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Where we stayed while traveling
Our 5 week road trip meant we were away from home for 35 nights. During that time, we did a LOT of driving, so there were only certain periods where we were in the same place more than one night in a row.
- 9 nights at campgrounds (4 in national parks)
- 8 nights for two family reunions
- 6 nights of driveway surfing (friends and family)
- 5 nights at truck stops
- 3 nights in WalMart parking lots
- 3 nights in Cabela’s parking lots
- 1 night of BLM camping
Out of the 35 nights, we paid for 9 nights of camping, not counting the 8 reunion nights (those were paid for separately).
- most expensive paid night: $50 at Waterton Lakes
- least expensive paid night: $16.67 at the race campground
We drove 7000 miles as we hit all the stops along the way, but we drove more miles for side trips away from where we were staying (no idea on that number).
What we ate
Sunshine and I have celiac disease, so we have to be very careful about what and where we eat. This was also a major factor in our decision to get our first travel trailer (and now our RV). Having a refrigerator/freezer and cooking facilities at hand takes a lot of worry out of our travel experiences. We do eat out occasionally, but on this trip, I made it my mission to go the whole time without eating out once. And we succeeded! Well, technically Jeremy did purchase some pulled pork from a food truck once, but that was research for the food truck we’ll have in a few years, so it doesn’t count.
We have a basic menu of foods we eat that are quick and easy, though our travel menu was affected by the location of our stove. The stove can only be used if the main slide is out, which wasn’t always convenient to do. We like to have substantial breakfasts that we cook, but since our stove wasn’t always easily accessible, we ate a lot of gluten free Chex and yogurt while on our trip. Not my preferred breakfast, but it was what worked.
We don’t do much specialty food shopping normally. Our weekly grocery trips revolve around Costco and Kroger, with the occasional stop at Whole Foods. This works for us since we don’t eat a lot of packaged gluten free items; we focus instead on naturally gluten free foods. We do purchase gluten free bread, though, and that was the one item that we had problems sourcing. Normally we purchase Udi’s gluten free bread at Costco (cheapest source we’ve found so far), but several Costcos we visited in the west didn’t carry that brand. We tried the brand they carried (I’m blanking on the name right now), but I found the bread to be a bit moist and gummy, which was very off-putting. Sunshine liked it, but I did not. While on our trip, we shopped at Costco, WalMart, and the random grocery stores that are always found in small towns.
Strangest experience
One night while driving through Wisconsin, we were looking for a gas station at Fort McCoy. It had cheap gas, so we thought it was worth the slight detour, but it ended up being quite the experience. It was about 11 pm and dark, and there wasn’t much traffic, and we were driving back roads, trying to find the main gate to the base. We found the gate, only to be told we couldn’t enter there, but had to go around to the truck entrance.
So we did some more back roads driving (still dark and deserted country roads), skirting the base until we found the truck entrance. The guard there looked at us like we were crazy when we told him why we were there, and said the other guard should have let us in the front gate. Yeah, we figured that was the case and he was just being a jerk. We then drove on base, and back across almost to the main gate. The gas station was within sight of the main gate. After getting gas, we drove out the main gate, looking for the jerk guard as we went (we didn’t see him).
Gotta have some mishaps along the way
We left the sewer hose (with the connectors) and the cap to the bumper storage at the dump station at a gas station in Helena MT. There was a line, so I pulled forward while Jeremy rinsed everything. He hung everything to dry and went in to wash his hands. He then climbed in the RV and we drove away. We didn’t remember about the hose until we were trying to dump the gray water at Glacier NP. Hope somebody appreciates the hose and attachments- they weren’t the cheap ones.
The RV doesn’t have an extendable step, so before our trip we bought a step stool to make it easier to get in and out. However, our step stool either got left at St Mary campground in Glacier NP or it walked away there or at the race campground in Browning. It’s a toss up as to what happened. We just know that the morning after we got to the race campground, we couldn’t find the step stool, but we knew we had it when we arrived at St Mary campground.
We also learned to double check the house door. One time we started driving and the door flew open as we went around a corner. Luckily we weren’t going too fast, but I sure hopped up quick to shut the door. Not only was the door not locked, it wasn’t even latched shut. Big oops.
Have you had any mishaps or funny or strange experiences on a road trip?
