Sightings between Colorado and Wyoming and reflections on why RV travel is great

After we left Fort Collins, we drove past north Colorado into Wyoming and quickly realized why people call the drive between Kansas and Colorado “boring”. Both Colorado and Wyoming are beautiful states and the drive was full of color, textures, and shapes. We passed so many different landscapes! – from mountains, to hills, to barren expenses with nothing but sagebrush.

The drive wasn’t as windy as the one from Kansas, so we had less white-knuckle moments with the RV fishtailing (towing the Prius makes it worse). I had reading materials up front but spent the time just in awe of the landscape. Then I had a realization, I spend so much time traveling (mostly for work) but it’s always rushed and hectic. I get to where I’m going then I check in and go work, then meet colleagues for dinner or coffee, then work some more and then collapse at the hotel at the end of the day.

But, hotel sleep is terrible sleep. I can’t sleep deeply in a hotel room until about the third day. I’ve tried it all: bringing the same things with me to trick my brain into thinking we’re in a familiar location, taking Melatonin, even going as far as to stay in the same type of hotel to minimize the “strange=danger” instinct my brain seems to have. But to no avail, I sleep terribly, wake up and then check out of the hotel before my body can rest properly. Then do it again until I’m crawling home after the trip.

In an RV you’re surrounded by your things, sleeping in the same bed. While the outdoors landscape may different, your immediate surrounding is not. We even brought our own pillows (which I know you can do with airplane travel, but yuck). So, after a few days, we were sleeping like babies.

Well, until the dogs woke up and started whining to take them out. Then, with better sleep came better attitudes, more capacity for handling adverse situations and more physical ability to hike and explore.

So, the drive to Lander, Wyoming was gorgeous and fascinating and it finally clicked for me: THIS is why RV travel is awesome. It’s not only the final destination, it’s all about the views and experiences WHILE you’re traveling. We could’ve flown into Jackson Hole, then saw the Tetons and then flew home. But we would’ve missed out on some of the most beautiful landscapes I’ve ever seen. I even looked back at one moment and saw that Lucas had closed his Nintendo DS, taken off his earbuds and was looking out at the landscape too. Even the 12 year old was in awe.

Then we had another surprise, while driving we passed a group of what looked like deer. However, these “deer” had black slashes going up their faces and curved horns. After a little bit of Googling, I found out they were pronghorn! Also called, “American Antelope”. Did you know there were antelope in North America? Apparently, they’ve been here for over a million years and were hunted by Native Americans in the Plains.

About halfway through, we stopped at a gas station to fill up and use the restrooms. As soon as I opened the door, I found a bunch of dead animal heads hung up on every surface inside. I turned right around and used the bathroom in the RV . In general, I dislike seeing animal heads on walls because it perfectly exemplifies how we abuse animals and are then proud about the lives we (mostly unnecessarily) extinguish. But I can push through my revulsion if it’s a few. This was on most surfaces on the walls: moose, elk, deer, pronghorn… I later read the ratings for the gas station and found out that many people had been discriminated against (including some people being told they couldn’t use the bathrooms or when the operators would refuse to turn on the pumps). I was both surprised and not. I was surprised that people would be so openly racist but at the same time not surprised at the insidious reach of ignorance. I showed the boys the reviews and it really stuck with them. Many days later, Lucas was mentioning the “racist gas station”. My two boys will have a privileged position in society because they are male and because they have a lighter skin color. I hope they always remember what a responsibility this is to help make this into a better world, a more equal world.

After a few hours, we reached our campsite and relaxed in preparation for the mad dash into Grand Teton. We had not found a reservable campsite in the park (the only two were very much full) and so we were hoping the park’s “first come, first served” would work for us.

Our plan was to sleep 5-6 hours then to wake up at 4am and rush to Grand Teton. Lucas and I would drive the Prius separately and get there an hour before the campground offices opened. We assumed this would give us enough time to book our site and wait for Dennis and Alan to arrive with the RV.

Little did we know that was not at all how “first come, first served” works in Grand Teton and that we were in for a very stressful first day in the beautiful National Park.