Written by: Timothy Fitzgerald 10/08/2010 9:45 AM
In June 2008 the Bacon family set off to do what few families would dare to accomplish - visit all fifty states in fifty weeks in a forty foot RV. The family of four, which includes two boys, Henry 10 and Arthur 12, saved up for four years to make their dream a reality. While on the trip the boys were home schooled and learned geography first hand, associating states, capitals, and National Parks with memories. We caught up with the boys to find out what they liked about the trip, how they kept themselves occupied and what they've learned.
CampingRoadTrip.com: In the introduction to your blog you mention that you want to tell us what is fun and weird in the United States. So, what is fun and weird in the United States?
Arthur and Henry: The people are fun! And the states have some pretty weird stuff - like the Spam museum in Minnesota and the lunch box museum in Georgia.
In Biloxi, Mississippi they carved sculptures out of the tree trunks that were left over after Katrina broke all of the branches off the trees. It was pretty weird that in Michigan they had a little truck that drove around and sprayed chemicals in the air to kill the insects. It was weird that when we went to Hawaii (in March) it was cold and rainy the whole time and we never put on our bathing suits or swam at the beach. (We spent a lot of time hiking the volcanoes on the big island.) It was about 90 degrees when we went to Alaska (in June). Alaska was way warmer than Hawaii.
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What was your favorite part of the trip and why?
Maine was beautiful but Florida was extremely fun! This is a hard question. Arthur likes Wisconsin and Henry likes Florida because it had the most fun stuff to do - especially amusement parks. Henry also liked Key West, and the warm weather. We both really liked the Wisconsin Dells water parks. Wisconsin Dells is the water park capital of the world.
Did you miss your friends? How did you keep in touch with them?
We missed our friends very much, and we kept in touch over email and phones. But we did meet new people along the way at different RV parks across America. We saw our friend from California in Boston and Washington DC because he was also on a trip around the country with his family!
Where did you sleep in the RV and what is your favorite part of the RV?
The RV has 3 rooms, the master bedroom, the bathroom, and the kitchen/dining room/living room/bedroom/driver seat. We slept in the kitchen/dining room/living room/bedroom/driver seat area on hide-a-beds (beds that fold into a couch). There were two of them so we took turns because one was a comfortable air mattress and one was just an elongated couch. Our favorite area was the living room/kitchen space because the bathroom smelled and we rarely went into Mom and Dad's room.
Which do you like more, traveling in a car or RV?
We like traveling in a RV because it is roomier than a car and we could go to the bathroom whenever we needed to.
I noticed your last name is Bacon and the name of your website is Bacon Across America. So I'm wondering, how many different kinds of bacon did you find across the United States?
We saw about 10 different types of bacon but we saw many more pig related things. We have pictures of them on our website, http://www.baconacrossamerica.com/BaconAcrossAmerica/Bacon_Gallery.html
Did you get bored? What did you do when you were bored?
Yes we often got bored but then went to the RV park to play. And we played a board game called Ticket To Ride when Mom and Dad were driving.
What kind of chores did you have to do on your trip?
We had to clear the table, wash the dishes, take out the trash, prepare the RV for movement, make and put away our beds and most importantly make coffee for Mom and Dad.
What was the funniest or silliest thing that Mom or Dad did on the trip?
In Key West, a street performer juggled knives on a tightrope while Dad lay on his back underneath it.
I see that you have a book out titled, "I Hate Reading". Is that true? Do you hate reading?
We do have a book called I Hate Reading but it is no longer true that we hate reading. Sometimes we even read the book out loud at schools across the USA (in Georgia, Massachusetts, Arkansas and Idaho). In Wisconsin we visited the publisher. We wrote the book for second graders. We hated reading because there where no good books for second graders. But now we like to read.
What did you learn? Would you do it again?
From the trip we learned a lot of good trivia facts for when we get on Jeopardy, but we also learned a lot of historical and geographical information about America. Yes we would do it again.
If you were in charge of planning the next RV trip where would you go and why?
Hershey, Pennsylvania. We didn't get to go there when we were in Pennsylvania but we really want to. We want to go on the rides there and make candy bars with our names on them, and then eat them!
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