Read time: about 20 minutes
30 days trip- Come along for the ride below or click on the outline button for the condensed version.
By the summer of 2024, our family was highly invested in trying every high-speed roller coaster. With our season pass in hand, we decided to visit every Six Flags we hadn’t been to yet, which meant we were heading across the country again. Here we go!
We had a late start on day one so we only traveled a couple hours to get us on our way, we spent the night at Barstow/Calico KOA and walked over to DQ for some yummy dessert. Continuing along, we just had to visit the back side of Zion again, Kolob Canyon because it’s just that pretty to visit if you are in the area before continuing with our 500-mile day drive that landed us at a Love’s Travel Stop in Colorado for the night.
Day three was another full driving day. We took one of the most beautiful drives toward Vail, Colorado, and were able to see the famous ski runs—some still had snow! The drive, with its beautiful rocky mountains and the Eagle River alongside, was just breathtaking. This was also the day we were able to hit another Bucee’s we loved so much from our last trip so we picked up some amazing fudge, can you guess which one I love the most?
Continuing along, now in Nebraska, the wind was so heavy that it required extra concentration to keep the rig straight. That was a little scary but thankfully we made it. We originally planned on staying at a Pilot travel spot but they were actually full so we spotted a RV park next door so graciously they had a spot there for us instead: Firefly RV park. Up the next morning, we continued along, passing a cute little town in Iowa, grabbed some ice cream and concluded our drive to Fish Lake RV Resort in Illinois.
Made it to our First park on this trip! Six Flags Great America, what a wonderful park this is; so many fun rides! Upon entering the park, you have a double-decker carousel just like the park in Santa Clara, CA. The Sky trek tower gives you a beautiful aerial view of this awesome park too. We allotted two days to enjoy this park and the water park because of how many rides they have, we thoroughly enjoyed the rides and the food! We used our food pass and enjoyed this delicious BBQ spot twice!
Day seven we began heading south to check out Chicago. We first drove in front of the Cubs stadium and absolutely adored the homes and the vibe around town. As we continued along, we quickly noticed there is very limited parking around downtown, especially for a tall RV so we looked in the map for a place that had a large parking lot close to downtown so we paid to park at the Field Museum and we called an uber to take us to Buckingham Memorial Fountain. From there, we walked to the riverwalk, enjoyed the beautiful view of the tall buildings, had a real deep dish Chicago Pizza, and ubered back to the museum parking lot before they closed. Just a quick Chicago experience but a beautiful memorable one.
Just a few hours away, we were in Indiana and we stopped and visited the RV museum just for fun. We saw the first few RV’s ever made and we saw a new, super classy one too. We finally made our way to our most anticipated part of this trip; Cedar Point- the theme park of all theme parks. We booked to stay here on site just so we could get the extra hour entry for resort guests. Check out our view from our site!
Up bright and early, we walk, I mean speed walk over to enter the park. We are actually here! And sadly, the ride we wanted to experience the most was closed: Top Thrill 2. Thankfully they have many other amazing rides that we also allocated two days to spend in this park. The campground was pretty nice too, they have a pier you can enjoy and fish and their pool/ spa area was very nice too.
After this amazing time in Cedar Point, we headed to our next Six Flags park in Darrien Lake, NY and it was closed! We drove around the parking lot and coming from Cedar Point, this park looked disappointing so we were not mad about it at all. We continued along and arrived earlier than anticipated to our next Six Flags park: The Great Escape. This park was so cute but everything they had felt like the miniature version of what we have at Magic, including their water park. This park is not as bad as the one in Oklahoma, but not really worth the time if you are coming for the big rides-they do not have any. We stayed at Lake George Campsites and it was very nice. The hosts were great and there’s a Walmart and a wonderful ice cream spot down the street from it too.
Up early, we hit the road again. We had breakfast in New York, we stopped for lunch in Vermont, we had dessert in New Hampshire, and we had dinner in Maine. We stopped at Big Fatty’s BBQ where we met some people from California that told us we just have to try Maple Creemee, so the closest one to us at the time was Mac’s Maple in a real farm! We stopped for a creemee, it was delicious by the way, and we got to meet the “girls” while we were there. What a fun experience this was, and we brought home some maple syrup too. Because we drove so far in New York to experience the theme park, we were just hours away from Maine so we decided to spend a day here so we could place the Maine sticker on our map of places we’ve been. We spent the evening at Cedar Haven Campground.
Two weeks into this trip and we are now in Maine! Literally on the opposite side of the country! I wanted to go see the L.L. Bean outlets and that was pretty cool, it was like their own little city there and we just had to try a Maine Lobster so we did! The kids refused to eat it but J and I enjoyed our lobster sandwich. We walked around the pier, visited a beautiful lighthouse, then headed to the beach to catch the sunset that was behind us! It was so weird to see the sun set on the other side of the ocean, it made us really appreciate our amazing sunsets we get over the ocean in California. We continued along and spent the night in Salem in Winter Island Park; I booked a water front spot so we had a great view. This was the closest place I found to leave our RV near Boston from the direction we were coming from.
