We scratched off a new state today when we had lunch in Idaho during our almost 300 mile drive from SLC to Island Park, Idaho. But as we got closer to our 3pm ETA we could all feel Legacy Ranch calling our name. Mat felt great about the first leg of the drive so we decided to go for it.

Of course the second leg wasn’t as smooth: we hit a pretty windy stretch and checked the weather radars to see a severe thunder storm just ahead of us with 40-50 mph winds, so we pulled over in Ennis for an hour and again in Bozeman to let it blow ahead of us. Luckily, we never caught up to the storm and we were able to drive in blue skies the rest of the way. So we were dodging thunderstorms and then sitting in construction traffic but by 7:30 we were pulling into the gates of Legacy Ranch and by 8 we were having pizza with Big Poppa!

Not gonna lie, it felt like we walked into a palace. I had the best shower, maybe ever. The kids got to stretch out and sleep in their own queen beds and looked so tiny and happy. It was a wonderful home coming.

I thought we’d be shoving each other out of the way to get out of the RV when we finally got here but it never came to that. I’m so happily surprised that after 25 days I am still enjoying myself this much! I truly expected the RV to get smaller and smaller as the weeks went by. I expected the kids to peck at each other and annoy us in turn. I thought I’d be feeling so ready to bust out of this small space and see new faces. There were so many times during COVID quarantine that I craved alone time that I assumed that feeling would resurface during this trip. I was sure I’d be anxious enough about the RV maintenance and unknowns of RV parks that I’d feel over-whelming relief at pulling up to the ranch safe and sound. Don’t get me wrong – I am very relieved to have arrived safely at the ranch. And I am very excited to see friends! But I’m not itching to get away from Crystal as I expected. She’s been an awesome home and I’ve had more fun than I could have imagined. The girls have been awesome travelers and gotten along better than we could have expected. All that we’ve seen and all that we’ve done already is truly a dream come true and a bucket list item checked off.

While I’m not jumping out of the RV in ecstasy there are definitely things I’m looking forward to, LOL. In no particular order: Doing laundry without planning ahead, showering in the same place with reliable water pressure (we haven’t used our RV shower so we don’t steam up our nice air-conditioned unit, don’t unnecessarily fill our grey tanks, campground showers are bigger than our tiny one, and our shower has been a great home to the laundry pile, and hanging wet things: towels and bathing suits), having an oven for cooking, letting the kids have their own big beds to stretch out in, hopefully doing our morning word puzzles with Mat over coffee instead of packing up to go out and explore or packing up to drive, and of course, seeing Mat’s dad and our wonderful friends.

As we park Crystal here for the next 2 weeks we won’t be updating the blog as often. But I will always be grateful that we put our pictures and journal together here on this blog to look back on what has been a truly incredible trip.

Thursday, August 5th, 2021