The new year 2021 found us in our “sticks & bricks” home in Ohio. I have been homeschooling the kids since we began our Full time RV adventure in 2018. Three years later, I find myself with one more kid and trying to re-learn Algebra so I can teach it to my middle school kids. The girls are getting more difficult to get along with, as the schoolwork gets more difficult to learn how to do! I live in a great community with tons of options for homeschoolers. However with 5 kids and such a big age spread it is so difficult to juggle. Not to mention hard to maintain relationships and activities when you up and leave town for months on end frequently. I feel the clock ticking as I face the final years with my daughters home. I know it’s time for a change. I have loved my time homeschooling my kids and I am honestly not a fan of “the system” (public schools included). But I want my daughters to have all the experiences and opportunities I can give them in the short time I have left. I decided it was time to start thinking about putting them in school. I hated the idea of putting them in school at first, after all, how are we supposed to up and leave for months at a time while trying to maintain a school schedule? All this to say- I knew our freedom to up and travel for months at a time was soon coming to a close. I would send my daughters to public high school (at least for the coming year to give it a try) and would then be tied to school breaks as my only travel options.
That being said, our travel in the spring/summer of 2021 was different for me, different because I knew it may be our last 3+ month road trip with the whole family together. I was constantly taking mental snapshots to store away in my memory bank and intentionally trying to make the most of one of our last big family excursions. Don’t get me wrong- I’m sure we will still travel every chance we get, and if the girls remain in public school until graduation, it still leaves us almost 3 months in the summer which I fully plan to take advantage of.
We took off In late March. Another late night departure after attending a friend’s wedding. We had two weeks to get to Northwest Montana for my sister’s wedding. Two weeks may sound like a lot, but Montana is a loong ways away! Especially the opposite side of Montana. Remember, we can only travel on Jon’s days off.
We decided to spend some quality time at Jon’s dad’s house (near Kansas City, MO) We often stop in for a night on our way out west but never for several days. It was great to spend time with family, they love seeing all the kids, especially Grandpa Dave who is coming up on 90 I believe. We got to see a beaver trapper haul back a beaver and he was kind enough to stop and educate the kids about his beaver before loading it up in his truck. The big kids also got several fishing trips with their grandpa which is always a special time. Fun to see 4 generations of Hagar boys together.
We left Missouri and headed towards Montana, now we only had one weekend to get there. Did I mention how enormous Montana is?! I have been to Montana many times but never before driven East to West across it. Montana is known for it’s beauty but let me tell you…there’s not much to look at until you get pretty far west! We stopped at some cool little boondocking spots along the way using our FreeRoam app to find free parking off grid. Did I mention it is too early to be this far north?! It is still COLD for the most part in March which means burning through lots of propane at night if you’re off grid. If it wasn’t for a wedding to go to, we would have waited until later in the summer to come up here.
We arrived at our destination in time to find parking for Jon’s work week, which was WAY more difficult than expected. There is tons of public land with free parking available in this area but internet….not so much! We struggled big time to find parking which can often be quite frustrating…it’s not our first rodeo and I find this aspect to be one of the most difficult parts of full time boondocking. You can have a general plan, but you never know if a spot is actually going to work out until you get there. Especially if you need great internet all the time. We ended up going over an hour away from where we wanted to be to Bonner’s Ferry for a couple nights. Bonner’s Ferry is in Idaho (just barely) and is a super cute little town. we parked at their fairgrounds which was really pretty awesome because it had restrooms and a nice playground right there! But it was cold out and the trains were loud and regular. Bonner’s Ferry is actually a pretty close half way point between my sister’s home in Montana and my other sister in Northern Idaho, so it allowed me to visit both without too far of a drive during that week. Later in the week, we tried another attempt at finding parking in Montana near my sister’s house and we were successful…..at least for a night. We thought we were all set for the rest of the week but on my way down the Forest road the next day to go visit my sister, I ran into a Forest Ranger who informed me that the road we were parked on closed that day for 2 months due to bear migration. So…there we were again, searching for a new place to park. We eventually found one for our last couple nights before the wedding but it was definitely a huge headache having to move so much and spend so much time searching that week. But let me tell you-this area really is some of the most beautiful country I have seen. I love the culture of the people and the ridiculous beauty all around. If you are wondering about the picture of Jon below-he often sits in the truck to take phone calls so the whole family doesn’t have to leave. Did I mention it’s cold outside?
The wedding was a gorgeous day in an unbelievably beautiful location, a rare treat to have my whole side of the family (parents & siblings) in one place. Did I mention how pretty some parts of Montana are?
After the wedding we had one of those super cool God is good stories!
