Another first timer ..

I am "hopefully" planning our first RV road trip for the summer. It is something that I have always wanted to do, but somehow I get outvoted and we always end up somewhere miserable, ie disney, florida in July. Im sure they are great places but I honestly think Florida/Disney is the most miserable place on earth in the summer.

So this year I want my husband and kids (ages 13, 10, 7) to experience some of America. I want to take them to Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse memorial, yellowstone for a 2 week adventure.

My husband is really not in favor of this. He wants to go back to Disney. He did stipulate if we did go he would like to see a train museum (steam trains) and an old mining town

So my first thought was to fly north, rent an RV up there and tour around. then I got to reading everything that RV rentals dont cover that is extra. Chairs, sheets, pots and pans etc. So I would have to wonder if it would be better to rent the RV where we live, Houston TX and drive it up that way so we can take all our own crap. Xbox, BBQ, sleeping backs etc. But obviously that would cut in on pleasure days and give us more driving days. Its only 14 days. Or would it be better to haul/mail our crap up there? and rent just what we need.

So if we are up in that area, MT Rushmore, Yellowstone, Crazy Horse memorial etc.. what would you suggest for mining town, and old steam train museum?

Also, am I just completly nutso and taking 3 kids and a husband into the vastness of America just to much effort for my personal dream vacation. Should I just suck it up and go on a Disney Cruise?

Well, I'm with you as I'm not much of a Disney person. I think your family would enjoy Yellowstone. I've heard it described as not just more beautiful scenery, but scenery that does something! We're planning a family trip to Yellowstone, amongst other places, this summer, too.

I can't advise on RV rentals, but I know some other the other folks around here can.

If you did decide to drive you could consider scrapping Mt Rushmore to save a few hundred miles and adding some Colorado to your trip. There are a lot of cool old mining towns there. If you drove fairly straight from Houston to Yellowstone you're looking at 1600+ mi one way, so that's probably 4 fairly solid days plus another 4 solid days back leaving you 7 or 8 days of sightseeing time, so I think it could be done. I'd break up the 4 days of driving with some cool stops and have 3 or 4 days in Yellowstone, but that may be more driving than you're looking for. Houston to Mt Rushmore to Yellowstone is about 1800 miles, so I think you could do it, but unless everybody is on board with the road trip idea it might be a long time to be trapped in an RV with an unhappy family!

There are also Disney sponsored tours of places like Yellowstone and the the Grand Canyon. Maybe something like that would be a compromise for your husband? I don't know much about it, but they arrange all the hotels, buses, meals, etc. I've just read some online reviews. I'm sure if you plug +disney and +yellowstone into a search engine you'll get some hits.

I do think a National Park is going to be a much more memorable vacation than another trip to Disney (especially if you've already been there, done that), but you'd need to make sure you can get everybody on board with the idea!