This blog is to document the trip Rob Rowland and his two boys Andrew 10 and Ben 7 are taking from Colfax, WA to Knippa, TX and back from July 15th to Aug 4th or so.
We are going to Texas to pick up my 14 year old daughter Megan and to deliver a 1936 Chevrolet truck to my dad and pick up my 1949 Chevrolet truck that my grandpa, for whom I was named after, bought new and my dad has passed on to me and I will pass on to Andrew.
The trip idea started when I bought the 1936 truck in late 2008 and my dad wanted it shipped to him. After not being able to find a shipper I trusted, we decided for a grandfather/father/son cross country trip in June of 2009. Two days before our departure date my dad bailed out on the trip and paid to fly us all to Texas
I have been wanting to travel with the boys so I decided to deliver the truck my self and bring back my grandpas truck in the process. The boys were all for it so on March 1, 2011 we hatched a plan to make the money needed to make the trip a fun one.
We figured we would need at least $1,500 for gas and $2,500 for tours of the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, and Yellowstone park and then some spending money. As we worked hauling cars in the white suburban, the vehicle we would drive to Texas, we thought an RV would be just the thing to make our trip cool!!
I began searching and found one in Yakima I thought we could make work. Andrea offered to loan us the $4,000 to buy it and help us go get it. So on June 4th we brought home our 1987 Travelmaster 29 foot motor home. We took it to our mechanic, Wade Olson and after $1,000 in work it was ready for our 5,000 mile trip with a clean bill of health for our unnamed RV.
As the trip came closer the money was coming in but slowly. I was also having my doubts about the RV and if it was up for our trip. We took it to Boyer park for the father son outing to practice and it did okay. The weekend before our trip I sold my 1955 Olds 2 door hard top and we got good money out of four cars we stripped and smashed for a total of $2,800 that put us at $9,300 of our $10,000 goal. Close enough to start packing up the RV.
I must admit that I also had my doubts or reservations if I could really pull all of this off by myself. So much so that I asked for a blessing the night before we were to leave. Bro. Dailey gave me the blessing and it went very well.
Two days before the trip I held a quick FHE and asked the boys how they were feeling about the trip. Andrew said he was excited but he might chicken out on that morning. He said he was unsure how things would go and he it might be safer to just not go. Ben was okay with going or not.
So finally the morning of July 15th came and we were scrambling to make sure we loaded everything. We forgot a ton of stuff like my blanket, their toothbrushes, my walking shoes, case of popcorn, our CD collection including our song of the summer by LMFAO "party rock anthem" to name just a few of the things.
We left an hour late from schedule at 7:30 am, off to Walla Walla, WA to our first stop for Andrew.
Andrew had learned in school about the history of our county, Whitman County, and there is a museum about the founders of it in Walla Walla. Andrew got us there by pure luck and while I feared it to be a waste of time, it turned out really well. We saw the homesite and learned of the they lived as pioneers.
There is a wonderful story of love and gospel understanding taught there. I will try to get the exact wording to insert here but in case I do not, I will briefly explain. The Whitmans 2 year old daughter drown in the creek near the home while washing out her dinner cup. The mothers reaction was beyond my comprehension. She thanked the lord for the two years the lord loaned her to them and they knew they would see her again. She gets the bigger picture.
We left there glad we stopped and set our path to Wendover,Utah. Just southeast of Pendelton, Oregon we started to climb a huge mountain grade and RV started to heat up. The day before I had been working on the RV to make the horn work, I took fuse out of the heater to make the horn work never dreaming I would need the heater in the record heat we had been having. As we climbed the grade and the RV began to heat up, I remembered that turning the heater on helps cool the engine. So I pulled over and pulled the fuse from the windshield wipers to make the heater work and keep the horn working. With the drought we were having rain was nowhere in the forcast in the U.S. We made it over the mountain and on to Twin Fall where we would turn south. At around 2:00am I stopped to sleep in Jackpot, NV. Our first day was over and all was going great.
I woke up around 6:00am and continued to Wells, NV to turn east to Wendover, Utah.
In Wendover we found the bonneville salt flats racetrack. There was nothing out there but a dead end road. As we talked to other people there we decided to drive the RV out on the salt. We went out 100 yards turned around, got out, took some pics and got out of there. The salt is slushy and sticks to everything!
We got back on the road and headed to SLC. As we got close to SLC we stopped at the Saltair Palace and we all jumped in the Great Salt Lake. Andrew kept saying,"The water does not tastes very good!" The water was about 2 feet deep as far as we walked out and very warm. The little bugs on the shore was the hit for the boys.
