RV Living Quarterly Report (June 2019) – Six Month Stats, Q&A, and Traveling Insights

We officially began living in our RV on December 14, 2018. It’s our 6 month Winnebago anniversary today! That’s right, any excuse for a cupcake!

I do realize that I didn’t write a quarterly report in March, (which would have been our 3 month Winnebago anniversary). I just hadn’t felt up to blogging quite yet at that time. I’m planning on writing a quarterly report from here on out.

So far, we have…

Driven/Ridden in the Winnebago for:

• 3,572 miles

Visited 4 states:

• California
• Arizona
• Oregon
• Idaho

Stayed at 14 different campgrounds or RV parks:

• Yuba City Fairgrounds, CA

• Lake Minden RV Resort (TT), CA

• Millerton Lake, CA

• Sam’s Family Spa, CA

• Palm Springs RV Resort (TT), CA

• Shadow Hills RV Resort, CA

• Verde Valley RV & Camping Resort (TT), AZ

• Casa Grande RV Resort, AZ

• Leaf Verde RV Resort, AZ

• (Sam’s Family Spa again)

• Marina Dunes RV Park, CA

• (Sam’s Family Spa again)

• San Benito RV Resort (TT), CA

• Lake Siskiyou, California

• Bend-Sunriver RV Campground (TT), OR
• Mountain Home RV Resort, Idaho

Explored 3 National Parks:

• Petrified Forest, AZ
• Joshua Tree National Park, CA
• Pinnacles National Park, CA

and 6 National Monuments:

• Montezuma’s Castle, AZ
• Tuzigoot, AZ
• Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains, CA
• Cabrillo, CA
• Newberry National Volcanic Monument, OR
• Hagerman Fossil Beds, ID

and 3 State Parks:

• Slide Rock, AZ
• Thousand Springs State Park, ID
• Bruneau Dunes State Park, ID

The kiddos have earned 8 Junior Ranger badges from National/State Parks/Monuments plus one pair of Junior Pilot wings from the USS Midway in San Diego, California.

We have been on too many field trips to list! There have been such fun things to do and see every place we have visited. America is so beautiful!

FAQs

Here is a “Q & A” session with our family of five; B (age 5), K (age 6.5), S (age 9), me and E. *Btw, I’m totally stealing this “Q & A” idea from The Rookie Roadsters 😘!

• What is your favorite state we visited? Why?

B: Arizona. Yikes spikes! [B said that every time he saw a cactus.]

K: California. Because Paradise was in California.

S: Idaho. Because I like mashed potatoes and they have great potatoes.

me: Arizona. The landscape was really different from what I am used to. It was awesome to see all the saguaro cactus. And all the Native American history is fascinating.

E: Arizona. Awesome views.

• What was your favorite place we stayed? Why?

B: Yuba City Fairgrounds, CA. Because we got to see Bubba & Muga.

K: Sam’s Family Spa, CA. Because I learned to ride my bike there and because of the pools.

S: Mountain Home RV Resort, ID. Because it’s nice and there’s a lot of trees and it’s paved.

me: Sam’s Family Spa, CA, the mineral hot tubs were amazing and the laundry facility was stellar!

E: Lake Siskiyou, California. We got to do fun activities like kayaking and having campfires and s’mores.

• What was your favorite National/State Park/Monument? Why?

B: Slide Rock. Because there was ice and snow!

K: Pinnacles National Park. I ❤️ caves!

S: Newberry National Volcanic Monument. Because there was lots of lava rock there.

me: Joshua Tree National Park. This place was like nowhere I’ve ever been before it was like visiting another planet. I could’ve gone there every day.

E: Joshua Tree National Park. Awesome views and great scenery.

• What was your favorite field trip or activity? Why?

B: Legoland (California), because most of the stuff was made out of Legos. USS Midway (San Diego), because the instrument room was so cool. Monterey Bay Aquarium, because it had sharks and a ton of sardines! Brock’s Ice Cream (Yuba City), because we got ice cream [they serve huge scoops & it’s made from scratch].