We were planning to head to Idaho to spend the next week in my sister’s driveway so the cousins could hang out. My side of the family went to a local restaurant near the wedding venue to celebrate, we had the trailer parked outside and when we came out to leave, the tire was flat. But when we looked closer, we realized a part of our metal frame was snapped, which had caused the flat tire. We needed it welded back together before we could go anywhere. So there we were at 8pm on a Saturday night, once again thinking there was no easy way out of this one. We looked around and saw what looked to be a repair shop with lights still on and the garage doors open. Jon said he would go talk to them and see if they had a welder on hand. I said “Yeah right?! Right across the street in this super tiny town on Saturday night there will be a welder available to fix our trailer? Not happening.” So….I went back to the bar with my dad and Jon went to the garage and guess what?! Yep, they fixed it. We were back on the road an hour later. I can’t tell you how many crazy stories we have like that one where it looked hopeless. God is good.
We headed to Northern Idaho, near Courdalene to my other sister’s driveway to spend Jon’s workweek. Their family is a bigtime baseball fam so my kids were happy to jump right in and spend every spare minute playing…or attempting to play baseball. One of my brothers hung out for the week too so we got some good family time in and that brother actually ended up driving back to Steamboat with us. Which worked out great since Jon flew out of Missoula MT the next weekend for a quick guys trip in NY. I would have been driving alone (well definitely not alone, but the only adult) back to CO. Which I have done, but not my favorite. Northern Idaho is really pretty part of the country and I always enjoy spending some time there. The drive back to Colorado is really nice too.
A day or two after we got back to Steamboat, I picked Jon up at the airport nearby and he had to head back to work for the week. He also had less than a week to get us ready for or Moab trip- which is a ton of work when you have to maintain several old kids bikes! But so worth it. Nothing like prepping for the desert in the snow!
The kids absolutely love going to Moab! Our good friend often joins us and this trip was extra special because a lot of old family friends were going at once to have a reunion/memorial in honor of my dad’s twin brother who had recently passed. (My side of the family has been visiting this special spot in Moab for dirt biking trips for over 25 years). I grew up dirt biking, but between being pregnant and having little guys the past several years, I have been doing more 4 wheeling recently. Much easier to carry small humans and stuff. This year, our friend brought a side by side. We have seen them all over but this was my first experience getting to use one. Although I still feel more comfortable navigating trails on a dirt bike, I gotta say, these things are awesome for families! Being able to strap in car seats and carry so much stuff is a game changer for sure. Of all the places we have seen and things we have done, the 3 oldest still consider Moab the top priority for going back as much as possible. It is so special to see my kids the same age I was, enjoying the same special campsite, slick rock & dirt bike trails that I enjoyed at their age.
We returned back to Steamboat after leaving Moab and enjoyed friends and family while we undid the damage from the trip (sand everywhere….bike maintenance, etc.) We decided to stay a couple weeks and then take a few weeks to see some new places with just our fam. So we planned to go to Lake Powell then Zion & Bryce National Parks.
In early May we headed to Lake Powell, hoping to find an epic boondocking location on the lake in Page, AZ. Holy Cow. This trip turned out to be full of unexpected (and undesirable) adventures. Starting with getting thoroughly stuck in the sand on the day we arrived an hour from the town with no cell signal. Now, we are very familiar with seemingly big binds. This was far from our first big problem since we began and generally, we are very good at keeping our cool and remaining calm. However, this one really frustrated Jon. Particularly because we were not stuck in a spot he would be able to work from. I wasn’t too concerned about it. It was Saturday night and we had the whole next day to figure it out. After all, we had our home with us and all our children were safe. I won’t go into all the details, but the next day was full of digging and attempting to create traction with piles of sticks and brush under our wheels along with burning our clutch out while attempting to drive out. Eventually a group of trucks came by and it took two of them to tow us out. That whole adventure ruined our awesome plan of boondocking on the beach for the coming week because now we needed to find a spot close to town so we could get our clutch replaced sometime that week. As it turned out, we did quite a bit of exploring and never did find a spot on the water that would have had good enough internet anyways. We found a boondocking spot near Page where we parked for the workweek. From there we were able to still do some fun exploring, paddle boarding on the lake access nearby and the girls and I even took a kayak/paddle board trip to Antelope Canyon which I highly recommend experiencing!
