Getting ready to head down the road!

Today is the day before we leave on our maiden 6 week voyage across the country and back. Since we are new to camping in a 5th wheel AND camping with our two cats, we have decided to chronicle our journey here for you! Also, because this is my first blog, please be patient with me while I try to figure out all of the above.

Dexter and Kora enjoying our first camping trip in March

The back story: Jason and I moved halfway across the country 5 years ago. We miss our friends and family but haven't been able to figure out a great, cost effective way to visit everyone. We started dreaming of owning a truck and a 5th wheel so we could trek across the country over the summer and be able to visit them AND see new exciting sites along the way (plus take our kitties with us, of course!). After saving for years, we were able to make our dream a reality this spring and bought a kick ass truck and a beautiful 5th wheel!

Our fiver sitting pretty in our backyard. 

The next step was to plan our summer trip.  We plotted our course and reasonable (or so we think) driving distances while camping in our first trip to Daingerfield State Park in Texas over spring break. Trying to find campgrounds that will accommodate our 36 foot fifth wheel, have electricity so we can run the A/C for the cats, were also reserve-able, AND were in fact, not already reserved, was the next challenge. Since we are camping with our cats (and Dexter is a senior kitty - he is 14), we really wanted to make sure we didn't drive for much longer than 6 hours in a day and that we had a spot waiting for us!!

Our summer trip route

For the past week we have been trying to figure out what all we needed to bring with us and what we could get on the road. We bought quite a bit of the non perishables in bulk, so I guess we will just have to wait and see how our trip goes to see if that was a good strategy or not. My goal was for us to not spend too much precious vacation time shopping.

A pile of "very important stuff" waiting for a trip to the "fiver". Will we need all that we purchased and packed? Who knows. I guess we will find out after we get back!!

This is what 2 months and $150 of cat food looks like for our very special snowflake senior kitty. 

Tomorrow, we are heading to Palo Duro Canyon State Park. I will let you all know how the cats handle the drive and what we think of the campground!

Prepping the truck, otherwise known as "Drogo."

 And most of all, our mantra for this trip is to listen to the wise words of Dierks Bentley and to be free and easy down the road: