Our 4th of July started out with an early morning break down of camp at Mesa Verde in order to get to the 4 Corners National Monument before the crowds – which we accomplished! I had acquired a pretty sweet Bud Light cowboy hat at Wal-mart to wear in celebration of this Independence Day but Chris refused to be seen with me when I had it on so it stayed in the car for our 4 corners experience. (Note: Chris is secretly jealous of my hat as I have caught him secretly putting it on multiple different occasions.)

After checking out all of the tribal vendors who sell their own hand-made items at 4 corners, we loaded back into the Guvnabile and set off for Salt Lake City. We drove through Moab, UT on our way and made a quick stop at a pretty ‘cool’ restaurant called Zax where they had a mister on for the patio seating in the 90-degree heat. Chris was thrilled that they had a salad bar and said he wished there were more salad bars near us in PA. Which there are – so not sure what his epiphany was with that.

We stayed in our first KOA in Salt Lake City, UT. I must say it wasn’t the nicest first experience as the workers were pretty rude. Anyways, we got our trailer set up quickly to shower and change and get into the city for 4th of July festivities. Of course, right as we were about to take the train in, a crazy storm hit and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees. This is probably the first time this trip that the weather has interfered with our plans. Still, that didn’t keep me from wearing my shorts and short sleeved 4th of July outfit (complete with Bud Light cowboy hat). This time, Chris was forced to be seen with me in public. When we got to the street that was closed down and filled with food trucks, games, and bands, it was pretty much a ghost town (and freezing). So, we found a unique, Salt Lake City restaurant to get some eclectic grub for dinner – Dave and Busters. This restaurant was clearly unprepared (and understaffed) for a surge of people to come in to eat even though they were located right on the same street as the 4th of July celebrations. We settled for sitting at the bar and having some appetizers while watching 28 TV’s filled with drifting racecars and bull riding. After dinner, we decided to venture back outside to find a place to watch fireworks because the rain had stopped. This is where my stubbornness in wearing the outfit I did comes into play. I was freezing. And everywhere to sit was wet. So, we walked down the street and decided we would just go back to the trailer to try to see fireworks from the campground. Of course, not before I took an Instagram of all the crowds and strange people we saw. It was at this point that a man said, “Excuse me miss – can I take a picture of you taking a picture like you just were? It’s for advertising purposes – the hat just makes the picture.” Chris was standing off to the side just shaking his head in disbelief.

I finally changed into warmer clothes back at the campground and we set off in search of a viewing point for (where we thought) the fireworks would go off at 10. 10 o’clock came and went and while it sounded like Salt Lake City was basically being bombed in all directions, we only saw little bursts of fireworks here and there in the distance, barely making it above the trees and buildings. Fireworks in Salt Lake are nothing compared to the East coast. Come to find out later from a few people we talked to from the area that the ghost-town feel we had in Salt Lake was a weird, rare, but definitely noticeable thing for 4th of July this year. We were unimpressed with this city.

However, our 5th of July made up for it! We woke up at 4:30am to get ready and set off to Park City, UT for a sunrise hot air balloon ride experience. We met up with a group of 6 other riders (family of 4 and another couple), and a staff of 4 guys. It was pretty cool to watch them pull out the balloon and basket and inflate it until it was standing upright.

Then, the 8 of us climbed aboard with our pilot, known as Wild Bill, who was quite the character. We were up in the air for about an hour, taking in the amazing views, listening to Wild Bill’s crazy stories such as flying Patrick Swayze in a balloon where he lit himself on fire and jumped out of the basket, and enjoying the beautiful weather at 12,000 feet.

I was a little nervous about the landing but after we smoothly touched down in the backyard of Home Depot and helped the guys pack the monstrous balloon and basket back up (weighing 2,000 lbs. altogether), we drove back to our cars for a champagne toast. It was a great ending to the experience as we heard more of Wild Bill’s balloon stories of witnessing a guy propose to the same girl twice and watching a girl’s hair extensions catch fire as she pulled them out and threw them overboard.

After our ballooning adventure, we headed back towards Salt Lake City, starving. I found a delicious café and we gorged on stuffed French toast and pastries.

We spent the afternoon catching up on some sleep (about a 5 hour nap) and then headed back into the city for a sushi dinner. We walked around town for a bit and then excitedly and very hungrily ordered lots of sushi as we were both craving it. Come to find out, this particular sushi restaurant LOVES to make all of their sushi extra spicy (even a simple tuna avocado roll). So yet again, I had a disappointing meal because if anyone knows me, I am NOT a fan of spicy (and my mouth was on fire). We headed back to our humble abode and called it a night.

Saturday, July 6th, we packed up camp yet again and set off for Lake Tahoe.

We have both been splitting the driving pretty evenly now because If you want to know what causes your heart rate to skyrocket within a matter of seconds, ride as a passenger to Chris driving a trailer through the mountains. I might break my door one of these times I grab it out of fear when he slams on the brakes. When we crested the mountain on the east side of Lake Tahoe, the view was beautiful (see pictures below).

