Want to go to the Grand Canyon? Why not!

Welcome! Join us on our adventure out West. 5 Newtons and a trailer in tow! Our trip is next week!!, but thought I'd post a background of how we ended up on this journey and with a camper!

Last year was spent homeschooling. In my homeschool journey I came across a lady who plans homeschool adventures. Anyone can take part in these tours, but they are typically not during the summer, so therefor homeschool travel. She books places all over: the Geaorgia Aquarium for an overnight educational experience, Ireland, she has one for 2023 on a riverboat out in Western Europe, and the Grand Canyon. I'll post a link to her site down below. 

We've never been to the Canyon and after reading her itinerary for a 10 day trip it seemed like an awesome adventure so we put our deposit down and we were good to go. 

So we decided we would road trip it out there and camp for the at least the first leg of the trip, do a hotel some along the way, and camp back. I know seems crazy, but we enjoy camping and want to experience camping under the stars that you can actually see.  However we do have 3 crazy monkeys with us and so camping all that time seemed like it would go down hill faster than I would like. So the next idea. 
We would camp for the 2-3 days getting there and then rent a trailer while we were at this particular campsite. So I found a company online that operates like Air b'nb but for travel trailers. I rented one and the guy was gonna drop it off for us and then pick it up when we were done. Half the hassel would be taken care of and we would have shelter and the boys would love being in a trailer.

Isaac got to thinking and looking and thought maybe investing in a trailer could be a good thing. I mean we like to camp, so why not. So off to looking at campers it is. 
We looked at a couple pop ups. We even drove up to SC to look at one. But they just seemed like a lot of work and not big enough for us. Then a guy posted one for sale on marketplace and it was local and in our price range.
We took little I with us to see it. The other two were at a friends. Little I was so excited because it has bunk beds! I mean what doesn't get a kid more excited when it comes to sleeping. He was sold right a way. The seller was super nice, generous, and informative. He gave us all the ins and outs and was willing to hold it for us until we made sure our car had what it needed to pull a trailer. We were sold. We put down a deposit and were off to make sure our Pilot was ready to tow a travel trailer.

To make sure our car can tow something that weighs that amount, we had to have an ATF cooler on it. This would increase out tow capacity by an extra 1500 -2000lbs. However, since we bought the car used we weren't sure if this was already installed. To check cost us a nice $150 but we have it and all is well and we were set to buy. We canceled with the one we had reserved at the Canyon, called the guy who was selling and picked it up! 

Ta-da we now have a travel trailer. She needed a name. We thought about Traveling Tina, Fat girl, Clark Griswald, but Hot Mess Express just seemed fitting. 

We are a hot mess.




Join us on our adventures!

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