RV Living Quarterly Report (December 2019)

We officially moved into our 35-ft Winnebago on December 14, 2018.  After the Camp Fire, we decided that living in a tiny house on wheels and traveling around to see the Western USA would be the best thing for our family of five.  Like thousands of other families in Paradise, California, we’d lost our house and all of our stuff in the Camp Fire. We found that in the immediate aftermath of the disaster we had few viable options.  There was a housing crisis situation in all the surrounding communities.  All of the rental houses and apartments were completely full within days.  It seemed our choices were to stay with generous friends in their guest room, live in a hotel room, move somewhere and rent something, or buy an RV and live in it while traveling.  My wonderful husband, E, was already working via telecommuting and I was already homeschooling our 3 kiddos.  It seemed like we were set up to hit the road!

It’s been a year since we began this displacement adventure and technically we’re not living in our RV right now, but I wanted to give y’all an update about what’s going on with our living situation. We arrived back in California in September 2019, we stayed at the Yuba City Fairgrounds for a couple weeks. Then we stayed with my parents in their rental house for a few days. We decided to rent a house with a 4-month lease and moved in on October 1st.

Our RV was in need of a few minor repairs and maintenance, so we booked an appointment at the dealership where it is still under warranty.  We dropped off the rig on October 25th, 2019 and it’s still there…  We had an update phone call last week, and the repair shop employee said that they are still waiting on a part that had been back-ordered… So, here we wait.

We are sure glad we decided to find a rental with a short lease agreement!  What a blessing this house has been!  We have had a wonderful time using the large kitchen, entertaining friends and family, hosting Thanksgiving dinner and we plan to have Christmas here too.  We are stretching our legs in this 2500 square foot home and letting the kiddos run amuck in the large living space.  I love the washer/dryer and I also love the dishwasher!  I hope that I will never take any of those amazing appliances for granted again.

We are taking this opportunity to get all caught up on our medical check-ups.  We all had our 6-month dental cleanings. E and I had some minor dental work completed. S and I got new glasses frames.  S got transition lenses and loves them, I finally got my first pair of prescription sunglasses. I’ve been having some high blood pressure issues and started a low dose of medication to help control it (I have a family history of hypertension and the stress of everything going on isn’t helping).

While staying put we’ve been able to see some fun things in the area:

• Maddi’s Fridge – Laxson Auditorium
• Fall Salmon Run 🐟 – Feather River – Oroville, California
• TJ Farms Estates 🎃 – Chico, California
• Playzeum – Yuba City, California
• Bishop’s Pumpkin 🎃 Farm – Wheatland, California
• Second Trip to Bishop’s Pumpkin 🎃 Farm – Wheatland, California
• Apple 🍎 Hill – Boa Vista Orchards – Placerville, California
• The Boulder Field 🧗‍♀️ – Sacramento, California
• Hillside Poms – Corning, California

• Brock’s Ice Cream – Yuba City, California

Plus we enjoyed a mini road trip to visit Bend, Oregon:

• Wanoga Sno-Park ❄️ – Bend, Oregon
• Dutchman Flat Sno-Park ⛄️ – Mt. Bachelor, Oregon
• House 🏡 Hunting With Your Spouse After a Natural Disaster

Here are the links to our two previous quarterly report summaries:

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

Here’s a brief Q & A with our family of five: E (age 41), me (age 39), S (age 9), K (age 7), B (age 5)

What do you like best about living in a house?

• E: I like the space. I like that I can hide from the kids in a different room! There’s a solid door to my office. Our whole family can sit on the couch together.
• me: Having our own private laundry room, the dishwasher, reading stories and cuddling on the couch, cooking in the big kitchen
• S: My Lego technics do not fall under the slide-out!
• K: More room to play!
• B: More room!

What do you miss about living in the RV?

• E: I didn’t have to take PTO (paid time off work) to visit National Parks. It was less expensive to see cool stuff.
• me: I miss going on family hikes almost every week and visiting National Parks.  I miss having less space to clean and feeling like we didn’t need as much stuff.
• S: I don’t know.
• K: Traveling
• B: Traveling

Where do you think we should live next?

• E: It depends on what day you ask me [insert eye roll 🙄 here]. North Carolina, Idaho, Texas, and California are on the shortlist.
• me: Today my answer is a toss-up between somewhere in California and traveling in the RV again, but I might change my mind tomorrow! Bend, Oregon was a very nice place…
• S: I think we should live in Yuba City, California because our friends B, L and R live there. Or Canada because my grandpa used to live there.
• K: Chico, California because most of our friends live there.
• B: Sacramento, California Because The Boulder Field 🧗‍♀️ is there.

Our rental lease in this house will end January 31 and we are still unsure of what the future holds for our location.  Please keep us in your prayers for wisdom as we discuss all of our possibilities. Because our current lifestyle would allow us to live almost anywhere we have a lot of possibilities!

We are grateful to each of our followers and everyone who visits our blog.  It is such a joy to share our adventures with you!  Thank you so much for following us or stopping by to visit!

From our family to yours – We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!