McCashland Family Vacation, Day 1 - Boise to Brigham City

Brigham City/Perry KOA

Ever since we got this trailer, we have wanted to do a long road trip of some kind.  We were originally planning on going to Denver in the middle of July to see the Atlanta Braves play baseball against the Rockies (anyone that knows me knows that I'm a HUGE Braves fan...), but with this whole COVID thing going on, baseball was cancelled and so was our trip.  HOWEVER, we just happen to have some really good friends that live two hours south of Denver in a place called Pueblo, so the trip was back on.  I'm going to try and write a bit each day about our travels and things we learn.  The longest we have taken the trailer for up until now has been three nights, two hours from home.  This trip (as we have it planned right now) is 14-15 nights and 2,500 miles of travel.  Little bit of difference.  Here's what the rough plan looks like:

As we sit here in a KOA in Brigham City, UT, our plan from here is to go to Rawlins, WY tomorrow and stay at another KOA there.  On Monday, we will travel down to Lakewood, CO at stay at an RV park there.  Lakewood is one of the suburbs of Denver.  I couldn't find a reputable RV park anywhere in the Denver metro area, so we picked a close-enough suburb and we'll just drive in each day.  We are staying there for three nights and exploring the area as best we can.  We know there are a lot of things that are probably still shut down, but thankfully, our kids like being outdoors and hiking, so if all else fails, we'll explore the Colorado mountains.  After Denver, we'll putt our way down to Pueblo, probably stopping in Colorado Springs for a couple hours to see what's there.  3-4 days in Pueblo follow that.  This is kind of the hinge-point of the trip.  If we are still feeling it, we will continue south.  If the kids are done with driving and such, we will turn around and make our way home.  If we DO end up going south, we'll stop in Albuquerque, NM for a day, Flagstaff, AZ for a day, probably visit the Grand Canyon, check out Lake Powell, and make our way back home how ever we feel.  It should be a pretty good trip.  Yes, it's a lot of time driving in a small confined space, but our kids are pretty good at road trips, so we should be OK.  Alright, let's get into how today went.

We've had the trailer at the house for two days and the kids have been asking since we brought it home when we were leaving.  This morning was no different.  The kids beat us up and were ready to go from first light.  We finished loading up all the last minute things and hit the road around 9:20.  One of my biggest stresses when pulling the trailer with my truck (2005 F-150) is that I'll blow out another engine (yes, I blew out the engine once before.  I was trying to pass someone going uphill while pulling a trailer...$5,500 mistake...).  I've wanted to install an aftermarket tachometer for a while now so I can see exactly how high my engine is revving while pulling.  Come to find out, I already have one!!  I found this video on YouTube showing how to get to it.  It's a bit of a pain if you forget to do it before starting the truck since you can't get to it otherwise, but it's nice to have on a long trip.

We stopped at the Mr. Gas in Jerome (GREAT place, by the way) for lunch and a fill up.  This is us parked next to all the actual big rigs behind the store.  It is so convenient pulling your house behind you because when the kids are hungry or need a bathroom, it's right there!!  No having to eat out every meal or telling them to hold it until the next rest stop.  Hence this picture of us on the side of the highway:

We got to the Brigham City KOA in the middle of the afternoon.  The kids started a movie on the laptop in the truck once they all woke up from naps.  Our laptop doesn't have a DVD drive on it, so I got this one from Amazon.  The USB cord has a spot underneath that it embeds, so you don't have to keep track of another cable.  Pretty convenient.  They finished the movie (How to Train Your Dragon 2) while I set up the trailer and Carrie started dinner.  

It was pretty hot when we got here (92), but a breeze kicked up and the sun dipped behind a nice shade tree, so we decided to eat outside.  Carrie was smart enough to bring her InstantPot so we didn't have to thaw meat out before cooking it.  She made a delicious chicken teriyaki, cooking both the rice and frozen solid chicken in the pot in under an hour. 

After dinner, we promised the kids we would go swimming, so while we cleaned up dinner and got the dishes washed, they headed over to the playground.  It's pretty outdated, to be honest, but that meant it was toys they don't see all the time.  They got to play for 15 minutes, and off to the pool it was.

The kids had a great time at the pool.  The last time they got to go swimming was back in February at Given's Hot Springs (read about that trip here).  With it being such a warm day, we had a good time splashing around.  The boys are gaining a little courage to start moving away from the wall and putting their faces in the water, and Emmy is just having a great time splashing around.  Today was a long day with all the packing and driving, but now that we have one under our belt, I think we are all ready for another day.  Stay tuned for the next installment of our trip tomorrow!!!!