Turnkey Camping

Two days ago, I took Charlie to the cutest place for his Back to School haircut!  We had lunch as a family and then ventured to the mall because my parents have a tradition of buying each grandchild new tennis shoes for every school year.  Charlie chose his and the boys checked out Lush at the mall.  Next we visited Cloud Candy - a really fun Boba Tea and Cake Pop spot.  Charlie had been asking to go to a playground all day - every time we drove past one, he shouted and got so excited!  Jude and I fulfilled his wish and then we ended up at Target to get him a small scooter for the camper.  He picked up the concept right away!  Afterwards, we got to see my niece’s hip hop dance class.  It was a busy and fun day! Yesterday I took the cousins to Urban Air because it was really hot outside.  Then we met up with the rest of my family to pick up some yummy local preaches.  After eating pizza, we went to a Willy Wonka themed escape room at a lo...

The more I write these posts, the more I realize what a gift it is to have friends all across the country.  Our camping friends have been an incredible network and it’s amazing how fast you get close to people when you have shared experiences and adventures.  Tonight we saw more Wisconsin friends and had a wonderful dinner together with my sister and her family and our airstream friends.   Earlier in the day I went to a Mamma Mia sing along drag brunch.  We had a great time.  It has been great to have time with family!!  I only wish we lived closer so we could have times like these more often.    

We had the world’s best time at the Coldplay concert in Madison!  My family helped watch Charlie so we could go and it was just a fantastic time!  

  We met our first airstream friends with kids in Door County in July 2018.  We’ve gotten together just about every year since then and it was finally time for us to come to their home turf!  We spent two nights in La Cross, WI.   Stu worked and my friend and I took the kids blueberry picking and then to an old drive in restaurant.  Next stop was a paddle wheel boat on the Mississippi!  Our hosts made some amazing bbq for dinner and we played an x box game called Jackbox.  It was a great visit!

We had dinner with a college friend and her mom and kids last night!  We credit this friend with lots of things.  Her dad ran the Thailand program that Stu went on to study abroad.  That caused him to lead a group of students the following summer.  Stu and I met on that trip!  And we adopted two kids from there - so we have a lot to thank her for!  She and her husband run a bakery and so her husband couldn’t make it to dinner.  He was busy making scones and quiche crust for the next morning.  We had so much fun laughing and recounting old stories.  

  My parents were gracious enough to chase Charlie around  the campground water park while I went to Aldi to restock on groceries.  I was proud of myself because I drove the dually to the grocery store and parked it on the first try! Back at the campground, I joined the boys and my parents at the pool until dinner time.  When Stu got off work. We realized that our bedroom a/c had broken.  We grilled steak and chatted with my parents for the evening - we’ll call Brinkley in the morning about the a/c.  Always an adventure!  

Stu has work in Minnesota so we’re camping in Warertown.  It’s a great campground with pools and water slides and sports activities so the next few days should be really fun for the kids!  It was a long drive today - 7 hours - but the best part is we met my parents at the park and made some pizza for dinner.  My favorite part of the evening after seeing my parents was giving Charlie a bucket bath outside and fireflies were out!  It was magical!

  We read about a hitch issue with the Anderson hitch on Facebook - apparently the whole ball can shear off in an extreme braking situation.  We have been looking for a reason to upgrade and this morning our pin wouldn’t engage.  We got it halfway in and drove two hours to Bismarck.  There was a hitch shop that closed within 10 minutes of our arrival.  The people we have met along this trip have been so kind.  The shop gave us his personal cell number because they were closing and wanted us to have a way to reach him if we encountered issues installing the hitch.  We got back to the campground and worked on the hitch.  After a bit of adjusting we took a break to go have dinner with Stu’s cousin.  We had a great time with her family - they foster kitties and Charlie was obsessed with all of the cat toys and cat trees.  It was so funny.  After dinner, we headed back and got the hitch finished up.  Off for a long drive day tomorro...

We drove from Billings, MT to Medora, ND.  After today, we’ve camped in 35 states!  13 in Continental US to go!  We drove around Teddy Roosevelt park and went to the visitor’s center.  The landscape was so beautiful!  We loved the prairie dog town the best.  At this point, we were getting hungry, so we had dinner in town.  P and I ventured out to look for the petrified loop trail - but it led to an off road trail and I wasn’t comfortable taking the dually off road just yet.  It’s super smoky out - the campground said it was from Canadian wildfires. Tomorrow we’re off to Bismarck to see Stu’s cousin!

