Meet Doug!! our F350

Our Awesome F350 Baby!!!

We did it!! We bought a truck to pull the 5th wheel that we don't have yet!!!  We are so excited!!!

So here is the story about Doug::::

After all my research on trucks, I wanted a GMC or a Dodge.  Scotty came home with a Ford.  Honestly people, I was a little mad.  I've heard so many bad things about Ford.  Like Found On Road Dead.  hahahaha  I did hear that the 6.7L engine was a good one so I am ok with that.  But I really don't know much about the transmission.  I know that the Allison  transmission is great but I really don't know much about the one that is in Doug.  In fact, I don't even know what kind of transmission Doug has.  Anyways, It's all good. I was mad at Scotty about getting a Ford until I started driving it.  Man, this huge mother truck is so fun to drive.  It is a dully, 4 X 4, diesel and all the good stuff.  I do see lots of YouTubers use this truck to pull their 5th wheel so I guess that's good enough for me.  Graham named him Doug.  I thought that was a perfect name because it sounds like a cowboy name.  

When we drive it Pepper says to the other cars, " Hi tiny cars.  We are going to eat you"!! hahaha.  We feel so big and huge in this baby.  I am totally comfortable driving it. I've learned how to park it and I think I'm ready to add the 5th wheel.  We are getting super close to buying the 5th wheel. The timing just isn't right yet.  

We are starting to try to rent our house out.  We haven't listed it yet but have interest in the house.  Hopefully soon we'll find a renter and get the 5th wheel because we only have 4 months to get out of here.  Its hitting all of us now how close our trip is.  Sometimes we are sad because we will miss all our people here. But we are also excited to go play together.  Peace out!!!!

*****Up Date!!!  So I did a little more research on my Doug.  Our transmission is built by the same people who build Allison transmissions. So my transmission is an Allison transmission but they aren't aloud to call it that.  That makes me fee so much better.    

Yes!!! We've gone CRAZY!!!!

Welcome to our Skateparcation blog.  In this blog I (Sarah), will keep you all (our family and friends), up to speed with our crazy trip.  I plan to write and add pictures daily during our trip.  So make sure you check our blog regularly to share our adventure with us.

You might be asking what our adventure is and how in the world we decided to embark on it.  Here is the story:

One day Scotty came up to me and said, "What would you think if we traveled around the US for a year"?  I looked at him thinking he was crazy.  I reminded myself to keep an open mind and I responded, "Well, lets do some research and see what exactly that looks like".  During the next 2 weeks I spent easily 50 hours researching and discovering what it meant to live on the road full time.  To my amazement, I found that there were a lot of people living in some type of trailer, traveling around the US full time. When I was searching I found blogs, Podcasts, YouTube channels, websites and many more places that had great info.  I had so many questions.  Questions like How do I get mail? or How do I do laundry.  How do I home school 4 kids on the road? Where are we going to go and are there campsites in the locations that I want?  I also wanted to know how in the world I was going to live in such a small space with 6 people.  ALL of these questions and more were answered.  I learned so much and the more that I learned, the more excited I became about the idea of traveling with my family across the US.  The small idea grew and became a huge picture within 2 weeks. 

Here are the details!!
We will be setting sail on June 6, 2020.  We will be traveling for 14 months.  After doing a lot of research we decided to buy a huge truck to pull a 5th-Wheel toy hauler.  We haven't bought one yet but when we do I will post a picture.  We will rent our house out for the 14 months.  I will "road school" the kids and I am super excited about it!! After about 60 hours of research I made our itinerary. I believe we will hit about 38 National Parks, All major cities, 8 Six Flag amusement parks, as many skate parks as possible (hence the Skateparcation across the Nation), Disney World, Universal Florida, Niagara Falls, All US History sites, All Church History sites (except Winter Quarters), The Arc Encounter :) and so so much more.  We will be going into Canada twice and we will visit family that we never get to see.  We are SO excited!!!   

Thank you for sharing our adventure with us!!!