Sep. 27, 2009 - Homeschool Family Camp Vacation
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We enjoyed our family vacation to the Homeschool Family Camp in Ekalaka, MT. Like I mentioned in my previous post, we took food to save money. That helped out so much, plus we didn't gain weight on our trip and stayed healthy.
Since it was such a long drive and the last time we actually took a family vacation was 7 years ago, we wanted to make the most of our trip. We drove through ND on our way there and back through SD on our way back. Since I knew we would have to cover the cost of food till we reached our destination and after we left our destination I made a plan with my husband on what we could take with us that would be easy.
I made homemade cinnamon rolls the night before and packed cans of tuna, turkey, and chicken and a jar of miracle whip. We brought a cooler for the items that needed to stay cold and a tote for the dry items. To keep trash from piling up in the vehicle, we brought 1 water bottle with each of us and included 2 gallons of water. I am so glad we brought the gallon jugs instead of multiple water bottles. I included a couple storage containers that would allow me to mix up the sandwich spread. The night before I chopped up celery for the spread and made sure I chopped up enough for each can we would use. This worked out really nice. I would have included onions and seasonings but my kids didn't want all that in their spread. We included cheese sticks and apples and cans of fruit as well as snack bars and chips. With all this in toe and a loaf of bread and juice boxes, we were good to go and it all worked out even better than I thought. I thought we might actually get tired of eating sandwich spread but because it was different kinds of meat with regular meals inbetween our vacation (before and after or destination) nobody complained at all. We did include a 1/2 gallon of milk in our cooler because we didn't want it to go to waste while we were gone and glad we did.
The first night we actually slept in our vehicle, we didn't plan it that way (as some of us didn't have pillows and blankets) - next time I will be better prepared. The kids had pillows and blankets so they were warm and slept soundly. We pulled into Roosevelt National Park...along with many others (proved to be a popular idea) and rested till morning. Come morning we were amazed at the choice we had made because it was beautiful. Chili, but beautiful.
After we reached our destination to Trails End Ranch (highly recommend) the fun and fellowship got started. If you go, learn from our mistake - take pillows, blankets, towels, and sleeping bags...I guess that is why they call it "camp" MY BAD. Thankfully they had extras. These are great people that love the Lord and put everything they have into what they do.
After leaving we headed through SD and made the usual stops. Again, eating from our own store. However, it was nice to sleep in the hotel for a couple of nights. In Keystone is a nice hotel called K Bar S and it is only miles from Mount Rushmore. We did order pizza out one night. All in all it was an extremely enjoyable experience. We met great families at Trails End and are looking forward to going back next year, Lord willing.
