Small Town. BIG ADVENTURE! Luxury MOTORHOME Brings Us to WY.

Our family's exploring Casper, Wyoming for the next two days, but not in the usual way. Touring Wyoming asked us to come along with them for a two-day adventure and check out everything Casper has to offer, and that's exactly what we're going to do. And I got to tell you, I am so excited because we are going to do a lot of the things that we would normally do on a trip like this, but they've also got some extra special things planned for us that we wouldn't normally pay the If we haven't met before, we're the Shinpaws. We're a family of four who travels full-time, so we can make memories now. You gotta love the west, especially up in the mountains. It's about nine o'clock in the morning and it's 60 degrees, so we've got long pants and long shirts on. But we're going to be in the mid-80s this afternoon, hiking, and I think there's some water adventures in our travel plans for tomorrow. So we'll be doing some wardrobe changes. That's movie talk for changing our clothes. But we're going to have so much fun and we're really excited about these next two days. If you're going for a drive around the reservoir, that's what we're going to experience this morning. It's kind of fun because they've got this really fancy camera on the back of their vehicle and so they'll get some cool shots of us driving, but it's good. This is like way fun for us. This is totally what we would do here anyhow, and to get to be a part of a TV show and encourage other people to come anywhere. But Wyoming, out west, like we're in love. So this is this is going to be so much fun. It doesn't feel like work. It is not even a chore in the least. We're going to host everybody for tacos for lunch, so we'll show you that. And then for tonight, I'm really excited about this because this is something we don't do normally. We're going for a wagon ride and having a chuck wagon cookout. So, and yeah, sorry Normie, you can't go. You know, that's just not something we do a lot of because with traveling full-time, we can't do a chuck wagon ride at every town we go to. We can't rent a boat at every reservoir or lake that we go to. So today and tomorrow are so fun for us because we're getting to do all of those things that we normally pass on on a regular basis. It's coffee time for Jason. I've got to make his pumpkin creamer from scratch, which I do about once a week. And we've got two takers from the crew and I think we're going to cold brew coffee with pumpkin creamer. Welcome, thank you. Thank you, so cute. This drive is right off the main road, which is Highway 220 and is completely unexpected. We can't wait to see more. Look how blue the water is. It's amazing. We have to come back here. This place is like totally unassuming and we would have never ever ever found this place. A little more stagnant here. So you have to drive this road that goes through Pathfinder to Alcova Reservoir. It's it's like that that road in San Francisco that goes back and forth but only we're doing it in our 45-foot bus right but it's uh it's this is beautiful. It's amazing. You have to get off the main road. You have to and I thought we do a pretty good job of it and we're like 30 minutes in I'm like oh my gosh and this is like right off the main road. I mean literally right off the main road and we're here in this like it's a whole different world. We just pulled into a spot we're gonna set up and we're going to have lunch. Here's the plan. Boys, y'all are gonna set up the outside. You're gonna put the chairs out, the blackstone, and the rug. Mom and I are gonna go inside. We're gonna put the slide out and we're gonna start prepping for lunch. Everyone good? On two. All right. One, two. It's so weird. I want to stay here forever. Oh no. Like I'm not kidding. This is the Alcova Reservoir and if you haven't noticed it is amazing. In all seriousness, we do plan to come back here for at least a week or two next summer. This you can get so close to the water with your rig. There are big quick wheels all around the edge of it and the drive in and out was really easy. It's wide. There weren't low-hanging branches and for somebody with a really big motorhome, you know how important that is. And it looks like right across the lake is kind of town so you can rent boats over there. I'm sure we can find some good restaurants if we want. So you can have this really nice boondocking secluded feel over here but just a short trip around the water and it looks like you can have all kinds of conveniences. Time to set up for lunch. This may be one of my favorite picnics ever and the best part is we have everything we need with us. There is so much room at this group pavilion. You could easily camp here with several friends or families and spread out for mealtime or a special occasion. We are technically making lunch for the crew. Eventually they joined us and we had a great time getting to know each other better. We're headed to, and I got to look down so I can tell you the right name, the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center and we're gonna meet with an expert trail guide and learn more about the area. For us, our kids are in high school so learning anything historical or factual about the area is definitely positive for us and I mean let's face it it's always nice to know where you are what's around you and I bet we're gonna find another nugget that we didn't know existed. So it looks like this is still the national government that puts this interpretive center together but it's not anything that we expected. I'm even more curious than I was before about what we're gonna find inside. Well you might be wondering why we brought the bus to the interpretive center. Well there's really three reasons. First of all, time. Number two was Jason looked ahead and he saw that the parking lot would be big enough and could accommodate us so that was another reason. And the third reason is because the weather is changing so much we're not a hundred percent sure what time we get done here and exactly what this wagon ride is gonna look like so we've got all of our stuff with us we can change our clothes and it really just made it a lot easier. I got the scoop. The National Historic Trails Interpretive Center is operated by the Bureau of Land Management. It commemorates Native American history, early explorers, and the travel corridor of the Oregon, Mormon, California, and Pony Express trails as well as the Bridger and Bozeman trails. The hands-on interactive exhibits are well done. We didn't expect the wagon ride simulator at all. Willis and Sarah did a pretty good job pulling the wagon. I'm not sure if I would have made the cut. Did you enjoy that? That was so awesome. I would so come back here. We were in too much of a hurry. You could spend three or four hours in there all day long and get a tour guide. That makes everything better. Okay, back in the bus. The Interpretive Trail Center was amazing. We actually had to hurry through it and so we are going to make a