Thanksgiving RV Palooza

Well, sorry for falling off the face of the blog-earth like that. But things have been buuuuuuusy at the Frenchie house!

My father and brother both landed in Las Vegas on the Monday before Thanksgiving, and evidently, it's difficult to get anything done in a 2 bedroom apartment crammed with 5 adults and one baby. I've got piles of clean and dirty laundry all over my bedroom, a dozen blog posts floating around in my head, a baptism to get ready for, and a trip to France in three weeks with a baby!

So yeah, busy.

Anyway. RV Palooza was successful (and by successful I mean nobody died or fell off any cliffs). We all came out of the trip alive, despite being quite a bit worse for wear. We discovered that my Dad is actually a pyromaniac, that Swarley will jump into a freezing river without regard to the rapids and almost get swept away, and that Mia sleeps through the night in Utah but not Nevada. My Dad has been wanting to rent an RV every since I can remember, but my brother and I were "too cool" while we were teenagers, but now that we're out West, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to give my Dad the chance to fulfill his lifelong dream. Yes, I realize that it is strange that this is his lifelong dream, and if you knew my Dad and his Frenchness, you'd think it was hilarious.

We were scheduled to leave in the morning on Friday, but of course that turned into the late afternoon. Within the first hour of having this tremendously enormous vehicle, my father rammed the side of it into the buzzer thing at our apartment building (The buzzer still works... despite it being a bit dented). I'm just glad that it was Dad driving and not B... phew!

31 footer - Sleeps 5 adults and potentially 4 children.

We arrived in Utah after dark on Friday, and after managing to get lost within the RV park (or "resort" as they'd have you call it), we parked, hooked everything up, and set up the camp fire (pyro!).



Notice B's cupholders: a beer and a baby bottle. Classy.

After a fitful and freezing night in the RV (Mia was not cold, I thought only of her when packing blankets, apparently, since she had 4, and we had 1), we saw the campsite for the first time in the daylight. What looked like a crappy RV park at night turned out to have a gorgeous view of Zion and was right on the riverbank. We walked to the entrance of the park and did the easiest trail in the park (wheelchair accessible easy) and a good time was had by all.

Bottle Break!

After a second much less fitful night (we figured out how to turn up the heat), we got up bright and early so that we could squeeze two trails in. The Emerald Pools (semi-easy, stroller accessible, but no wheelchairs) got us muddy, but it was totally worth it and super fun. Second, we did the River Walk at the northmost end of Zion, where the canyons are most narrow (called: The Narrows). It's totally spectacular. I'd never heard of Zion before moving out here to Las Vegas, but I am thinking that it's totally not famous enough because it's really gorgeous. I've never been to Yellowstone or Yosemite, but I think we're going to be more likely to visit more national parks after being so impressed with this one.

So, we had an awesome time. RV-ing is quite the experience. We had a pretty nice one with a couple of pop-outs, which made camping much more tolerable. We were able to all sit down in the living area once it got too cold to stay outside, and there was enough room for everyone. B and I slept in the queen bed over the cab, my parents in the "bedroom" with a queen bed, and my brother slept on a bunk. His was probably the tightest fit, but if you're under 6 feet, that bunk bed is probably totally fine. I have to say though, riding in it while it's moving isn't as great as you would think. Maybe we didn't have an awesome RV, but those things are probably meant to be parked and not driven around. Everything shakes and clangs around while the truck is in motion, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend RV-ing for a very long drive.

B's got one all picked out if we ever won the lottery. Of course he does.

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!