The Reynolds' Sabbatical 2001
The RV Trip

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Every 7 years Intel Corporation grants its employees an 8-week paid sabbatical leave. This year it was our turn! For our sabbatical we decided to take a very unique trip as a family in an RV and explore the western United States. With our son Samuel being almost 3 and daughter Kaley just surpassing her first birthday we felt that going in an RV would be the best alternative versus anything else. Mom and Dad also needed some "quality time" to themselves and took this opportunity to visit Jamaica while John's mother watched the kids.

So after months of preparation we left out from our home in Chandler, AZ on August 27th for the adventure of a lifetime. The following travel log has been taken from journal entries that we made at each day during our trips as well as other memories and stories that came to mind as we put this archive together.

The following picture shows a rough outline of the first leg of our adventure--the RV trip. We started in Chandler, AZ and headed towards the Hoover Dam. From there it was onto California, Oregon, Washington, Yellowstone, Utah, Lake Powell, and then home again. There is also a picture archive calendar you can view.

Day 1 - Travel to Hoover Dam, stay in Boulder Oaks, NV Day 2 - Visit Hoover Dam, travel to Joshua Tree Day 3 - Visit Joshua Tree, travel to San Bernadino
Day 4 - Visit Knott's Berry Farm, travel to Ridgecrest, CA Day 5 - Explore Ridgecrest, etc. Day 6 - Travel to Bakersfield, CA
Day 8 - Travel to Sequoia NP, travel to Mariposa, CA Day 9 - Visit Yosemite National Park Day 10 - Travel to San Jose, CA
Day 11 - See Golden Gate Bridge, travel to Manchester, CA Day 12 - Travel to Eureka, CA Day 13 - Visit Coastal Redwoods, travel to Cave Junction, OR
Day 15 - Explore Cave Junction, etc. Day 16 - Travel to Eugene, OR Day 17 - Travel to Astoria, OR
Day 18 - Explore Astoria, travel to Seattle, WA Day 19 - Explore Seattle, travel to Moses Lake, WA Day 20 - Travel to Missoula, MT
Day 22 - Travel to Yellowstone, WY Day 23 - Visit Yellowstone, travel to Logan, UT Day 24 - Explore Logan, UT, travel to Salt Lake City, UT
Day 25 - Explore Salt Lake City, UT, travel to Nephi, UT Day 26 - Travel to Lake Powell Day 27 - Play at Lake Powell, travel back home

Day 1 - Travel to Hoover Dam, stay in Boulder Oaks, NV

 Day 1's Pictures
Today we set out at approximately 10:00am from our home in Chandler. We had a small flood in the bathroom and kitchen to deal with (thanks to Samuel playing with the bathroom sink and us not knowing) but we soon mopped it up and were on our way.

After fighting through traffic, zillions of stop lights, car sickness, and road construction we finally landed ourselves in Boulder City, Nevada just 5 minutes away from Hoover Dam. We stayed at Boulder Oaks RV Resort--and what a resort it was! We've stayed at a few punk-and-junky parks during our initial test trips with the RV but none of them had cement camping areas, well groomed sidewalks, etc.

It was rather funny--as you walk through the RV park and look at everybody's fifth wheels and RVs and then compare them to ours, we're still in the minor leagues even with our 28 foot class A!

It looked like a matchbox car against some of the other people's RVs. Oh well. The next time we do this we'll have to mortgage our house to get a better RV!

We had dinner consisting of mashed potatoes, chicken, and pinto beans (the kids' favorite meal outside of Taco Bell). Meals were quite the adventure in the RV--we had to put plastic down on the chairs and floor to protect the cloth from the messy eaters! After dinner we proceeded towards the pool! Samuel and Kaley just loved the pool but it took all of Mom's and Dad's strength to continue to catch Samuel as he jumped from the side of the pool. He has no concept whatsoever about not breathing water into his lungs, so there were lots of "close calls." Kaley didn't have a very long nap so she was very grumpy after we came back from the pool but she pepped right up when we broke out the swiss rolls! Oooh, cake! She's beginning to eat a lot of solid foods and tries grabbing food out of people's hand especially when she likes it!

It was a long drive here but some nice Arizona desert. At the tail end of the drive we went over Hoover Dam on the way to this RV park. The water level must be 20 feet below normal. It sure was a sight! We're headed back there tomorrow morning for tours and site seeing.

Day 2 - Visit Hoover Dam, travel to Joshua Tree

 Day 2's Pictures
We started off the day by having breakfast in the RV (another plastic-laiden adventure) and then proceeded towards Hoover Dam. We parked in a "free parking" location and hiked down with kids in tow to the visitor's center. We got through the main gate and signed up for the "traditional tour." Jennifer and John really wanted to go on the extended "hard hat" tour but that was an hour long and not very kid friendly.

We really really enjoyed going down to the generator level of the Dam. It was cool to see all of them in action and also to see the spill water so closely. We also traversed down into one of the original "bypass" tubes where the water was channeled during the original construction of the dam.
It was really cool and we were simply in awe of the size of the dam. We took a lot of dam pictures.

Then we headed out of Boulder City towards 29 Palms, CA which is adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park. It felt like we were traveling up hill the entire way! It made us wish that we had gotten one of those V-10 diesel coaches!
Then we were almost run off the road by state police that were running interference for a huge house that was being transported along the highway. Finally, the wonderful Microsoft software we used to get directions to everywhere took us on a wild goose chase for the 29 Palms RV & Golf Resort. The road was very "bumpy" so it made the RV trip almost like a roller coaster. Samuel loved it! We were so lost! Thank goodness that we had the cell phone with us to call the place for directions. For the rest of the trip we took the software's directions with a grain of salt! But unfortunately we packed everything except for our additional road atlas, so we were at the mercy of the software for maps and directions!

After we had breakfast food for dinner we went swimming and hot tubbing and the kids just loved it again. Afterwards we just came back and watched Star Trek re-runs on tape since this place didn't have any cable hookup.

Tomorrow we head through Joshua Tree National Park, so it should be quite cool. Plus tomorrow is less driving, so John is looking forward to that!

Day 3 - Visit Joshua Tree, travel to San Bernadino

 Day 3's Pictures
Today we started off bright and early from 29 Palms California for Joshua Tree National Park. Samuel came into the front room this morning and said "Happy Day Daddy" because it was John's birthday today. John's pretty sure his mom helped him remember! We stopped briefly at the visitor's center for some trinkets and information and then proceeded towards the park.

Joshua Tree was a really cool park. Many of the areas there are filled with HUGE granite rocks that were formed by magma pockets that were trapped--then the dirt surrounding it eroded away. They were wonderful for climbing!
We only got out once because there were too many flies and bees around. Samuel almost got stung and so did John. Jennifer was freaked out by then because she's allergic to bees so she just went back to the RV.

Kaley slept the entire time through Joshua tree because her teeth were hurting and she just needed to go down for a nap.

The only downer about the park was that at 2 separate places they were doing major road construction which slowed us down. This is the second day in a row where we had to deal with major road construction!

We headed into Yucca, CA for some lunch. We were just going to eat in the RV but Samuel spotted Taco Bell and yelled "tacos!" so we had to just stop and get food.

Then we headed towards San Bernadino. We hit major head and side winds just past Palm Springs. We could tell the place was a wind heaven because there were literally hundreds of those large "wind mill" electric generator contraptions laid out across the entire valley and they were all going. It was all John could do to keep the RV in its own lane and going 55 mph! No offense to any of our friends who live in California, but California highways suck! We almost lost our way a couple of times, but finally made it to the KOA in San Bernadino. There we got some information where stores and good places to eat were.

We went out to a place called "Claim Jumpers" which was a pretty decent BBQ joint. Jennifer had chicken which Kaley thought was really yummie. We're starting her on eating meat really early so she isn't weird later in life like Samuel is. Later we had Boston Cream cake for John's birthday back at the KOA. The KOA seemed like a real pit at first, but it had a few redeemable qualities. We decided not to go swimming tonight because it was close to closing time after we got back from eating and filling the RV up with gas (there goes another 100 clams!). Samuel and Kaley both took turns on the swing in the mini playground.
Then we went to see the ducks and geese near their pond. The geese came in and honked really loud and it seemed like they were going to attack us. But we swatted them away and then saw the ducks. But after a while they announced that the duck pond was closed. We headed out and the stupid people had locked us in the duck pond with the Evil Geese! Jennifer brute-forced the gate open though, so we at least got out with our lives!

John checked mail for a while, then went back to the RV and we again watched old Star Trek re-runs on the VCR. Tomorrow we head out to Knott's Berry Farm Theme Park. We figured it would be better than Disneyland so we're doing that instead.

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