The Goldberg Family Wild West RV Trip (6/9/18 - 6/23/2018)

It was the Fall of my freshman year in high school 1997, I played on the offensive line of our JV football team (which is sort of a joke since I weighed about 140lbs) and our defensive line coach, Wally Dunham, decided he and his wife wanted to plan a trip out west and take 40 kids in June of 1998. I was one of the fortunate 40 that convinced my parents to pay to send me on this trip.

The trip launched from Myrtle Beach on a tour bus and made it's way across the country to Jackson Hole, Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Cody WY, and Mount Rushmore. It was one of the best trips I've done in my life and I still think back to that amazing experience.

In 2014, I was promoted to Director at PwC, which comes with the amazing benefit of being able to take a 4 week sabbatical. We decided that we wanted to take the sabbatical during the summer of 2016 and we started planning an RV trip to Yellowstone National Park. As we started planning out the details of that trip, we soon realized that Sam and Katelyn were just to young (6 & 4) to do many of the activities we wanted to do on this trip (eg. rafting, horseback riding, etc.) so we changed our plans and decided to go to Nevis and on a Disney Cruise.

During the summer of 2017, we started planning our 2018 summer vacation, with the kids 8 & 6, we decided this would be the year we would plan our trip out west. The number of hours spent planning this family vacation has exceeded the number of planning hours put into all of our previous vacations combined. We started with a high level plan: in June 2018 drive an RV across the country visiting Jackson Hole, Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and return home with a stop at Mount Rushmore. The general route was very similar to the route we took on my trip 20 years earlier. As we started planning out the details of the trip, Amanda and I decided that we wanted to invite our parents (my Mom and Dad and Amanda's momma) and our niece Eden (who also joined us on my sabbatical in Nevis). All decided they wanted to join us with 1 exception. My Dad didn't want to take 2 weeks off of work, so we booked a flight from Myrtle Beach to Jackson Hole, WY. He will tour Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks and fly back to Myrtle Beach after 8 days. The plan is set, here are the details:

Saturday June 9th - pick up the RV. We rented a 32 foot 2018 Coachman Leprechaun off RV Share (an RV rental website that works similarly to Air BnB).

Charlotte, NC to St Louis, MO

We picked up the RV on Saturday. It's a great RV with lots of amenities and space. We spent Saturday afternoon packing the RV and went to bed early (although Amanda and I could barely sleep).

We woke up on Sunday morning at 2:45am, packed our few remaining items, loaded the sleeping kids, Eden, MeMaw and Nana into the RV and were on the road by 4am.

The first few hours were very quiet. \240There are hardly any cars on the road and Amanda slept in the front passenger seat, everyone else slept in a bed in the back. My mom woke up around 6am and traded places with Amanda. Finally the trip started to become lively. We talked, told stores, sang songs, laughed and joked around. My mom has a way of making everyone around her laugh. Nana mentioned that she wanted to read "The President is Missing" by James Patterson and Bill Clinton, so I ordered it on Amazon Audio and we listened to the 1st 8 chapters on the ride.

The kids spent their entire day playing games. Poppy bought them a set of walkie talkies and they enjoyed going to opposite ends of the RV and talking to each other.

About 15 miles outside of Nashville, we hit a terrible storm. Cars slowed down to 30 mph on the interstate. We considered stopping in Nashville, but with the storm so bad, we decided to keep moving.

After 750 miles and 12 hours, we finally made it to our campground in St. Louis, MO.

St. Louis, MO to Cheyenne, WY

Today was a long, long day. Long as in 920 miles covered while being in the RV for 15.5 hours. Amanda and I woke up at 2:30am to get on the road by 3am to beat the Monday morning Kansas City, MO traffic. The first 4 hours of the trip went very quick. Everyone slept the extra 4 hours while I raced the morning sun rise to beat the rush hour traffic, which we did.

