Oops…It’s Been a Year Since I’ve Written Here :(

Posted on September 8, 2021 by alyssa

So, it seems that I blinked or blacked out or something and all the sudden it’s been almost a whole year since I’ve written anything on here. Oops!

There’s a lot of reasons for that. I’d itemize a list for you, but I’d prefer to blather on endlessly because after all, that’s what blogs are for.

The magic of blogs under a double rainbow

For a long time, this blog was all about my “homes on the road,” which was a fun way to share cool places we camped all over the continent while full-time RVing. When that shindig ended, my blog (and I) felt a bit lost. I optimistically mused about blogging on topics like DIY house renovations, gardening, mom-hood, etc. But even now, 2+ years after being out of the full-time RV life, still none of that stuff makes that sense to me. At least not enough to pretend to be enough of an expert on to write about.

Full-time travel? Of course, that was never as easy or glamorous as it probably appeared in small snippets every few weeks on your screen. But it made sense in my head, at least most of the time. House life? Mom life? None of that comes as naturally, and I sometimes feel like I’m going through the motions of someone else’s life while barely treading water.

Over the years, I’ve taken this blog to some semi-personal places but it’s all been pretty travel-related, and that’s my safe place. Owning a legit housing structure on a remote piece of property where the desert meets the forest and the mountains is its own adventure. So is keeping a small human alive, day in and day out. Yet writing about those things for all the world to see (correction: probably three friends and two stalkers) makes me want to squeeze myself under the bed and hide even though I don’t fit down there.

Meanwhile, more and more people I know aren’t cool publicly sharing things online anymore, that whole concept is iffy with a baby, and talking about travel during COVID sometimes feels sketchy too. Other excuses I make for neglecting this blog are being too burnt out from writing for work to ever feel like writing for “fun,” being too generally exhausted from baby life to do anything creative, and being distracted by shiny things.

Quick! Everybody hide your nose and mouth!

But alas, I feel crappy about letting my miniature corner of the world go to waste. It’s a place I carved out to chitter-chatter about cool places without selling out or turning a passion project into yet another chore to weigh me down. In the meanwhile, I’ve actually been traveling quite a bit since full-time camper life ended and exploring lots of awesome places around my home base in New Mexico. I’ve also finally started to bust out of my comfort zone and meet some cool local people who are into some of the same stuff I am. Some of this deserves writing about, which is why I’m here again to fill the void.

Enough blather for you? Okay then. Moving on!

Besides the blather, my actual goal with this post was to give a quick recap of cool places I’ve been hanging out so far in 2021. Yet again, I considered venturing out to other topics for this blog but that didn’t go so well. So, why not stick with the tried and true?

Sure, travel hasn’t always been without its controversy his year, but I’m not a dumb traveler….I’m vaccinated, a responsible masker, a relentless planner, and an informed reader of reliable things. I’ll always have a restless spirit and a wandering soul. But the Southwest still feels like home to me on most days, and I want to share that with you, dear world.

So, without further ado (and I think you’d agree that there’s been plenty of ado), here are some cool spots I’ve been lately with one representative photo per place to keep it simple and moving along. Oh, and a few anecdotes because that’s just what I do.

Tucson/Wilcox, Arizona – January 2021

Saguaros always win the “who’s taller?” game

What better place to escape for the winter in the Southwest than Tucson? This camper trip was filled with wonderfully wearing tank tops in January, cool rock formations, iconic cacti, and buying some random pottery. So far, my baby hasn’t fallen into a cactus, and I’m trying to keep it that way.

Taos/Angel Fire, New Mexico – February 2021

Despite the adorable look on little Chikoo’s face, snow isn’t exactly his cup of tea. Regardless, we headed up to the Northern New Mexico ski resorts to get in some runs and playtime out in that white stuff.

Las Cruces, New Mexico / El Paso, Texas – March 2021

One of Monkey’s favorite places on the planet is White Sands National Park. The gypsum sand stays cool on even the hottest of days and is oh-so-soft on doggie paws. Yet the winds here are absolutely nuts, and this visit was no exception. We met our good Chicago friends, Bryina, here and following a winery/lunch stop nearby on a particularly awesome day. Other highlights from this camping trip were walking through the pueblo ruins, bike trails, and roadside antique shops selling super weird stuff.

Grandparents Visit NM – April 2021

Countless trips around the yard riding in this red beauty

April was one of the rare months when we didn’t leave the area for a camping excursion. My little man turned one year old in April, so Grandma and Grandpa drove out to New Mexico to celebrate. The local staycation involved the small man’s first trip to the zoo, a sugary birthday cake, and a crazy number of new things to play with.

