The Griswold Story

There's an adventure to start all adventures. This particular adventure inspired this entire travel blog. So many things happened, that I really felt (minus the empty leash/collar off the bumper and the dead aunt on the roof of the car) that we were in a Vacation movie. 

COVID quarantine was lightening up. All music gigs had been canceled with none to be rescheduled in the near future. I lost my job and was having a tough time finding a new one. I was also beginning a virtual professional portfolio, which takes SO MUCH time and felt like I was starting from the beginning.

So...

We decided to go to Colorado and Wyoming and Central California, with layovers in Nevada and Utah. All to see friends and family in the new socially distancing environment. We were going to stay in driveways and try to avoid people as much as possible. 

We blasted out to our peeps that this was the plan and with their responses proceeded to plot our course for a three week road trip. The longest any of us had ever done. We were originally thinking two weeks. Wrong! Try three...

First stop was an overnighter at the Hitchin' Post in Las Vegas. Everything was still closed. The bars were closed. Drive-thru dining only. The Strip was DARK. The hotels were DARK, except for room lights on to form heart shapes (cue the FEELS). There were some bike riders, but virtually no cars. Other than the overall eerie feeling, nothing exciting happened.

Next stop, Richfield, UT. But, poor Spawn. Two days into the trip and she takes a head dive off of the toddler swing into the gravel. Blood. There was BLOOD! I thought she had lost one of her precious baby teeth. Cabana Boy thought she had broke her arm. We scooped her little body off the ground and headed to the trailer quick like. Of course the site was at the complete other end of the campground. It was also dinner time, so everyone was outside of the their rigs, cooking, or eating, and witness to this wailing toddler being hustled by her parents to the nearest first aid kit. Spawn is fine. She got a great big band-aid, with a little princess band-aid on top, to cover the the gravel marks on her forehead and had a slight fat lip, but nothing that didn't heal very quickly. She refused to take the bandaid off for much of the trip. 

We made it through a visit in the Grand Junction, CO, area without issue. Colorado was lifting some COVID closures, so we were able to enjoy a nice dine-in dinner while there. It was very surreal, to say the least. Different areas were treating face masks and social gathering very differently. We ALWAYS chose the side of better safe than sorry. We wore our masks everywhere and stayed as far away from the next person as possible.

Off to Greeley, CO! On the way, the truck was making some fun noises. Cabana Boy knew that it was the exhaust manifold and luckily we knew a mechanic near our Greeley stop. Thanks, Mike and the Mechanics! Spent a whole day getting that taken care of, but got to spend some quality time with family and "Kids, Mom!" Did I mention the trailer brakes weren't working? And the truck needed new brakes too. Truck was taken care of, but now we needed to figure out the trailer brakes. Saving that for later... When we got back to our friend's house, she let us know that her HOA had officially given us a deadline to hit the road. We got kicked out by an HOA.

Oh, with all the winding roads of the highway through the Rockies, the laundry detergent bottle fell over and spilled almost the entire bottle onto the surface of the top bunk mattress. Soaked all the way through to the platform. Mother. Of. Pearl. My imagination ran wild with soap suds all over the trailer. Have I mentioned how afraid I am of water leaking into the trailer and ruining everything?

We headed to Shoshoni, WY. Cabana Boy was excited to finally play a show. While there, the dead bolt on the front trailer door just fell out. Add that to the list of broken things to fix. Luckily the other lock still worked. Since we were staying in one place for a week, we were able to get out and about. We took the truck out for some 4x4 wheel driving. Halfway up the trail, where there is ZERO cell service, we popped a tire on a sharp rock. It was then we realized that we didn't have the appropriate tools to change the tire. Of course. And there were snakes. Doesn't matter what kind. They were there. We had to drive back down to an area of cell service and where some friends with a air compressor met up with us to get enough air into the tire to get us back to camp. Cabana Boy tried using bubble gum on the hole. All we got out of that was a big bubble and some chuckles out of the local cowboys. Ha. Ha.

While the fellas figured out the tire situation, I sprayed the mattress with a high pressure water nozzle to get as much of the soap out as possible. Between the heat and the wind, the mattress was clean and dry within just a few hours! Whew!

We also visited the Thermopolis Dinosaur Museum. Spawn LOVED it, so I bought a couple of surprise eggs for her to play with when we got back to camp. When playing with the dig egg, I took measures to break it open with a hammer and a flat head screwdriver, because the provided tools were for kids. Come on! On the very last hit, Spawn grabbed the screwdriver and I smashed the inside chunk of her finger with the hammer. Poor. Kid. She had a small blood blister, but once the trauma of the pain subsided, she was fine enough for a popsicle. 

Now it was time to blow this popsicle stand and start heading back West. Heading over the pass, we encountered SNOW and very cold rain, even some hail. It was mid-June. I didn't pack warm clothes for any of us. That was fun.

We stayed a few nights in Salt Lake City to lick our wounds and get some road rest. The amenities were all closed due to COVID. Which was fine because it was so cold and rainy, we wouldn't have been able to use them anyway. We planned on going out for breakfast, but the truck wouldn't start. Dead battery. Yay AAA for the save and a brand new battery. Note: Don't leave your trailer plugged into the truck once in camp. While waiting for AAA, we were able to get a mobile RV guy (will add his info soon) to come to our site and repair the brakes on the trailer. During the previous summer trip over the Rockies, we had hit a nasty bump on the Interstate. We hit so hard that the suspension sliced right through the brake line. Delightful. The repair took about as much time as the accident causing the damage. Whew, but $$$.

Our next stop was Winnemuca, NV. We stayed at the Winnemuca RV Park. Once we got settled, I noticed that the cover on spare tire on the trailer was upside-down. "Great. Now the cover has come loose." At least that's an easy fix. BUT, it wasn't the cover. Of course not. It was the actual bolt, or one of them, that held the tire onto the trailer. It had rusted through (most likely from playa dust from August 2019) and only one bolt was barely holding the tire on. That could have been SO MUCH WORSE. We took the tire off of the trailer and threw it in the back of the truck. We replaced the bolts when we got home.

Our next stop was a friend's place in the mountains above Susanville, CA. Of all the things that could have gone wrong between the steep driveway and the steep drop-offs on the property, we were good. Then poor Spawn got a case of the barfs. Parenting bad. I don't think I washed a bottle very well and she got a small dose of bad milk. She only barfed once, but it was in her bed and mostly on a plate of pizza. Luckily, she wasn't traumatized from never eating pizza again, but every now and then she says "I barfed on my pizza" when we do have pizza. I also managed to stab myself in the shin, but whatever. I'm fine. It's fine.

View from Flying Squirrel Ranch

At this point, we were ready to go home. But a wonderful thing happened. We decided to stay the night in Reno for Cabana Boy's birthday (we EARNED this casino visit!). I was ready to pay out the nose for a spot at a casino, but the website kept crashing every time I hit "Pay." After 45min on the phone to reserve a spot, I found out that Drunk Kacey had earned enough points for a couple of comped nights! Woohoo! Thanks, Drunk Kacey! We only stayed one night, but it changed the tide for the rest of the trip. 

View from Shady Pines Retirement Community

We had a lovely visit with friends in Placerville. A gorgeous drive down the coast to Paso Robles and more friends (with "KIDS, Mom!"). And then a wonderful stop at Pismo Beach. Spawn's first adventure into the Pacific Ocean. She LOVED it. 

 

All in all, it was a GREAT trip! We learned a lot about traveling in the trailer long-ish term and made lots of memories and got to see lots of wonderful people. And immediately started planning the next trip! Pacific Northwest, here we come!