Epic family vacation

In August/September 2020 and two days after buying my F250 Tremor we loaded up the trailer and took a three week trip from Vegas to visit the in-laws in Branson, MO then onto the panhandle of FL to visit my parents with a 4 day stop in Dallas to visit friends. Mostly stayed in Harvest Hosts places when not at family houses. It was awesome.

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T-minus 7 days till our family camping trip out west kicks off. This was the main reason for getting the Tremor, to be able to take long family camping trips with our trailer. We will be hitting up the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore and the Badlands.
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Don't have any photos of the combined 55 foot train but if anyone sees this combination rolling across the country next week give a wave or stop and say hi.
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Hoping to take some truck shots along the way and try to get some towing numbers of mpg but #1 plan is to enjoy the time with family, so might not be as detailed. Any thing I do get or can share I'll add to this post. I have fond memories of traveling the country with my family growing up and this area was one of my favorites, saying I'm excited to show my wife and daughter is an understatement.
Better take Yellowstone off your list. It’s closed due to flooding and will most likely be closed all summer. Roads were washed out. We are currently at Grand Teton NP. It’s wonderful here. Our next stop was going to be Yellowstone. That will have to wait for another time.
 
T-minus 7 days till our family camping trip out west kicks off. This was the main reason for getting the Tremor, to be able to take long family camping trips with our trailer. We will be hitting up the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore and the Badlands.
View attachment 54105
Don't have any photos of the combined 55 foot train but if anyone sees this combination rolling across the country next week give a wave or stop and say hi.
View attachment 54107
View attachment 54106
Hoping to take some truck shots along the way and try to get some towing numbers of mpg but #1 plan is to enjoy the time with family, so might not be as detailed. Any thing I do get or can share I'll add to this post. I have fond memories of traveling the country with my family growing up and this area was one of my favorites, saying I'm excited to show my wife and daughter is an understatement.
T-minus 7 days till our family camping trip out west kicks off. This was the main reason for getting the Tremor, to be able to take long family camping trips with our trailer. We will be hitting up the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore and the Badlands.
View attachment 54105
Don't have any photos of the combined 55 foot train but if anyone sees this combination rolling across the country next week give a wave or stop and say hi.
View attachment 54107
View attachment 54106
Hoping to take some truck shots along the way and try to get some towing numbers of mpg but #1 plan is to enjoy the time with family, so might not be as detailed. Any thing I do get or can share I'll add to this post. I have fond memories of traveling the country with my family growing up and this area was one of my favorites, saying I'm excited to show my wife and daughter is an understatement.
Sounds like an awesome trip. I pulled our 14,000 lb 35’ 5th wheel 2500 miles this past winter with my 2021 F350 tremor diesel platinum. No issues, truck pulled like a dream. I was averaging 10-11 miles per gallon.
 
Absolutely loved Utah. We hit Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Zion and Bryce Canyon back in 2018 and I have been itching to go back to see the rest (Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Great Basin). Covid put a damper in our NP trips but we're going to get back on the road soon.
 
As big of a hurdle this may become, it will not ruin this trip. I already have a few fall back options and luckily (at this point) we only had a couple days planned in the park.
There is always more to see and do then time allows so there's plenty of flexibility.

I took the family and 35' 5th wheel camper on a 4,000 mile adventure from Washington DC to Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park in 2017. Cliff notes of highlights:
  • Miniman Missile Silo
  • Wall Drug
    • cool and historic tourist stop
  • Badlands
    • We really could have spent more time here.
    • We did the Night Sky Viewings which was AWESOME. Clear dark skies and VERY nice telescopes
  • Custer State Park
    • Being stuck in traffic for an hour because of buffalo on the road and within a foot of the truck was quite memorable
  • Mount Rushmore
  • Needles Highway
  • Sylvan Lake
    • very nice mountain lake
    • Hike to Harney Peak (Black Elk Peak)
  • Wind Cave
  • The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs
 
Is a passport and current registration and insurance all you need to drive through Canada?
Just passports... maybe current registration and insurance... last time I drove through the states was 2014.
 
Since you all are towing trailers etc, have any of you installed a front and rear sway bar (i.e. Hellwig)? Trying to figure out if this is something that is needed. I do have the factory 5th wheel prep but not sure if that adds anything to roll stability etc.
I installed the heavier Hellwig rear swaybar before towing 8000 miles last summer. It definitely helps. Get it.
 
Good point! I've been planning on keeping an eye on the weather but good reminder on the wind.
Black Hills and Wyoming was some gnarly wind... I had to go 50 mph for a few hours while towing our Jayco 264 BHOK.
 
Better take Yellowstone off your list. It’s closed due to flooding and will most likely be closed all summer. Roads were washed out. We are currently at Grand Teton NP. It’s wonderful here. Our next stop was going to be Yellowstone. That will have to wait for another time.