Southeast Utah – May 2021

Impossible to take a bad pic with a Utah arch in the background

May is always a big travel month for us…it’s the husband’s birthday, our marriage anniversary, and a perfect time to be outdoors in the Southwest. Those red rock landscapes in Utah are my favorite places to be, and it’d been too long since we’ve been back among them. This trip included a first-time visit to Capitol Reef National Park, a revisit to Canyonlands National Park and Moab, and some random finds like Leprechaun Canyon and the Factory Buttle OHV area. Bonus points for an overnight in one of our favorite Colorado spots, Cortez, on the way back home. It was pretty much all hiking all the time, so definitely thanking the universe that the Chikoo rides awesomely in a baby hiking backpack.

Ladies’ Weekend in ABQ & Jemez Springs – June 2021

This girl is my ride-or die. We text and video chat every day, but that’s not always enough. She was awesome enough to fly out to see me in June so we could party it up downtown, go hiking, wine tasting, and get into random shenanigans along the way.

Arizona Pitstop – July 2021

It was 112 degrees outside, but that doesn’t stop us from seeing awesome people. Arizona transplants, Chancy, met up with us for a delicious lunch and boat cruise on Saguaro Lake. There were good drinks, great views, and even better times hanging out. I give this day a solid two fist bumps, even when we spent a stupid amount of time loitering in a CVS just because it had air conditioning.

SoCal/NorCal – July 2021

Playing in sand: 5 stars. Scary ocean waves: 2 stars.

Now this was a fun camper excursion. We set up camp just outside of San Diego and took the Chikoo to his very first beach, Imperial Beach. There were also splash pads, breweries, in-laws, more breweries, fun Cali friend meetups, and lovely weather. Bonus points for a fun rendezvous in Downtown Flagstaff on the way back.

Northwest New Mexico Birthday – August 2021

The time came to turn 38, so I may as well get on a boat about it, eh? Birthday celebrations took me to Northwest New Mexico with stops in Farmington, the Bisti Badlands, and Navajo Lake. Getting old isn’t so bad when you’re surrounded by scenery like this.

Local Adventures Close to Home – 2021

Yet within a 30-minute or less from my house, I’ve found plenty of other good stuff to do too. There have been a scattering public pools, cat cafes, brew spots, music festivals, playgrounds, trails, group hikes, and mom meetups…not to mention monsoon season with its epic sunsets filled with lightning and double rainbows.

You know you’re a local when you take sunset pics in your backyard every evening

Dunno when I’ll be back here…maybe sooner, maybe later. But for now, my blog neglect guilt is absolved! And there’s still plenty of 2021 left to go exploring. Toot-a-loo!

That day I hiked into a canyon in a dress and tried to look professional

RV Life to House Life Transition: Final Month #38

Posted on September 13, 2019 by alyssa

I’d like to start off this post by thanking my supportive friends for following along and sporadically commenting on my full-time RV life journey for the past three years and two months. Only half of month #38 (the last of the months I’ll be numbering, don’t worry) was spent on the road, but I wanted to write one final post in this series to chat about those final two weeks and the transition to house life in New Mexico.

If RV life does anything, it makes you super-adaptable to whatever comes your way. This is probably why making such a dramatic move hasn’t been an insane shock to my system like I once worried it might be.

Here’s a quick recap of this past month’s batch of homes on (and off) the road.

California Summer Road Trip: Home on the Road #126 (continued)

We wrapped up our time in the Bay Area of California with a few more visits with friends and family and then started the journey back to New Mexico – by way of Yuma, Arizona to clear out the random five-foot by five-foot storage unit we’d been keeping there. Storage unit clean-out day was a stifling 113 degrees, as it often is in Yuma. But finally for the first time in several years, all of our worldly possessions were in one place: fully contained in our RV and Jeep.

I also had the pleasure (?) of turning 36 on this return journey, which I can’t say was exactly the most fun way to spend a birthday. However, we made up for it with a refreshing hike and fun night out in Flagstaff, Arizona. Then we spent our last night of full-time RV life at a campground in Bernalillo, New Mexico that was only about 10 minutes from our future house that we would get keys to at the real estate closing in the morning.

Highlights: Lovely Bay Area weather for bike rides and outdoor lap swimming, buying myself an early birthday present of new cowgirl boots, campground pool on a 113-degree day, squeezing in a national forest hike after 6+ hours of driving on my birthday, vegan Thai restaurant for birthday dinner followed by a visit to our favorite Flagstaff beer hub (Dark Sky Brewing)
Lowlights: Long days of driving the RV and Jeep separately due to the heavy weight of carrying all of our worldly possessions, insane hotness, feeling guilty about not feeling more emotional about these last RV days but eh whatever because there’s plenty of adventure that lies ahead

Placitas, New Mexico: Home OFF the Road

We’ve now been in our New Mexico house for a couple weeks, and it’s been a whirlwind of logistical hassles, cleaning tasks, furniture delivery and assembly, and early-stage DIY projects. But beyond all that practical crap, I must say, I’m really loving this house so far. The layout makes perfect sense in my mind, there’s plenty of space but it still feels cozy, and everything’s in good condition but just in need of some aesthetic updating.