We showered and got back on the road. In under an hour we were in downtown SLC by 3:00 pm. Newell Warr, a relative of the Bennion family, invited us to come and stay with him. He lives across the street from temple square on the north east corner. He took us around to see the "This is the right place" monument and many other sites. We toured the new church conference center that holds 21,000 people. Ben kept saying "This is where Pres. Monson talks to us from during conference." The building is 1.4 million square feet. Andrew really liked all of the paintings. I enjoyed seeing the telepromter that helped "the brethren" give such flawless talks. We took a quick stroll through temple square, and the tabernacle but it was after 8:00pm so we headed back up to the condo to eat dinner with uncle Newell.
The next morning we went back to the conference center to watch a live broadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle choir. The boys both liked seeing a live TV show being produced. It was nice and we moved onto the temple square visitors centers. We saw some great videos and enjoyed all the centers had to offer.
We went back to the condo for lunch and a nap to prepare me for my all night drive to Las Vegas. Keith Warr brought his kids by to see us and we stopped in Jordan on our way out of town to see Craig Warr and his new wife Tamara. They were all very nice to us.
We left SLC about 8:30pm and we got to Las Vegas around 9:00 am. We talked to Kevin King and he found us a place to park the RV and he let us drive his suburban while he was at work. As we waited for him to come get us, we checked our load and found a nail in a trailer tire. So Andrew and I pulled the tire off to get it fixed. Kevin picked us up around 10:45 am and took us back Harrahs hotel were he works. There we booked our trip to the Grand Canyon. We then went in search of the pawn shop from the TV show "Pawn Stars". It was easy to find but not worth it. We had to wait in line outside just to get in. Once inside it was small, cramped, and just junky. I am glad we did it because it showed the boys that things on TV are not always what they seem.
We went in search of tire shop to repair/replace our trailer tire. After getting the tire fixed I asked Ben if there was anything he wanted to just for him. He said "I want to drive to California and take a picture of the "Welcome to California" sign. I looked at the map and we were 41 miles from the sign so I said "We can do that" and we did. Ben is collecting pictures of state signs and we have pictures of 5 states so far with 9 more to go we hope.
Back in Vegas we made a tour of the Luxor hotel(the one shaped like a pyramid) and then we picked up Kevin and we took him to dinner. We got in bed by 11:00pm because we had to be back at the hotel by 6:30am for our Grand Canyon tour.
We were up and on time for our Pink Jeep Tour of the Grand Canyon and area tour. The group had 10 people in it and we left Harrahs hotel in Vegas in a 4x4 pink jeep that was very nice roomy. We got a brief tour of Vegas and then out towards Hoover dam. Once we were off the highway it was 52 miles of paved/gravel roads to the west rim of the canyon. We went by Dolan Springs and passed through the Josuha tree forrest. The Mohave dessert is the only place on earth they are found. Mormon settlers named cause they said they looked like the prophet Josuha praying.
We arrived at the base site to be flown down to the bottom of the canyon in a helicopter. The boys did not seem nervous at all. The flight was awesome in that it was very quiet and steady. We needed no headgear and we could speak easily with each other. At the bottom we hiked a ways down further to a waiting pontoon boat for a quick ride. Our boat guide was from Mongolia. The current was strong and fast with the water being a very murky brown. Once we were back to the shore up we flew back to the base station. We then boarded a large coach and toured the area of view points and Indian sites. They feed us a huge meal and we had some free time to explore. One thing that stood out was there are no guard rails or protection of any kind anywhere. I guess that is the power of soverign immunity.
Back to the highway we stopped for a photo shot at the Hoover Dam. Wow it was windy up on the Tillman bridge. We were back in Vegas by 4:00pm and we decided to see more sites so we jumped off our jeep at the Mandalay Bay hotel. Inside they have the Shark Reef exhibit the boys wanted to see. It was not in the budget but the boys promised to give up something later so went for it. The exhibit was short but very cool. There were tunnels you would walk through and sharks and all kinds of other marine life swimming all around you. There was also and petting pool. We all got to touch stingrays, baby tiger sharks, and some others. We spent 30 minutes there and really enjoyed it. We then were picked up by Kevin and back to the RV. We loaded up and were off by 10:00pm heading towards Phoenix. It was 95 degrees as we left Vegas and a wind advisory was out. The trip to Phoenix was the hottest, windiest, and toughest part off the trip so far.
