{"id":1853,"date":"2018-04-10T20:46:27","date_gmt":"2018-04-10T20:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/?p=1853"},"modified":"2018-04-21T21:12:05","modified_gmt":"2018-04-21T21:12:05","slug":"and-were-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/10\/and-were-off\/","title":{"rendered":"And We\u2019re Off!"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we finally left Houston a few weeks and then a couple of days longer than our target, we didn\u2019t make it very far. Our first night we literally spent one hour outside of Houston in Columbus. But at least we were on our way. Baby steps.<\/p>\n

The next day we drove onward to Kerrville. Our intent was to spend only one night at the Buckhorn Lake & RV Resort. However, while there, we decided that it might be good to go ahead and get new tires for the RV. The stock ones were rumored to be really bad. After several hours on the phone with the local tire dealers and more internet research, we learned that our G-rated Westlake tires were likely as good as any we could buy. We opted for a tire pressure monitoring system instead.<\/p>\n

Since we made the decision late, we decided to spend the second night at the RV park which allowed for some R&R time. We all needed to kill the afternoon in a fun way after the hectic moving and packing.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Fishing at the RV resort.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We left the next day to head towards Carlsbad. About two hours down the road, our truck met up with a huge vulture while we were traveling at about 70 mph. It took out the passenger side mirror, but fortunately didn\u2019t break off the entire mirror complex.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Towing a 43\u2019 fifth wheel without a passenger side mirror is nearly impossible to do safely.<\/p><\/div>\n

We called the Ford dealer in Ft Stockton, but they indicated they wouldn\u2019t be able to repair it for 5-6 weeks. (\u201cWeeks\u201d. That\u2019s not a typo.) In lieu of stopping there, Scott picked up a concave mirror at a truck stop. Every time he needed to change lanes, I held the mirror outside the window. It was comical but mostly effective. It allowed us to drive on towards Carlsbad Caverns. We found an online parts store that could overnight the glass-only-mirrors for the mirror complex, and we parked in White\u2019s City, NM to wait for the parts and to see Carlsbad Caverns National Park.<\/p>\n

In White\u2019s City, we parked at the RV park. It turned out to be a caliche parking lot with hookups on the side of the highway going into Carlsbad. It wasn\u2019t very nice, but it was an excellent location for Carlsbad. Scott managed to secure the mirror well enough to drive until the replacement glass came in. (It\u2019s clear we were just coming off of the move since we had shrink wrap in the car.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Carlsbad was amazing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The elevator was out, so our visit included walking down into the caverns and climbing back out of the 750 foot deep cave system.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The initial decent outside of the caverns was a good indicator of what was in store for us.<\/p><\/div>\n

The caverns (the largest in North America) are absolutely stunning.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Even having been to caves throughout the USA, Europe, and even New Zealand, everyone was impressed with what we saw during our visit. Pictures just don\u2019t do it justice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The kids were able to both get their junior ranger badges, while I gained more and more respect for the amount of information they were learning with the ranger books.<\/p>\n

At this point we all felt we had really officially started our whirl wind tour of the national parks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we finally left Houston a few weeks and then a couple of days longer than our target, we didn\u2019t make it very far. Our first night we literally spent one hour outside of Houston in Columbus. But at least we were on our way. Baby steps. The next day we drove onward to Kerrville….<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[105,106,49,103,24,104],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carlsbad-caverns-national-park","8":"category-kerrville","9":"category-micha","10":"category-new-mexico","11":"category-united-states","12":"category-whites-city","13":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/7C1C0F4B-A163-4925-99F2-2897B1E88C85.jpeg?fit=2448%2C3264","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8k10v-tT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1819,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/14\/the-first-of-the-national-park-tour-big-bend\/","url_meta":{"origin":1853,"position":0},"title":"The First of the National Park Tour: Big Bend","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"February 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"We had some time before the house would be sold and moved out of, so we decided to do a two week trip in the RV to get a little more experience under our belts. We hit the road to Big Bend. Texas is big. Really big. 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We were able to give the new fifth wheel a trial run! Because it coincided with Keali\u2019s birthday, the kids each invited a friend to go with us, and we hit the road. Destination: Lake Somerville. For those who didn\u2019t know, we used to have a ranch that overlooked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lake Somerville"","block_context":{"text":"Lake Somerville","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/united-states\/texas\/lake-somerville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/7099FE21-F875-426F-83A2-D18935498F82.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/7099FE21-F875-426F-83A2-D18935498F82.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/7099FE21-F875-426F-83A2-D18935498F82.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/7099FE21-F875-426F-83A2-D18935498F82.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/7099FE21-F875-426F-83A2-D18935498F82.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2096,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/21\/north-la-for-a-long-week\/","url_meta":{"origin":1853,"position":2},"title":"North LA for a Long Week","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"May 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Scott needed to get back to Houston for work, so we went back towards LA so as to be closer to the Burbank airport. We ended up staying at an RV park in Northridge. It will go down as our least favorite place to stay. It doesn\u2019t even matter what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/united-states\/california\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/BFFABE45-7C6F-4182-AAE8-B46E889132BD.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/BFFABE45-7C6F-4182-AAE8-B46E889132BD.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/BFFABE45-7C6F-4182-AAE8-B46E889132BD.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/BFFABE45-7C6F-4182-AAE8-B46E889132BD.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/BFFABE45-7C6F-4182-AAE8-B46E889132BD.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1883,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/14\/seguaro-national-park-and-the-desert-museum\/","url_meta":{"origin":1853,"position":3},"title":"Seguaro National Park and the Desert Museum","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"April 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Our first impressions of Tucson were pretty fantastic. It\u2019s a beautiful, clean city that sits in a valley between mountains. Our RV park (LazyDays KOA) was incredibly clean and nice. It was a little pricey, but it had loads of amenities: citrus trees between each RV to two swimming pools\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arizona"","block_context":{"text":"Arizona","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/united-states\/arizona\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/6CD76F89-1926-4B8C-AFCC-879B9F28BFB5.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/6CD76F89-1926-4B8C-AFCC-879B9F28BFB5.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/6CD76F89-1926-4B8C-AFCC-879B9F28BFB5.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/6CD76F89-1926-4B8C-AFCC-879B9F28BFB5.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/6CD76F89-1926-4B8C-AFCC-879B9F28BFB5.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2199,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/11\/camping-near-crater-lake\/","url_meta":{"origin":1853,"position":4},"title":"Camping Near Crater Lake","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"June 11, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The family trip took us from Redwoods to Crater Lake. It was our first trip into Oregon. As we pulled into Umpqua National Forest, we stopped at the forest ranger station. Because we were after the snow but before the off-road trails opened for the summer, we were told by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crater Lake National Park"","block_context":{"text":"Crater Lake National Park","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/united-states\/oregon\/crater-lake-national-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/D20512CF-D2AC-41CF-B1C3-D52FE7DA5D92.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/D20512CF-D2AC-41CF-B1C3-D52FE7DA5D92.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/D20512CF-D2AC-41CF-B1C3-D52FE7DA5D92.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/D20512CF-D2AC-41CF-B1C3-D52FE7DA5D92.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/D20512CF-D2AC-41CF-B1C3-D52FE7DA5D92.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1742,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/08\/keeping-busy-to-keep-sane\/","url_meta":{"origin":1853,"position":5},"title":"Keeping Busy to Keep Sane","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"December 8, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We landed back on October 26 after a beautiful nine months on the road. 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