Hey Everyone
Finally had two seconds to report back on our epic trip. The trip went very well other than a hard lesson about parking a larger trailer in Pontiac Illinois were I redecorated someone's front bumper(tried to V park myself into a spot in a small lot and ended up scraping someones bumper with the trailer bumper) in Pontiac Illinois. The person was as nice as could be expected about the incident and once I got over my frustration took a quick look at the Pontiac car museum and a few other sights.
Things I learned on this trip
-Going west is very windy especially through Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico
-There is alot more elevation changes in Utah than I ever imagined
-Not to judge a book by its cover...we stayed in some beautiful spots out in Utah, but one of the most friendly spots was a campground in Teucomcari (I'm sure thats mispelled) New Mexico the Mingo RV park. There is an old Studebaker parked out front with a cut out of Betty Boop towing a little trailer and a Corvair a little further in pulling a trailer. It doesn't look like much but they are trying really hard to fix it up. They xmas like lights strung there tree's and little disco ball they lit up at night and the owner worked really hard to make sure we were happy. We stayed there on the way out and on the way back for a night each, at $20 for a full hook up sight you couldn't beat it and you felt like you were immersed in that Route 66 experience.
A couple other things that I thought I would put out there future reference, Zion National Park is amazing and worth a few day stop. We stayed literally just outside the park in a private campground that bordered the parks campground I believe it was called Sprindale RV park in the town of Springdale. It had a nice pool, laundry facility, full hook ups and an amazing few of Zion Canyon. One thing to note though is if your coming from east end of the park to the west end with your trailer you will likely have to pay an additional $10-15 for a tunnel pass that is good for two trips through in 7 days. They shut down the oncoming lane when you go through as it is not very wide.
Also, I was fortunate to see both the south and North rim of the Grand Canyon on this trip and though both are equally spectacular if given the choice I would choose the North Rim again. Its much quieter, less busy and the view just seems more dramatic. Also if your going in the warmer months its a good place to cool off. We left are campground in Zion at 32deg Celsius (90 ish Farenheit??) and it hovered between 34-40f at the North rim with about 60 seconds of light flurries and another 25-30 sec of hail at one point in the day.
We also had a chance to boondock in Goblin Valley, and wow what an experience. I was worried when my wife told me the plan but when we arrived there were many different well marked areas to set up camp, a few almost parking lot specific type places with incredible views, a definite place to stop at and camp again.
The trip was fantastic and the kids were amazing travellers, I think having our home with us helped immensely and my wife and I both agreed at the end of the trip that it was one of those few trips were we would have been quite happy to stay out for another week or two, everybody was still getting along(atleast as well as they normally do) and neither one of us were missing home.
A side note I would like to say what a good job my 2011 F150 4x4 5.0l did. It certainly was thirsty but generally speaking it travelled 11,000km's 9,000 of which was pulling around 6,000lbs in weight and averaged 10mpg. On the way out there were days when it stayed in 3rd gear most of the day just to maintain a reasonable speed, but it always did it, it climbed serious elevation changes and the tow/haul mode worked flawlessly going down the steep grades. I think if I was doing this trip often a diesel would be better but I think for the rare times I do something this serious the truck is more than acceptable.
Anyways time to go repair the damage on my trailer and get it ready for the next trip!