As Chris caught up on work, I maneuvered the trailer through the crowds and hordes of people around the lake for 4th of July weekend, finally ending up at Fallen Leaf Campground which was probably the only place in all of Lake Tahoe that didn’t have phone service (Sidenote: DO NOT trust Verizon’s coverage map. They lie.) Feeling accomplished after I backed the trailer down our 96 ft. campsite driveway, Chris had me drive forward slightly, crushing the wheel chock he forgot he had put in place. We hastily set up camp and then realized afterwards that we forgot to fill our tank with water. First major RV mistake. However, we were too tired to hook everything back up and go fill it again so Chris set off on making about 25 trips to the drinking water spigot with our water jug and slowly but surely filling the tank… ¼ of the way.

The next day, July 7th, after some peaceful morning coffee, we set off for a bike ride to check out Fallen Leaf Lake and the surrounding area.

In the process, we lost each other. Chris (who was behind me) neglected to tell me he was stopping to read a sign just as I crested a hill and flew all the way down. Waiting for him at the bottom for about 20 minutes, I decided I was not about to bike back up the hill and instead, went back to the campsite. Eventually, Chris returned on his bike, balancing a stack of firewood. Clearly, he wasn’t worried about losing me. We had some lunch, spotting an ant carrying a dead dragonfly which is pretty incredible when you think about the size comparison, and then continued on our bike ride to explore Lake Tahoe, finding a nice little beach to return to the next day.

When we returned to our RV, Chris announced he was taking a nap. Well, there goes the afternoon! Once the beast finally awoke, we played a board game called “EXIT” on our camp picnic table as the sun set which took about 2 hours. According to the game, that is a terrible finish time and we only got 3/10 stars. Chris then made a fire and we decided on hot dogs and microwaveable mac and cheese for dinner. I convinced Chris we didn’t need the microwave for the mac and cheese and told him just to boil water and pour it in. Amazingly, he listened to me but when we bit into hard noodles, he was appalled and I acted like that’s how I normally eat them and that they were super tasty. We enjoyed some time around the campfire until just as it was getting dark, the camp bear horn was sounded and I immediately packed everything up for the night and went inside. Meanwhile, Chris sat outside with a flashlight, dangling food in front of him, hoping to catch a glimpse of the creature. Half an hour later he came in, disappointed. 

Monday, July 8th, we finally gave in to coin showers which cost $1 for 3 minutes. I managed to keep it at $3 but Chris was bragging that he kept it at $1. The catch is that he walked out of the shower with dirt on his legs. We slowly packed up camp and drove our trailer to park in the visitor center parking lot in order to go down to the beach we discovered the day before. I was excited to finally be able to lay out on a beach in my bathing suit and relax! That’s what a honeymoon is all about, right?

Well, I was in for a treat. I walked halfway down the strip of beach to find a spot that there weren’t very many people. I laid out our fabulous “Hubby” and “Wifey” towels and was all set to soak in the rays when a dog came running by and shook all over.

As I continued to look around, I realized that all 25 dogs on the beach were not leashed and they were happily running free, jumping on other dogs (and people). As I sat there another five minutes, huge camp groups of middle schoolers came and sat all around us, playing spike ball and kicking up sand, hitting me with the ball a few times. Chris then joined me to attempt to read his book (after a 30-minute trip to find the bathrooms) and we both soon realized that this atmosphere of crazy kids and dogs running wild was not in the least bit relaxing. So, we packed it up and headed to our trailer to eat some lunch and set off for Yosemite. 

A final note on some things we have learned about being cross country RVers so far:

  1. The bugs. You would never guess how many bugs you hit driving cross country. So don’t bother cleaning the outside of the RV before you go like I did. See pics below.
  2. We should have built in more down time. I’ll give this to Chris because he warned me we would need more time to chill but we are seeing so many different places, that we don’t have much time to relax, edit pictures, read books, and do these blog posts like I wanted! So, if ever planning a long trip, plan in a few days here and there to do nothing.
  3. Small, shared space = smaller amount of patience and less sharing with each other over time. And we knew this would be the case. It’s hard to not have “your own space” to live in for an extended period of time. It’s not so much being together all the time as it is having to share literally every. Single. Part. Of your living space with each other. We have certainly had our ups and downs but that is life, right?
  4. Plan way ahead. We did not expect to be without phone service so much which has proven difficult in planning activities to do as well as getting the Honda serviced (which needs to be done at least once on an 8-week road trip).
  5. Find your niche. Setup and breakdown have been the stressful parts of the trip between Chris and I. Something that has worked for us so far (although still not perfected) is that he takes care of everything outside the RV and I take care of everything inside. Except when he scratches up my new bike – then I come outside and I probably overreact.
  6. Bring tools and gadgets. (This one is all Chris) Most men love to bring their tools everywhere anyway but Chris has used almost all the extra “toys” he’s brought – they have been very useful in fixing things on the RV.
  7. California is EXPENSIVE. Over $4/gallon for gas in some places. And speaking of gas, the amount we’ve had to fill up has been the biggest surprise for me on this trip. We are averaging 10 miles/gallon over here.