It’s been a lot of upfront costs to get started with house life since we moved out of an RV and previously had zero furniture to our names. However, the previous owner of the house left behind some of her old furniture, which has been a great starting point. Besides, we saved a ton of money by RVing for 3+ years, so dropping a sizable amount of cash all at once hasn’t really felt like a bit hit.

Highlights: Introducing Monkey to her new home and seeing her run around and play in all the big rooms, picking out furniture that we actually like rather than settling for hand-me-downs, becoming a master at furniture assembly, getting New Mexico driver’s licenses and registrations at a DMV that was actually not miserable, eating dinner outside every day while watching the sunset, starting to learn how to keep fish and plants alive in my very own backyard pond, going for a little hike around my property and realizing that I am HIKING around MY property, starting to get my very own office set up with a minimalism/Japanese theme equipped with a tatami mat and mini tea table, checking out local events like a garden tour and jazz concert, first pizza delivering to the house by my new favorite nearby eatery, scenic runs and hikes on the national forest trails just a few minutes away, so much sunshine, so peaceful going outside my home and not being surrounded by people (no neighbors in sight!)
Lowlights: Lots of drama trying to get trash and recycling set up, exhausted all the time, paying for and accumulating lot of stuff and slowly losing my minimalist lifestyle, many gnomes still in boxes, having to call and talk to people to get house things set up and feeling like an idiot all the while

Random impressions about the RV-to-house transition so far:

Everything is just easier and more comfortable now
I’m obsessed with taking showers in my new bathroom vs. the RV bathroom or public facilities
I have more personal time now that I’m not constantly running around
I feel more relaxed and less anxious and irritable in general now
I’m doing all the same things I did during RV life plus a few new hobbies (for example, the husband got me an electric piano as a birthday gift so I’ve been reteaching myself to play and pick up where I left off with my 10 years of childhood lessons)
Transitioning is really easy when you busy yourself with a ton of new distractions
I don’t feel a void from constant change yet, but that may come later
Interactions with people aren’t just temporary like they were with life on the road, so I’m trying to be chatty(ish) and friendly(ish) with local folks – you never know when they’re gonna pop up unexpectedly again, right?

We’re keeping the RV for now, and it’s parked right out front of the house. That was a big factor in choosing a house because we didn’t want to be inundated with overbearing HOA rules about camper parking or simply not have the physical space to store it. It’s too big for our camping needs now since we aren’t living in it full-time, so we’ll be looking to downsize to something smaller after a while once things calm down a bit and we can wrap our heads around that. We’ll take it out for a least another trip or two before that as well, possibly for a RV trip around Thanksgiving.

It’s not “settling” if you consciously choose your path. It’s not “settling down” if you find it impossible to stay still for very long.

As you might expect, this is my last monthly post about “homes on the road” since my home is now firmly stuck on the ground and down a winding, gravel road where the desert meets the forest. I’m thinking that occasional future posts I write here will be about “becoming New Mexican,” exploring awesome new places in my new state and the greater Southwest region, and also about trying to wrangle a wild property and grow things that are pretty to look at and delicious to eat.

Until then, thanks for reading along. It’s the end of an era but a new beginning that feels like right where I’m supposed to be. And what more can you ask for than that?

Relive the journey one last time:

Our Last Full Month of Full-Time RVing: Winding Down Life on the Road (Month 37)

Posted on August 14, 2019 by alyssa

Did you just do a double-take when you read “our last full month in the title? Well, it’s not a click-bait gimmick or an April fool’s joke. That would be weird and totally unnecessary. But it is totally true because…

WE’RE BUYING A HOUSE IN NEW MEXICO!!!

My days of full-time RV life are numbered (literally 12 left), and I’m a messy mix of emotions over it. We’re beyond ready for a next phase, a new adventure, and something totally different to throw ourselves into. At the same time, it’s pretty terrifying for a lifelong renter and RVer to make as big of a commitment as her first real adult house and transition away from something that has come to define her for over three years now.

More on the house situation in a bit, but before I get ahead of myself, here’s a quick recap of this past month’s batch of homes on the road.

Bernalillo, New Mexico: Home on the Road #124

After the Great Summer Midwest Road Trip, we made a plan to stay in Bernalillo for really one reason: to house shop in Placitas nearby. We stayed at a historic site campground 10 minutes away from where we had focused our real estate search so that we could really start diving into our post-RV life phase. Ironically, we actually put a bid on our house the very day we rolled into town, which was our three-year anniversary of RV life. So, with that out of the way, we used the next two weeks to pretend like we were locals and scope out the things we’d do regularly in our future home region.