We made a quick decision to split a 9 hour day into two 4 1/2 days, so we winded up in Billings, MT.   The road thru Montana was gorgeous!  I ended up remembering that a college friend lived in Billings.  She was a communications major and business and Spanish minor, so we had a fair amount of classes together! The last time we saw each other was at a mutual friend’s wedding in 2005.  Prior to that, we did a college summer together in Russia and Japan.  She came out to the campground and we caught up for quite a while.  It was so fun!

 We visited Yellowstone in 2019 but our quest to check North Dakota off the list led us so close that we just had to go back.  Last time, we missed out on the Grand Prismatic Spring overlook hike, so this time, my eye was on the prize.  We use a great GPS audio guide called Guide Along whenever we can.  It’s a great way to learn about the park!  You feel like your grandfather is telling you stories as you ride along.   We had lunch near the lodge and finished just in time to see Old Faithful blow.   We were sleepy by the end of these two adventures, so we headed back to the town of West Yellowstone and hit the grocery store.  We have several days of back to back driving ahead, so we ventured back to the campground (Red Rock RV) to relax a bit.   We feel a little bit like traitors because this campground is the host of Camp Airstream - a week-long “camp” where Airstreamers enjoy the area together.  It’s a beautiful evening and we new off ...

Charlie woke up this morning and asked “Are we in Idaho?”  I explained that we were in Nevada but we were heading to Idaho!  It was a beautiful drive and Stu masterfully pulled the rig into a really tight site!  We dropped the trailer and pets and went to Stu’s aunt and uncle’s for a great burger dinner.  They had other family and some camping friends over and we chatted all afternoon!  It was a great evening.  Off to Yellowstone tomorrow.

 We had a nice down day yesterday.  We drove to Camp Richardson and walked to an ice cream shop.  My aunt and uncle stopped by to tour the rig and it was so fun to see them again.  Stu and Lucy got more groceries and we cooked a yummy salmon dinner.  This morning was a little hairy getting out of the campground - there were lots of rocks and trees at the departure.  We made a wrong turn right out of the gate and had to spin the rig around - so that wasn’t very fun.  Just a reminder to slow down and plan ahead as much as possible.  Today we venture to Nevada (a new state!) for an overnight.  We switched up our plans for the week because Stu is on vacation all next week.  We were going to have five days at Yellowstone, but we’re going two hours beyond our original route to see Stu’s aunt and uncle.  It will be fun to reconnect - they haven’t had the chance to meet Charlie yet!  Off to focus on navigation!

We had the most magical day possible with my aunt and uncle at Lake Tahoe!  We rolled out of our campground at 11 and graciously, my uncle and aunt had gone ahead of us and reserved a spot on the beach - complete with umbrellas and chairs!  We met my aunt at their house and unloaded food and then went to a gorgeous beach.  They graciously pulled out all of their fun toys!  The kids kayaked and paddle boarded and they even took us on their boat!  It was so fabulous!  Afterwards, we went back to their house - with a stunning view - and enjoyed a delicious bbq meal.  The day was absolutely perfect!  

Thankfully my husband is basically a magician when it comes to vehicle purchases.  Throughout our marriage, I can’t even count the number of wheels we have owned - but what can you do?  It’s in his genes!  Stuart and Jude’s first words were “bus” and Charlie is following in their footsteps with his love of wheels.  All that to say, when our engine blew, what could we do but pivot?   We’ve typically preferred GMC’s but after this engine blow, we were a little spooked.  Stu started the hunt for how to get us home.  Trucks that seat 6 are few and far between - thus the stretched truck we used for hauling the nine living creatures that we cart around the country!  We were in San Fran on the hunt for a tow vehicle and Stu found a Ram 6 seater about three hours from our campsite.  Yesterday around noon, Stu, Charlie, and I set out on the mission to buy this truck.  We tried to make a dealer swap from San Francisco the day before, but the deale...

  Today Stu worked and I drove the kiddos into Chinatown.  Driving in a big city was not the easiest thing for me but we made it to a parking garage.  We started out getting boba tea and then headed to the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory.  For $4 you can make two fortune cookies with your own message inside.  It was a really unique experience.  C was desperate for a playground, so we ventured toward Willy “woo woo” Wong Playground.  C loved it and the boys played basketball.  We ended with a little shopping and got treats at a bakery.  I wanted to get L some dim sum to go but all of the restaurants had long lines.  Instead we met at Stu’s sister’s house for a yummy pasta dinner.  Still working on truck details, but it was nice to have a SF adventure.