Day 20: Idaho Park, ID

It’s hard to follow up a full day at Yellowstone! Today was back to school and work. It was also a complete reworking of our trip.

Since we decided yesterday that we weren’t heading to Washington, Oregon or California, I sat down with a map, calendar, and lap top. Planning this trip, for the most part, has been my responsibility and I enjoyed it! Replanning it has been hard. It feels silly to say it was emotionally hard, but it was. I had all these ideas about the kids in the Redwoods and hoping they would be awed as much as I was when I saw Crater Lake. We had planned to see friends in Portland, San Francisco, and in Bakersfield. Hudson was so excited about seeing Hollywood as he is borderline obsessed with movies these days. It was also hard because there are more RVs on the road now than ever which means the RV spots are few and far between. I spent over an hour trying to stay in Jackson so we could go to Grand Teton National Park. When I would find a spot (I found 2!) the park wouldn’t have WiFi so, it was a non-starter. It was also hard because I just wanted to spend my day working on this, but the kids had school. They are getting so much more independent (can you hear my shouts of joy?), but they still need me close by. I was frustrated that I didn’t have the ability to focus all my attention on this task. Then I felt guilty. It was all around not our best day. It wasn’t Tucumcari bad, but it was disappointing.

I started thinking a lot about planning today. I’m a planner. I like to know where I’m going. I like to know what’s expected of me. I used to want to know as much about my future life as I could. I get anxious when I don’t see a clear path. There is a place for planners in this world. If there weren’t planners, we wouldn’t be on this trip. Planners aren’t always the most fun, but there have to be a few of us sprinkled in the mix to keep things moving forward at times. Jordan isn’t really a planner. I think being married to me and having kids has changed that a bit, but left to his own devices, he would roll out to a national park, not knowing what entrance he was headed into, if he needed to pack a lunch, or what his agenda was. And you know what, it would work out! Over the course of our eleven years of marriage I am slowly learning to be more flexible and he is slowly learning that a little planning can go a long way.

As I was thinking about this, I asked Jordan, “where did all my planning get us?! Was it worth it?” He replied, “it’s important to have plans, but it’s also important to know they won’t go exactly as you think.” He was dropping words of wisdom in a travel trailer.

With a new perspective, I sat down again and figured out a new route. Here is our plan: When we leave Idaho we are heading south to Utah. We will spend time in Park City (more like Deer Valley). Then we will head to Arches National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, and Zion National Park. From there we pick up the rest of our journey and go to the Grand Canyon and Big Bend. Our new itinerary puts us home a week earlier. Here are the pros about our new plan:

– I’ve heard amazing things about Utah’s national parks, but never felt compelled to go. I doubt Jordan and I would have planned a trip to Utah on our own, but now we are going!

– Similar to the point above, in the future I am sure we will travel with the kids to Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco and see all the natural wonders there.

– This will be a new experience for all of us! I’ve never been to Utah and Jordan hasn’t been to these national parks. Seeing these wonders for the first time will be a family experience.

– Getting home a week early will help us better prepare for the kids moving to in-person learning. (We anticipate they will be going back the second nine weeks). Coming home on a Saturday and then starting school on Monday was going to be tough. Who planned that?!

And you know what? All my previous planning did help us out! I was more efficient at searching for and booking RV parks. In the middle of this, Jordan took the truck in because the check engine light was on. I have never seen someone check gauges and lights as much as Jordan since our day on the side of the road. The diagnostics said everything was fine and the alert was likely due to cold weather.

After a long day of making reservations, canceling reservations, school work, and traveling in to town for the truck, we had a simple dinner and the kids made s’mores. They’ve been begging to the entire trip, but most places have fire bans. They were happy to finally have some. For some fun, we unrolled this awesome national park scratch off poster our dear friends gave us. We scratched off where we have been and talked about where we were going. We also addressed some postcards.

I hope tomorrow is a little more exciting adventure-wise for us, but even on grand adventures sometimes you have to sit down and sketch out a plan.

Until next time…

Sarah

ps – When we told the kids we weren’t going on our planned trip, Hudson’s first response was “I’m not going to see Chloe!?” How sweet his first thought was of his friends. Here’s a pic of them from a couple of years ago.