Highlights: Swimming laps at the Rio Rancho Aquatic Center, Climbing at Stone Age Climbing Gym (which we learned is opening up a second location even closer to our house!), beautiful storms for monsoon season, painted kiva at the Coronado Historic Site, Bosque Trail for biking in ABQ, Indian vegan food at Annapurna, finding dog-friendly indoor things to do (antique store, book store), mountain biking and hiking in the forest that’s practically in our new backyard, comedy shows and bowling at the nearby Santa Ana Casino, frequenting our new local brewery (Bosque Brewing)
Lowlights: Multiple trips to the laundromat (but I’ll have my own washer & dryer soon!), super hot and steamy days, public showers, second-guessing the whole house commitment thing and being all wishy-washy

Winslow, Arizona: Home on the Road #125

*Well I’m standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona*

Yep, I did that. And I also learned to crappily play the song on guitar and even more crappily sing along to get into the local vibe. We camped nearby at Homolovi State Park, which was all 100-degree days but had peaceful desert scenery that made up for it, for me at least.

Highlights: Walking around ancient Hopi structures, local history museum in Winslow, playing guitar outside where no one could hear/judge me, checking out the famous Meteor Crater landmark
Lowlights: Over 100 degrees every day, public bathrooms full of crickets, only safe time of day to go running was insanely early in the morning

California Summer Road Trip: Home on the Road #126

As one last big hoorah, we’re in the midst of our second summer road trip to see family and friends – this time to the Bay Area of California. From Winslow, we embarked upon three days of grueling RV driving in the hottest temperatures I’ve ever experience in my life, with overnight stays in Needles and Bakersfield.

Highlights: Bragging rights of being in one of the three hottest places in the world at that time (others were Saudi Arabia and Algeria), oddly feeling like I was on another planet when it was pitch dark and still 107 degrees for Monkey’s bedtime walk, having 2 working air conditioners in the RV, takeout pizza in Needles, Temblor Brewing and sushi night out in Bakersfield
Lowlights: 117 degrees actual temperature – enough said (went down a degree before I could capture the pic below), Camper rattles and shakes so much that I’m pretty sure it’s going to collapse in on itself before we close on this house, not being able to really work in the RV because of how insane it drives, Jeep air conditioning that still doesn’t work well, how shaking and miserable Monkey is while riding in the RV so long

Bay Area Days (so far)

The Bay Area is a pretty terrible place to try to go camping; there’s really no way around it. You’re either paying insanely high prices, packed in like sardines into a parking lot, or sitting through traffic no matter what. In the past while visiting the husband’s family, we’ve stayed at two different campgrounds in Napa and a state park near Oakland. To try something different this time just for the heck of it, we’re giving the Alameda County Fairgrounds a try in Pleasanton. It’s cheap for the area but little more than a parking lot with sewer hookups and about 10 inches between you and your neighbor. It’s the kind of place that makes me ready to be done with camper life, which I guess is a good thing since it is almost done. No complaints about the food or friendly company though 🙂

Highlights: Golf driving range nearby, temperatures in the 60s that feel downright cold in the evenings, fast and free Wi-Fi, meeting up with a few local friends, learning the art of acrylic paint pouring with the sis-in-law, easy routes so I could rock 5.10ds at the Diablo Rock Climbing Gym, biking across the Bay Bridge
Lowlights: How dumbly sore my right bicep and left rib get after hitting just a couple golf balls, back into the 100s again, lots of not dog-friendly activities to work around, always traffic

Paintings, not food

Looking Ahead to Next Month

Okay, so back to the house.

Where in New Mexico, you ask? Well, I’m glad you did, hypothetical question-asker.

Our soon-to-be home is in a magical land called Placitas, an incorporated village of less than 5,000 people between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. It’s in the mountains and where the desert meets the forest, with a couple acres of our very own land and plenty of wide-open spaces all around. It feels rugged and remote, while still being within 30 minutes of the ABQ airport and 45 minutes from all the quirky artsy stuff in Santa Fe.

Sneak peek at my soon-to-be, very own backyard

The house itself is in great condition but a bit older, so we’ve already started a long list of YouTube-fueled DIY upgrades to make it our own and help fill the void of not traveling full-time. I’ve gotten mixed reactions from people I’ve told so far about the house news, but mostly positive and encouraging.

Folks who know me well aren’t surprised by my choice to try living in New Mexico out of all the places we’ve temporarily lived in over the last few years. Yet others are disappointed that I didn’t pick a place closer to them or that I’ll be giving up a lifestyle I’ve been so “lucky” to pursue for something more ordinary. First of all, luck has nothing to do with it since I’ve busted my ass to build a profitable career from the ground up that I can do anywhere. While I wouldn’t trade my full-time RV experiences for anything, the RV lifestyle is over-rated and over-romanticized by sexy Instagrammers and delusional types with their heads in the clouds. I’ve tried to provide balanced coverage of what it’s really like out here on the road, but honestly, it’s mostly just working at a makeshift desk in the passenger seat of the RV while staring at the back of other campers, with a few fun things squeezed in between that are photo-worthy. I’m sure that shifting to a lifestyle with a stable home base will be a shock to my system, but it’s not the end of adventure – it’s the start of a new one – one of getting to know the Southwest like a local, traveling internationally, and having a more well-balanced life with hobbies and learning new skills.

