Schroeder Family Roadtrip

For our "test camp" we went to Metzler Park, located near Estacada, along beautiful Clear Creek.  It was about 20 minutes from our house and a total surprise.  It was wonderfully isolated and surrounded by hills covered with towering fir and cedar trees.  Jason spent some time familiarizing himself with the RV, while the girls and I hit the playground.  We took the suspension bridge over Clear Creek to a loop trail that visits a forested hillside and a swimming hole. During dinner prep I realized that I'd forgotten to pack matches and a can opener, which were both essential for our dinner.  I explained to the nice family camping next to us that we'd jumped into the deep end of the pool when we purchased the RV.  We had very little camping experience and could I please borrow matches and a can opener. I also attempted a shower.  Jason told me that I would need to turn the water off, when not rinsing, as to avoid filling up t...

We started with a few places in mind, we got lots of suggestions and ended up with a plan to visit several National Parks and seven states.  We have reservations in some of these places, and in some we are winging it.  Some of our reservations are at full service RV resorts and others, I've learned, are called "dry camping". Silverwood Theme Park, Athol, Idaho Glacier National Park, West Glacier, Montana Greenough Lake (Beartooth Highway), Montana Fishing Bridge RV Park, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming ?? Park City, Utah ?? Lagoon, Farmington, Utah Arches National Park, Moab, Utah Canyonlands National Park, Moab, Utah Bryce Canyon National Park, Bryce, Utah Zion National Park, Utah ?? Vermillion Cliffs National Monument at North Coyote Buttes (The Wave), Kanab, Utah Grand Canyon National Park, North Rim, Arizona ?? Henderson,...

One night, Jason and I went to dinner and started talking about things we should do, or places we should visit. We haven't seen much of the United States so we decided that we'd love to take our kids on a month long road trip.  I think we both figured that it wasn't going to work out, but you have to dream.  I like to start projects, but Jason almost always has to finish them.  In this case, he started it by getting approval from his work, then I got approval from mine.  Now what?!?! Where do we go?  How do we get there?  Where do we stay?  We priced out how much it would cost to rent an RV and it was just not going to work!!  If we bought one, we could resell it after the trip... right?  Jason found a 70-ish year old man named Bill on Craigslist.  He was selling exactly the RV that we thought we wanted, and they struck up a bit of an on-line friendship.  We'd occasionally get pictures ...