Stop in at the national military vehicle museum just down the road from DuBois
 
Day one in the books. Made it 600 miles just into Nebraska. Thank you everyone for the updates on Yellowstone and the other options and ideas. I'm still hopeful that it opens enough (we are only doing the south loop that has a lot less damage so fingers crossed) if not I already booked a different place near rapid city and the bad lands. Planning on another 600 miles tomorrow to get us into Wyoming and then Tetons on Friday.

Going 65-70 mph, I got 8.2-8.6 mpg (hand calculated) and the range showed about 250 miles. 200 miles worked out well to align with gas stations that let the Wobblin Goblin and the mini house in.

Drive went good today few issues along the way:
1) the short section of Indiana had some bad accidents and caused major delays
2) never ended up getting the trailer plug recall down and had that pop up a few times. Not a show stopper but lots of dings and chimes and stops tow mode and can't use cruise (which I only did for short sections to give my leg a break)
3) told the family we would depart at 7am but still managed to roll out at 8. So we definitely didn't get as far as we could have and/or get here as early as expected.

Positives:
1) truck did awesome. Had plenty of power and could even accelerate up hill if needed to pass.
2) truck seemed to jump around between gears 8, 9 and 10 more then I would have thought but shifts were seemless and wouldn't have really noticed as much if the truck didn't clearly say what gear you are in.
3) wife and daughters bladder pair perfectly with the stock fuel tank (definitely still wish I had a bigger tank) but the 6 year old didn't sleep one bit and was great the whole trip. Copilot sleep a lot 😏

And what good trip doesn't start with a stop at Walmart in town before you even hit the road, haha. But couldn't pass up the first opportunity to get the two together.
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Apologize for anything that doesn't make sense in this post as I'm tired. 😮‍💨
 
Most Excellent SAC museum on 80 just outside Ashland between Gretna & Lincoln and you will find my old aircraft 049 on display

30 Min north of Cheyenne on 25 is Quebec 1 MAF that controlled 5 ICBM’s and was converted into the only Peacekeeper ICBM squadron & is now a WY state museum Ypu can go below ground into the capsule but if you get a camper down the access road can always park on the chopper pad

South Pass city really cool


This is a very cool town and really old west but idk if it’s accessible with the flooding

 


 
Groups to watch WY road conditions

 
Was told this is a actual road sign into Yellowstone but no idea if that is true.

Was told they might open Yellowstone from the Tetons but will have to have some kind of access system to restrict visitors like a lottery the park has limited abilities to support tourists
 

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Was told this is a actual road sign into Yellowstone but no idea if that is true.

Was told they might open Yellowstone from the Tetons but will have to have some kind of access system to restrict visitors like a lottery the park has limited abilities to support tourists
We have camping reservations in the park, which I would hope would get us in (if it opens).
 
Day one in the books. Made it 600 miles just into Nebraska. Thank you everyone for the updates on Yellowstone and the other options and ideas. I'm still hopeful that it opens enough (we are only doing the south loop that has a lot less damage so fingers crossed) if not I already booked a different place near rapid city and the bad lands. Planning on another 600 miles tomorrow to get us into Wyoming and then Tetons on Friday.

Going 65-70 mph, I got 8.2-8.6 mpg (hand calculated) and the range showed about 250 miles. 200 miles worked out well to align with gas stations that let the Wobblin Goblin and the mini house in.

Drive went good today few issues along the way:
1) the short section of Indiana had some bad accidents and caused major delays
2) never ended up getting the trailer plug recall down and had that pop up a few times. Not a show stopper but lots of dings and chimes and stops tow mode and can't use cruise (which I only did for short sections to give my leg a break)
3) told the family we would depart at 7am but still managed to roll out at 8. So we definitely didn't get as far as we could have and/or get here as early as expected.

Positives:
1) truck did awesome. Had plenty of power and could even accelerate up hill if needed to pass.
2) truck seemed to jump around between gears 8, 9 and 10 more then I would have thought but shifts were seemless and wouldn't have really noticed as much if the truck didn't clearly say what gear you are in.
3) wife and daughters bladder pair perfectly with the stock fuel tank (definitely still wish I had a bigger tank) but the 6 year old didn't sleep one bit and was great the whole trip. Copilot sleep a lot 😏

And what good trip doesn't start with a stop at Walmart in town before you even hit the road, haha. But couldn't pass up the first opportunity to get the two together.
View attachment 54592

Apologize for anything that doesn't make sense in this post as I'm tired. 😮‍💨
Nice update! 600 miles is great progress in my opinion with a camper in tow and family with you... Thanks for the reminder about the recall... I need to get on that one!
 
We have camping reservations in the park, which I would hope would get us in (if it opens).

Nobody is going into the park except those needed for recovery efforts power is still out
In some of the southern areas & still surveying roads

The Tetons are open but you can only go so far
 
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