My post next month will be all about this transition since about half of it will be on the road and the other part moving into a non-wheeled home. So, Month #38 will be my last “home on the road” series post, a monthly tradition of sorts I’ve managed to keep up with since July 2016 for some reason. But don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll come up with something else to endlessly blabber on about to fill the void!

Have a wonderful month, my dear blog-reader, wherever you are.

Catch up with the journey:

From the Islands to the Desert: Hawaii, New Mexico & Colorado for RV Life Month #35

Posted on June 14, 2019 by alyssa

Unlike every other month over the last couple years, this one didn’t start out in an RV. Instead I woke up in a tent on a beach in Hawaii. I won’ lie…it was a pretty awesome way to kick off month #35 of life on the road, as well as our anniversary and the husband’s birthday.

However, we did Hawaii a bit differently than the average tourist. Instead of going the insanely priced, all-inclusive resort on Waikiki Beach route, which really isn’t out style, we camped in a tent for five nights and treated ourselves to a cabin for two nights. Then after a refreshing non-working vacation, we checked into Santa Fe, New Mexico for a whole three weeks, an area we’ve really enjoyed in the past and may be enjoying even more of in the future.

Here’s a quick recap of this past month’s batch of homes on the road.

Oahu Hawaii: Home on the Road #118 (part 1)

Our few days in Oahu were filled with a mix of touristy things and trying to get off-the beaten path as much as possible. We hit a couple of the famous must-dos, but ditched the super-popular hikes for more chill ones that were just as scenic. Definitely one of the best parts was falling asleep and waking up to the sounds of ocean waves just a short distance from our little blue tent on the beach.

Highlights: Successful beach camping (it’s not easy to find good camping on Oahu!), learning how to use outdoor showers, poke bowls, having scenic Ka’Ena Point all to ourselves, non-stop entertainment at the Polynesian Cultural Center, surprising the husband with a birthday luau, delicious chikoo boba tea in Honolulu’s Chinatown, random Hawaiian diner food, all the beautiful plants, wonderfully warm weather, Dole Pineapple Plantation for touristy indulgence, getting daily updates about Monkey from our dog sitter back in Albuquerque
Lowlights: Other people’s loud late-night parties at the campground because we’re old and tired, remembering how awful air travel is and wondering why the hell one of my post-RV life goals is to travel more internationally, rain and humidity, the trafficky and stressful Waikiki Beach area, missing Monkey and knowing how much she’d love these sandy beaches

Big Island, Hawaii: Home on the Road #118 (part 2)

While Oahu was definitely nice to visit, the Big Island was more our style. It was a bit more laid-back, less-touristy, more outdoorsy, and had plenty of wide-open spaces. To go “all out” for our anniversary, we booked a stay in a cabin at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and let the tent dry out from the recent rain showers.

Highlights: Rainbow Falls and checking out Hilo, a real bed after all those tent nights, anniversary dinner with a view of volcanoes at the national park’s Rim Restaurant, tasty Korean and Thai food, black sand beaches, checking out a real estate open house and legitimately considering buying it, the self-guided tour at Pu’uhouna o Honaunau National Historic Park, swimming in the warm ocean water, snagging a free trial day at a Planet Fitness to do some yoga and get a much-needed shower, free coffee samples from Kona coffee farms, that got me through the jet lag phase, delicious honey and macadamia nuts from Paradise Meadows farm, public beach camping that wasn’t as loud as I expected, lava rocks galore, shave ice with ice cream underneath, the mostly-outdoor Kona airport that puts all other airports to shame, seeing a rainbow just before we flew home, getting updates that Monkey is doing amazing at the dog sitter and playing well with as many as 8 (!) dogs at a time in a backyard
Lowlights: Bummer there’s no lava flowing, lots of national park trails closed after the 2018 earthquake and volcano damage, struggling to find a shower when you need one (thanks for the free trial day, Planet Fitness!), never could find rental snorkel equipment when we wanted it (should have brought our own, I guess), more getting rained on, disappointing service at the Kona Brewing Company

Santa Fe, New Mexico: Home on the Road #119

After flying back to Albuquerque (with a brief layover in Phoenix), we collected our little Monkey from the dog sitter’s place, headed straight to a self-serve dog wash to scrub away all that stranger-dog grime, and collected our RV from the storage lot. That same arrival day, we made the short journey up to Santa Fe, a destination we’d settled on plopping down at for three straight weeks. Not only were we feeling exhausted with all the moving around, but the corridor between ABQ and Santa Fe has emerged as real possibility for post-RV life.

