Traveling with Grandkids: July, 2022

 Monday - July 25, 2022

Mike and I did something we had never done before - we traveled across country with three of our grandchildren.  We had decided to take Caroline (11), Carson (6), and Lilly (4) to Virginia to visit with Scott, Cristin, and the 4 cousins - Elli, Aslynn, Oscar, and Hunter.  Originally we were supposed to go on July 11, but Cristin, Aslynn, and Hunter got Covid so we postponed our visit for 2 weeks to let everyone get healthy.  Caroline, Carson, and Lilly spent Sunday night with us so we could get an early start.  We managed to get on the road before 8:00 am on our way to the first stop in Paducah, Kentucky.

Ready to hit the road - loaded to the ceiling!

Made it to Missouri.

The first day of travel was pretty uneventful.  The weather was good and didn't have any mishaps.  We ate lunch in the car and stopped a couple of times to let the kids stretch their legs.  We also stopped in Van Buren, Missouri at the Jolly Cone to get ice cream.  It was a good break.

Lilly and Caroline at the Jolly Cone

Bridge over the Ohio River

Made it to Kentucky

After about nine hours of traveling we arrived at the Drury Inn in Paducah.  We chose this place because it had an indoor pool and an included buffet dinner with drinks for the adults.  A win-win situation. After swimming then dinner we were all ready to settle in for the night to be ready for a long travel day on Tuesday.

The kids really enjoyed the pool

Lilly, Carson, and Caroline at dinner.

Carson watching his tablet

Lilly, Caroline, and Grandpa watching Dr. Pol on my computer.

Tuesday - July 26, 2022

This was another good travel day, but was longer than Monday.  We got up fairly early, ate breakfast at the hotel, and were on the road by 8:00 am again.  The breakfast was good and included waffles, eggs, biscuits, sausage.  Not much happened while traveling (which is not a bad thing).  We ate lunch in the car again and stopped a couple of times for leg stretching.  We spent most of the day travelling through Kentucky before stopping at Beckley, West Virginia at a Microtel Inn for the night.  The hotel didn't have a dinner so Mike picked up meals at the Cracker Barrel that was next door while the kids and I swam.  The hotel was under renovations, so was not the best.  It did the job though and was clean enough.

Entering West Virginia

The capital dome in Charleston, West Virginia.

Wednesday - July 27, 2022

We got up early again so we could get to Scott's shortly after noon.  I went down to get coffee and check breakfast options and found that the breakfast wasn't good. We just got ready, got in the car, and stopped after about 30 miles at a Hardee's for breakfast sandwiches.  

The 3 kids slept together in hotels.
It didn't seem to bother them much

Almost there - everyone is yelling 'road trip'

Because of that we actually got to Scott's about an hour earlier that we thought we would, arriving  in time for lunch.  Everyone was really excited to see each other.  Mike and I had booked a room for four nights at the Embassy Suites in Old Town Alexandria. We let the three boys stay with us the first two nights and the four girls the last two.  This was a very nice hotel with glass elevators, an indoor pool, and a really good hot breakfast.  The only thing Mike and I didn't like about the hotel was the parking.  The spaces were very close together with posts next to many of the spots.  It only allowed about 6 inches of clearance.  We managed it though without incident.

Elli and I - love that girl!

Oscar, Carson, and Hunter enjoyed the pool

Oscar taking a big jump

Carson and Hunter jumping in together

Thursday - July 28, 2022

Scott treated everyone (except Cristin who was still feeling sick) to a day at Six Flags in Bowie, Maryland today.  We got to the park by 10:45 am so we would be ready to get in when it opened at 11:00 am.  It was a hot day and we hoped to get the rides done before the heat was too bad.  To begin the day Scott took the three older girls to ride the most popular rides.  The boys and Lilly were not tall enough for these.  Mike kept Lilly in the kiddy ride part while I took Hunter, Oscar, and Carson to ride the Wild One wooden roller coaster, but Carson was not tall enough, so we went to the French Quarters Flyer airplane ride.  Oscar and Hunter rode that together and Carson and I rode together.  It was a lot of fun.  Carson was scared at first, but enjoyed it so much that he ended up riding it two more times.  When we were finished there I took Carson to Mike and Hunter, Oscar, and I rode the Wild  One Coaster.  At first the gate shut after Hunter got on and Oscar and I were shut out.  I finally convinced the worker to let Hunter off and he had to walk around to get back to us.  I wasn't very happy about this.  Finally the three of us rode the coaster. It wasn't that scary, but was very jerky.  We all decided that once was enough.  While we were riding bigger rides Mike and Lilly rode the carousel and kiddy roller coaster.  Carson joined them for a while then all three boys rode the small roller coaster. It had gotten hot so I bought everyone a cold bottle of water and sat in the shade for a while.

