How Do We Do It?

For the most part, our trip is going better than expected!  At this point in our travels, we thought we'd share some of the things we've learned along the way and give you a bit of a taste of how we are doing this on a day to day basis.

Setting up the tent trailer isn't too complicated.  When we arrive at a campground it takes us about 15 to 20 minutes to set up.  We still are not very good at backing our trailer into a site, so if we cannot find a pull through, it adds a bit of additional time.  I keep thinking we'll improve with practice, but so far, I haven't seen much improvement (but veteran RVers are more than willing to help us out).  :)  On the other hand, packing it back up takes more like an hour.  We have to fold all the blankets back up to store them.  Then we have to make sure everything is in just the right spot for our trailer to be closed back up.  I envisioned the children helping more with this process, but we have found that with all the time we spend in the car, it's better to let them run off energy whenever they can.  They do help some, but the best help from the older ones is entertaining the younger ones by taking them to a playground or playing active games with them.

There were a few things I found before our trip that have helped us to stay organized.  A friend recommended that I buy plastic drawers to pack our clothes in.  This has saved us a lot of hassle as I cannot imagine how we would have done it with individual suitcases.  I bought two sets of drawers, each with one extra large and two medium sized drawers.  Everyone except Ron has a drawer or shares a drawer with their sister (Ron has his own suitcase).  I purchased them to fit perfectly into the existing space in our trailer so when we arrive we just put them up on the counter and when we pack up they just go back down on the floor.  We packed about 5 days worth of clothes and then I do laundry.

Another item that I have really appreciated having is called a Peapod.  I had never heard of this until I was reading someone else's travel blog.  This is a portable bed for the baby that looks like a little pup tent.  It has mesh sides and I can zip her in.  This enables her to sleep up on the king sized bed with Ron and I without me having to worry about her.  The Peapod collapses down into a much smaller space than a portable crib would.  Annie has grown to really like it, and her thumb usually goes right into her mouth as soon as I place her in it.

We are learning as we go, too.  I packed too many items for the children to try to keep them entertained.  If I could do it over, I would have only packed a few things to begin with and then purchased new things along the way.  We are packing around a lot of stuff that the children haven't touched since about day 3 and it makes for a messier car!  And at this point, I'm not going to get them anything else as we are maxed out on space.

I also packed too much food.  We filled our cooler to the brim on leaving the Seattle area and then found as we travelled that we were not arriving at our campgrounds until after dinner.  Unfortunately some of our food was wasted. I only planned for us to drive around 4 to 5 hours a day.  However, it seems to take us a long time to do anything.  A bathroom break can take 45 minutes!  I thought that having the tent trailer would enable us to save money by eating out less, but our days are packed pretty full.  I told Ron this morning that we could have used about three more hours each day (he thinks if that were the case then we would probably packed three more hours of activities into that time).  We have pretty much stayed on Pacific Time during our trip, so when we are pulling into a campground at 10:00 p.m., we can tell ourselves that it's really just 7 or 8. :) 

Our trip has been full of amazing experiences that we will never forget (at least those of us that are over the age of 5).  The highlight for me is seeing the country and the girls have enjoyed many of the activities!  Ron and I are so thankful that we have been able to do this.  There have been some trying times as well (just today we drove 30 minutes on the wrong road on an already long driving day) but we just kept plugging along.  We have come up with a slogan that we repeat whenever we experience tough situations:  "It's all just part of the adventure!"

This KOA delivered pizza to your site.  It worked perfectly for us as

it gave us just enough time to set up before eating dinner.

Alaina and Annie hanging out inside the tent trailer.

There isn't a whole lot of elbow room!

Virginia is up on our bed.  You can see the peapod and one of the set of drawers.

Annaleigh loves crawling around when she has the chance.

Bethany is helping take care of her here on the other King bed.

Our van looks big until we pull into a rest area along with the semi-trucks.

One of our trying times.  A semi-truck overturned on this highway interchange.  We were stuck here for about an hour.  All of the cars eventually turned around and drove back off but we were too large to do it.  Fortunately, we had picked up Subway sandwiches for lunch and we used the time to eat.

Alaina and Virginia playing at one of the KOAs. 

We found them to be great campgrounds.

Playing after a long drive in the car.  The younger

girls have so much fun with their older sisters!

Keri