We did it! We made it! We planned a 5-week trip with the goal of visiting 16 National Parks and we accomplished it!
Brian and I definitely acquired a few more wrinkles and a lot more gray hair, but we survived! I like to think of this trip as an endurance vacation. Not a 5K (weekend getaway), 10K (long weekend), half-marathon (week-long family vacation), or a marathon (extended 2-week long family vacation). This trip was basically the equivalent of an Ironman. Just as in an Ironman, you have your highs and lows, your peaks and valleys, the times when you feel great and are having a blast, the times when you are miserable and just want to quit. There are the times when you want the experience to last forever, and the times when you think to yourself, “what was I thinking? Why am I putting myself through this torture?”. But you keep your focus, keep your chin up, and remember that you are capable of accomplishing your goal. And when you’re done, the smile on your face is huge and you have forgotten about the tough times. You only have great memories. Yes, this vacation was the equivalent of an Ironman for sure.
Now that you know how I feel about our trip, haha, here are some pics from our final stop! We stayed in Perdido Key, Florida. That’s in the panhandle, aka the Redneck Riviera. We played at the beach then went to Florabama, a bar that is famous for being on the Florida/Alabama state line. Kenny Chesney also sings about it, so of course we had to check it out!
All of the little tiny fish were taking refuge around Brian!
Arches National Park inspired Trent’s sand creation.
We loved experiencing so many amazing places, but we were also happy to be back on the beach!
Here’s Florabama. It’s basically a big complex with a beach bar on the beach side of the road, then two restaurants on the river side of the road plus a water sports rental place.
We started on the beach side with drinks and oysters and French fries for the boys, then went to dinner at one of the places on the river. Florabama is famous for the Bushwacker, but the Key Lime Colada was my favorite.
And that’s it! We woke up the next morning and drove home! What a trip… a lifetime of memories were made! (And for the record, Brian and I have temporarily eliminated the letters R and V from our alphabet). Our family has now visited 25 of the 61 National Parks!
This trip was pretty unique. Five weeks of traveling in an RV isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time. Here are some questions we were asked frequently about the trip.
Did you plan the trip yourself or did you use an itinerary that was already out there?
Brian and I planned this entire trip ourselves, from scratch. It took hours upon hours and had lots of revisions along the way. Overall I think we did a pretty good job with our plan. We would recommend this itinerary as long as you are ready for nonstop action – tons of driving, tons to see and do, zero downtime.
How many miles did you drive? How many states did you drive through?
We drove 8,476 miles. We went through 22 states,
What types of jobs do you have that you can take off 5 weeks at once?
Brian works for the government and gets a generous amount of time off every year. He also travels frequently and accrues additional time off. He asked if he could take the time off and surprisingly it was approved. You never know until you ask! I work for the best real estate team in Florida and I have the best bosses ever. They let me work from the road.
Sage, did you drive the RV?
Of course I did! Like I stole it! Brian and I split the driving 50/50. To be honest, driving was the easy part. Being the “flight attendant” in the back and keeping everyone happy was definitely the more difficult job.
Where did you eat? Did you cook?
We cooked 80 percent of the time. We had a stove, oven, and microwave so we were fully equipped to make meals. The space was small and cramped so our meals were not gourmet by any means, but better (healthier!) than eating at restaurants all the time.
Where did you do laundry?
All RV parks have laundry facilities, so we did laundry about once per week. It was difficult to make time to do laundry since our days were so full, but somehow we made it happen.
How did you keep the boys entertained during all of that driving?
It would take way too much space to answer this question here, so I wrote a blog post about it! Keeping Kids Entertained On A Road Trip
These are just a few of the questions we were asked several times. What other questions do you have? If you want more details/specifics about our itinerary, I’d be happy to provide them to you!