Carson and I getting ready for the French Quarter Flyer

Oscar and Hunter on the flyer

Carson on the carousel

Lilly on the carousel

Oscar, Carson, and Hunter getting ready to ride the roller coaster

The boys on the little roller coaster

During this time Scott and the three older girls were riding the big rides like The Superman until it was time to meet up for lunch.  When everyone got together we got burgers and chicken tenders at Jimmy Rocket's Diner.  We chose this mainly because it was inside dining with air conditioning.  The chicken was good, but the burgers were not.  Luckily we had enough extra chicken for everyone to get filled up.  After lunch Mike kept Lilly and Scott and boys hung out while the three older girls and I rode the Ragin Cagin together.  This was a roller coaster that made sudden turns and eventually ended up spinning.  It was jerky also, but I had fun with the girls.  We all headed out to the opposite side of the park where the big rides were as well as a kiddy park.  Scott was able to ride with most of the older kids while Mike and I stayed with the younger kids and did rides together. 

Hunter and Carson on the Flyer

Lilly and I rode together

The girls and I waiting to ride the Ragin Cagun

Some of the kids on the little kids train

Hunter and Carson trying to climb the rope ladder to win a prize.

Lilly and Oscar giving the ladder a try.  Nobody won.

Finally Scott took me and some of the kids on the Renegade Rapids ride.  This was a good ride because it was fairly exciting, got you wet at the end, and all of the kids could ride it.  Lilly and Carson loved it.  While we were on this the older girls rode the Harley Quinn by themselves while Mike sat and watched.  We all had dipping dots ice cream then split up again so Scott could ride the Fireball with Aslynn and Elli while I rode the Renegade Rapids again with all the other kids.  We just got off of ride when it started raining.  We made it back to the covered area where Mike was sitting with our stuff when it started pouring.  Even with the large umbrellas we all got soaked because of the wind. Meanwhile, Scott and the 2 girls had accidentally missed getting on their ride.  Luckily for them because the rain started when they would have been on the ride and the ride got stalled just before it got back under the covering.  After all of this we headed out of the park and headed home about 5:00 pm.  Mike and I just took the boys back to the hotel and everyone else went back to Scott and Cristin's.  We ordered pizza, bread knots, and chicken wings to be delivered to our room because we were too tired to go out.  This was a very fun day.

Friday - July 29, 2022

We decided to have a down day after the excitement of Six Flags on Thursday.  After breakfast I took the boys swimming before heading to Scott and Cristin's.  Luckily Cristin was feeling much better today.   We didn't do much.  We had leftovers for lunch then later cooked dinner.  Cristin and some of the kids did some gardening.  The boys stayed at Scott's and we took the four girls to the hotel to spend the night after dinner.  The girls swam then we settled in for the night.  Not much to write about today.

Elli, Lilly, and Aslynn

Lilly, Oscar, Carson, and Hunter

Saturday - July 30, 2022

Today everyone went into Washington DC for the day.  Cristin felt much better so was able to join us.  Mike and I drove our car with the boys and Scott drove his van with everyone else.  We parked in a garage then walked across the mall to the Natural History Museum.  

On the mall with the Capitol in the background

Turned around so the Washington Monument was behind us

When we got to the Natural History Museum, Cristin took Caroline, Aslynn, and Hunter to the history of evolution while the rest of us toured the dinosaur skeleton area.  All of the kids enjoyed these sections of the museum stopping to look at and read all about the exhibits.  We met up at the cafeteria for lunch then all went to the rocks exhibits.  Once again all of the kids enjoyed seeing all of the gems and minerals.  When we were finished here we let the kids pick out souvenirs from the store using money Scott had given them when at Six Flags.  They all had used some at Six Flags, but had some left for DC.  

Scott and Cristin with the kids on their way into the museum.