We are heading to Boston! We took an uber from where we were to the train station in Salem and we took the train into the middle of Boston. What a neat city! So much History here and we loved the mixture of old and new buildings mingled together. We took the hop on hop off city bus tour to help us explore this neat town in one day. We also enjoyed a pre-game Red Sox Stadium tour and got to go on the field and see the “green monster” in person. After this tour, we just had to experience the Boston Tea Party ship so the kids got to be a little part of history and throw the boxes of tea off the ship too. After a fun filled day exploring this town, we headed back to Salem by train, then took an uber again back to our site to conclude day fifteen.
Heading to our next Six Flags park, we first stopped at the basketball Museum for our basketball fan, Jacob. After this we made our way to Six Flags New England to catch some rides before heading to our site for the night at Southwicks Acres Campground, closest campground I found to the park. Next day, we headed to the park again and enjoyed the few rides they had and the water park.
It’s finally here, the day we arrived at the second park we’ve been anticipating to experience this trip: Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. We headed to the park and once again, the ride we’ve been anticipating all year long to ride here was also closed, we were so sad! KING DA KAH was permanently closed…at least we got to see its massiveness in person before they tore it down. We entered the park and were not super impressed with so many closed rides. The park itself was pretty, and El Torro the ride was CRAZY! We headed to our site for the night before it got dark as we saw in the map it had a long drive into the forest at Turkey Swamp Campground.
Next day we drove to the park again and this time we met the same friends we met during the NY trip and enjoyed the water park together. Kids played while the adults chatted so it was great! Went back into the main park one last time to catch some rides before the night was over.
Day twenty of this trip and we headed to Hershey Park. We stayed at their campground for a free shuttle ride to the park and we thought it was made of chocolate, just kidding. We took the shuttle to the main grounds and we enjoyed some of the shows and tours they have there such as make your own candy and more. This place is so interesting and the grounds are so pretty. They even have a concert hall on site with big name artists so this place has it all.
Next day we took the shuttle and went to the main theme park for the day and what a treat this park is! We learned about this park via a recommendation from someone we sparked up a conversation with while standing in line for a ride at Sea World in San Diego. We are so glad we came, this park is actually amazing. The rides are phenomenal, the park is so clean and aesthetically pleasing, the food options are great, they have cold water refill stations all around the park, and they have a free with-entry water park in the middle of the park that you can go in and out of with rides. We all thoroughly enjoyed our day here and we topped it off with a wonderful dinner and dessert in the roof top Chocolatier restaurant on site.
Next day, up bright and early to head to Washington DC once again. This time, I was able to book a tour inside the White House! I filled out the application with our congress member and about 3 weeks before our trip, I learned we got the tickets for the date we would be there so we were beyond excited to get to go inside. The line to enter was very long and it was very hot outside. Upon entering, we were in awe of the fine details everywhere in each room we toured. You are allowed to take your time but they do make you feel like you need to push along if that makes sense. After the tour, I asked one of the guards where we should have lunch and he suggested we go to the Old Ebbitt Grill so we did! It was delish and the place was pretty cool with an old classic vibe. Knowing ahead of time that there is absolutely no place to park in DC, we parked in a nearby Walmart in Maryland and we took an uber to the White House. After our lunch, we started to see the monuments again but the heat started getting to us so we just ubered back to Walmart, restocked, then headed to our dinner hangout at Dave & Buster’s with the same friends we met up with on our last DC trip before heading to our spot for the night in Greenbelt Campground.
The next day was Six Flags day. We were amazed by how long the lines to enter were and how slow the workers were working letting people in. It was hot so thankfully we had our spray mister with us ( we bring it to any park that we know it’s hot so we can spray our face to help us stay cool while waiting in line for rides). Upon entering the park, the entrance theme was cute but the rides were not great and again, they not only lacked workers, the ones there were working in slow motion; it literally took 5 minutes(seams fast but it takes about 40 seconds- 1 minute tops on any other given ride) for the first group to exit and clear the platform before we could get in and take off on the Roar ride. We didn’t care much for this park so we are not surprised it is now permanently closed. We drove a couple of hours to our very cute site for the night across a beautiful lake, Little Meadows Campground.
Day twenty four, we are on the road again. Somehow, we took a wrong turn and ended up on a two-lane road that narrowed to one lane. Our rig took up the entire lane, and at times we were right on the edge of a cliff. We drove slowly and looked as far ahead as we could praying a car wouldn’t come flying around the corner towards us. This was a small town as small towns can be with single homes acres away from each other so I’m sure they are not used to having an RV driving around in their one lane road somewhere on the outskirts of Cincinnati. We were completely frightened, to say the least, and couldn’t enjoy the beautiful scenery because we were just hoping to make it through alive. We finally arrive and are grateful we are alive to enjoy a beautiful sunset at Camper Village RV Park.