Once we pulled onto I-70 just west of Kansas City, I started looked for somewhere to stop. We eventually stopped for gas and breakfast at 7am, \240(which took an hour) then continued on our way west on I-70. The drive up I-70 through Kansas was beyond terrible. I explained to Sam that we were in tornado alley and he definitely believed me. The wind was so strong, it was tough to keep the RV straight while driving. I stayed at 10 mph below the speed limit for 400 miles as we pushed painfully through Kansas. At one point, I noticed a deer on the right side of the road, running towards the \240the interstate, I hit the breaks and the horn and it stopped and started running beside the RV in the grass just off the interstate. I hit the horn again and it took off away from the highway.

Once we got into Colorado, the winds calmed and Sam and K took turns being my co-pilot. Sam really loved finding exactly where we were on the map and K just liked chilling and talking with her Daddy.

Jackson Hole, WY

Grand Teton National Park: Day 1

Today was an amazing day. We woke up, ate cinnamon buns for breakfast, packed up the RV and headed towards Grand Teton National Park.

We had a 9:30am reservation with Solitude float trips for a scenic slow float trip down the snake river. We arrived at the designated meeting spot an hour early with the idea of parking the RV and riding around in our rental van to do a little site seeing before our float trip. I had to make a quick pit stop at the restroom (which was actually more like an outhouse...) and as I returned I noticed Eden jogging away from the RV. I made my way over to her and asked what was going on. She replied that she saw a "horse or something" trotting which actually turned out to be a female moose. At that exact moment Sam ran out of the RV towards our van, which was in the same direction as the moose and I yelled "Sam get over here, now!" Scared, he ran over to me when the moose walked right in front of us, which was about 30 yards away. I told Eden and Sam to get in the RV quickly and they did. I stayed outside, watching the moose when all if the sudden, she turned and started heading right towards me! I yelled out a loud girlish sounding scream and leaped into the driver seat of the RV and the Moose turned around and continued trotting on her way. My heart was beating out of my chest and all I could hear was the sound of Memaw laughing at me hysterically say "She was about to get you!" Then we all jumped in the van and rode around for a little while seeing a pretty female deer.

We arrived back for the scenic float trip, met our guide, jumped in his van and drove 10 miles up stream. Once we were settled in the boat, we started floating our way down towards some amazing views of the Grand Tetons.

Grand Teton National Park: Day 2

Today was the first day that actually felt like camping and not like we were trying to get somewhere.

We slept in today until 7am. The original plan was a morning excursion on horseback and wagon ride out to the wilderness with breakfast and an afternoon hike to the hidden waterfall and inspiration point. The activities folks called me last week to inform me that they are canceling all horse activities until further notice due to "increased animal activity." Apparently, it's calving season for the elk and there have been several elk attacks where folks have gotten to close to baby Elks. They didn't have any other breakfast activities available for today so \240Amanda made grits, eggs and sausage for breakfast. Katelyn insisted we eat outside together as a family.

Yellowstone National Park: Day 1

The sound of rain hitting the metal roof of the RV made it the perfect morning to sleep in and by sleep in I mean 730 which is late for this trip so far. We had a "grab whatever you want" breakfast and packed up the RV and headed out to our next destination...Yellowstone!

On our way we stopped by Grant Village Vistor Center and collected maps and purchased books about Yellowstone. We watched an informative movie about the Yellowstone fires they had playing in the auditorium as long as it would hold the kids attention, which wasn't that long. The kids were excited when we found a hands on display of several of the different animals found in Yellowstone, like a bison skull, elk antlers and a moose antler. It was amazing to see how big and heavy they were. We also signed the kids up for the Junior Ranger Program while we were there. Each kid received a book with age appropriate task to complete while they are in Yellowstone. Once they complete their booklet they can turn it back in at any Ranger Station and they will receive an offical Junior Ranger badge.