Lilly by a large dinosaur bone fossil

Oscar, Elli, Carson, and Hunter

Oscar, Hunter, Carson, Lilly by the elephant

By the elephant as we are getting ready to leave

At the end of the day - Elli had to make Papa look cool.

We had planned to go to one or two more places, but when we were finished at the Natural History Museum we were all so tired that we decided to call it a day.  In fact, Mike's back had started hurting bad enough that he sat at the museum for Scott and Cristin to come pick him up and I drove the boys back to Scott's by myself.  We had dinner at Scott's then Mike, the girls, and I went back to the hotel for our final night there.  This was another good day. 

Sunday - July 31, 2022

This was our last day in Alexandria.  After we ate breakfast I took the girls to swim in the hotel pool one last time. When they were finished swimming we packed everything up and checked out of the hotel. 

Lilly and Aslynn in the pool

Aslynn, Caroline, and Elli enjoyed the hot tub

Lilly got a little cool so decided to sit out a while

We spent our last night in Alexandria at Scott and Cristin's.  It was a little crowded, but we enjoyed being there for one night.  We had a fairly lazy day mainly just hanging out at the house.  The boys played a lot of Minecraft and the three older girls rode their bikes to a park to play.  While they were at the park it started raining and they got pretty wet riding home, but still had a good time.  After dinner we set up sleeping arrangements.  Hunter slept with Cristin, Scott slept on the living room sofa, Carson slept in Hunter's bed, Caroline, Lilly, and I slept on the air bed, and Mike slept on the downstairs sofa.  One night of these sleeping arrangements was enough.  After Mike and all the kids were in bed Scott, Cristin, and I sat up a while and Scott and I even played a little Mario Kart on the Switch.  A very enjoyable last evening.

Monday - August 1, 2022

We all slept in, had breakfast, then we got the car packed for driving home.  We had a good time and were all a little sad to be leaving.

Elli had to sit in Papa's lap one more time

Lilly needed snuggles from Uncle Scott before 
leaving

We left around 10:00 am to miss all of the rush hour traffic.  We had a good driving day with only a little bit of rain as we drove through West Virginia.  We got lunch at a McDonald's and ate in the car.  We had stopped at a rest stop in Virginia and let the kids run around a little bit.  We stayed at a Best Western Plus in Charleston, West Virginia because Mike and I had enough points to pay for the room.  The hotel was okay, but someone had taken a massive dump in the swimming pool.  Luckily I noticed it before the kids got all the way into the pool.  YUCK!  We ordered a couple of pizzas from Pizza Hut to be delivered and ate in the room.  It was a pretty good dinner.  We called it a night pretty early so that we would be ready for a long driving day on Tuesday.

Tuesday - August 2, 2022

We got up and had breakfast at the hotel then left around 8:00 am.  Really, the only thing wrong with this hotel was the pool situation.  We spent most of the day traveling through Kentucky.  It was an okay travel day.  We just bought cheese and lunchables to eat in the car for lunch.   We got to the Drury Inn in Sikeston, Missouri about 4:00 pm.  We decided to stay here because of the included dinner.  This was a very nice hotel with a combination indoor/outdoor pool.  The kids were the only ones swimming for most of the time and and had a lot of fun.  They swam for about an hour then we got ready and went to dinner.  

Made it to Kentucky

Playing on tablets while we travel

Carson jumping in the pool in Sikeston

Lilly and Caroline jumping in

After dinner we relaxed in our room and had a fairly early night.  Ready to get the last day of traveling over with.

Wednesday - August 3, 2022

We got up, had a good breakfast, and were on the road by 7:30 am.   Everyone was ready to get home.  We had another pretty uneventful day, except that Lilly got gagged on a bite and threw up.  Luckily Caroline had a paper towel in her hand and was able to catch all of it.  We stopped and cleaned everything up then got on the road again. 

Back in Arkansas

We stopped in Bentonville at The Meadows and visited Memaw for about 30 minutes since it was on our way home.  She enjoyed seeing everyone.  We dropped the kids off in Fayetteville at their house at about 3:00 pm and Mike and I made it home by 4:00 pm.  The kids were very good for this trip and everyone had a really good time.

Southwest USA - The Windy Vacation Part 3 - Spring, 2022

New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas 

The plan for this last part of our vacation was to camp at a couple of state parks in New Mexico then one each in Texas and Oklahoma on our way home.  However, as with the earlier parts of this trip, things happened that made us change our plans.  We ended up going from New Mexico into Colorado then traveled through Kansas on our way home.

