My Dream Vacation

Over the last 15 years, Daniel and I discussed doing a RV vacation out west. It really was just a lot of talk. This year, I decided to make it happen. I started planning the vacation in January this year.  My sister in law Kelly reminded me that our nephew Matthew would be graduating this year.  "Would we be able to come?"  So I decided we would head from our vacation from their house in Denver.  I talked to my co-worker William.  He traveled the US in a RV for several months about 10 years ago. His sons were similar in age to my Grant and Miles at the time.  He had so much advice and really, in the end, we followed almost the same path his family took for this leg of his journey.

Our itinerary looked like this:

May 24 arrive in Denver, go to graduation, spend the night with Denver Kuemmerles

May 25 Great Sand Dunes/San Luis State Park
May 26 Mesa Verde National Park
May 27 Mesa Verde National Park
May 28 Moab, Utah
May 29 Moab, Utah
May 30 Bryce Canyon National Park
May 31 Bryce Canyon National Park

June 1 Grand Canyon - Northern Rim

June 2 Grand Canyon - Northern Rim
June 3 Zion National Park

June 4 Zion National Park
June 5 Las Vegas
June 6 Depart for Atlanta

Our trip started out just a little too perfect at least in the first hour.  We all got up very easily to make an early flight. Our bags were packed for days ahead of our trip.  Yep, we had our act together.

Grant and I dragged most of the bags down to the street while we waited for our cab while Daniel locked up the house. As a family, we had three bags we wanted to check and each of us had a carry on.  These carry on bags had our electronics: a laptop to process our photos, personal DVD players, cameras, and gaming devices for the kids. We got to the airport early enough to get breakfast! Our bags were checked and the security line was moving!  I decided to do my mental check. "Ok guys, we all have a carry-on that we need to keep with us at all times. Don't lose your carry-on!" I said.  I did a quick look. Miles - check, Me - check, Grant - check, Daniel - Wait!  "Daniel, where is the laptop bag?" Oops.  A quick phone call to our neighbor and we found out that it was in our front yard. Whew!  At least, we didn't lose it!

The flight went smoothly.  Charles (Daniel's brother) picked us up from the airport and dropped Daniel and I off at the RV rental place.  Another snag... We find out here after all my careful planning that I messed up.  I had us dropping off the RV in Los Angeles!!! Oh well, we paid them $400 extra to fix that. Yuck.  After spending way too long at the rental place, we were finally on our way in a brand new RV.  Now, I know you think you would like a brand new RV but when you need to return a vehicle back the same way it was given to you - brand new and kids do not mix.  Plus, how clean would it need to be? As we pulled out the lot, the door to the RV swung open right in front of  the rental place.  Goodness...you can imagine how bad our nerves were after our crazy morning!

The Griswalds Kuemmerles were off to have an adventure!