Aboard Astraea

After a full day’s drive over the Rocky Mountains we arrived on September 3rd at Bureau of Land Management 378 off Willow Springs Road near Moab, Utah. Tons of wide open camping spaces for free! The next day we planned to visit Arches National Park.

Boondocking in the National Forest near Arches National Park

Boondocking near Arches National Park

The cost for the park and other parks we were planning to visit would have been more than the annual park pass cost, so we got one for $80. We decided to start the day with the most famous arch that Natalie remembers visiting as a child – Delicate Arch. It was a three mile roundtrip hike.

At the top the wind was blowing

Family photo at Delicate Arch

Look who we ran into on the trail down from Delicate Arch! Jasmine!

Jasmine’s Mom, Lisa, is Sully’s new best hiking friend

What we didn’t expect was to run in to some people we know at one of the arches. We had just visited Delicate Arch and were walking down the trail. We saw two ladies and Natalie was like, “Is that?” and I was like, “Yeah, it is!” So I said, “Hey! Jasmine?!” Our hunch was right, it was one of Natalie’s sister Nicole’s friends. Jasmine came down to San Diego to visit when Nicole came to see us after Sully was born, and she sailed aboard Astraea with us. It was cool to meet up at the arches. We spent the rest of the day hiking together.

Hiking around and Sully says he's tired, so up on the shoulders he goes

Hiking around and Sully says he’s tired, so he hitches a ride on my shoulders to see petroglyphs

Riding around like a little prince with his shades

The trail rabbit

Sully has lots of energy in the shade

Landscape Arch

Natalie and I at Landscape Arch

On the trail to Landscape Arch

The view from Panorama Point

Break time by Astraea Mobile

Sully on our walk to The Windows

The windows

The next day we decided to visit Dead Horse Point State Park on our way to Bryce Canyon. We stopped to see the views of the canyon since we were bypassing Canyonlands National Park.

It’s like a little Grand Canyon

Sully at Dead Horse Point

Sully was a good boy and got his first ring pop

The drive from Dead Horse Point to Tropic, UT was beautiful. We’d have traveled more slowly, but had hiking plans with Natalie’s Dad and his wife, Pam for Labor Day weekend. The landscape changed from red rock desert to white and grey rock desert, then it looked like we were on the moon. As we climbed in elevation trees began to appear. Our route took us up and down through the mountains of Dixie National Forest overlooking Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. It was a beautifully scenic drive and we’re glad we went the slow route instead of more highway driving.

We stopped at Capitol Reef National Park on our scenic drive to Bryce Canyon

A beautiful panoramic viewpoint

After Grandma’s Birthday Party it was finally time to head WEST! When we first bought the camper, we thought we would spend a little time on the East Coast and then start driving towards Seattle by the middle of July. Well, we got a little behind and things kept popping up on our calendar, so we decided to scrap the Pacific Northwest plan and head to Colorado, Utah and San Diego. Our plans between Pennsylvania and Utah included stopping to see friends in Cincinnati, OH, Bloomington, IN and Aurora, CO.

We set off towards Ohio and decided to make a pit stop in Pittsburgh to see my sister Lizze and park in her driveway. When we were on the highway, Natalie kept mentioning that something didn’t sound right. We also felt it was a lot harder to accelerate and could barely get past 60mph. An hour outside of Pittsburgh we stopped for gas on the PA Turnpike. I pulled a little Louisville Slugger bat out and pushed on each of the rear tires to find one was really flat. We moved the camper over to the air fill and I added air for 5 minutes, but the tire never inflated. Luckily, we have Good Samaritan Roadside Assistance. After a few phone calls a service truck was on the way to help me change the tire. I didn’t have any of the right sized tools and have never changed a dually back tire. It took about an hour for the service company to show up and another 45 minutes to change the tire and replace it with the spare. When we pulled the flat tire off it had a three inch slit down the sidewall. We called Lizze to tell her we’d be in late.

The next day we went to Goodyear in Pittsburgh and got two new tires on the front and replaced our spare because it was dry rotted. Now Astraea Mobile has good tires all around to get us cross country, and a good spare that we can roll on forever if we get another flat. Lucky for us, Lizze got the day off to help us around Pittsburgh so we got to hang out and have another fun day with her.

Visiting one last time with Aunt Lizze

With good tires we rolled west towards Cincinnati, Ohio to see our friends Mitch and Anjuli and their new baby, Mark. It was nice to kick back in their awesome back yard and grill out after a hard day’s drive.

Anjuli, Natalie and baby Mark

With Baby Mark, Ajnuli and Mitch

Our next stop was at Lake Monroe Jellystone Park in Indiana. We stopped there to camp with our friends from San Diego, Darren and Erin and their kids. They recently moved back home to Indiana. It was cool to camp out with them on their shakedown weekend in their new (to them) trailer. Jellystone is a resort park with activities for the kids, a bounce pillow, pools and an awesome splash park.

Parked at the Lake Monroe Camp Jellystone

Sully rockin the bounce pillow

Sully high fived Yogi Bear

Avery, Keaton and Sully ready for a wagon ride

Emma, Keaton, Avery and Sully at the waterpark

Emma, Keaton, Avery and Sully at the splash park

Natalie, Erin, Emma, Darren, me and Sully

Camped out with Yogi the bear

We got underway from Jellystone headed to Joe’s Kansas City BBQ. We wanted to arrive in time for dinner, but due to the slow travel speed of Astraea Mobile we arrived at 9:30 pm – about a half hour before closing time.

Kansas City BBQ Ribs

Gassing up at Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Q

The next big stop was my buddy Jeff’s in Colorado. The trip took quite a while, but we weren’t limited to going 60 anymore. Sometimes our downhill speed exceeded 70mph! Jeff lives out on the prairie in his 5th wheel camper in Elizabeth, CO. We just hung out and had a good time around the mile high city.