Friday - April 29, 2022                                        Grants/Cibola KOA

We left camp by 8:00 am.  I drove first, traveling on Hwys. 260 and 84 through the Coconino National Forest.  It was a very pretty drive, but there were no services until we were almost at I-40.  We finally stopped at Cliff's Corner where we paid $4.79/gallon for gas.  We paid $161 for the gas and it didn't even fill the tank completely.  At least this is the most we paid and gas got a little cheaper as we headed back west.  We drove I-40 to Grant's New Mexico, stopping at the Wal-Mart on the way to the KOA.  This KOA is okay, but has no shade and was dirt roads.  The campground was in the middle of El Mapars National Monument which is a giant lava field from old volcanoes.  After setting up camp Mike and I took a walk through the lava field on a 1 mile trail.  This was very interesting.

At rest stop when entering New Mexico

Campsite at Grants KOA - the lava fields are visible
in the background

Lava field hike

After our walk we ordered supper from the KOA.  They had a full kitchen and smoker.  We shared a 'Super Smoker' meal which included brisket, ribs, sausages, mashed potatoes and broccoli.  It was a good dinner except for the mashed potatoes.  They were pretty bad - obviously instant.  This has turned into a pretty good place to spend the night.

Saturday - April 30, 2022                            Lake Heron State Park

We ate cereal and drank coffee at the continental breakfast in the KOA office.  Not the best breakfast in the world, but was better that fixing something ourselves.  We left camp at 8:30 am taking I-40 to Albuquerque.  We headed north toward Santa Fe on I-25 before getting on Hwys. 560, 84 and, 95 to Lake Heron State Park.  Once again, the New Mexico State Park did not have anyone working in the office.  Luckily I knew which campsite was ours so we were able to just drive to it.  The camp host came and checked us in.  He was nice and brought us hiking information later in the evening.  We have not been impressed with the New Mexico State Park system. The workers we saw were all nice, but there were not enough of them for upkeep of the parks.  The restrooms at Lake Heron were not cleaned the entire time we were there.  However, the campsite we had was okay which is the most important part.  Lake Heron was very low.  It appeared that it was so low that boats were not able to be put on it.

Campsite at Lake Heron State Park

A nice thing about this park is that there are several hiking trails we can use while we are here.  This state park is in the mountains of New Mexico not far from southern Colorado.  In fact, we were able to see some of the Colorado Rocky Mountains while hiking.  We used our oven in the RV for the first time and baked a frozen pizza for dinner.  The oven worked well and the pizza was good.  The person at Gander RV that showed us how everything worked on the RV when we were buying it had indicated that the oven wouldn't work very well since it is so small.  It worked good at least for frozen pizza.  The weather here was cool and windy (of course).  This was a quiet place to stay for three nights.

Sunday - May 1, 2022

I cooked sausage, potatoes, onion, cheese, and egg burritos for breakfast.  After breakfast we hiked three miles on the Salmon Run Trail.  This was a nice hike with decent views.  We saw lots of elk and mule deer poop, but never saw either while at the park.

View of Lake Heron from Salmon Run Trail
The lake was extremely low

Enjoying our hike

After our hike we sat around reading all afternoon.  As usual, it was very windy. 

Monday - May 2, 2022

As we thought, this was a nice, quiet, and dark park so we both were able to sleep in.  After breakfast we hiked over three miles to the visitor center (which wasn't open) and on to the East Meadow Trail.  This trail had pretty views of mountains, the lake, and bluffs.  From here we were able to see the Colorado mountains.

View of large bluff from trail

Mike on the trail

Mary on trail with mountains in backgorund

Best view of the mountains

After our hike we ate lunch and both took showers.  We have enjoyed having a water heater that we could turn on by just flipping a switch, not lighting a pilot like we had to in the trailer.  We also enjoyed the shower, even though we had to be conservative on water use because of gray tank storage.  We cleaned the RV then I cooked soup and cornbread for dinner.  I baked the cornbread in our cast iron skillet in the tiny oven and it worked very well.  We have been very pleased with the oven.  Once again it was windy and cool all day.  We really enjoyed our hike and day here this day.

Tuesday - May 3, 2022

After breakfast we packed a lunch and hiked four miles on the East Meadows Trail.  This was a good hike with pretty views.

