A post for yesterday.....a day late.

I honestly hated leaving this morning. I was so comfortable at our campsite. It was peacefully quiet and picturesque. This morning I woke up to a light fog filling the campground. No one was outside yet and it was just silent. I couldn’t help but snap a picture from our front door. 

After breakfast we had all worked together to clean the trailer and got everything put away. Matt started to get the trailer ready for the road, raising the stabilizers, disconnecting everything and attaching the hitch. I decided I would go check out the dog park so Chance could stretch his legs. I didn’t have great expectations since I have been to a few dogs parks that were nothing more than a patch of enclosed dirt. However, this dog park was very nice! There were plenty of dog obstacles for Chance to run through and jump over. He had a blast there. I just had to have the kids come check this area out too. Tristan thought that the tunnel was a blast. I am betting his pants will never come clean again.

It was nearing checkout time so we went back to our site. Remember yesterday when Tristan decided to sample puddle water? He was ever so kind to demonstrate for me again today. I was ready for him today. Camera in hand, I let him play in the mud and the next thing I knew, down went his head and he popped back up with a muddy face. He only tried it once today and then he wanted his face washed and a drink of water. Boys are silly. I don’t remember Trinity ever taste testing a puddle. 

We hit the road at noon on the dot. We have been trying to fill the gas tank before we hit the highway so we stopped down the road from the campground. Trinity noticed that there were some skydivers floating through the air. I tried to take pictures of the little specks. I am fascinated by seeing things in the air such as planes, birds, kites and balloons but to me, people dangling from some strings and a piece of cloth is just all out crazy to me. I can bet you that you will never catch me jumping out of a plane unless the plane is already going down anyway! How about any of you? Would you skydive if you had the chance? Have any of you ever done it? 

After that, we hit the open road. Took a few pictures of Ohio’s vast openness and thought about what a difference between Ohio and Pennsylvania. Bordering states, yet their terrain is so much different from one another. Ohio is flat land while Pa is rather mountainous on I-80. Fascinating. 

We pulled over at a boat docking area and the rocks there were just so interesting to me. Each one was so much different that the one sitting right next to it. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. 

I noticed this the other day when we went to Lerch RV. I told Matt that the next time we passed it, I wanted pictures. The layers are awesome. Just imagine how long it took for that rock to form. Wow. 

We stopped for dinner at Sonic. Let me say, it is so cool to be able to bring your kitchen with you when we go out to eat. We no longer fit through drive thru’s so Matt parked us and then went in to grab a bite. Then we all sat at the kitchen table and ate. I loved it. It took us buying an rv for us to eat together at the kitchen table. Next step is for us to actually cook the dinner. We didn’t bring our pots and pans so cooking didn’t happen this weekend. I am not even sure if we can bring our current set of cookware. It weighs a ton and now suddenly I find myself checking the weight on everything we put in the trailer. Every pound adds up now. Maybe I should lose a few and contribute!

From one KOA to another

Ahhhh, finally rested! We all feel much better and the kids are all back on schedule, hopefully. We woke up before all of the kids, well except for Triton who is currently Mommy and Daddy's early morning alarm clock. Matt went to the kid's room to check in on them. He found Tristan curled up on the pull out bed under his bunk. I guess at some point during the night he rolled the wrong direction and fell out of his top bunk. I had previously prepared for this so I transformed the couch into a bed which then covered most of the floorspace. Whew! I'm thankful for Mommy thinking!

We hit the road around 10:30 with no plans in particular on where to stop. Just driving in the general direction of home. This is what I am looking forward to the most about full timing. I like the idea of not having an agenda. If we like the scenery at one place then we can stay there as long as we like. Excellent for when you have noisy neighbors too.  


We started our trip with me deciding that I would try driving this monster. I made it two miles and I am proud! I think I can drive a tractor trailer now, even if it is only for two miles. Friday was a nightmare pulling the trailer. We bought a Blue Ox Sway Pro weight distributing hitch to help with towing. Sadly the hitch was not hooked up very well and we experienced what felt like the trailer driving the Excursion. It was not much fun and we were thinking that the drive home would be very slow. Luckily my husband used his resources and got great advice from other Excursion owners on a forum he belongs to. With the proper set up it was a completely different towing experience. Thank You forum guys!!

