In April of this year, I had this grand idea. Let’s take a road trip across many states, with my eight-year-old daughter (Brielle) and my parents, in their motorhome. I pitched it to my parents and to my surprise, even though our main destination was 1200 miles away (over 19 hours in a motorhome), they said yes without any hesitation. Traveling and camping are probably among their top passions; right after spending time with their grandbabies. I knew this would light them up. But I also wasn’t sure they’d say yes so quickly; especially because of the physical pain that my dad was dealing with after a recent knee replacement.
The morning after I proposed this grand adventure, I woke up with instant fear and a little bit of regret.
Wait! What did I just agree to?
The last time the four of us tried to camp together in one motorhome was 2 years ago. I was not in the right emotional state of mind, and it didn’t go well for me. And that was just one week at a Minnesota campground. Now I’ve agreed to 2 weeks and many campgrounds that would be changing almost every day. But I had committed and I knew this would be a great memory and a great way to spend part of my summer with some of the most important people in my life.
I started researching routes and campsites. I reverse-engineered our route, to plan how far we’d want to drive each day and then searched campsites in those areas. We had a convention in Salt Lake City that we wanted to attend, so we worked around that. And if we were going that far, we knew we wanted to visit the many beautiful State and National Parks in Utah. As well as stopping along the routes between North Dakota and Utah.
Within days of my proposal, my parents and I were having hour-long planning meetings via video chat or phone calls. I could see all of our passions for life being reignited just going through this planning.
With all the excitement, I still couldn’t help but worry how this was going to go. That’s a long time to be in a small space. The last time we camped together, my mind was scattered with a lot of different life stressors. And being contained in the small space, with very little organization for our personal belongings, was tough on me. I knew this time we’d have to be much more organized and set rules and boundaries for how to handle the stressors that were bound to come up on such a big road trip.
A mentor of mine gave me the idea to set my intention for the trip, how I wanted to feel and show up each day. I asked my parents and Brielle to think of the same thing. On our first day of driving, each of us wrote down our personal intention on the same page. We posted this on the wall, right by the camper door, for all of us to see throughout the 2 weeks.
I found recipes where I could freeze full meals and then we could thaw and cook up quickly in a skillet. This was very helpful especially for long driving days, so that when we pulled into a campsite later in the evening, we could easily prep a hot and healthy meal. We visited with others who had traveled to these areas before, to get ideas of what they liked best. We also got tips and tricks from others who travel via motorhome often.
The sites we got to see on this road trip were nothing short of amazing. The changes in scenery in Southern Utah especially had us awe-struck. It seemed every turn or hill brought a new landscape. From forests to dry desserts; from winding hills to hoodoos; orange fiery sunsets and dark starry nights.
Our campsites were full of family fun experiences that included heated outdoor pools, ice cream socials, outdoor movie nights under the stars, and campfires with s'mores while admiring the bright stars in the sky. I enjoyed hiking the Utah trails with Brielle and my mom in both Arches National Park and Coral Reef National Park. We loved seeing Brielle earn 5 Jr Ranger National badges and get sworn in with the Park Rangers.
If you have the time, traveling like this can be budget-friendly. We saved money by eating almost all of our meals in the camper. My dad had a lifetime National Park pass, that got us into each of the 5 National Parks that we visited. The campsites we found were reasonable for the 4 or us, compared to hotel rooms. Splitting the cost for gas and campsites between our 2 families, was helpful. We were lucky that my parents have a motorhome, but many of the campsites we visited did have small cabins that could be rented for a reasonable fee as well if you were traveling with a car or SUV. We met a family that was traveling this way and utilizing the cabins. The grandparents watched the kids poolside during the day, while the father worked remotely in the cabin. They pointed out that this was cheaper than having the kids in daycare, and they got to travel.
Looking back now, this trip will remain a core memory in all of our lives. And it all started with a dream and small action steps to make it happen. I was inspired by another mentor, who set a goal to take his dad on a trip. I offered this experience to my parents. We planned together, weeks in advance, to be sure we had our campsites booked and our state and national park requirements (for any parks that had timed entries, no water hookups for the camper, etc). All four of us traveling together, sat down beforehand to talk through what might cause us stressors and how best we should react. We cleaned the camper together and got organized with where and how we’d store our belongings. We were prepared that things might not always go as we planned, we might have setbacks and challenges (flat tires, motorhome problems, etc). What we learned after was, things went much better than we expected. And it didn’t help to worry about what could happen when we didn’t have any control over those things anyway. The power of passion kept us physically and emotionally strong before and through the entire trip. We walked away with a stronger belief in ourselves of what we could accomplish when we set our minds to it and worked hard to achieve it.
3,186 miles driven
14 Nights in the camper
10 Stops for gas
10 Campsites
6 States driven through
6 National Parks visited
5 Jr Badges Earned
4 People
3 Generations
2 Weeks
1 Epic Trip with miles and memories made
One evening, after my dad drove over 6 hours and 275 miles, we got a chuckle out of his comment, “Ya know, it’s not for everyone though, is it?”
My hope for you is that you find a way to feed your passion so that you can feel fully alive in a world where it’s easy to forget what true living looks like.
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