trip to come back here. It was that awesome, but now we've got to put some warm clothes in a bag. Our bus will not fit on the road to the chuckwagon dinner and so someone's here to pick us up. So we're gonna get ready. We're gonna get going and yeah, that was so fun. I wish we were gonna be able to come back this trip. It's gonna have to be next trip. There's a story that I want to know how it ends too. I know there was a seven minute movie and Sarah and I got two minutes in and they're like, we have to go. We're short on time and I feel the same way. I really want to weasel my way back in there and listen to it. So it was wonderful and it's a must-do in Casper. Good afternoon. I'm Jason. Jason. Amazing. Thanks for having us. Tell us about our trail guide. Just what you learned just real quick. He said he's a fourth generation here, which means he knows his land and he knows what he's talking about and his great-grandpa came here on a covered wagon and settled here actually, like right here. I'm super excited to do this. We've never done anything like this before. The closest thing we have done is riding horses. I'm also super excited for dinner. I'm excited to see what we're gonna have. It's gonna be a great surprise because none of us have any idea. And this is Dr. Parr. He's a registered mare. My heart is so happy because Sarah gets to ride a horse and she's been asking all summer long for us to find a horse that she can ride freely and there's it's really hard. Most places are nose-to-tail trail rides and she's just not interested in that. Once she had an opportunity a couple years ago to ride free like this, you know, nothing compares. So my heart's really happy as a mom and her smile just shows you how happy she is. I'm gonna perch her on draft horses. She's black and he's white, called the salt and pepper team, and he's 18 hands tall. He'll weigh 2,000 pounds. She's 17 hands. She'll weigh 1850. So come on around and hop on. We're in and we have the whole place to ourselves. Mr. Morris runs Taste of the West wagon trail rides. We did the two-hour Dutch Oven evening trek. He also offers three-day, five-day, seven-day, and even longer wagon trail rides. He is a great historian and tells stories all throughout the ride. Me and the doctor are in the back and everyone else is in the front. We especially loved as family members were some of the first settlers. So what do you think? I think this is amazing and every person should do this. You will learn so much. It is a lot of fun and it is an adventure. This is not a romantic horse-drawn carriage ride. This is a real wagon experience of what the settlers did in the 1800s and it was so well done. What was your favorite part? Riding the horse. What part about it? Just being able to ride on it, like really ride it. I haven't got to do that in a while so that was awesome. I thought it was spectacular. What a cool experience. Nothing we thought it would be. Did you hear him say they walked 12 miles a day every day? The women, the kids, everyone, everybody. The adults walked an average of 27,000 and the kids walked in steps 27,000 steps. The kids walked an average about like 36,000 or 38,000 steps per day every day for four to six months. I'm complaining after like a five-mile hike. My legs! And I bet they didn't have Starbucks. Or energy drinks. They didn't run out of pumpkin foam. Yeah. We're such softies. Look how beautiful this place is. I am so glad that we were able to do this today. Like we've mentioned before, we wouldn't normally sign up for this kind of adventure. We're way more of a National Park family and hiking and those kinds of things. But I tell you what, as we enter this next season to travel, we're gonna be looking for a lot more local things like this to do. I would do this wagon ride again in a heartbeat. It's just such a cool way to bring history alive. I don't know, like this has been really cool for us. Like after traveling eight years to do some things that we don't normally do that we thought we didn't need to do anymore, this was a really, really good eye-opening day. And like I said, our family's gonna look for a lot more adventures like this. For dinner, we had pork chops on the grill, smothered in melted butter. In the cast-iron skillets were green beans and potatoes. And of course, no meal is complete without a biscuit. Just when we thought we were done, they brought out peach cobbler. We had such a great day, but we're equally excited for tomorrow. Tomorrow is gonna hold a lot of surprises. I can't wait to bring you guys with us. We'll see you guys tomorrow. All right, it's crazy in the Schiphol house this morning. Talk us through what we're doing today. Well, what we're supposed to be doing is we're supposed to be going jet skiing, then kayaking, having lunch, and then doing some interviews and having dinner. But the wind is blowing minimum of 10 miles an hour right now, and it's looking like it's gonna be up to 20 miles an hour. It's supposed to get to 85 this afternoon, but even 85 with 20 mile-hour winds on a really cold lake is not gonna feel warm. So I have personally packed about six outfits. Regardless, we're going to the Alcoa Reservoir. It is gorgeous. It's where we drove around all day yesterday, and it doesn't matter what we do. We could sit at a picnic table all day long. It is going to be a beautiful, fun-filled day for sure. All right, we have arrived at the Alcoa Boat Marina, and we've made some of the crew fans of my pumpkin cold brew, so we brought them some as a surprise. The sun is shining. It's a lot warmer than we thought, so that's great. It is windy, but you know, the fun's gonna outweigh that. What are you thinking about right now? Horseback riding yesterday. How fun it was. Did you feel short at look in this photo? No. I look so short compared to that horse. Are you excited? Tell me what you're excited the most about. Riding jet skis as a family. We've never done that before. You know what I'm most excited about is there is a canyon, and it's a mile down, and I can't wait to get inside of it because you think this is pretty. I can only imagine what that looks like. Willis, what did you think about your mom? I thought you did an incredible job. I thought there's no way you'd do that fast, but you crushed it. It was awesome. You crushed it. That was so much fun. It really was. Did you have a good time? I had a blast. I felt like I was 14 again, for sure. I think we should rent jet skis every couple months, for sure, or every month of the summer. We should just rent jet skis more often. The marina has a simple setup for lunch. Burgers on the grill, and the kids couldn't resist a friendly round of arm wrestling. I don't know about you, but our family is sold on small towns. Casper, Wyoming, in particular, is at the top of our list for family fun and adventure. Thanks for coming along with us. We hope that you will go make some memories now, however you can, with the people you love. Be sure to like and subscribe, and we'll see you on the next adventure.