Highlights: Meeting up with awesome fellow full-time RVers Jamie and Ross for African fusion dinner, experiencing the bizarre world of Meow Wolf, drinking at a couple local breweries, house shopping in nearby Placitas and Eldorado at Santa Fe, checking out some remote national historic sites, dry and warm weather for the most part, super-chill vibe over Memorial Day, hikes and trail runs nearby, Shakespeare performance in the botanical garden, quirky Currents New Media art show, best community center I’ve ever been to (Lap pool swimming and ice skating in one afternoon? Sign me up!), hanging out with alpacas at Blue Mesa Alpaca Ranch
Lowlights: Literally having snow here the day after getting home from Hawaii, waking up to 34 degrees in a tin box with no insulation in late-May, crazy winds for biking, trying to navigate the strange world of real estate and having our first-ever offer rejected, post-vacation laundry chaos, ran out of time to mountain bike and rock climb

Pagosa Springs, Colorado: Home on the Road #120

It’s been a long time since we’ve set up camp in Colorado, and there are still lots of this state I’m dying to see. We’ve somewhat put off Colorado because we’re pretty confident that we’ll plop down in the Mountain West eventually, which means that Colorado destinations will be right in our backyard. But for now, we’re checking out the small resort town of Pagosa Springs, which is beautiful, peaceful, and has just enough to see and do without being overwhelming for a week-long stay.

Highlights: Easy access to hiking and mountain biking trails in the San Juan National Forest, hopping back on the mountain bike again, cute downtown area to walk around, hot springs even though our days here topped 85 degrees, lots of sunshine, snow-capped mountains in June, cutting out of Friday work early here soon to go for a long mountain hike followed by hot springs and dinner as rewards
Lowlights: Having to pay for electric meter usage at a weekly RV site for the first time ever (WTF?), the exhausting annoyance of trying to communicate with inept campground workers to make future reservation, lots and lots of hours working ahead in advance of the upcoming Illinois trip, crappy Verizon reception, lugging huge laundry bags across a campground only to pay high prices for machines that don’t work

Looking Ahead to Next Month

From here, we’re heading to Durango…a Colorado spot we’ve day-tripped to in the past but never spent a whole week in before. Then, this upcoming month will be our annual RV-free summer road trip to Illinois and back for a friend’s wedding that I’m bridesmaiding in, to squeeze in some Chicago meetups with old buds, and to put in an early birthday visit with my family. Like last summer, we’ll be tent-camping between Colorado and Illinois to check out some new parts of states we never spend much time in across Middle America.

When we get back to the West, property-hunting mode starts all over again. I’m perpetually torn about the concept of buying land and a house, because on one hand, commitment freaks me out, it’s all a big money suck, and I don’t want to lose this grasp I have on the minimalism lifestyle. Then on the other hand, I’m beyond ready for a next life phase after nearly three years of RVing, I don’t have much more energy for more full-time travel right now, and I despise the idea of settling for a crowded apartment environment as our next move. Full-time RV life has somewhat come to define me at this point, but I can only do the same thing for so long before becoming restless and wanting to experience something else, and that time has come.

We’ve put an insane amount of time, thought, debate, and conversation into where this next phase should begin, and at least right now, the stars are aligning over Placitas, New Mexico. The St. George, Utah area, the previously-agreed-upon promised land, proved to be far less affordable than expected for the type of property we’d be happy in, and somehow, we’ve gotten pretty picky with what we’re looking for.

These are my top priorities:

Over an acre for good neighbor distance
Scenic landscapes and views
Separate offices for work
Tons of windows and natural light
Solar panels if possible
Backyard with a fence for Monkey to play in
Outdoor space for growing plants and food
A place for my gnomes to come out of storage
Deck or patio to hang outside in my very own space
Laundry machines that actually work
Separate area for crafts and hobbies
No HOA or overbearing rules
Onsite camper parking
Able to put a little hiking trail in/around the property
Remote location but not totally inaccessible
Decent airport distance for international travel
Not insanely priced

That’s not too much to ask, right?! 🙂

I’ve learned that I care more about the outside than the inside of a house, and the husband’s list looks a bit different than mine, but we’re mostly on the same page. We went out on a limb and actually put a low-ball offer on a house and it fell through…live and learn. When it comes to “adulting” with things like real estate, I still feel like I’m 15 years old. But I’m learning along the way slowly and in no huge rush until this magical “home off the road” decides to emerge from the universe and present itself.

Until then, you can find me feeding alpacas in my dreams.

Next month will be my “three-year anniversary (eeek!) of full-time camper life” post, so tune back in on the 14th for some more rambling if you’re game. Thanks for reading along!

Catch up with the journey:

Japan & Vegas: Pretty Much the Exact Opposite of RV Life (Month 32)

Posted on March 14, 2019 by alyssa

For nearly three years now, pretty much all of my blog posts have been about camper life and full-time RVing. However, month #32 of camper life was largely spent outside of this tiny home on wheels and in a random collection of hotels, hostels, and ryokans. It was just the kind of break I needed to feel like a traveler and not just an RV traveler.

