didn't have to leave. This place is CRAZY!! It's like Disney's Fort Wilderness on Meth. Not what we envisioned but it's a cool place don't get me wrong. Just a different style of people here vs. Chula Vista. Maybe it's just the holiday. I dunno. Campland a true giant party with kids on bike and scooters and golf carts everywhere. They didn't seem to care that there was a big 'ol MH coming through there.

So tomorrow we are off to take a tour of the USS Midway and watch the fireworks on the carrier too. So Happy 4th everyone. Sunday it's onto Yosemite for 2 nights, then to SF, Seattle, and Glacier. Can't wait.

[Naio]

TurboJeep wrote:
So I'll start another thread but so far, this trip doesn't suck one bit!! We have made it to Campland by the Bay in SD. For the first time of my life I am California. I have so much to say it's unreal. America is truly a beautiful place on this planet. Can't wait to see more. East Coast to the West Coast!!

Woohoo! I am so glad it is going well! Details and pics, please, when you have time :).

[TurboJeep]

So I'll start another thread but so far, this trip doesn't suck one bit!! We have made it to Campland by the Bay in SD. For the first time of my life I am California. I have so much to say it's unreal. America is truly a beautiful place on this planet. Can't wait to see more. East Coast to the West Coast!!

[OutdoorPhotogra]

TurboJeep wrote:
I understand what you are saying about the cities.... but to OUR FAMILY, some of those cities are an important part of the trip. To each their own I guess. This is just the first trip of many.

Keep us updated. I'm one of the ones who recomended San Diego for a different trip but I understand wanting to do both. Our cross country last year included 5 days in Yellowstone and 4 days in Manhattan (left camper in RV park in NJ and took train into city). Both were incredible and we'll do both again. One family can enjoy both atmospheres.

[TurboJeep]

I understand what you are saying about the cities.... but to OUR FAMILY, some of those cities are an important part of the trip. To each their own I guess. This is just the first trip of many.

[jolooote]

Skip ALL the cities And use the time to see Nat'l Parks! I really don't think you'll see all this in such a short time. The worst thing is to be constantly driving from place to place. You end up not really seeing ANYTHING. Leave Jacksonville and Don't stop driving until U get to MOAB!