* Updated with Pictures Post 220 * 45 Day 'Round the US Camping Trip w/ Grands

normaldave

GON Weatherman
Will you be anywhere near Reelfoot Lake in NW Tennessee? This always interested me, the lake was created by earthquakes, severe enough to cause the Mississippi to run backwards.
Reelfoot Lake state park

This is from an Overlanding Forum, a bit more off road type destinations, but quite the idea farm. This one is a 2 week trip, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado.
NM, Utah, CO trip

This one looks interesting too.
4400 mile, 12 state adventure
 
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NE GA Pappy

Mr. Pappy
If I do Reelfoot Lake, then I would have to cut out the Mississippi to Florida panhandle section of the trip and reroute thru Tennessee.

Right off the bat, I would think the kids would rather spend a day or 2 on the beach than to see a lake. I would find it extremely interesting, but I don't know if it would hold their interest for long.

I sure appreciate the input. Now, If I could talk Meeno into a trip cross country, I would love it, but a site without running water and a flush toilet just ain't her style
 

Milkman

Deer Farmer Moderator
Staff member
If I do Reelfoot Lake, then I would have to cut out the Mississippi to Florida panhandle section of the trip and reroute thru Tennessee.

Right off the bat, I would think the kids would rather spend a day or 2 on the beach than to see a lake. I would find it extremely interesting, but I don't know if it would hold their interest for long.

I sure appreciate the input. Now, If I could talk Meeno into a trip cross country, I would love it, but a site without running water and a flush toilet just ain't her style

Leave the camper at home.
 

NE GA Pappy

Mr. Pappy
Leave the camper at home.

That ain't gonna work. If we take the kids, that means at least 2 rooms a night. At an average of 140 per room per night, that would be over 12 grand just in rooms. We can camp for an average of $50 a night, or $2300. I can buy a lot of gas for 10 grand, not to mention money saved on fixing our own meals instead of eating out 3 times a day
 

Milkman

Deer Farmer Moderator
Staff member
My oldest grandson and I are planning a 2-3 week road trip next spring when I retire and he gets out of school for the summer. We are planning to stay in motels and may take a tent just in case.

We are going up through Missouri westward at least as far as Yellowstone and down to Colorado. I have seen much of the stuff we will see but never in a long road trip from home and never with him.
 

NE GA Pappy

Mr. Pappy
My oldest grandson and I are planning a 2-3 week road trip next spring when I retire and he gets out of school for the summer. We are planning to stay in motels and may take a tent just in case.

We are going up through Missouri westward at least as far as Yellowstone and down to Colorado. I have seen much of the stuff we will see but never in a long road trip from home and never with him.

I hope you two enjoy your time together travelling. If you are hitting Yellowstone before July 4th, you better have some warm clothes with you. Just in case. I have heard that it can snow out there in June.
 

Milkman

Deer Farmer Moderator
Staff member
I hope you two enjoy your time together travelling. If you are hitting Yellowstone before July 4th, you better have some warm clothes with you. Just in case. I have heard that it can snow out there in June.

You are correct about the temperature

The preliminary plan is leave in late May assuming his baseball is finished.
It gets cold in the high elevations out there. We did a float trip in Teton in August one year. 32 degrees.
 

cjones

Senior Member
anyone ever been to Mammoth Cave Park? I was wondering if it is worth a 2 hour one way detour? It will cost us 4 hours of driving time to get there and back on the route

Sorry.. Missed this post earlier...

Our church youth group went to Mammoth Caves about 20 years ago. Honestly, I don't remember much about it other than hanging out at the swimming pool at the hotel afterwards. It was a cave that you could take a tour through which was interesting, but apparently it wasn't "awe inspiring" for me. ha. Depends on how your grandkids take to stuff like that.
 

cjones

Senior Member
I can't remember if it was posted in this thread or not already (and too lazy to read through 5 pages to check), but if any of your grands are in 4th grade, you can get free passes to a lot of national parks via the https://everykidoutdoors.gov/ website. I bumped into a family in WY a few weeks ago who were spending a year in a camper touring around hitting as many national parks as possible using this program.
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
Its a shame your going south at Indy instead of Dayton. You could see the home of the Wrights that you'll be introduced to at Kittyhawk and see the USAF Mueseum.