To kick off the month, the husband and I flew to Japan for an international vacation. We’d grown frustrated with putting off international travel until camper life was over and honestly a bit America-ed out. So, we stashed Monkey in an awesome at-home dog boarding situation and hopped on a plane for my very first trip to Asia. From there, the randomness continued with a girls’ trip to Vegas with my college roommates and stays in some familiar Texas cities as well.

Here’s a quick recap of this past month’s batch of homes on the road.

San Antonio, Texas: Home on the Road #106 (continued)

Our stay in San Antonio was a bit of a weird one. Our camper stayed put in one place for a full month (a record for us!) but we really weren’t in it all that much. It ended up being cheaper and easier just to pay a monthly campground rate and leave it sit empty than deal with an RV storage facility. For most of the time we actually spent in town, I was sick or it was raining. I’ve been to San Antonio a couple times before though, so fortunately I didn’t develop a case of FOMO.

Highlights: Finding an awesome dog sitter to take in Monkey for 8 days who sent us daily pics and videos (she and her new best bud, Radley, are pictured below!), finally getting to do a few touristy things by biking the missions and taking down some tasty veggie quesadillas on the Riverwalk.
Lowlights: Being sick much of the time we were actually in the city, another urgent care visit, campground was about 30 minutes from everything in town, non-stop working to make up for taking vacation days off, rain and more rain.

Tokyo/Yamanouchi/Kyoto/Nara, Japan: Home on the Road # 107

Japan was amazing, and I can’t say enough good things about my first experience in Asia. We flew into Tokyo and quickly mastered the train system to travel to Yamanouchi, Kyoto, and Nara. It was surprisingly easy to get around as a dumb American tourist, thanks to so many signs and menus with English translations and also because of how many people there could speak a little English. I had learned some basics (please, thank you, etc.), but I felt that most people were friendly and patient with me, especially compared to other places (I’m looking at you, France).

Highlights: Seeing snow monkeys in the wild, embracing the crowded streets of Tokyo, feeling comfortable among locals who are polite/non-intrusive and keep to themselves (unlike pretty much everywhere I go in the U.S.), amazing food everywhere we went (okonomiyaki is my new favorite), temples and shrines (Fushimi Inari was my favorite), roaming deer and the national museum in Nara, staying in a traditional ryokan with an onsen, giving public nude bathing a try, animal cafes with hedgehogs and cats, flashy show at Tokyo’s Robot Restaurant, not as expensive of a trip overall as expected.
Lowlights: Airline lost our luggage so we had to wear the same clothes for three days and buy new toiletries/underthings, insane jet lag that had me totally loopy and talking out of my head like an emotional rollercoaster, being sick on the trip and getting sicker when we got back, a few frigid/rainy days but not too bad honestly.

Ladies-Only Trip to Vegas!

Just one week after getting back from Japan, I was back on a plane for a much-needed girls’ trip to Las Vegas. My senior year college roommates and I hadn’t taken a trip together since just after graduation, so we were definitely overdue for some ladies’ nights out and husband breaks.

Highlights: Finally having a place to wear going-out dresses, getting 34K+ steps in walking up and down the Strip, fun Gwen Stefani concert, cheering on scantily clad men at Thunder Down Under, nice hotel room at NYNY, catching up with awesome long-time friends, doing a little bachelorette party celebrating with festive sashes.
Lowlights: Our fourth partner in crime’s flight was cancelled so we were a group of 3 instead of 4 (love you, Nicole!), mediocre/overpriced food options, not nice enough weather for pool time, clueless/unhelpful hotel staff, not being able to wear bachelorette party tattoos because we didn’t have a mini scissors to cut them out (first world problems).

Austin, Texas: Home on the Road #108

I’m sure the SXSW music festival is awesome and all, but it really threw a wrench in our Austin camping plans. Campsites were either totally booked out or insanely priced during the event, which means we had to cut our Austin stay short to just six days. We were staying in McKinney Falls State Park though, which meant easy access to outdoor recreation and being a safe distance away from the crowds and chaos.

Highlights: Getting on the wall at Crux Climbing gym, hikes and trail runs at McKinney Falls, the dog-friendly Uncle Billy’s Brewhouse & Smokehouse that had vegetarian options and a live band, pretty much everything being dog-friendly in Austin, seeing a live improv comedy show (it was just okay though) at The Hideout, randomly holding a baby goat, biking along the river downtown.
Lowlights: Only getting to spend a few hours really in downtown Austin, crowded trails with loose (“he’s friendly!”) dogs everywhere, cold days below freezing, remembering what a sticky mess cotton candy is and how truly terrifying crawfish are at the Austin Crawfish Festival.

