Apologies in advance this is Darren typing – so you get facts rather than Heather’s fancy prose :)For those that are interested, and for Heather and I when we are old(er), I have put together a list of where we travelled and stayed for the night…..

First stop was of course to pickup the Campervan – train, metro and uber later and I was at the RV dealership. Joined the queue with the mix of sad looking people dropping off and excited looking ones picking up, and half an hour later I was heading up the 405 back to home to pick up supplies. 
After loading up with a little bit of food and a lot of beer, I was off. 

Vegas

The bright lights of Vegas was as good a place as any to stop, no partying on the strip for me but I did fit in a beer or three at Hop Nuts Brewing. Not wanting to stay in too many campsites (where you end up parked next to a massive RV with its generator running), I decided to find a random spot to park up, and random it was. I noticed a couple of other campervans parked in the big overflow car park opposite the Stratosphere so this did the trick as it was in staggering distance of the above brewery.

Waking up, I enjoyed the Nevada desert heat in the van and knew that was probably going to be the last of the warm starts!!

So with my first experience driving out of Vegas without a massive hangover, it was north bound and time to get into the road trip routine…

Salt Lake City

Next stop Mormon Town – surprisingly Salt Lake City is a bit of a brewery mecca so sounds like a good stopping point. After heading up the I15 the scenery changes from desert to mountains. After a side stop in the Kolob Canyons of Zion National Park, I reached the city limits of Salt Lake City and the rain started to pour down. Luckily it wasn’t raining in the pub so after a side trip to pick up supplies at Epic Brewing I found a neighborhood brewery that had some deserted side streets and parked up for the night. Luckily the beers helped me sleep through the rain pounding off the van roof!

Idaho Falls

Another day, another state and another brewery. After a scenic drive through Idaho (which was a first for me) I followed the Snake River to Idaho Falls. A mile out of town they had a city park with free camping spots by the river and only a mile from the city’s brewery (imaginatively named Idaho Falls Brewery). After checking out the brewery it was back to the campsite and chatted to the homeless meth head who had set up camp next to me around his campfire. Nice guy and interesting chat where he explained he is a Buddhist and in training to be a grand master chess player. I skipped the offer of a game of chess and left him to the fire.

Butte

The homeless guy was also a lover of road trips and suggested I get off the I15 and skirt past Yellowstone National Park. It was a great drive and I passed through the Caribou Targhee National Forest (I hadn’t head of it either). No Caribou but did spot a family of moose stood around in the river 🙂
Yellowstone wasn’t open for the season but I was able to rent a bike and at least explore a few miles of the park. Probably a better way of seeing the place as I heard it gets pretty busy in summer! The only ‘traffic jam’ I had was waiting until some Bison crossed the road so I could ride through. I assumed giving way to Bison was the smart thing to do.

From Yellowstone it was up the 191 and then on to Butte. Butte, Montana is an old mining town and the climb over the Pipestone Pass which goes over the continental divide was made interesting by a blizzard! Luckily we are doing this trip early spring rather than winter!

I parked up in Butte at the again imaginatively named Butte Brewing and after a chat with the friendly barman I was all set up to just park overnight in the brewery car park so it was a short walk to bed. He did ask if I was planning on breaking in overnight… I explained that I had been collecting beer all the way up and the van was fully loaded with beer so no need. 
And then there were two…

Short drive to the cute college town of Missoula in Montana. Definitely a place to come back and explore. Heather was flying in to ambitiously named Missoula International Airport (one building!) so I had a few hours to kill. I had been dropping in on some Crossfit gyms along my way and I did a lunch time workout at 5 Valleys Crossfit – definitely the friendliest place so far.

After a bit of a sort out in the van and topping up and emptying the relevant tanks it was time to pick up Heather and head north!!