Our first big adventure…

Hello friends and family! We are finally getting around to updating our blog. We left Sanger, TX. on September 12th heading for Colorado. Before that, we did have a few trial runs with the RV…just practicing hooking it up and driving around town. We spent a fun weekend with our friends at a state park an hour away to practice getting the RV set up at a site. Now we are nearly two weeks into our journey and so far it has gone well. The kids and animals have surprisingly been pretty well behaved on travel days and we have already gotten to see some amazing things.
Our first stop was in Salina, KS. overnight. We stayed at a little park called Sundown RV Park. It had the very basic hookups and pretty much that’s it. It was well maintained and had exactly what we needed so we’d give it a thumbs up for overnighters. The kids thought it was great that it was set further out in the country with lots of grasshoppers to catch. We spent the second day driving to Fort Collins, CO. where we spent our first official week “road-schooling”. Steve took off Monday and we spent some time driving and hiking parts of Rocky Mountain National Park. My favorite part of the day was hiking Sprague Lake. Because of all the wildfires in the west right now, the views were a little hazier than usual but the lake was just beautiful and it felt so good to get out and get some fresh air and exercise. We also were able to see a few Elk from a distance. This time of year is Elk mating season so they are out and about a little more. The next few days the kids and I did our school work in the morning and then enjoyed some outdoor activities at our RV park in the afternoon. We stayed at a beautiful KOA holiday there and had access to four wheeler bikes, a big playground, mini golf, shuffle board, pickle ball, and a big beautiful walking path going around the lake. On Thursday, the kids and I headed back up to Rocky Mountain National Park and did some walking around Estes Park before heading up the Pine Ridge Parkway, the highest road in the national park, and enjoyed stopping at some beautiful vistas and of course some piles of snow since my kids have been begging to find snow. The drive did not disappoint. One of the stops we made, called Rainbow Curve, had the cutest little chipmunks who were definitely used to human interaction. They’d come right up to us thinking we had food and skitter around just under our feet. The kids got a huge kick out of them.
On Saturday, we packed up and headed on to our next destination: Craig, CO. It is a town about 45 minutes outside of Steamboat Springs, CO. We are staying at another KOA here. This one is a much smaller one but well maintained. Craig is the county seat but is still very much a small country town. On Sunday, we decided to take a drive to see some of the places recommended on the KOA website for the area. We drove a little over an hour out of town to Sand Wash Basin to find wild mustangs. Zoe especially enjoyed this and wanted to share her experience in her own blog post. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and we got some good pictures of the horses. we then drove another 45 minutes or so to a turn off where they said there was a waterfall called Vermillion falls. At first, we weren’t sure if we had found it. There was no sign and it was literally just some dirt tracks off the road but we are so glad we took the effort to look around. The falls were secluded but beautiful and there was a pond at the base the kids had fun wading in. We taught them how to skip rocks and even found some crawdads and minnows.
We have another few days here in Craig and I’m hoping to take the kids to see Fish Creek Falls in Steamboat Springs as well as visiting a few small museums in the area. One is just a huge collection of things a local man has been collecting over the years that he turned into a museum and the other is the Museum of Northwestern Colorado here in town. Steve is taking the day off on Friday and we discovered a local hot springs pool not too far from town that we want to go check out. The kids are super excited to try swimming in a hot springs pool. It has been fun searching out some lesser known places to discover along our journey.
A few things that I have learned to appreciate so far: 1. Go with the flow! Sometimes I think adults push must see places and things we think our kids need to see. I have found that giving our kids a list of options and than letting them be a part of deciding what we go see and do has helped for our travels and sightseeing to go a lot smoother than has been the case in the past, at least for us.
2. Simple is generally best. Sometimes I try and stuff as many “to do” things into my schedule and, in turn, the kids schedules and it never goes well. Picking one or two things to do during our excursions has worked better than packing in a ton of things at once. The kids enjoy the experience more and aren’t as cranky and tired by the end of the day. Also, it’s ok to take a rest day. You don’t have to pack every single day with big activities. We’ve tried to space things out and have days in between where we just do simple activities around the RV park. Same thing goes for cooking meals. Many of you know that I enjoy cooking but RV life has forced me to simplify my meal planning and prep.
3. Our world is just so lovely. I know its a little kitschy but I have found myself near to tears in awe over the grandness and beauty of our world and the beauty of spending time with my family enjoying it. It’s been a difficult year. Between the pandemic, hurricanes, wildfires, politics, you name it, I have become disheartened on numerous occasions. This trip has truly replenished my soul. I know we are lucky to be able to do this but I just hope that my friends and family, no matter where they may be and what they may be dealing with right now, get the chance to focus on the good and the beautiful things that they have in their lives. There are still so many of those things, even in the midst of the difficult and sad things. Seek those moments and those things out and hold on to them through the harder parts of life.
We sure love you all and are looking forward to seeing some of you along our journey! Happy Fall Everyone!