For Spring Break this year we relocated an RV once again. Instead of taking one of the new factory vehicles from Indiana or Iowa, we found a shorter relocation from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City. That meant the perfect route to see Utah's Big Five National Parks. As much as I like picking up new vehicles I thought it would be nice to have a shorter drive so we didn't feel as rushed.  Day 1 - Las Vegas We started off our spring break trip in Las Vegas. When looking at hotels, I thought the kids would be blown away by Caesars Palace. It was somehow less than $200 a night, so why not? Scott wasn't sure about going out onto the strip at night with kids. Being that its spring break season there were other families out. And scantily clad women with their boobs hanging out. That's all hours of the day here.  We'd only briefly stopped by here during the day a couple years back. It was a short stop on our way from the Grand Canyon to Death Valley.  Brooke came back and raved a...

After many failed attempts, we finally made plans for Brooke and the kids to meet me after a job. I couldn't wait to see killer bee and my little runts out in Washington State. I'd been on the road working for over a week at this point. My parents stayed an extra day just to take us to the airport.  Ready to go.  Meanwhile I made it back up to Spokane after a day of shooting 360s down in Pullman. Guess we'll never forget which car is ours.  I laughed when I first saw it. Couldn't wait for Brooke and the kiddos reaction. We stayed the night at the Steam Plant Hotel. I'd stayed here when I shot 360s at Gonzaga University back in the spring. Seemed like a good, cheap option. The rooms are simple and do the job. I liked that this place provided ear plugs but only because the walls are paper thin. I could hear everything our neighbors were saying. I wanted to stay on Minnesota time and made us get up at 6am. I'm sure our neighbors loved that.  I'm sure we loved t...

Another Spring Break can only mean one thing these days: Campervan Spring Break. Well scratch the campervan this time around. Get in the RV we're driving to Florida.   You know we love our road trips. Last summer, a few months after our first Campervan Spring Break , Theo said he wanted to go on another campervan trip. I asked where and he said to Florida. Never thought we'd be a spring break in Florida family, but here we are. But first we had to get to Elkhart, Indiana to pick up our RV. Instead of driving or flying we took the Amtrak Borealis service down to Chicago for the first leg of our journey.   We were a little nervous that our train would be cancelled. Just three days earlier all the Borealis trains were found to have corrosion. They had moved routes via the bus. Thankfully they had replacement trains by the time of our departure.  As you can tell Meadow is super excited to be cooped up in an RV with us for a week or so.  

  I thought we would skip Wall Drug this time since we've seen it before but Scott was gun ho on going.  Come on. You can't go to the Badlands and skip the world's greatest tourist trap. First stop ice cream.  We thought we would have lunch here but after seeing the prices decided we would cook something at the park instead. But first we had to take a couple tourist pics. When we we decided we were coming here I was expecting it to be 90's and hot. Did not think it would be rainy, chilly and foggy.  I always make Brooke look cool. She on the other hand always finds a way to take a pic at the most awkward possible moment. Either that or I'm just really awkward. Earlier this year, I asked Theo where he wanted to go on vacations this year. He said he wanted to backpack camp at the Badlands because he was sad he didn't get to go yet. This is all for you buddy.

  When we arrived in Death Valley it was 90F. The first thing we had to do was find a place to stay for the night.  Well, after we got Junior Ranger books of course. The campsites in Furnace Creek were booked but there were lots of openings at Stovetop Wells.  Furnace Creek is the only developed campground that takes reservations. The rest our first come first served. I wanted to stay near Mesquite Spring Campground, but we decided that was too far afield. Not our typical campsite, this was more like a parking lot, but we're just here to sleep so whatever.  Most of the campgrounds look something like this, but smaller. After paying for our campsite we got ready to hike and headed to the nearby sand dunes. This is the largest national park and everything is spaced far apart. We stayed close to our campsite and went over to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes .  We got there just in time for a nice hike across the dunes during sunset. The kids loved it here.  It's ...

While we were at the visitor center I noticed a sign saying Hwy 101 was closed due to a wildfire in Oregon.  I had already figured two different options into the day, so we just had to make a decision on where we wanted to go. We weren't sure if we would stick to the coast or go to the Oregon Caves. With the highway closed we decided on the Oregon Caves. As we moved away from the California coast and drove onto the Oregon border, the temperature kept climbing.  Neither of us had looked at the forecast. We went from waking up to 50 degrees F at the Sue-meg State Park to 109 degrees F when we arrived in Oregon.  We stopped for lunch in Cave Junction with plans to stay near there. As we were driving to our potential campsite we quickly changed our minds and headed for Bandon. For about an hour we'd decided to head toward Crater Lake National Park, but we weren't sure if the temps there were actually cool while we could rely on the Pacific's built-in AC. I don't even th...

Two summer weekends in Minneapolis? Yeah, it's true. We followed Scott again on one of his jobs, which brought us to Maplewood Mall. I had heard there was a double decker carousel there and had always wanted to check it out.  There is a weight limit on the horses so Scott and I had to sit on the swinging bench.  Brooke and I must've had empty stomaches. We were both so dizzy after getting off the carousel. Or we're getting old. Scott always complains we never do things in our own city. Since we were going to be near St Paul, I had been wanting to take the kids to the Mississippi River National Recreation Area Visitor Center to get a junior ranger badge.  St. Paul is one of Twin Cities, so it's OK to have fun just across the border. It's those suburbs I loathe (though honestly sometimes enjoy). Downtown St. Paul maybe sleepy, but it's very charming.