Nearly 15 years ago, Tyler and I set out on our first road trip together as a newly married couple. For our honeymoon, we chose to go on a water park tour of the NW which led us through Idaho and up into Canada. We hit a few water park/amusement parks along the way and landed in Edmonton. We experienced a lot of firsts together, but ultimately we decided our relationship was better suited outside of the confines of a vehicle!
When Tyler brought up the idea of a road trip, I was rather skeptical. Admittedly, I too had thought about a short road trip just to get away from the quarantine craziness. I was not, however, thinking of being cooped up in the car for what would be the longest trip of our lives.
Tyler began looking up RV rentals through various sites. When we calculated the cost of the rental, after fees, it totaled more than $2000. My mind immediately went to ownership and I began my search. I found someone locally selling a 16 ft Coleman travel trailer. The price was somewhat where Tyler would consider it, but ultimately after touring it, the space was too small for our family. When they wouldn’t negotiate the price, we walked and never looked back.
I continued to search FB Marketplace, OfferUp, and Craigslist for the perfect buying opportunity. Then, I found a brand new 21 ft Keystone Hideout for what I would deem as reasonable. Tyler took a lot more convincing! Tomorrow, I will share with you what eventually swayed him, but for now, we will get back to today’s travels.
We left Ranchester, WY later than the past two days but knew we didn’t have as far to travel today so we were flexible. As we traveled through Wyoming and into South Dakota we concluded a few things:
1. There are more Antelope than Cars on the road…both dead and alive!
2. We passed an RV that was on fire and nearly burnt to the bones. We gathered, with all the emergency personnel and the RV’s condition, the road had been shut down for at least 30 minutes. In Portland that would cause a backup for miles, but the traffic jam for this particular event was only about 10-15 cars! The Midwest offers THE BEST traveling conditions and did I mention the speed limit is 80 MPH?
3. We made a game of pulling up my Realtor.com app and looking at local listings to see what money could buy. We basically found we could build a nice house on major acreage for a fraction of the value of our home in Portland.
We ventured slightly off our path to see what Sturgis was all about. A quick stop at a brewery and gift shop and we were back on the road! Our travels led us to Hill City, SD where we are staying at another Harvest Host tonight. We are at The Naked Winery/Sick and Twisted Brewery. Our space is right along the river bed and the kids dared to take a dip which has turned into an evening swim.
We traveled 291 miles today for a new total of 1,296 miles. Tomorrow we will move to an RV park with full hookups and get settled into staying for more than a night. Tyler will be back in full on work mode and the kids will resume school!
We are all looking forward to a day outside of the pickup and for me, a day outside of the driver’s seat!
The Church Hideout 