{"id":5239,"date":"2017-06-24T22:57:15","date_gmt":"2017-06-25T03:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stoccoroy.com\/blog\/?p=5239"},"modified":"2022-03-20T11:03:10","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T16:03:10","slug":"road-trip-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stoccoroy.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/24\/road-trip-day-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Road Trip, Day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the first post in a series about our summer road trip from Minnesota to Washington and Oregon, passing through the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Starting odometer: 144,354<\/p>\n

We aimed to depart at 9:00 AM and were under way by 9:45\u2014this was amazingly good timing for us. With young kids in the car, our general goal was to drive for only six-ish hours per day, leaving room for plenty of pit stops, slow starts, and time in the evening to set up camp and explore before bed. On the first day, however, we decided to shoot for Theodore Roosevelt National Park<\/a>, a little over eight hours away. We loved camping at this relatively obscure park during our 2014 road trip<\/a> to California, and we figured that we could push hard on our first day.<\/p>\n

Imagine our surprise when we rolled into the park to discover that the campground, largely empty in 2014, was entirely booked! Not only that, but every nearby campground was also booked. Apparently there was a wildly popular vintage car show going on over the weekend. Doh! [Note for our next road trip: camping reservations are a good idea.]<\/p>\n

We looked ahead on the map and found Makoshika State Park<\/a> in Montana. This would get us a few hours ahead and the park looked incredible. We went for it, racing to get there before sunset. The park was as beautiful as advertised and the campgrounds were fantastic. Campsites were spread out around gorgeous canyons with plenty of privacy. Alas, even this 11,000 acre park was fully occupied. We enjoyed watching the magnificent sunset from the bluffs and then accepted defeat, tucking our tails between our legs and “camping” at the Days Inn in Glendive. Dinner consisted of granola bars since we couldn’t use our camp stove to cook a proper meal.<\/p>\n

It was not the best start. On the bright side, all three kids were awesome in the car for a very long driving day. Admittedly, the older two watched movies for most of the day, but Oliver was surprisingly easy going about being strapped into his carseat for 10+ hours. The driving felt relatively easy, even though it ran long and ended in disappointment.<\/p>\n

A few innovations we implemented for this trip:<\/p>\n