Almost ready for our big RV trip!

It's taken a lot of doing, but we are finally almost ready to embark on our first long RV trip.  We are all 3 leaving on Sunday, July 22.  The RV and car have the appropriate hitch components, miscellaneous repairs/custom tweaking is hopefully finished, clothes/tools/lawn chairs/maps/etc are packed, and the trip is planned, complete with all of our campground reservations.  I never dreamed that it would be so much work.  Neither did Luke, but he made the best of it....

The components to ready the RV and car for towing were new to me.  Of course, I had never had hands-on with a hitch system, either....  In addition to the hitch, all states also require an auxiliary braking system in the towed vehicle.  This gizmo physically pushes the brake pedal when it senses a decrease in speed.  A little remote box on the dash tells you if it's braking or not (hopefully...)

Making reservations was amazing.  Who knew Yellowstone campgrounds would be booked up months in advance????  But we muddled through all of them and found acceptable campsites for each location.  Well, except for one place in Kansas where we'll be spending the night "boon docking" in a Wal-Mart parking lot.  All part of the adventure.

Lots of food is packed; the rest goes in tomorrow. Setting up the RV was like moving in to a new place - just where does everything FIT!?!!

Friends Yvonne and Charlie had a grand Bon Voyage party for us the other night.  It was great fun, great friends, and great food and margaritas.  Three of the couples are experienced RV'ers, so they are a great source of help and encouragement.  Best of all was the cake ---- RV cake!  Yvonne got the RV perfectly!  Here we are in the front...not sure who is driving and who is the passenger, as Luke and I both have short gray hair now...

Yvonne even got the Winnebago paint swirls correct on the side of the RV.  And Charlie's wood shop rigged up our air conditioning unit on the top!

Of course, Smokey will be traveling with us.  That is her, in the window, howling.

She likes the RV, just not while it's moving.  Oh, it'll be a long first few days for her.  Look at the back of the cake - ladder, brake lights, and all!  What a great job and surprise that was!

Our trip is to CO to visit Luke's daughters and the grandkids.  We'll spend a week with daughter Erin and family in Longmont.  After that, we meet up with daughter Lisa and family in their camping trailer in Yellowstone for a week.  Then we are off to the SW, exploring the great National Parks such as Arches, the Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, Capital Reef, and Canyon de Chelly.  During that time, my daughter Nikki will be joining us for a week in Las Vegas!  Viva Las Vegas, my first trip there!  After all of that, we'll be making our way home, hopefully by Oct 1-ish.

Much more posting to come now that we should have some beautiful sights to share.  Oh, the ankle is better, but I have a possible stress fracture on the top of my foot, so I'm back in the air cast for a month.  Not perfect timing, but we'll have a grand time!