I pulled into Phoenix around 7:00am it was 95 degrees and the traffic was bad so we pulled off. After we gassed up and rested for an hour, we were back on the road but I only lasted an hour. The heat and fatigue set in and I needed some rest. We stopped in Casa Grande, AZ at a Best Western around 10:00 am and stayed until 9:00pm resting, playing in the pool, and watching Pawn Stars. We would have left sooner but a freak dust/lightning/rain storm came up and tried to let it pass. Once on the road it started raining so I bought some fuses so the wipers would work. Will the adventure with the RV never end?
I drove on and off for the next two days getting to my parents house in Knippa, TX by 9:00am on Friday July 22nd, almost exactly one week after we started. Whew, we made it and I must admit at times I had my doubts.
We all took a shower and a quick nap and then headed to the salvage yard to drop off the RV and trailer. Since the RV was not handling the heat very well, I looked for another vehicle to possibly buy at my dads car lot. We picked out a Chevy crewcab and drove it back to my parents house. We had a quiet night restful night.
On Saturday, in the morning, the boys and I went with grandpa to the auction at the junior college. Grandpa bought 14 cars and the boys each bid on a bike and got one each. We took the bikes home and put one new tube in each bike. The boys went off and rode around the salvage yard. Andrew bike was $7.50 and Bens was $5.00. That night we went out to Sunny Clime farms for the Ward pioneer party. There were activities such as three legged races, washers, watermellon seed spitting, ice-cream making , and line dancing. Andrew won the watermellon seed spitting and Ben won the three legged race! The ward has lots of new strong family's and its nice to see the old branch getting new help to be a ward.
Sunday we went church and then made it a day of rest and I needed it.
On Monday morning the boys and I went to San Antonio to pick up Megan from her grandmas. After we picked Megan up we wanted to do something fun so we went to the Tower of Americas. We took pictures from the top and decided to eat lunch there. Where we ate was the part of the building that rotates so your scenery changes. Everyone enjoyed it.
Afterwards we went down the tower to a 4D movie about Texas. We were not sure what to expect. They showed us a 2 minute preview film about Texas. They said Texas only has one natural lake but I'm not sure I believe that. So after that we walked into a room that had seats, like a theater, so we sat at the front and our chair started to shake as the movie began. It was different from a 3D movie because they would spray you with water and shoot airs under your chair. We liked it so much we went and jumped back in line to watch it again! Then we strolled around the river walk area. It has really been fixed up and is really cool now. We headed home to have dinner with mom and dad.
Tuesday morning we unloaded the 1936 chevy and loaded grandpas 1949 chevy. My grandpa bought the truck new and I have been around it my whole life. It will be cool to have it for the boys. The boys rode their bikes while I looked for a truck to replace the RV, maybe.
Sifting through possible replacements for the RV was just more work so we just stayed with what have been calling "The Toaster". It is gets really hot inside that rolling metal box.
On Wednesday, we loaded everything and we left Knippa around 8:00 pm bound for a 8:00 am trailer appointment in OKC ,OK. I drove 565 miles overnight and was on time. The hotels in the area were all full and the trailer was fixed quick so I just kept going. I made it all the way to Salina, KS, 850 miles in all and I only stopped for the kids. We picked a hotel with a fancy indoor pool, and one I had coupon for, and pulled up to the front door to get a room. When I came out to go park The RV would not start. I made some calls to the church and I found a mechanic to show up early the next morning. Pedro A. was on time but by 4:00 pm we still did not have it fixed. He called Bishop Bell and in 15 minutes he had us going. It was RV only issue with the solenoid.
We we were so lucky where we broke down and to get good help. The kids just played in the pool and played ping pong all day.
On Saturday we left right after breakfast around 7:00am to drive some in the cooler temps.
This morning we stopped in Hebron Nebraska to look at the worlds largest porch swing. It was not that interesting but the human sized hamster wheel next to it was a whole another story. We spent pretty much the whole time on it. Andrew claimed that he was the best at it. The boys got there bikes out and rode around the park. A man also gave us badges as a souvenir with a picture of the swing . It was a fun pit stop.
We stopped next in Thedford, Neb to ask for directions when I noticed the trailer hitch on the RV had bent/broken and was hanging down. We were go nowhere until it was fixed. Long story short, I got the 78 year old owner or the gas station to stick weld it back together. He tried but it was terrible but I had no other option. That was $170.00 out of our budget.
We were back on the road still trying to get to Rapid City to do the Rushmore and Crazy Horse tour in the morning. When we stopped at the state line to take a picture for Ben of the South Dakota state sign, I saw that the old mans welds were cracking. I decided push on to the next big town to try to Fonda welder at 10:00 pm. The town was Murdo, SD and a gas station clerk called a buddy to come look at our issue. In 10 minutes we were at his shop and he did a great job, but another $160 out of the budget.
