Awesome trip! Great to see vacation pictures full of the family pets. Looked like they survived fine. I've done the Moab/Utah parks area twice. Once in a rented 4x4 (Land Cruiser) with Ind locking diffs and once in my sister's '90 Bronco I6 w 5spd. Both great vehicles to go explore that part of the world in. Amazing beauty and so different from anything on the East coast.
Thanks for sharing!
You may have abandoned a broken RV, but you get full GRM points for turning a rental box truck into an action adventure vehicle. Well lived and well told!
Great read and adventure. I happened to pass a large yellow Penske truck at lunch and wondered if there was a tent in back. Made me smile just wondering that usually absurd thought...
One question - a few times you walked some distance to get something - yet you had the motorcycle? I thought that was the reason for the bike?
One of my teammates always had his dual-sport on a trailer behind his old RV - "That's because SpongeBob-Squarebox ain't the most reliable vehicle I own..."
Ok finished reading. Sounds like am amazing trip! Glad the box truck held out. 
Can't wait to see what the next adventure you guys have is!
Ian F wrote: One question - a few times you walked some distance to get something - yet you had the motorcycle? I thought that was the reason for the bike?
The hitch carrier isn't the easiest to load or unload, so if things were only a mile or so away it took more effort to unload/reload the bike than to just walk. The only time I think we really should have used it was to get the Penske, but Sara didn't want to leave the animals alone in the RV park.
nderwater wrote: Wild trip, thanks for the write up. What are the chances you'll rent another box truck next time?
I would absolutely do it again if for some reason I needed to move a box truck load of stuff. We want to someday do a more northern version of this trip, with either a big fast sedan/wagon and rooftop tent, or a 4x4 truck and a bed tent.
Epic journey guys, congrats.
I'm sending this thread to my wife with instructions this is what we're doing as soon as the youngest is in collage, but well do it with some kind of trailer and I hope a new Bronco for less worries.
Awesome trip, great writeup. It's been 7 years since we did our similar honeymoon (we slept in buildings though) and have been itching for an excuse to do another. You're not helping. We even own reliable cars now!
I don't think I saw you mention it...what has become of the RV now that you are home? Still debating?
I enjoyed reading about your trip so much that I sent the link to Mrs. APEowner to read. I also mentioned that our anniversary is coming up and that your abandoned RV was nearby and that the transmission was a relatively easy fix. She indicated that getting her involved in any kind of plan that included that RV, camping in a box truck or really any kind of travel in sketchy vehicles would drastically reduce the chances of our celebrating any additional anniversaries together.
She's become much less adventurous in her old age. Proving that I've becoming smarter in mine. I'm not going to point that out to her.
RedGT wrote: I don't think I saw you mention it...what has become of the RV now that you are home? Still debating?
Things are in progress on that front, I don't particularly want to go into detail until it's all sorted but we will hopefully be getting some of our money back.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: < We want to someday do a more northern version of this trip, with either a big fast sedan/wagon and rooftop tent
That gave me a mental image of a lowered Caddy CTS V wagon with a rooftop tent. You would own GRM with that for at least a fortnight.
Awesome write-up Chris. Your adventures never cease to make me jealous, and that you have adventurous friends/wife who are willing to share it with you and actually enjoy the craziness. Would that we all could be so lucky.
I'm turning 40 in a month and a half. I think I need to figure out some way to convince Mrs. VCH and I to embark on another trip...
With 2 little VCH's, it's getting harder to do stuff like this now. But, we drug our 18 month old cross-country in a 15-year-old GM product a couple of Christmasses ago without much trouble, so it can be done!
In reply to volvoclearinghouse:
18 months travel better than 3-4-5 year olds. Speaking from Experience with two kids who are 6 years apart and now a grandchild. This is road trips up to 5K miles and transatlantic flights. Good luck.
Epic honeymoon, and a story well told. Thanks for sharing!
What cat backpack is that and would you recommend it?
In reply to FooBag:
It's a Petsfit, this one I think: Amazon link
I would definitely recommend it, it's sturdy, holds its' shape with the cat in it, the openings are well sized and in intelligent places, and the zippers seem pretty tough. We had another, cheaper one which sucked because it wasn't stiff enough and you ended up having more of a cat hammock situation.
If I had to get shipwrecked, I could only hope it would be with people like you. Attitude truly does define the boundary between adventure and ordeal.
Had a lot of fun reading this adventure.
So how much will you have spent on this adventure? If it makes you feel better offset cost with whatever the RV will fetch.
What could you have done with all the money if you had committed that amount upfront?
Not saying it will apply here but I often see that it is false economy to set a "cheap" budget because the unexpected expenses quickly blow the budget and if invested at the beginning, something that would have done the job better might have been procured.
In reply to maj75:
My credit card bill, including the box truck rental, fuel, food, and other expenses, was approximately $4000 at the end of the trip. That's about two stage rallies, or the value of both of our daily drivers combined. We had roughly that same amount into the RV- and yeah, for ~$8k we could have done a lot of other things. I don't regret it one bit, it's just money and you can't buy this kind of experience.
For the sake of argument, let's say that we spent double our budget on the RV- it still would have been the low end of the market, and still would have needed work, at least from what I saw. At that point, I would say spend the extra money on hotels instead. Regardless of budget, if we do this again we'll use a much smaller vehicle and a tent- we found that we enjoyed minimalism and flexibility, and that having the ability to get up and walk around the rig was overrated.
For those who are interested, the RV had comprehensive insurance; in fact, it's the only vehicle out of over 30 that I've ever purchased comprehensive insurance for. When we parked it at our mechanic friend's place, we put in an insurance claim for the damage caused by the storms in Arkansas. The RV was totaled, the storm having caused nearly $10k in damage, and our insurance gave us what I feel is a fair value for the rig- in other words, a bit over what I was hoping to get for it if it made the trip. So, in the end, it all worked out
Money very well spent.
FWIW, Last weekend I thought of this thread and gave an adventure like yours serious consideration while sitting at the side of the road with a blown up 454 in my tow rig and a trailer on behind.
Sadly, the wife unit and I opted for a tow back home and a Goodwrench crate motor instead.
In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:
And the mechanic guy out west has a Salvage Title RV he is free to do 'whatever' with? Everybody wins!
man, you need to go back in and update the photos to show! I just sent a link to this to someone before realizing all the visuals were missing!
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