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/
X2. The National Air Force Museum is a "must see". If possible, get a pass to go to the Presidential hangar on the base at Wright/Patterson, see several old "Air Force One" planes, and the SR-71 prototype.

The Museum is awesome, however, one of my favorites out on the Air Park, is this reproduction 8th Air Force Control tower. It is stepping back in time to Britain, WWII, as it happened, sound, radios, maps, status lights, antique fixtures, the works. (My uncle flew High Lead, B-17, learned this year he flew two support missions on D-Day).
050920-F-1234P-004.JPG

Inside the museum, the J58 jet starter for the SR-71 used two Buick 455 V8 engines to start the jet engine!
070709-F-1234S-001.JPG
X however many on the Air Force Museum. I spent nearly a whole day there and still didn't see everything and didn't want to leave.
 

normaldave

GON Weatherman
Ha! in my haste, I "liked" a post by NCHillbilly, and now to cover the bases, I've commented on it. :flag:
 

NE GA Pappy

Mr. Pappy
I can't remember if it was posted in this thread or not already (and too lazy to read through 5 pages to check), but if any of your grands are in 4th grade, you can get free passes to a lot of national parks via the https://everykidoutdoors.gov/ website. I bumped into a family in WY a few weeks ago who were spending a year in a camper touring around hitting as many national parks as possible using this program.

hey... that is great news. My oldest grand daughter will be going into the 4th grade. Maybe we can save a few $$$
 

NE GA Pappy

Mr. Pappy
X however many on the Air Force Museum. I spent nearly a whole day there and still didn't see everything and didn't want to leave.

funny. Here y'all are updating this thread, and I was sitting at my desk laying out the planned route for us to travel.

Thanks for all the good information guys
 

NE GA Pappy

Mr. Pappy
sketching out the trip on a 7-1/2 ft x 5ft map. We are still making adjustments to the route we are planning to take.

We have about eliminated going up the east coast first, because when we plotted it all out, it turned into a 50 day trip, with very little wiggle room on the schedule.

We will still make more adjustments, but it is starting to solidify a bit.

map (1008 x 756).jpg
 

normaldave

GON Weatherman
Looks Good...now order an official paper highway map from each of the states DOT sites. Have the grand kids plot the trip as they go. I guess you could just get an atlas, but I still like the detail of the individual state highway maps.

They can mark off where they've been, even write notes about what they saw, and favorite foods or events, in the spaces not used to mark the route. The maps can become a hand written trip diary. They might even learn to use a map in the process!
 

NE GA Pappy

Mr. Pappy
I bought one of these to look at and see if we thought the kids might enjoy them.
The left hand page is a form to fill out all about the campground, and the facing right hand page is for them to place pictures or write about their stay at the campground.

I have a laser printer that I can print full color pictures straight from my camera for them to use. That way, they can choose a picture, print it, and put it in their book that night right before bedtime. I hope they will make a real nice record of our trip together.


1573705411113.png
 

NE GA Pappy

Mr. Pappy
In just a few days I can start making reservations at the parks. Most of the parks only accept dates 6 months out. I have the plans pretty well finalized, and the kids are getting really excited about going.

Santa is bringing each of them a digital camera, so they can make their own pictures, and Pappy is gonna teach them how to load the pictures to a laptop and print on the laser printer.

I will load up a list of places we are planning on visiting, and value your input.
 

NE GA Pappy

Mr. Pappy
alt 7 trip.jpg

this may be a general lay out of the trip. Looks like just over 5000 miles, and I have it narrowed down to 35 days now. It started out up the eastern seaboard, and totaled 52 or 53 days.
 
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