View of mountains from trail

Osprey nest

We decided to cancel the our remaining camping reservations and go to Buena Vista, Colorado instead.  The wildfires in New Mexico close to our next camping spot had become bad and we didn't want to deal with the smoke.  Also,  the forecast for Caprock Canyon where we planned to camp on the way home was for super hot temperatures - up to 100 degrees.  Since the AC in the cab wasn't working we didn't want to deal with hot weather.  I cancelled everything then made reservations for the BV Overlook RV park in Buena Vista for three nights as well as one night each at Limon, Colorado and Salina, Kansas.  In all the camping trips we have taken since I retired, we have never before had to change our plans so much.  However, that's okay.  We have still been having a good trip.

Wednesday - May 4, 2022                            BV Overlook RV Park, Buena Vista, Colorado

We left camp about 9:00 am.  We dumped and flushed the black tank before leaving the campground.  The black tank sensor keeps indicating that it is 1/3 to 2/3 full even when we have just dumped.  We don't know how to remedy that problem.  We took Hwys 64, 17, and 285 to the RV park at Buena Vista.  The highest pass we drove over was the 10,200 foot La Manga Pass.  There were pretty views on this drive.

View of Rocky Mountains as we leave New Mexico

Still quite a bit of snow in the mountains

We stopped in Alamosa for gas and were able to use our Safeway points to save 10 cents/gallon. While in Alamosa we ate lunch at a Burger King.  We got to BV Overlook RV Park around 1:30 pm.  This is a nice park and has beautiful views.  We have stayed here two other times when it was a KOA campground.

View from our RV at BV Overlook

Our campsite

Mt. Princeton

Mt. Columbia - Harvard Lakes is at the bottom of 
the avalanche fingers

It got cold enough overnight that we unhooked the hose and used the water left in the fresh water tank from the Grand Canyon.  There was even a light snow around 6:00 pm.  

Thursday - May 5, 2022

I cooked the rest of the sausage, eggs, potatoes, onion, with cheese to make burritos for today and for our final travel days.  It was cold this morning, but warmed up as it got later in the day.  After lunch we hiked three miles on the Fistful of Dollars trail which is behind the campground.  The trail goes up a mountain to a picnic and overlook area.  The views on this trail are amazing.

Mt. Princeton view from the trail

Mt. Columbia 

Mike on our hike

Mary with mountains in the background

Friday - May 6, 2022

After breakfast we hiked four miles on Fistful of Dollars.  After our hike we both took showers and cleaned the RV in preparation for the trip home.  I cooked macaroni and cheese with ground turkey and steamed green beans, potatoes, and carrots for dinner.  Once again it was very windy.  We've enjoyed our time in Buena Vista.  We made the right decision to change our itinerary for the end of our trip.

View from Fistful of Dollars

A section of the trail

Saturday - May 7, 2022                                    Limon KOA, Colorado

We left camp at 9:00 am.  I drove to Woodland Park just west of Colorado Springs where we stopped at a MacDonalds for lunch.  We saw around 20 pronghorn, four mule deer, and a rabbit.  Mike finished the drive to the Limon KOA.  We got there around 1:00 pm and it was warm and windy (of course).  We walked to the Scoop's Ice Cream Parlor and got chocolate/vanilla twist ice cream cones.  A nice treat for a warm day.  We spent the rest of the afternoon in the RV reading and had leftovers for dinner.  It got really windy around 9:00 pm and stayed that way until after 11:00 pm.  We were finally able to go to sleep around midnight.

View of Pikes Peak as we were traveling

Sunday - May 8, 2022                                    Salina KOA, Kansas

We left fairly early taking I-70 all the way to the Salina KOA.  We saw four mule deer and about ten pronghorn today.  The driving wasn't bad except for the never ending wind.  We made it to the Salina KOA by 1:30 after buying lunch at a Popeye's.  

Campsite at Salina KOA

Salina KOA

Monday - May 9, 2022                                Home

We left by 6:30 am trying to beat the heat and wind.  We beat the heat, but the wind was horrible all day.  We made it home by 2:30 pm, tired but happy to be home.  This was a learning trip for driving and using the RV.  Even with the wind and other issues we enjoyed our trip to the Southwest.    We drove a total of 3380 miles with no major incidents.  

Beautiful sunrise as we leave Salina KOA