K: The Jelly Belly Factory (Fairfield, CA), because there were so many jelly beans. Legoland (CA), because so much stuff was made out of Legos. Brandini Toffee (Palm Desert, CA), because the toffee was so good. Monterey Bay Aquarium, I liked all the little fishes and big fishes.

S: Legoland (CA), because I got to go on the submarine ride!

me: Kayaking on Lake Siskiyou, California. The lake is so beautiful with the view of Mt. Shasta. I ❤️ lakes!

E: Mountain biking in The City of Mount Shasta, CA. The trails were awesome and the Jones bike is great!

• What was your favorite animal that we saw in the wild?

B: The baby ducks we saw on the paddle boats. (Boise, Idaho)

K: The baby bunnies. (Bend-Sunriver RV Campground, OR)

S: All the different kids of pet dogs. (Have I mentioned that S wants a pet dog?)

me: The herd of wild pigs (San Benito RV Resort), roadrunners (Palm Desert, CA), and the javelina (Cottonwood, AZ).

E: The flock of big horn sheep (Palm Desert, CA), the herd of pronghorns (Petrified Forest National Park), and the pack of coyotes (Mountain Home, ID).

• What is the hardest part about living in the RV?

B: It’s hard to open the fridge.

K: We have to have less toys than we used to have.

S: Living in a tiny space. I like more space.

me: The kitchen is too small for me to cook like I used to. Doing laundry can be really inconvenient. I miss my dishwasher.

E: Trying to work in the small, shared space with unreliable internet and cell service.

• What is the best part of living in the RV?

B: It moves!

K: We get to see fun places.

S: That we’re able to see fun places.

me: Traveling around to see and experience new amazing places.

E: Not having a mortgage payment.

• What is God teaching you through this adventure?

B: To share.

K: I don’t know.

S: To be patient and wait until we get a house.

me: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” – Matthew 6:34 (NIV)

E: To listen to my wife more.

• Where do you want to go next?

B: Paris, France to see the Eiffel Tower.

K: Sam’s Family Spa.

S: Family Camp and ride the go-carts!

me: Ho for Florida!

E: Colorado

• What do you hope your kiddos are getting out of this adventure?

E and I are just hoping that our kiddos will grow up and think back and say, hmmm… that year our house burned down and we lost everything… oh yeah, that was the year we went on that awesome road trip!

Here are some traveling insights we have learned:

• We can comfortably travel a maximum of 375 miles in one day.
• Our average pace is about 45 miles per hour with pit stops.
• It takes about 30 minutes to fill the tank up with gasoline.
• We can comfortably travel a maximum of one day per week (Sunday). It is better if we stay at one place for at least 2 weeks.
• It takes us about 2 hours to prep everything before we hit the road.
• It takes us about 2 hours to get settled in after we initially arrive at a new destination.
• The day after we arrive at a new destination, E needs to go out and get some exercise to de-stress from the drive.
• If we are going to live full-time in our RV and travel around, we really ought to invest in a RV sticker map. We ordered one as an anniversary gift for ourselves!

This adventure has been a time of monumental growth for us as individuals and as a family. We have had some high highs and some low lows. We are blessed beyond all measure and we are deeply grateful for what we have. We are so thankful that we are able to experience this adventure. We continue to grieve the loss of our pre Camp Fire lifestyle, community, hometown, house, and sentimental belongings. It’s going to take us some more time to recover. I don’t think that there’s any way I can speed up the healing/grief process. It’s just something we’re going to have to wait out. Some days are better than others. Sometimes visiting a beautiful place is the thing that keeps us going. We are grounded in our faith, our family and our traditions.

Thank you so much to everyone who is following our blog. It means so much to have you along for the adventure. If you’re not already following, join us today!

If you have any questions or comments, leave ’em below. We would love to answer your questions!