We are a family of four, Marty, Kara (that's me), our two sons Derek and Devlin. We also have 3 dogs, Abby, Amos and Destiny. We decided the dogs would need to travel with us rather than stay home. This was for many reasons, one we have two English Mastiffs and a Teacup Chihuahua. The mastiffs are large dogs, great for protection, and need to be with family. They would have become stressed over a period of time without us. Also, it's nice to be able to cuddle up with them at the end of the day, or to take nice long walks. So for us it made sense to include them on our trip. After all, they are part of our family too!
Growing up, Marty and I camped a lot with our families. My parents owned an RV and we traveled to a lot of places over the summers and ate many interesting things. We still talk about these places today at family events. Marty's family enjoyed fishing and hiking in the woods. Together we wanted to be able to share these activities with our own children. Our hope is that they will take these memories and share them with their children.
I purchased a few books to help me in planning our trip. The first book is Trailer Life, which is the official directory of the Good Sam Club. As I have been researching, I have discovered how important it is to become a member. It pays for itself honestly. Many of the campgrounds and RV parks offer discounts if you are a member. Also, you can call them if you experience an emergency and they will provide you with a list of approved repair facilities who can help you with your vehicle. This is very important! For one, taking a cross country trip is already incredibly expensive, and second you don't want to be stranded in the middle of nowhere with a broken down RV and not have a place to take it.
We haven't set a budget for our trip at this point. For now, we are working on a route and picking places to visit in each state. We have decided not to visit Alaska on this trip. We went to Alaska on a cruise a few years ago and it was gorgeous. It was very spiritual experience for me! The mountains and glaciers take your breath away, and it made me wonder if earth is this beautiful what will Heaven be like?
We want to go back to Alaska and spend a summer traveling across the state in our RV. This way we can really take our time. We would love to get some great pictures of the bears feeding on salmon, and meet some of the locals. So for now, we will have to miss it.
We are also thinking about skipping Florida. As we explore each of the states while setting up our route we will make our final decision. The Disney theme parks are a large expense to consider, as well as a great deal of time, so we are going to look at our trip with and without Florida.
My goal this weekend is to begin researching RV's. We decided to purchase an RV rather than rent, so we are looking at the class sizes, manufacturers etc. A rental was $10,000 and we found nice RV's to purchase for the same amount. I'll report my findings at the end of the weekend. Tomorrow we are hitting up Camping World.
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