We were back on the road but behind schedule. I drove past the badlands and almost made it to Rapid City before I had to stop to rest. After a few hours of rest it was back behind the wheel. I was stressing about making the tour and the cracking hitch when we drove past a LDS ward building full on a Sunday morning. I pulled in to get some help when Megan suggested we drop the trailer, do the tour ourselves and fix the hitch later. A great idea and so we did it. Off to Rushmore with out the trailer.
Rushmore was easy to find and was only $11.00 to get in for all of us. It was very nice, clean, patriotic, and a beautiful area. We took some pictures and off to the Crazy Horse(CH) monument. I really did not want to go for many reasons. I was still worried about the broken hitch, spending more money, and if you've seen one carved mountain....
It was only about 20 miles away so we went ahead. At the gate they wanted $27.00 for all of us to get in. I was not happy. Inside the gift shop was a bunch of Indian items for sale. The carving is not finished and it along way off. I was grumbling under my breath about supporting this Indian led , government supported project when we discovered a welcome video. The video blew me away. The whole park was/is owned by the family of the sculptor, Korsak?. It is totally controlled now by his wife Ruth now that he is dead. The museum was great but seeing the video interviews with Korsak gave me a sense of his passion, devotion, and vision for the project. I just love the place now. The kids and I vowed to come back again in a few years to check on the progress.
We headed back to the trailer when I stopped at house with chevy trucks being built by a shop. The man fixed our hitch right, gave us some South Dakota license plates and our fourth gas cap all for $30.00.
We were back on the road and heading to Thermopolis, WY and the dinosaur museum. We left Rapid City after a short WalMart stop for powerade around 7:00 pm for the 333 mile trip. My goal was to be at the museum when the kids woke up but with the 7 hour drive ahead throughout the mountains, I was not sure I could do it. I pulled into Buffalo,WY around 1:00 am after 210 miles of easy driving. I was feeling good with only 123 miles to go I pushed forward. Megan was awake and talking to me so I was sure I could make it. As soon as we pulled out of Buffalo, the road went straight up for 18 miles. The RV struggled and we finally stopped in the middle of the road cause the RV was heating up and there was no shoulder. As Megan and I sat there in complete darkness and silence, we could swear we were rolling backwards. It was very unsettling. We marked ourselves against a sign post so we knew we were not moving but WOW, it sure felt like we were. I have learned since that we were suffering from vertigo. After 30 minutes of sitting, we got moving again but it was very slow going. It was either straight up slow or straight down trying to keep it slow. I finally gave up and stopped for a nap and wait for sunlight to help me navigate this mountain pass. When I woke up I was in a beautiful valley with high walls. The first building I saw coming out was an LDS chapel. I made it to Thermoplis by 8:00am and we took a shower, changed and headed to the museum. The museum was not impressive from the outside as we pulled up. We decided to buy the field tour also and it was well worth it. What makes this museum so special is almost all the dinos on display were found on the ranch owned by the museum. We took a bus out to the ranch to see real active dig sites. Andrew was loving it and it was pretty cool to see dino bones still on the ground being excavated. The museum was small but had some very impressive diplays. All the kids had fun and Andrew spent all of his money on books and poster. We stayed there for almost 3 hours and we only left when Andrew said he was done. It was about 1:00 pm when we started towards our next stop Cody, WY, 85 miles away. I was getting tried but I wanted to get to Cody to book our YellowStone tour and then I could sleep. We rolled into Cody around 4:00pm and went to the chamber of commerce. There we lucked out and got a personal tour for the next day, a place to park for the night with plug in, and the tour would pick us up there. Very sweet. We then went in search of a little food and came across a live gin fight and stopped to watch. It was terrible but we did learn some gun safety. We were in bed by 9:00pm to be up by 6:00am for our 7:00 am pick up.
Megans part:
Wow it is hot! The first day on the RV trip you sit down, your sweating you stand up and it's just as bad. There's no hiding from it! The boys have grown but to me they are pretty much the same as I saw them a couple months ago, but dad well Same old dad(but his hair is thinner:L ohhhh! We were sitting in the hot tub, ben dad and I, we were talking about how we should have a water park/couple slides&pool .so dad said" it would be expensive cause we just bought a side for the lake house dock and it was around $4,000"
So then I said "WHAAAT! We could have just stapled one to the dock with some cardboard!" As Ben was sitting next to us and said to us "yeah, we should teach a dog to Ride a skateboard!!" We just cracked up it was hilarious !!!! We later found out that he wanted to teach a dog to ride a skateboard so it can go down the slide!