The next day we experienced the Ark Encounter. What a beautifully created space and structure. It helped us realize how massive this thing really was and how organized it was inside. You can see God’s hand here, and the stories come to life. Being a wood loving family (@jsislands) we adored the details this place has. We read about how wonderful the buffet restaurant inside is, so we got in line as soon as they opened to experience Emzara’s Buffet too, it was delicious. After this wonderful experience, we headed to our next campground for the day; Still Water Campground. I chose this place because they have a real life lazy river around the campsite so we purposely brought our inner tubes to enjoy the ride, until we didn’t. It started out great, we were the only ones on the lake so that was a little scary but we went along anyways. We were enjoying the low spots and some deep spots until we only saw deep spots and the weather started to shift. Not knowing how far away we were from the exit, panic started to set in so we quickly started paddling to move along faster and in the process, J’s phone unlatched from the holder and into the deep river it went. Thankfully we made it back safely and now a part of us will forever stay in Kentucky.
Day twenty six was an action filled day. We started off visiting the Buffalo Trace Distillery, J’s favorite. I was unsuccessful in booking a tour online but we decided to stop anyway and thankfully we were able to attend in place of a “no show” so we were super excited. This tour was great! The guide was very knowledgeable and informative so we learned a lot about how they make their bourbon. After this, we headed to Louisville and enjoyed a grant tour at the Kentucky Derby Museum. We got to see the track and go behind the scenes of the preparation so that was a neat experience. While we were in town, we decided to try White Castle Burgers and oh so disappointed we were, In-n-out is still our favorite. Next we headed to downtown Louisville and enjoyed a great tour at the Slugger Factory and Museum where we saw how wooden baseball bats are made. After this we continued along the road, drove through Indiana and spent the night in a nice quiet spot in Illinois: Archway RV Park.
The next day was another Six Flags day! Before making our way to the park, we stopped to see the beautiful Gateway Arch in St. Luis, it’s so shiny! We also drove in front of the baseball stadium before making our way to the park. This park was very green and pretty but the rides were not great, in fact, they had the worst ride we have ever been on: The Boss! This was so painful that I was shocked I was able to walk after getting off of it. The track would make a great RMC (Rocky Mountain Construction) coaster someday, but it’s a painful ride as it is now. They did have one cool ride we enjoyed several times: Mr. Freeze, it was a miniature version of the ones we didn’t get to ride on this trip in Ohio and New Jersey so it was a fun little ride. This park does have the prettiest Hurricane Harbor we’ve been to; the lush green tropical plants make you feel you are in Hawaii instead and the park itself was very nice but still cold. After this we headed to our site for the night at our first Jellystone Park. We arrived too late to enjoy all they have to offer but it did give us KOA vibes and the sites are up in a hill so we did have to go up and down the hill to enjoy the amenities and the cicadas were in full choir mode at night.
We can’t leave without trying some St. Louis BBQ so next day we stopped at Q39 in Kansas City for some amazing food then we drove to the Chief’s stadium and Royals stadium parking lot to check out their fields. Didn’t know they were so close to each other. Then continued along a full driving day taking us all the way to Colorado for the night. We found a small cute RV spot that still works on the honor system; we had to leave money in an envelope at Burlington RV Park.
Another driving day until we finally hit the Arches! This park has always been a little too far to include it in our Zion trips so I was grateful that this time it was on our way home. We drove up and spent the night at devil’s garden hoping to have a clear night sky but it was too cloudy. The park itself was beautiful and the scenic drive was beyond amazing. The next day we made our way to visit Canyonlands and what a beautiful sight too! It felt like a mini Grand Canyon but you get to be in the middle of it and see it from both sides.
This is now day thirty and we are just about ready to get back home. Instead of driving back up to the Arches for the night, we decided to just start driving home as long as we could before it gets dark. The drive was beautiful and the sky was an art piece. We finally looked ahead and we called Butch Cassidy RV Park and they had a spot for us for the night. The next day, we saw a nice place off the road that sounded like they had ice cream so we just had to stop at The Creamery and we were right! They actually have much more than ice cream, we also had a nice sandwich, and some cheese along with our ice cream to give us the extra boost needed to make it all the way home.
This trip was beyond amazing, we were able to explore many theme parks, many tours, many city visits, and some scary moments to put us in check of how precious life really is. We are thankful we are alive and that we can experience all of this together as a family. As I mentioned in a previous post, the relationship we see between our kids all year long is truly a testament of how impactful these summer trips are. They are four years apart and truly are best friends. That’s the bottom-line prayer of a parent: that your kids will have each other’s backs when you are gone. I hope this inspires you to plan your own trip soon. I also created many instagram reels of all these places mentioned in this post, please check them out if you would like @citylightsescape.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, time to plan your trip now.
Safe travels,
Brenda
