My heart soared when I saw the joy and excitement on my children’s faces as they rode their first REAL roller coaster, roller skated and rode scooters for the first time. They held an alligator, snakes and countless little creatures that crossed our path. They pet a bear cub, sharks, stingrays, a monkey and a baby porcupine. They rode horses and even a camel. They hand fed giraffes and deer. I held a baby kangaroo in my arms, and a monkey on my shoulder. We saw manatees, alligators, dolphins, crabs, owls and many other creatures not just in zoos, but in the wild!
We took the kids to Legoland, Kings Island, our first RV Rally, we visited farms and picked our own fruit, went on factory tours, the rodeo, and watched in amazement while my previously 2 and 3 lb babies conquered an incredible ropes course with confidence and strength!
Jobs, high-paying, long-held jobs with co-workers that we love. A house that cost too much and was full of things that we didn't need. Routines. But also friends. Some of the best friends that we have ever known. But the best thing about friends is that we can pick up where we left off the next time we are together again. Our kids are missing their weekly horseback riding lessons and dance classes they enjoyed in Vegas. I miss having a washer and dryer and the kids miss having a bathtub.
What's the worst part of living in an RV?
Repairs! That is the absolute worst! Imagine having to pack up and move out of your house indefinitely whenever something needed fixed. That's what we have to do. And it's NEVER a quick fix, even when they tell you it will be. We bought a new RV. Knowing we'd be living in it, we felt a new one would have fewer issues and the assurance that the warranty would make repairs easy and free. Yah, no. After our experience I would never encourage someone to buy a new RV and move into it full-time right away. Fortunately we had ours for six months before we moved in, but it was in the shop all but a couple of those weeks. In fact it was in the shop more than not for the first year! Turns out, repairs are common in the first year, so next time, I'll buy one that's a couple years old and probably one that was lived in because chances are they will have upgraded it like we did.
Our second most stressful duty? Travel planning. Yah, we actually laugh that THIS is our biggest challenge these days. Not a bad problem to have. We have a huge list of places we want to go, but planning around weather and trying to make it back to see family makes it a bit complicated.
What's the best part about living life on the road?
Honestly just about everything. Not having to hold my toddler son while he screams and cries unconsolably for his daddy because he's at work. The time to sit for hours to let our children play in a random place, throwing rocks, digging in sand, chasing birds. The freedom. Constantly meeting new people who quickly become friends for the day, week or life (potentially). We have seriously met incredible people who make us sad to leave sometimes.
What is our typical day?
I'll be honest, we rarely leave our home before 10am. Most days we go somewhere like a museum, zoo, park or a top rated destination that I found on TripAdvisor. Hiking is our favorite activity, beach combing is our second. Often we are out and about until sunset and the kids fall asleep in the truck on our drive home. Then there are the rare but essential days that we just stay at home and play at the campground. This often involves LEGOs, blocks, play-doh and crafts. I work on my blog and clean the RV while Daddy books our future travel. Then there are travel days or "moving day" as we call it. We have 3 slides that have to come in, so we move a few things around, close them up and secure things inside while Daddy hooks up the RV to the truck. We try to keep our drive time under four hours, but sometimes things come up and we have to go longer. For instance the 17hours that we spent traveling from Florida to Texas in two days. We stop at museums or zoos along our route when we can, and rest stops when we can't. You'd be surprised how much fun you can have chasing two 4 year olds and a dog around an open field in the middle of a long drive.
Curious what we spent?
First I should mention how much we made this year.....
$450 from winning a photo scavenger hunt and modeling for an RV company. Yes, random.
Now here's what we spent (some of these are explained below):
$4,178 on campsites including utilities except propane which cost us maybe $300.
$7,500 on fuel (approx) - while living in Vegas we spent about $6,000/yr driving to work, doctor appointments and activities, so when you add in the travel that we typically did, it's about the same.
$1,060 on entertainment- includes our museum membership, tours, amusement parks, movies etc.
< $100 on laundry- we were fortunate to have friends and family let us use theirs otherwise this number would be three times this amount!
Food- We probably spent less on the road than in Vegas because Daddy went out to lunch most weekdays. We eat out 1-2 times per week now.
We spent $4178 on campsites for 143 nights, an average of $29/night (cheapest paid site was $7, most expensive $50). We spent 11 nights in free lots like Walmart or zoo parking lots and spent a whopping 195 nights parked at the home of our friends or family. Two months of staying with family was unplanned. We moved into my dad's house while our RV was in the shop. We spent 16 days in hotels on vacation with my parents and during our last RV repair.
We have a museum membership that gives us reciprocal benefits at ASTC (free entry to science centers) and AZA (free or half price admission to zoos and aquariums) locations. A fantastic investment for a traveler! The membership cost us $70. We spent 46 days at 38 different places. We spent $265 on extras- parking, IMAX or planetarium shows and special tours, but we SAVED $1,803 on admissions! This membership has really allowed us to learn so much and enjoy what these zoos and museums have to offer which we couldn't afford otherwise.
< $100 on laundry- we were fortunate to have friends and family let us use theirs otherwise this number would be three times this amount!
Food- We probably spent less on the road than in Vegas because Daddy went out to lunch most weekdays. We eat out 1-2 times per week now.
We spent $4178 on campsites for 143 nights, an average of $29/night (cheapest paid site was $7, most expensive $50). We spent 11 nights in free lots like Walmart or zoo parking lots and spent a whopping 195 nights parked at the home of our friends or family. Two months of staying with family was unplanned. We moved into my dad's house while our RV was in the shop. We spent 16 days in hotels on vacation with my parents and during our last RV repair.
We have a museum membership that gives us reciprocal benefits at ASTC (free entry to science centers) and AZA (free or half price admission to zoos and aquariums) locations. A fantastic investment for a traveler! The membership cost us $70. We spent 46 days at 38 different places. We spent $265 on extras- parking, IMAX or planetarium shows and special tours, but we SAVED $1,803 on admissions! This membership has really allowed us to learn so much and enjoy what these zoos and museums have to offer which we couldn't afford otherwise.
We spent $273 for admission to 20 other zoos or museums that weren't part of our membership. Some were free, like the air museums while others offered an opportunity that we couldn't pass up, like watching venom extractions in Florida, seeing actual dinosaur prints in a mountain in Colorado, and touring the Tennessee cave that's home to the largest underground lake. We toured submarines, battleships, a number of factories, farms, and even Keystone, where our RV was built.
Of course there are other expenses like insurance, registration, etc, but we had those while living in a "sticks and bricks" house. RV repairs were all covered by the warranty. Overall we spent quite a bit less than we did in a house. If you look at our average campsite cost, per month would be under $900. Our house payment plus utilities was about a thousand over that, even more during the Vegas summers! Saving money is nice, but the ability to rest our home in gorgeous locations all over the US has been truly amazing!
I created this blog right before we left. Intended as a photo journal that I will someday print out for ourselves to remember our adventures. It's also a convenient way to allow friends and family to follow along with where we are and what we've been up to. I have published 152 posts and have more than 7300 page views at this point, which just amazes me! My blog is often featured on topfamilytravelblogs.com, an online magazine that compiles relevant blogs.
This next year on the road will be different from our first. We are headed back out west and will try to travel a little bit slower, staying longer in an area. This summer you will find us exploring and enjoying the beaches of California. We have accepted our first workamping job near Las Vegas which will allow us to spend the winter back "home" with friends. We're also kicking around the idea of taking the kids on their first international trip to a language school to learn Espaniol. We feel extremely blessed and grateful for the opportunities we've had so far and we're excited to see what God has in store for us this year!
Congrats on the one year out!
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