The Perfect One-Night Stays on the Road
Using Harvest Host for single nights on our way out to Yellowstone
Summer means travel for my family. It also means that between commentary on life, social issues, and our years living in Texas, I will deliver two to three posts a month about our family’s summer travels until the end of 2024.
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We tried Harvest Host for the first time a year and a half ago when we traveled down to Texas for spring break. We discovered that breaking our trip down to Galveston and back with stops in new, easy-to-access places made travel so much easier. Then, when we used it again on our way to Florida and Disney last summer, our generator proved it was up to the challenge of keeping us cool for overnight stops in warmer climates.
There was no question as we planned our trip to Yellowstone for the summer of 2024. We would use Harvest Host on our way to and from our main destinations.
That is how we ended up in two delightful locations on our way to the Badlands, as we made stops in Illinois and Minnesota.
Hidden Hills Vineyard and Winery
Our first stop gave us a nearly 250-mile head start on our vacation, taking us to western Illinois and a beautiful little winery right behind a truck stop immediately off of I-74. After parking in the rain, we took refuge under the winery’s covered patio for a dinner of pizza, pretzels, and frozen peach bellinis for the adults.
The food was delicious, the kids scarfing down the pizza like they hadn’t eaten all day. When they asked us how wine was made, we went inside and asked one of the employees if he could give our teenagers a quick lesson in wine-making. After telling us that they usually do scheduled tours, he excitedly gave our family a full explanation of the wine-making process and the operation behind the scenes. We all learned a lot about the physical labor of turning grapes into wine.
Once the rain cleared out, we took a couple of walks through the vineyard, stretching our legs, giving our dogs some needed exercise, and preparing for a much longer day of travel. We were thankful we made the last-minute decision to change our Harvest Host stop and go a little further up the road. It was worth it.
Fort Belmont
A stop in Minnesota meant we were camping in a new state, and we discussed a lot of options for our new-state overnight stay. As Jeff and I looked through the Minnesota options, Fort Belmont got our attention.
We arrived over an hour after close, because the museum was only open until 3:00 pm on Saturdays, so we followed the directions and parked in one of three available Harvest Host spots. We quickly discovered we would have fellow Harvest Host neighbors for the night, and we eventually greeted them and shared our camping experiences. They were from Minnesota and were taking a quick road trip with a rented camper van. It was fun to take a look at something we would have been much more likely to look at before kids. But then, before kids we were convinced we would never stop sleeping in a tent.
Even though we couldn’t visit the museum, we enjoyed a beautiful evening in southern Minnesota exploring the fort grounds. The kids ran up and down the trails, the dogs got plenty of walks, and Jeff and I enjoyed a few quiet strolls on our own. We were disappointed that we missed out on seeing the insides of the buildings, but we were thankful for the quiet spot right off of I-90 to sleep before getting on the road for a long drive to the Badlands.
Boondocking for the first two nights of our trip worked out better than we could have hoped. We were eager to have access to bathrooms and showers again, but it was definitely worth it for the first two nights of travel.
Do you want know more about how I plan our vacations? Check out this blog post and get a copy of my planning spreadsheet below:
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