We spent our anniversary in this location….which turned out to to be another not so welcome adventure… Our trailer was parked at the top of an overlook where I believe would have been lake view not so many years ago. (Lake Powell is seriously low). Below us was the top of a creek bed that Jon was just dying to drive down to see if it would lead to good lake access. He thought this would be a lovely adventure for the evening of our anniversary after we went out to dinner. I felt like it was a really bad idea, but was trying to be positive and supportive since it was after all- our anniversary. The girls were babysitting the boys in the trailer for our date night. So just the two of us, me in my flip flops and dress, drove down the creek-bed at almost dark. The further we got, the more I thought “gosh, this could end up being a very long walk.” Sure enough, a long walk it was. We got about 8-9 miles down the creek-bed (from our trailer) before hitting super soft mud and sinking deep. There we were, in the dark stuck in the mud at almost 10pm 9 miles from our trailer. Normally we would have had the motorcycle in the truck bed, along with a shovel and all kinds of helpful items. However, we had emptied it that day because it was going to the shop the following day for several days. I held the flashlight for almost an hour, while Jon insisted on attempting to dig each tire out with his bare hands in the clay and rock. It was getting colder, and later and very clear that we would be walking home at this point. At almost 11pm, we gave up and began walking. Instead of walking back down the creek-bed towards our trailer, we opted to walk the few miles to the highway in an attempt to catch a ride the rest of the way. It would be a longer walk this route if we didn’t get a ride, but shorter if we were able to. We got some good quality time that night, as I navigated the sand and cactus in flip flops and a skirt, climbing through barbed wire fences in the dark. It was about 3 miles to the highway and we walked another 3 miles on the highway and finally caught a ride the last couple miles home. We arrived home at 2am. Jon had to work at 6 the following morning. I posted on a local Facebook group looking for help and received many responses. Two men showed up the next day, one with a jeep with a wench and one with a 1 ton truck to hold the jeep down while he cranked us out of creek-bed. Once again, we made it to the other side of our (figurative) mountain.
I love RV life. but I have MANY many times when I’m pretty sure I never want to go on another adventure again. Sometimes the idea of hitching up the trailer and moving it seems to leave so much potential for disaster its scary. There were many times throughout this 4 month trip that I thought and said “I don’t like adventures anymore, I just want to go back to Ohio and be a Midwestern house wife!”
We left Page Arizona unsure weather we would ever want to return. Yet still with fond memories of time on Lake Powell paddle boarding …and long walks under the stars (super long walks).
We had a hard time deciding weather to head to Zion or Bryce next. Wanting to see them both before heading back to Steamboat. We opted to drive by Zion, spend a night or two and then keep moving but when we got there it was too awesome to leave. See my blog post from boondocking in Zion here for more about that stop.
We left Zion and went to Bryce Canyon National Park. We found a neat spot in a woodsy area pretty close to the entrance and spend the night there. The internet wasn’t quite good enough to stay for the work week so we decided to spend the day hiking with the family and then drive on back to Steamboat. Bryce was super neat and unique and we loved hiking there. But we were thankful we spent the longer time in Zion.
We headed back to Steamboat that same day for our last few weeks of Steamboat time before heading to Oregon. Our time was running out to get back to Ohio by teen camp (church event at the end of July that the girls refuse to miss!)
Leaving Steamboat for the last time in a summer is always a bit sad, because we have so many family and friends there. This time was extra strange because my parents convinced us to leave Jafius there for over a month! None of our kids have been away from us for that long but he really wanted to give it a try so we decided to let him. My mom was coming to Ohio after we got back to watch the little boys so Jon & I could both work teen camp this year. He would fly back with her unless he needed to rejoin the family sooner. We left Steamboat and headed north to West Yellowstone, I hadn’t been to Yellowstone in 15 years and had been wanting to go back and show the kids so badly! We boondocked in a super cool spot near West Yellowstone for Jon’s next workweek. It was one of my favorite spots we have ever parked and had a great week of family time and sight seeing (but we missed Jafius!). You can read about that trip and see more pictures here.
From West Yellowstone, we headed northwest, stopping by my sister’s in Northern Idaho one night for some quick cousin time. Then we went to my brother’s house near Astoria, OR. If you have been following our travels then you already know we stop here at least once a year. We love this part of the country and enjoy spending time with my brother. We got lucky once again and came for mostly great weather, sun and warmth (rare for this part of the country). Where my brother lives is really unique because you can be at a lake beach, river beach (Columbia), or ocean beach within about 5 minutes. The girls always get lots of long boarding in when we are here, and Radford could spend hours on his bike or scooter. We got lots of beach time in and of course, Jon and my brother got some more attempted kite boarding in.
This was our last destination for this summer’s West trip, we left Oregon on July 1st and headed East towards Ohio. We stopped in Northern Idaho on our way through to see my sister’s family one last time for a night and half a day. Originally, we were planning to break up the 35 hour drive from Oregon to Ohio by spending a workweek somewhere in between (It is a looong ways). But Jon had a long weekend due to the holiday so we booked it all the way back in 4 days. We did snap a leaf spring on our trailer somewhere in Iowa on the way back, it was Saturday evening before 4th of July and we thought for sure we would be stuck there until the following week when people returned to work. However, a couple phone calls and 2 hours later and this amazing family owned business (towing, repair & salvage yard) had us back on the road! Yay God. We made it home on July 4th and hid out for a few days while we settled back in at home…well, “sticks & bricks” home. It does feel like home, but so does our little travel trailer.
That wraps up the first half of 2021, overall it was a wonderful trip, we made our usual rounds to family and saw several new places as well. The girls start high school in August in public school so I guess our travels will be limited for the foreseeable future. But you know we will take very opportunity we can to hit the road again!