#RVofChaos Part I

I don't even know where to start.  On a whim, in February, after drinking some really great wine on a Friday night, we Googled RV rentals.  Fifteen minutes later we had a one-way RV rented for 12 days from Chicago to San Francisco.

The next morning we Googled the miles required for that journey and for a brief moment, we panicked.  A straight drive would be 2,200 miles. Whoa.  The farthest I had ever driven with the kids was to LA...6 hours :) Chicago is pretty far away. But the RV was booked and we were committed. And excited. I checked out about 100 books from the library, including:

• The Complete Idiots Guide to RVing 
• Camping with Kids
• Utah!
• Colorado Camping
• 50 Best Utah Hikes
• Kid's Guide to National Parks
• US State Parks
• etc etc etc

And every night, after the kids went to bed, I would read and plan our journey.  I am known to be less of a planner and more spontaneous in decision making, but sooo thankful I did the pre-planning. This proved to be a very important step in our extended cross-country road trip, especially with the little ones.

So Spring Break rolled around and it was time!  The kids couldn't have been more excited.  We woke up early, bags packed to the absolute fullest, and we headed for the airport to fly to Chicago.  

The first night in Chicago, we stayed at a hotel downtown and glammed it up before starting our camping journey.  The kids took their last bubble bath and we had our last sleep in plush beds for a while.  We went out for Chicago-style pizza for dinner and then took a dip in the pool before bed.

(our favorite hotel activity, jumpin' on the beds...shhhh!)

In the morning, we walked to the West Egg Cafe for breakfast...in the SNOW!  It was snowing! And we were about to start camping...

We stopped by Target on the way to the RV rental center and scooped up the 1,000 things you need to camp that don't fit in airplane luggage (pillows, pots, pans, camp chairs, doormats, charcoal, food...). We checked in, got our brand new 2016 RV and moved in.  It was awesome.  And snowing.

Next up, pulling in to our first campsite on Night #1...