Museum of Me: July 2022

Welcome to July's Museum of Me installation, where I'll be sharing a somewhat epic Favorite Family Vacation. It's taken the staff a while to put together this exhibit, so I was happy to delay this month's opening until today once Kym announced her Museum was also going to be temporarily closed on the second Friday of the month. 

So please step this way and proceed to the Main Exhibit Hall. The trip that I'm recounting encompassed many miles and is picture-heavy, so it takes up all the available Museum space. This is the story of the Becker family's drive across America. You can read the thrilling story of a family fulfilling their dream of driving across the country in an RV to see the sights in a 5,856-mile journey. It's sort of like a modern-day Oregon Trail Game, except we didn't have to caulk the RV to float across the Kansas River and nobody died of dysentery.

John had always wanted to drive across the country in an RV, and I resisted this idea for a year or more. When we plan vacations, I always say that I don't want to do the same things I do at home and have doing them be more difficult. John pointed out that Justin and Ryan were 9 and 11 years old; this would be educational, fun, and a family-bonding experience, and if we put it off much longer, the boys wouldn't want to go with us at all, so I finally came around. We bought a used 23-foot RV, stocked it with all the comforts of home, and planned a trip to Yellowstone. On June 23, 2002, we left New Jersey and drove 240 miles to Bedford, PA. Our plan was to stay in campgrounds with pools so the boys would be happy and we could all relax after a day of driving. 

We did drive and swim our way across the eastern and midwestern US, finally reaching Denver and the Rocky Mountains. 

We spent three days in Rocky Mountain National Park but discovered on the first day that Ryan suffered from High Altitude Sickness when we drove up to the top of Trail Ridge Road at almost 12,00 feet above sea level. We took him back down after a ranger saw how bad he looked and advised us "flatlanders" that it was a serious situation. Ryan was fine later that afternoon and we just stayed at lower altitudes. 

Here's some evidence that he was feeling just fine later; he and Justin tried to convince me that there was a bear behind me. (There was not.) 

I did do plenty of the same things that I do at home, like cooking most days, and I did still have to do laundry in the laundromat at the RV park before we left. But I had the excitement of seeing elk while I did it. That never happens at home!

Somewhere in this trip, Ryan started to do his Vanna White imitation, pointing out dinosaurs, petrified wood, and the antler arches in Jackson Hole. 

Justin continued to look for wildlife, and both boys enjoyed eating breakfast next to Mount Moran. 

This was one of my favorite parts of the trip because we took my all-time favorite family photo on Oxbow Bend on the Snake River.

We finally got to Yellowstone and saw the sights:

After spending a few days in Yellowstone, we visited with friends in Lincoln, MT, and attended a rodeo. 

Then the only thing left to do was to head back to New Jersey. We drove, swam, fished, and rode dinosaurs all the way home. 

It really was my all-time Favorite Family Vacation trip, one that I'm very glad we took.

I originally wrote about this trip in five posts. I didn't want to bore you with too many photos in this one post, but if you're interested, you can see and read more here:

Across America Part I

Across America Part II

Across America Part III

Across America Part IV

Across America Part V

Thank you for visiting the Museum of Me for my all-time Favorite Family vacation. The Museum of Me exhibits will be changed monthly on the second Friday of the month so please stop by again in August for the next carefully curated installation. (The gift shop is on the right on your way out!)