After leaving the visitor center the weather upgraded from a cool drizzle to a freezing downpour. We carefully navigated our way up the mountain to our new home from the next five days at Fishing Bridge RV Park. We arrived while it was still raining heavily, so this made hookup a lot a fun for David and I. \240Everyone dried off and got ready and we headed back out towards Roosevelt Lodge for a Cowboy Cookout. On the way we all laughed to the point of tears as Poppy went off in his typical tangent style about all the animal warnings and hype about being "Warning wildlife on road" was just a tourist trap. He went on and on about how they should just throw those signs of wildlife on roads signs away because the only animals he had see so far he needed binoculars to see. He had no longer spoken the words before we saw our first buffalo crossing the road. We told Poppy he was having crow \240for dinner tonight! We saw hundreds and hundreds of bison after that for the next several miles.

We arrived at the Roosevelt Lodge for our cookout a little early (David is always early), so we stopped at a little pullout and took a set of wooded stairs up a hill with no idea what we were in store for. What we saw a the top of that staircase took our breath away. It was a beautiful valley with a rushing river running through it. We also caught a glimpse of something moving on the steep incline on the far side of the cannon which turned out to be big horn sheep. It was amazing to see how well they walked around on such steep terrain.

We arrived at the Roosevelt Lodge just as the skies cleared up and the rained stopped. We checked in and they instructed us to head to the back area that had log benches for seating setup in church pew style. There was a young cowboy standing at the front with a microphone going over safety rules and then it seem to turn into somewhat of a history lesson. We finally figured out he was just trying to keep everyone entertained while the other cow folk got the horses and wagons ready. The poor guy ran out of things to say so he resorted to asking if anyone knew any jokes. No one stood up so he told a couple of pretty bad jokes, then to our surprise Sam raised his hand and marched right up to the microphone and very calmly asked "what do you call a cow without legs?...Ground Beef!" The entire place roared into laughter. Even more surprisingly Katelyn stuck up her hand and took the microphone. In her sweet little voice she asked "Why don't you give Elsa a balloon?...because she will let it go!" Another roar of laughter fled the area and then it was time to load up on the hose drawn wagons.

We rode the wagon on one the original wagon trails used years ago. On the trail our "shotgun" cowgirl kept us entertained with funny stories and information about Yellowstone. I think I learned more from Kayla than I have on the entire trip so far. She was great! We finally arrive at a beautiful location where they had a beautiful fire roaring with kettles of cowboy coffee brewing. The amazing smell of steaks on the grill filled the air. We hopped off the wagon and lined up for an offical cowboy dinner. We had steaks cooked to order, corn, cole slaw, potato salad, yummy cowboy beans, cornbread muffins, and delicious apple crisp cobbler. As we ate one of the Cowboys picked his guitar and sang some good old country songs. After dinner we sat around the fire and sand songs. It was the perfect evening gown and we all had an amazing time. On the wagon ride back we even had to run the horse past a bison who was a little to close and was not \240amused by our presence. We said our goodbyes to the cow folks and loaded up in the van and headed back to the campground.

On the way back we spotted a big black bear close up to the side of the road and we excitedly grabbed our cameras and we were able to get a few blurry shots before he scooted away. We also saw a couple of elk grazing close to the road and we pulled over and David and Scott jumped out to get a closer look. We were ran off by a Park Ranger and they jumped in the van and headed home. We stopped by for a quick look at the Mud Volcano hotspring. We headed home and unloaded the van and put on pajamas and threw in the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang movie and tucked into bed. Another great adventure awaits for us tomorrow, so until then goodnight.

Today started off early with a scheduled bus tour called the "Ring of Fire Tour" that picked us up at the campground. David was very thoughtful and wanted to have a way for Nana and Memaw to see all of the must see spots in Yellowstone without having to do a lot of walking, so the tour was a fantastic option.

Our guide (who sounded like Ray Ramono and Ben Stine's took us around the entire lower loop of Yellowstone and we were able to see so many amazing sites including waterfalls, geysers, historical landmarks and even really cool animals. The geological anolomolies in Yellowstone \240formed as a result

The first site we hit was West Thumb.