From the beaches of Central America we embarked on something that perhaps is more for the older folks than us but a way to travel that we thought would be so much fun. We hired a Recreational Vehicle (RV) through Cruise America and drove around the US. Below is our home on wheels.

Our Mobile Home for the next 30days

We picked the RV up in Denver, Colorado. It was the smallest in the range at 19 foot in length and one of the most affordable – they’re certainly not cheap to hire. Supposedly our mobile home can sleep 3 people – perhaps if the 3rd person is a really small child you would consider it. For two adults though it was really very comfortable. Our bed was located on the mezzanine directly above the driver and passenger seats. N.B. We do not recommend lifting your head too quickly when waking up or you’ll likely end up with a bruised head and a bad start to the day.

Front half of our recreational vehicle, including dining table.

All hired RV’s are fully self contained. There is a kitchen with a sink and tap, a gas stove and rangehood and a decent size fridge. There is a microwave/convection oven and plenty of cupboard space. There is however an additional fee to hire pots and pans, and crockery. You can also hire sleeping bags and pillows from Cruise America however we decided to get our own sheets and pillows at a fraction of the price from Walmart.

Back half of the our RV including kitchen

The bathroom although tiny was very adequate – great shower (better hot water supply than some hotels we have stayed in), toilet and a hand basin with mirror.

So the reality was that we were in a mobile home and we could go wherever we wanted, cook wherever we wanted and stay overnight in some places that you wouldn’t think possible. Walmart supermarkets allowed RVs and caravans to stay in their car parks overnight for free. I guess they figured you’d shop at their store. Which we did….

Lis whipping up lunch in a Walmart car park in Colorado

So after stocking up on supplies our Road Trip began. We had paid for 6000 miles with the RV hire, which meant we could drive from LA to New York City and then back again, but we had other things in mind.

There was so many cereals in an American supermarket, the choice is very difficult.

Our first stop was Estes Park located in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Estes Park is about 2.5hrs drive Northwest of Denver and for our first stint on the road, it was a truly stunning drive. We stayed in the KOA RV Park which was close to the very cute town. While we had planned to spend a couple of days checking out the Rocky’s, the roads that would then take us through to Yellowstone were still closed due to heavy snow, so we spent a day looking around and then jumped back in the RV to continue onto Wyoming.

There are some lovely restaurants, cafes and plenty of souvenier shops to look at in Estes Park. One place we stumbled across was a store called Grandma’s Mountain Cookies. The owner/Grandma of the store, Barbara had lived in the town for over 30 years and just loved talking to her customers about events or the history of town. She also takes photos of all her customers and so the walls of her store are filled with people she has met over the years (our photo should be up on her wall by now). We would highly recommend you pop in and say hello – her cookies were sensational too.

Colorado is definitely a place that we would have loved to explore a little more. So keep note that all roads generally open around Memorial Day Weekend which is the last weekend in May leading into the start of the US summer.

The Rocky Mountains

Enjoy our Photo Gallery.

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