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Clark Griswold time!

Hawndoh

By Hawndoh
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Hawndoh

Hawndoh 2386

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Tomorrow I'm loading up the family, hitching up the travel trailer camper and hitting the road for 15 days. 

Doing a loop of 6 or 7 stops from the Dallas area to West Texas, New Mexico, to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, then up to Colorado, then back down the panhandle and back to Dallas. 

Carlsbad Caverns, that big meteor crater in Arizona, the canyon of course, the great sand dunes in Colorado, and the Bison herd at Caprock Canyon in the panhandle are all on the agenda. 

My daughters just finished kindergarten and third grade and are pretty excited to go see what are essentially three giant holes in the ground. 

My youngest is a bit of a spaz, so I may have to tether her to me around the Canyon. 

Anyway, should be fun! Anyone else doing some family road trips this summer?

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Kennythetiger

Kennythetiger 9377

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Wear long sleeves and pants at the sand dunes. Definitely don’t wear flip flops. It’s really neat but the sand really stings in the wind. Hopefully that river is flowing with a decent amount of water- the girls will have fun playing in it and the random surges of water are pretty neat. 

The restaurant in Alamosa that has the Mexican buffet is delicious, and there’s a Nestle store that has amazing desserts. 

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Wally Fairway

Wally Fairway 5543

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14 hours ago, Hawndoh said:

Tomorrow I'm loading up the family, hitching up the travel trailer camper and hitting the road for 15 days. 

Doing a loop of 6 or 7 stops from the Dallas area to West Texas, New Mexico, to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, then up to Colorado, then back down the panhandle and back to Dallas. 

Carlsbad Caverns, that big meteor crater in Arizona, the canyon of course, the great sand dunes in Colorado, and the Bison herd at Caprock Canyon in the panhandle are all on the agenda. 

My daughters just finished kindergarten and third grade and are pretty excited to go see what are essentially three giant holes in the ground. 

My youngest is a bit of a spaz, so I may have to tether her to me around the Canyon. 

Anyway, should be fun! Anyone else doing some family road trips this summer?

Let me save you some time, I was there earlier this month - the GC is a big, really big, hole in the ground.  Also, I was told that Meteor Crater is a complete tourist trap, so I skipped that one.
FWIW - Having young kids with me would have scared me to death
It's a bucket list item for sure, but now that it's been check off - I'm only going back if I go to the North Rim

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Moby Ric

Moby Ric 2058

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14 hours ago, Hawndoh said:

Tomorrow I'm loading up the family, hitching up the travel trailer camper and hitting the road for 15 days. 

Doing a loop of 6 or 7 stops from the Dallas area to West Texas, New Mexico, to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, then up to Colorado, then back down the panhandle and back to Dallas. 

Carlsbad Caverns, that big meteor crater in Arizona, the canyon of course, the great sand dunes in Colorado, and the Bison herd at Caprock Canyon in the panhandle are all on the agenda. 

My daughters just finished kindergarten and third grade and are pretty excited to go see what are essentially three giant holes in the ground. 

My youngest is a bit of a spaz, so I may have to tether her to me around the Canyon. 

Anyway, should be fun! Anyone else doing some family road trips this summer?

Hit up Palo Duro if  you come back through the panhandle.  It's not the GC but it is in Texas and pretty cool.  The musical is not bad either, my kids enjoyed it around that age.

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Chewbacca

Chewbacca 7773

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13 hours ago, Kennythetiger said:

Wear long sleeves and pants at the sand dunes. Definitely don’t wear flip flops. It’s really neat but the sand really stings in the wind. Hopefully that river is flowing with a decent amount of water- the girls will have fun playing in it and the random surges of water are pretty neat. 

The restaurant in Alamosa that has the Mexican buffet is delicious, and there’s a Nestle store that has amazing desserts. 

No worries on there being water at the Sand Dunes right now.  Our snowpack is nearing historic highs for this time of year because the spring has been so cool.  Bigger concern is the weather not being warm enough to get in the water.co_swepctnormal_update.png

Edited by Chewbacca
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Hawndoh

Hawndoh 2386

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Day one winding down. Got to West Texas no problem. Gas mileage sucked slowly climbing elevation the whole time. Trailer is about as loaded as it gets and the Expedition didn't want to go out of 5th. Only got sixth gear when real flat or downhill. 

Kids swam in the lake. Then they got to see prairie dogs for the first time in their lives. 

Getting the kids showered, which is the best part of having your own trailer, and into bed. 

Probably play some cards or something with the wife. Just staying here 1 night. 

Headed to Carlsbad tomorrow. 

This is also the first state park we've camped at with public wifi that works. 

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pops

pops 6983

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On 5/31/2019 at 8:39 AM, Wally Fairway said:

Let me save you some time, I was there earlier this month - the GC is a big, really big, hole in the ground.  Also, I was told that Meteor Crater is a complete tourist trap, so I skipped that one.
FWIW - Having young kids with me would have scared me to death
It's a bucket list item for sure, but now that it's been check off - I'm only going back if I go to the North Rim

I went to your wife's North rim last night

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Longhorn94

Longhorn94 2448

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Posted (edited)
On 5/30/2019 at 8:22 PM, Hawndoh said:

Tomorrow I'm loading up the family, hitching up the travel trailer camper and hitting the road for 15 days. 

Doing a loop of 6 or 7 stops from the Dallas area to West Texas, New Mexico, to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, then up to Colorado, then back down the panhandle and back to Dallas. 

Carlsbad Caverns, that big meteor crater in Arizona, the canyon of course, the great sand dunes in Colorado, and the Bison herd at Caprock Canyon in the panhandle are all on the agenda. 

My daughters just finished kindergarten and third grade and are pretty excited to go see what are essentially three giant holes in the ground. 

My youngest is a bit of a spaz, so I may have to tether her to me around the Canyon. 

Anyway, should be fun! Anyone else doing some family road trips this summer?

In July, we are loading everyone up and driving to Grand Tetons , Glacier, and then Olympic and Seattle. 17 days on the road, tents, camp fires and the great outdoors. I can't wait!

Edited by Longhorn94
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FigurelliPwC

FigurelliPwC 115

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Me and the family are doing what sounds like the reverse trip. Heading from Austin to Amarillo (Big Texan for a steak, Cadillac Ranch), then to Red Rocks for a concert. Estes Park (Rocky Mtn National Park), Park City via Wyoming, Zion/Bryce Canyon, then south to the North Rim GC, South Rim GC, Sedona and finishing with a few days in Santa Fe.

Sounds like there will be a lot of Surly’s out there, be sure to yell “Muledick” if you see my Longhorn hat.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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hacker

hacker 184

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On 6/2/2019 at 10:51 AM, Chewbacca said:
On 6/1/2019 at 3:53 PM, hacker said:
We leave next Saturday.  Arches NP and Bryce Canyon NP.

No Canyonlands? You're right there already.

Canyonlands is included in the Arches stop.  Right now, it's 3 nights and I'm pondering 1 more

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Chewbacca

Chewbacca 7773

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Canyonlands is included in the Arches stop.  Right now, it's 3 nights and I'm pondering 1 more
If your schedule permits, stop at Hell's Backbone Grill in Boulder, UT on the way from Canyonlands to Bryce. It's a James Beard nominee in the middle of nowhere. And lunch was not terribly expensive.
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smuggs

smuggs 9353

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I'm loading up the van, taking the wife and kids to Lake Powell on Monday. We'll be hitting Flagstaff, the GC, Meteor Crater and Carlsbad on the way back home.

Maybe we'll pass each other somewhere out there on the trail.

 

UnevenNeatGoosefish-size_restricted.gif

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Hawndoh

Hawndoh 2386

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Did the painted desert and petrified forest today. It was great. And plenty of rock hard wood related jokes made to the wife. 

Spending a night at some state park in Arizona that has about 5 trees and plenty of wind. Tomorrow head to the Grand Canyon. 

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Hawndoh

Hawndoh 2386

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Hey. They're the ones that allow every 4th grader in the country free admission to all national parks, plus up to 3 adults and two other kids or something like that. She got a little card and everything. 

Saved me another 20 bucks at the petrified Forest drive. And we have I think 3 more national parks on this trip. 

I've spent north of 300 already on gas so anything helps. 

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TxTower

TxTower 650

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Don't forget to stop and see the second largest ball of twine on the face of the earth.

And don’t forget to see the House of Mud - “it’s only the largest free standing mud dwelling ever built, that’s all!”

Don’t listen to Ellen.
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RPM

RPM 26318

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9 hours ago, Hawndoh said:

Did the painted desert and petrified forest today. It was great. And plenty of rock hard wood related jokes made to the wife. 

Spending a night at some state park in Arizona that has about 5 trees and plenty of wind. Tomorrow head to the Grand Canyon. 

That's a nice little drive thru those 2 parks and a great primer for GC. Meteor Crater is kind of geeky cool, but pretty dull. They do a Wild West shoot out every morning before the train leaves Williams that's free to watch (donations). Was about a 20 minute show if I remember right.

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Hawndoh

Hawndoh 2386

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Grand Canyon was great. But no cell service at all so couldn't update anything. Neither kid fell off the ledge, so successful trip. 

Now at Mesa Verde in CO with spotty free WiFi. 

The ol' Expedition is getting pretty dirty and starting to smell weird with the kids in the car making crumbs, etc. 

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hacker

hacker 184

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This was Friday before we left this morning.  Motorized lift system crapped out.  Then the head off the bolt that runs the manual override broke

neuz2g.jpg

Luckily the guy at RVLand had a spare manual crank.  One case of beer later, and I was good to go

 

This happened today just outside of Lubbock. This one's on me for not paying attention to the age of the tires

117xyci.jpg

I'll move everything else to the Utah thread and let Clark have his thread back

 

 

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Junior Miller

Junior Miller 1502

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17 hours ago, hacker said:

This was Friday before we left this morning.  Motorized lift system crapped out.  Then the head off the bolt that runs the manual override broke

neuz2g.jpg

Luckily the guy at RVLand had a spare manual crank.  One case of beer later, and I was good to go

 

This happened today just outside of Lubbock. This one's on me for not paying attention to the age of the tires

117xyci.jpg

I'll move everything else to the Utah thread and let Clark have his thread back

 

 

Going on a big road trip and not checking the tires beforehand is super Griswold. 

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