On the way from Ohio, things were quiet. It was just open road and rest stops. Our dog, Chance, was loving it. Every time we would stop, he would go out and play with his ball. He is enjoying the opportunity to splash around in every puddle. 

Tristan was also enjoy the puddles. We were in the process of setting up the trailer when I heard Matt tell me that Tristan was drinking out of a puddle. I looked out the door to see him folded over at the waist, face first in the puddle. He sat up with this huge grin and mud from ear to ear. He thought that was the coolest thing he had done to date. Personally, I think it is the most disgusting thing he's ever done. It was one of those moments where I really wish the camera was handy!


After that excitement, things were quiet. We all relaxed and went to a restaurant in the area that we had never heard of. I will be including it in my "Week in Review". Afterwards we stopped by Walmart to get a few things for the trailer. How did we survive before Walmart?


Today we head home and return to "normal" life. The trailer will be parked at a storage unit until the next trip at the end of the month. I am betting that the townhouse will suddenly feel a whole lot bigger!!




Oh and by the way.....I am loving these KOA's (Kampgrounds of America). They have everything we need to feel like we are still home. Water, electric, sewer, WiFi.....even CABLE! I am spoiled. I know that when we go full time, places like these will be a treat for us. Real full timers are frugal and often times they do what is called boondocking. That is where they are not connected to anything. They have access to whatever water is in their fresh tank and they are limited to the capacity of their grey tank (water that goes down the drain) and black tank (toilet water). I am not ready for that just yet. I am going to slowly transition. I know I will need my internet where ever we are. I have to keep blogging!!!


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Welcome to the Family

I love being on the road. All the new sights to take in and the beautiful scenery. Sadly none of that was able to be enjoyed last night since it was dark for nearly 85% of our trip but it was a nice ride none the less. An otherwise 9 hour trip became a 13 hour trip once we added kids to the mix. I've always noticed that we never make it anywhere on time anymore. Yesterday Tristan woke up with a cold and he was past the point of miserable. When he wasn't coughing, he was crying. So then Triton started crying because big brother's wailing was so loud in such a confined space. By the time we were closing in on our destination.....Mommy was almost crying too. Somehow Tristan managed to stay up almost the entire trip which meant he also kept his big sister and little brother awake. On a positive note, he kept Mommy and Daddy awake too!

I was really excited about entering Ohio because this state has KRISPY KREME donut shops. All of our local stores closed years ago and we could never justify the drive to Baltimore just for donuts. Although I will admit we have been tempted. 

We located one on our iPhones and we went off the beaten path with the hopes that it would be open when we got there and that the beautiful red donut sign would be telling us that fresh hot donuts were ready for us. We got half of what were were wanting. Google maps has lead us astray more times then we can count so it always seems like a victory when we pull up to an address and what we were looking for is actually there. The Krispy Kreme was there and open but no fresh hot donuts at the moment. That was ok. I would survive. We ordered a dozen for the family to share and then Trinity and I went in to watch the donuts be made. Always a good time. The staff at the Cleveland location were so nice and inviting. I enjoyed our stopover there. 

Another two hours of driving and we arrived at All American Coach right as they were opening. The experience there was very pleasant. They took the time to go over every part of the Springdale for us. I absorbed maybe 5% of what I was being told because I was so exhausted but we were told to call if we had any questions or needed help after we left. Overall, a wonderful experience. 

We are now at a local KOA and all I want to do is sleep and eat and then sleep again!

I will be writing a "Week in Review" at the end of each week giving my personal review of places that we visited. For now......BEDTIME.

