It may have been a long two days of driving but it was a great way to go the 1,300+ mile stretch from Wisconsin to West Yellowstone, Montana. The drive was only through 4 states but it was definitely the full width of those states! With stops we had about two 12 hour days on the road. June 12th 4:20am - June 13th 2014 4:45pm
We were mostly pretty efficient on pit stops and meals so that was helpful. I say mostly because luckily we are towing an awesome bathroom with us. We didn't even make a few hours away from home and we had to stop on an entrance ramp for the kids. When leaving early in the morning, remind the sleepy kids to empty their bladders was the lesson there. Then when we hit Minnesota we took a wrong turn in Minneapolis and found our selves stopped again on another entrance ramp taking a pit stop. Other than those hiccups in our plan it was a smooth first day. And smooth is no doubt the landscape we were encountering in MN and ND.
The first KOA of our full KOA stay trip was in Bismarck, North Dakota. It was about 6pm when we rolled into the campground to get settled for the short night after driving ~730 miles. Luckily it even had a pool so the kids and I just basically jumped in. That's what is so great about the Airstream vs the pop-up. We could just grab our stuff right away vs having to wait for set-up. Loved it! It wasn't the warmest time of year for an outdoor pool (60 degrees) but it was definitely good to stretch our legs and relax. We even had a campfire and a great dinner. The campground even had a fenced in area for Yogi to run around in too. But he's getting older and it was right up his alley to be scrunched in-between the kids just snoozing all day.
Left early on the second day at about 6am and the first pit stop was done in 15 minutes in Columbus, MT. We drove past Theodore Roosevelt National Park and wish we had time to stop, Sammie would have loved the wild horses roaming. But alas we were on a mission to get to West Yellowstone as soon as possible! Along the way we started seeing the mountains and were getting more and more excited. It was even 60 mph through twisty road through the mountains. Except where we hit the dirt road construction next to the river, that was crazy but Emmett liked seeing all the big construction machines in action. Unfortunately it made the Airstream very dirty and in all the pics later on in the trip you can see the writing that Sammie made on the back in the dirt.
Arriving at the West Yellowstone KOA at 4:45p gave us some time to relax and get settled for a long stay. They had an indoor pool and Emmett was king of the pool on the stairs and said he had a green crown & castle. It was so cute. Our neighbors were from Oregon and were very nice.
All in all it was a great couple of days on the road with few timeouts in the car and lots of activities to keep the kids busy. I would definitely say that the next time around in like 9 or 10 years we will think about that route again!
Stay tuned for the trip details in the next post....