Kim Gregory, our VP of Sales, has been a faithful member of the Coach-Net family for over 14 years. She, her husband, Jake, and their 5 children love to go RVing! They recently took an RV out west to see some family in California and had a blast along the way. The following blog is written by Jake Gregory, Kim’s Husband.
Living in Texas we don’t get to see family very often…usually once a year. At the beginning of July, we were on the road for two weeks, had 6 stops, and spent 4 of those stops with the people we love. Our kids were able to see their cousins from both sides of the family and even spent time with cousins they had never seen. Over 14 days we traveled about 3,500 miles and spent 6 total days driving across the country.
Day 1-2
We left Argyle at about 7:00 am and traveled through the Texas Panhandle to Angel Fire, NM. Stayed the night at a great RV Resort, got up early, and went through Taos, Farmington, Shiprock, Red Mesa, Kayenta, Page, Kanab, and Hurricane to get to St. George, UT.
Day 3-4
We spent a couple nights, which included the 4th of July with Carl and Lacy Newby Franke. The kids had a blast spending time getting spoiled with toys, treats, their backyard resort, some amazing Franke BBQ, and some great neighborhood fireworks. We love the time we get to spend with this family! We got up the morning of 7/5 and made our way down I-15 through Vegas, beautiful Barstow, Tehachapi, Bakersfield, Paso Robles, Cayucos, Morro Bay, and into the Valley of the Bear Los Osos, CA.
Day 5-7
We were able to spend some time at Grandma and Papa Gregory’s house in Los Osos. They are in a great location at the back of the bay and right next to Sea Pines Resort which has a 9-hole golf course. We were able to spend time at the beach in Cayucos, wine tasting at Baileyana, shopping in SLO, pottery class with grandma, and walking the Embarcadero in Morro Bay. The temp ranged between 50°-70° There was lots of fog and just enough sunshine! It had been 5 years since these cousins had all been in the same place together, and we recreated a picture taken in front of the beach house.
Day 8-9
One of the main reasons for this trip was to make sure to be there for the celebration of life for John and Diane. Growing up a Gregory meant you were going to be with your extended family multiple times a year. We all lived within 30 minutes of each other, so everyone was always there, you knew you were loved, and it was always a good time. It’s something I feel like my kids miss out on since we live so far away from any of our family. This was the first time all of our kids were able to spend some time with their second cousins. It was very bittersweet because of the reason everyone was together, but we were glad so many could be there. Lots of love to all of my cousins for all the tough times they’ve gone through with the loss of Uncle Bob, Uncle Verdo, Uncle John, and Aunt Diane. Thank you to my parents for opening their home to everyone.
Day 10-13
Havasu here we come. On our way, we stopped in Bakersfield for food and ended up going right past BHS, which is where I coached my first HS Football game. We rolled into Havasu around 11:00 pm and it was still 100°. The kids spent most of the week in the pool with Grandma, Makenna was at a volleyball camp at LHHS from 8-5 each day, and Logan hung out with Tyler and Trevor at the baseball field, HS weight room, and at the Thompson’s playing video games. We saw some beautiful sunsets and an unbelievably bright full moon over the desert! Big Mike was nice enough to not mess with the thermostat too much and didn’t set it to 82° while there. Joanne treated us like royalty, making everyone their favorite meals, and constantly checked the thermostat to make sure Mike hadn’t turned it up! Most importantly the kids got to spend some quality time with the Kupfer/Thompson side of the family!
Day 14-15
We left Havasu without Makenna (she was going to Vegas with her best friend’s family) and we headed to Phoenix to stay the night at The Foss Inn (Jake and Robin Fossen). After a quick stay with our amazing friends, we dropped Logan off at Sky Harbor (don’t ask) and the 5 of us +Willie started our way back home! We drove across the beautiful Mogollon Rim through Payson, Show Low, and Springerville in Northern AZ, into New Mexico, and stayed the last night of the trip in Ruidoso. The last day was a drive down into Texas and straight across the state all on Hwy 380…about the only thing that threw us off course was a large West Texas dirt devil that about knocked us off the road…
(Kim still has the bruises to prove it). We returned home on Saturday and I think we are still trying to recover from the trip.
Adam H. ~“We had a tire blowout. I want to thank the staff at Coach-Net for their quick response in finding an excellent tire shop with the correct size and brand very quickly. Communication with Coach-Net, the tire shop, and us was excellent. A bad day turned out pretty well as we were back on the road very quickly thanks to your help!”
For both of my trips, the majority of my friends had never been camping or used an RV before, so it was really great getting to show them how much fun RVing could be. For the May trip, I think one of my fondest memories was actually the time spent driving out to Broken Bow. We all act in musical theatre and we spent a lot of the drive singing and listening to different shows. During our second trip, we took a lot of videos and pictures, and my friend, Nolan, made a video commemorating the trip that was so funny and is a lot fun to look back on.
Surprisingly, there weren’t many challenges on our trips, even though I was the only one that knew much about RVs, and it was my first time taking one out myself. I am one of the trainers here at our call center and used to be an agent on our previous RV Core Team, so it was really cool to see the conceptual knowledge I have learned and taught over the years get put to use as we figured out things along the way. I will say that probably the most challenging part was setting up the first night on our May trip. It was already really dark and I hadn’t been to Beaver’s Bend before, so we didn’t know how to reserve and pay for a spot, and getting set up for the first time when it was so dark outside wasn’t easy.