Almost there.....almost there

So my husband, Matt, finds this other travel trailer that he thinks will fit our needs better and so we decided to at least go give it a look. Lerch RV in Pa is about three hours away from us and maybe calling ahead would have been the wisest idea but we skipped that step.
So there we were....traveling the beautiful highways of PA when all of the sudden we heard the sound of a rock hitting our windshield. Matt and I looked at each other and then scanned the windshield hoping we lucked out. Nope, there it was....a cracked windshield on the passenger side by the support beam. Ugh. Maybe we should have opted for that glass coverage after all.
So we brush it off and continue on our way to Lerch RV. We show up and it starts to rain. Maybe it was a sign that we should just go home. We press on and run inside to avoid being soaked. First impressions mean a lot to me and I was not thrilled from the start. There was no one there to point us in the direction of a sales person so we just stood there looking lost. Finally someone asked us if they could help us and directed us to a salesperson. We knew exactly what we were looking for so we told her which model and she went out to the lot, put the slides out for us and then came back in the office to tell us where we could go find it. I guess I am used to car sales where the sales person actually tries to sell you the vehicle. This was nothing like that at all. She never came out to the travel trailer with us at all. We walked through and anxiously went straight to the back where they bunkhouse was with double slides. This was the part Matt was trying to sell me on. The double slides gave more floor space for the kids if they were unable to be outside due to rain. So he goes back and tries to open the door. It opened about three inches and then abruptly stopped. The other slide was never put out in turn making the door unable to open. The trailer had no power hooked up to it so we were unable to put the slide out ourselves. So we load everyone back up and start to head back to the office when luckily another salesman helped us and opened the slide. He was in the middle of helping another customer at the time so we did not expect him to stay and explain things to us.
So we tour through it and decide that it is ok if we can get the right financing for it. We were already approved for another trailer so getting financing for this one shouldn't have been a problem. Again, we head back inside, rain drops pelting us on the head the whole way. Our saleswoman was busy and so we were shuffled to the salesman that helped us put out the slide. He was extremely friendly and helpful. I was starting to feel comfortable there. He answered all of our questions and then we were directed to the finance department. The owner's daughter was the person in charge of financing and WOW!!! The sense of entitlement that she possessed was strong enough to knock you over at the door. If you go there to purchase an rv the advice that I would offer is to have your financing in order before you go. She was no help at all and condescending to boot. Not a good combination.
So we leave there feeling like we wasted half of our day but our minds were made up that we would be purchasing the original travel trailer in Ohio. We drive the three hours back to our local bank and make the commitment to our travel trailer for the next five years of our lives. A scary feeling honestly but I also felt like we had crossed the threshold as well.
So here I am today, blogging and packing for our trip to pick up our newest family member on wheels. I am anxious and the anticipation is almost like when I was a kid waiting to tear open my birthday presents. On our journey home we will be taking our time so we can stop and stay in our new home. Fingers crossed that this will work out as planned over the weekend!!

Finally....a three year dream starting to become reality.

So you have to wonder what kind of people would give up 98% of their possessions, move out of a two story town house and leave their extended family behind for a life on the road in 30 feet of living space. The crazy kind right? Well maybe you are on to something. I see us as liberating ourselves and our children from the lifestyle that capitalism has contributed to. Growing up I lived on a farm so I spent many of my days outside exploring nature. My oldest, Trinity, would rather watch a movie than go outside. I want so much more for her and her younger brothers. We don't see this as us living in a 30 foot long travel trailer. We see that as a place to sleep. We will have the entire continental US as our playground and exploration center. What better way for our children to learn about our country and nature than to see and touch it for themselves. As kids ourselves we always were excited when it was time for a field trip at school. Imagine being on a constant field trip! That is the plan!

Up until recently, this idea has been in the planning stages. We talked about what kind of travel trailer to purchase, how we were going to school my daughter and most importantly how we were going to make money while on the road. To be honest, we still do not have the answers to all of those questions but I realized that if we waited around forever to have all the answers, then we would never be on the road full time.

Well we took the leap and purchased the travel trailer. I put the pen to the paper tomorrow and I will admit that I am nervous about it. It is one step that we are taking towards living an unconventional lifestyle. It is becoming a reality for us. I expect that it will be slow going at first but eventually we will be on the road full time and enjoying all America has to offer at the pace we choose to enjoy it. I hope you come along for the ride!