Planning Our Trip

After several made, and then unmade, plans to go out west this year, we are now committed and leaving next week. Going on trips out west is the whole reason I wanted to get a motorhome. I've always felt that there is more to see in the US than we have time for, so we can't wait until we're retired to start seeing it. I also love road trips, have never minded driving, and enjoy making all the random stops along the way. After this trip, we'll find out if our kids feel the same way.

The main reason we went back and forth on whether or not to make this trip was because of Nolan's health. Nolan had three consecutive bouts of pneumonia and was sick for nearly three whole months from early February until early May. Since he was only 3 months old when he first got pneumonia, we were very concerned about him. For a while we just felt like we couldn't risk traveling far away from the doctors and hospitals we knew if he was seriously sick. However, we have been very fortunate that he has been pneumonia-free for over two months now, so are giving the trip the green light.

This trip started with the desire to get to the Rocky Mountains. With that in mind the target destination is Estes Park, CO, which is the main entryway into the Rocky Mountain National Park. Once we started looking closer at the map we realized that some other things we've always wanted to see are an equivalent distance west, those being all the things in southwest South Dakota: Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore, and Custer State Park. So, in order to hit those we decided to make our way along I-90 to get out west, and then cut down through Wyoming to Colorado. Allyson suggested that we should go to Colorado Springs as well and spend a few days there to hit Pikes Peak and some of the other great sites. After Colorado we were going to start making our way back, stop for a couple days in St. Louis, and then head home. This seemed like a good plan, so we made all of our campground and rental car reservations.

We started using Roadtrippers.com to plan our trip. We haven't used it before but after a few hours playing around with the tools it seems like pretty good. You can map out your trip and then it shows you all the attractions along your route along with places to eat, hotels, and gas. We really need to plan for a lot of stops with the kids, so it's convenient to use the tools to find stuff, and then add it to your trip. While doing all of this you are constantly looking at a map of your route. After looking at it for a while, I couldn't help but ask "why not add a couple days and go into a few more states?" Allyson and I talked about it, and went back and forth about whether or not the kids would hold up OK in the motorhome for so long. The trip was already 13 days long. In the end we decided to add in the extra stops and extend the trip for two more days. Once we get to Estes Park we have three nights there and then three nights in Colorado Springs. We figure that if the kids are not digging the trip up to that point we have time to adjust plans and head back along the original route.

So that's how we ended up with the route you see above. The plan is as follows:

• Drive to Wisconsin Dells, WI

• Drive to Kennebac, SD

• Drive to Keystone, SD (Mount Rushmore) - 2 Nights

• Drive to Estes Park, CO (Rocky Mountain NP) - 3 Nights

• Drive to Colorado Springs, CO - 3 Nights

• Drive to Angel Fire, NM

• Drive to Amarillo, TX

• Drive to Tulsa, OK

• Drive to St. Louis, MO - 2 Nights

• Drive Home

If everyone holds up we will hit 5 National Park (Badlands, Wind Cave, Rocky Mountain, Great Sand Dunes, and Gateway Arch) while also seeing some famous sites (Mount Rushmore, Needles Highway, Crazy Horse, Pike's Peak, and more). That's the plan....for now.