Like everyone, COVID-19 is influencing every part of our lives, including vacation plans.  Our initial plan was a week at Disney World.  Disney and Florida didn’t open before our vacation time.  COVID Vacation back up plan one was to stay at Grand Lake, CO and explore the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park (check out our trip to Rocky Mountain National Park in 2019!). My job placed some COVID travel regulations on me. So we came up with COVID Vacation back up plan two in the local area.  So here’s our COVID Vacation, 2020.

06 July 2020, The COVID Vacation Begins – Home to Tuttle Creek State Park

Tuttle Creek State Park in Manhattan, Kansas is a short two-hour drive from our house. We arrived in the mid-afternoon and hid in the AC until dinner time. I had an easy menu planned for dinner, but a dose of vacation lazy washed over the family and we decided to go into town and grab something for dinner. The state government had just released some new COVID guidelines causing some confusion.  So some of our favorite restaurants weren’t able to accommodate us. So we went for take out at a chain, instead of a favorite.  We still didn’t have to cook.  Still a win in our books.

My wife and I met while she was going to K-State. The kids have wanted to see the campus for some time and a hot afternoon was a perfect time for a driving tour. The place has grown and there is so many new buildings, we got turned around more than once. We also drove by all the houses we lived in almost 20 years ago. The area has changed so much.

After our tour, the kids wanted to go fishing. There is access to the water right from the campground. We fished off of shore from a neighboring site (water side sites are too tight for Maddie). Unfortunately the kids struck out, but they still had fun.

After fishing we settled in for the evening.

07 July 2020, Tuttle Creek State Park

We took the kids fishing in the morning.  They lasted about four hours before the heat wore us out.  They got a few nibbles, but still couldn’t land a fish.  We retreated again back to the A/C.  The kids rode bikes a bit, but a nice low-key afternoon.

08 July 2020, Tuttle Creek State Park

The kids begged me to wake up early and hit the fishing hole again. So I woke them up around 6:15 am and we went out to land that record bass. After striking out again, we drove around a bit and I talked to them about the dam and its purpose (burden of being the children of an engineer, I guess). They humored me and seemed interested.

We went into town for a Wally World and Menard’s visit and lunch at Qdoba. We got some odds and ends, but the main reason we went was to buy the components to build a 50A extension cord for the next stop on the COVID Vacation, moochdocking at my in-laws’. With a burrito in my belly, the recliner and A/C convinced me to nap the heat of the afternoon away.

After dinner we took a little bike ride around the two camp grounds on the south side of Tuttle Creek State Park, Rocky Ford and River Pond.

As we settled in for the night, the weather man had a pretty dire forecast.  We hoped for the best and went to bed.

09 July 2020, Tuttle Creek State Park

The weather man was pretty accurate on their forecast. The front blew through around 1 in the morning. The winds really blew for about 30 mins and then the bottom fell out of the sky. The winds were 50+ mph gusts and it rained just shy of 2 inches in about 2 hours. On our site, only a few limbs fell and made the ground into a swamp. A few big limbs and trees fell elsewhere in the campground and the state park.

The rest of the day was a pretty lazy affair. We hung around the camper, rode the bikes some, and roasted some mallows on the fire for dessert. After dinner, I packed up everything outside and loaded the bikes for travel day in the morning.

10 July 2020, Tuttle Creek State Park to Emporia, Kansas

The next chapter of our COVID Vacation began as we starting packing up after breakfast. Everyone was still getting used to their roles with our relatively new camper for set up and breakdown. However, the kids are older, so camp breakdown like a team sport, instead of one adult working alone outside and on adult on the inside.

Emporia is a short 1.5 hour drive from Manhattan. My father-in-law had it all planned out where we should park when we arrived. Maneuvering into the site was easy.  I unhooked and leveled the camper and set to work on wiring the 50A extension off of his panel.

I’ve stripped 1000s of wires over the years.  However, having experience didn’t seem relevant when I sliced my finger open stripping one of the 6 gauge wire strands. After I donated a pint of blood to my galley grey tank and got my finger bandaged up with a paper towel and tape, I finished the wiring job and got all the ACs fired up.

All six of us ate dinner in the house and visited. Erin patched up my finger with some liquid bandage…ouch!  It really stung, but it made my cut heal quite quickly

11 July 2020 – Emporia Kansas

We spent another nice day visiting my in-laws. The kids have had fun riding around on their Polaris Ranger.

This morning we went to the Emporia Zoo. It’s not big by any means, maybe 20 exhibits. It’s free and shaded though. We spent about 45 min there and the girls went furniture shopping and the boys took a spin by the John Deere dealership.

Back at the farm we hid most of the day from the heat, another scorcher. The kids talked Papa into another Ranger ride or five and then we grilled dinner on our Blackstone on the rig. Burgers, brats, mac and cheese, baked beans, and cookie pie. No pictures, sorry on that.

After dinner, we went fishing down at the Cottonwood River. The kids still didn’t catch any fish, but like always we landed some more memories.

We got back to the farm and cleaned up and went to bed.

12 July 2020 – Emporia, Kansas to Home

We all got a fairly late start. Donuts and easy stuff for breakfast. The kids coaxed a few Ranger rides out of Papa and then we had Sunday dinner: Grandma’s BBQ meatballs, hashbrown casserole, peas, and Braum’s ice cream sandwiches for dessert.

The kids got their last Ranger ride in while DW and I hooked the rig back up. We drove the 2 hours from Emporia to home.  Everyone unloaded their dirty clothes and threw them in the washer.

13-17 July 2020 – Weston Bend State Park

The kids and I went solo to Weston Bend.  Erin works from home and needed to catch up.  We rode bikes, hiked, and enjoyed each others’ company in a quiet state park.

Conclusion

The kids really enjoyed our COVID Vacation, even though it was plan 3. I think it shows how valuable spending time together is over the destination.  I’m so glad we decided to go RVing 3 years ago to enable us to spend so much time together. Many fond memories already and many more to come.