One more grand summer trip

[bigben]

We just concluded our 2017 summer vacation trip with initially 5 grandchildren for the first 6 weeks and finished up with 3 for the last 4 weeks. Route started in Louisville wandered to Myrtle Beach (a week in a water park and the ocean) and then south to Charleston. Then we started the historical portion up through Yorktown and DC. Then fun times at Knoebel Amusement Park and then to the Finger Lakes.

Left 2 kids with their Mom and continued on to 1000 Island and over to Bar Harbor (had to stop at Ben and Jerry's). Then on to Plymouth, Ma. and whales. Then onward to New Jersey and and 3 days in NYC. Finished off with a trip to Philadelphia and the Liberty Bell before getting the last 3 home to Fort Bragg, NC.

A total of about 3900 miles and 10 weeks. Our grandkids had a lot fun and laughs at water parks, beaches, buggy rides, amusement parks, double decker bus rides and even watched whales. They also learned about our country, how we became a nation, the original founders, how we challenged ourselves and even killed our own brothers. Best part is they were able to meet their cousins while visiting their pappaw's ancestral home.

I post this to remind myself and others of the pure joy of traveling in an RV and visually bathing our children in our beautiful country. Before our coach (in our oversized SUV), we criss crossed the US and Canada from the Arctic Circle to Key West to the tune of about 250,000 miles in 4 years. We are now sharing this wonderful experience with our kids. This is the third summer in a row we have meandered around the lower 48 and to date we've shared 40 of them with 3 of the 17 grandkids.

One of the main reasons we continue to have our gasser (Thor Challenger 37TB) is the ability to have 5 grandkids with us with minimal setup and put aways at bed time. Only one double up in the front bunk - two cousins that are BFFs. They often stayed up late talking about the stuff that most 12 year olds talk about.

Note: only problem we had was a leak in a slide seam. Fortunately the folks at Wilkins RV worked me in and did the repair. Only cost 4 hours of our time.

[monkey]

Sounds like a fantastic trip !!! Very glad you and family had a great safe trip !!!! Thanks for sharing !!!

[BurienTimmer]

We're enjoying camping with our two youngest grandchildren. Watching the eclipse today was an excellent science lesson.

[iamblum]

That is so awesome. I was fortunate enough to take a school field trip in 3rd grade. 1 week in Florida (epot, Disney, and JFK space center) and the second week in Washington D.C.. to this day I can tell you more about D.C. than I can about Florida. History is so awesome and so important

[WDW]

Hats off to Wilkins! Shopped there, don't buy there but have tremendous respect for their classy operations!

[bigben]

Spot on with the history. When we started back up with the coach, DW wasn't very happy. Now days, she admits she has done a 180 degree turn around and enjoys our time. We often do about a 45 attendees family reunion by using our coach as focal point. Add the education and history lessons - Priceless.

[Busskipper]

I post this to remind myself and others of the pure joy of traveling in an RV and visually bathing our children in our beautiful country.

Sort of sums it up - How lucky WE are!

Best of Luck, keep those Grands entertained.



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[bigben]

Originally Posted by WDW

Hats off to Wilkins! Shopped there, don't buy there but have tremendous respect for their classy operations!

These folks really helped us out. Some incredibly rainy weather at times and with all the grand kids onboard, leaks are a REALLY bad thing. Wilkins did the work in a very competent fashion and at a reasonable charge (took about 6 man hours for all 3 slides).

PS: the folks there cleaned up my AC for $89 (for both AC). Later as the 95 degree weather hit, made a HUGE difference.

Thanks again to the Bath, NY, Wilkins crew.