Somerville, Texas: Home on the Road #109

With our Austin plans cut short, we fled further into Texas to camp near Lake Somerville in hopes of squeezing in some water recreation. It’s been a bit rainy and windy so far, so we have yet to get out on the boats (but maybe today!). But this has still been a super peaceful and low-key place to stay with pretty much nothing to do besides get outside at the state park every day and get work done. It’s pretty much exactly what I needed after Japan, Vegas, and Austin.

Highlights: Slower pace to relax and not be overwhelmed by options of things to do, camped about a mile from the state park for hikes and trail runs, board games and smoothies on a rare lazy Sunday, windowsill gardening.
Lowlights: The great laundry debacle of 2019 with a broken dryer and unexpected trip with dripping clothes to the nearest laundromat 20 miles away, rain and mugginess, mud everywhere, loud barking neighbor dogs that wake me up at night (makes me appreciate my mostly bark-free Monkey though!)

This Month’s Ramblings from the Road

I’m now the proud owner of a Ninja mini blender! I’ve definitely missed making smoothies and protein shakes over the last couples years, but my old blender got tossed out in the downsizing efforts before we set out for full-time camper life. It’s been fun experimenting with tossing random combinations of things in these single-serving cups and feeling damn healthy about it.

Nobody likes to have lost luggage, but it’s particularly stressful after 15 hours of flying and upon arriving in a country where you’re too dumb to communicate in the local language. Somehow, we were reunited with our bags within a day and a half though, and I’ve never been so happy to see a silly backpack.

When I’m done with RV life and have my own house, I’m going to have the most amazing washer and dryer that money can buy. Doing laundry in nasty public facilities and with chronically broken machines has scarred me for life. I pretty much get the shakes every time another sock gets dirty these days.

Looking Ahead to Next Month

Month 33 might not be as random or international Month 32, but it’s still set up to be an interesting one. This is somewhat because we’re having visitors in just a couple weeks! My parents are flying down to Houston for an extended weekend, so we’ll be checking out Houston and Galveston with them. After that, we’ve planned a brief, yet epic, bike ride/tent camping adventure along the Gulf Coast that will pass through the southern parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida.

Texas has been a bit rainy for us lately, but it’s still nothing compared to Oregon last spring with the steady rain and crazy mold growth in the windowsills of the RV. So, I’ll keep reminding myself of that and hoping it clears up to get out on Lake Somerville at least once before we move things along to the magical land of Huntsville State Park to see yet another new part of Texas. Being back in Texas makes me miss Japan a lot though, and we’ve already started talking about the other places in Japan we want to visit on our next trip overseas.

Until next month, sayonara.

Catch up with the journey:

Living Large in Texas: Month #31 of Camper Life in the Lone Star State

Posted on February 12, 2019 by alyssa

There’s been a whole lot of Texas going on over the past month, and I’m happy to report that we finally found the magical warmth that we’ve been seeking in the south. Sorry to rub it in, Midwesterners who recently survived the polar vortex 😉

Month #31 on the road began with our second full week in Marfa, Texas, followed by a couple weeks further south and east in Del Rio near the Mexican border. Now we’ve plopped down in San Antonio for a month as our home base for non-RV travels to Japan and Las Vegas. While Month #30 encompassed the Christmas trip back east with lots of driving and rushing around, the pace of camper life slowed down in Month #31, which was exactly what I needed.

Here’s a quick recap of this past month’s batch of homes on the road.

Marfa, Texas: Home on the Road #104 (continued)

Since the government was still shut down during our time around Big Bend National Park, we opted to visit Big Bend State Ranch Park instead, which was an awesome decision. This is a remote and rugged park with disbursed camping, some interesting hiking trails, and plenty of solitude. We left the RV behind to tent-camp here and then rounded things out with stops in the small random towns of Lajitas, Terlingua, and Alpine. There was also a nice desert botanical garden we checked out (I do love my cacti) outside the little town of Fort Davis.

Highlights: Camping out in a tent with a beautiful sunset and no one around, seeing a javelina up-close for the first time (surprisingly cute!), scenery at Big Bend Ranch State Park, sipping post-hike margaritas in the random resort town of Lajitas, driving through the bizarre encampments and pseudo-roads of Terlingua, super chill driving range to hit a few golf balls in Marfa, hiking around Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center & Botanical Garden
Lowlights: The relentless winds of West Texas, getting sick after the tent-camping adventure and being out-of-commission for a few days (is my body getting too old to tent camp?!), still not getting to visit Big Bend National Park, yet another campground that can’t figure out how to enforce dog leash rules, drinking tequila for the first time in ages and remembering why I don’t drink tequila anymore

Del Rio, Texas: Home on the Road #105

Like Marfa, Del Rio was a place I’d never been before in Texas. Although there wasn’t a ton to do here, that was actually a really good thing because it helped me minimize distractions and get a ton of work done in advance of our upcoming trip to Japan. Also, the weather here was pretty perfect and got up to 70 degrees on several days. This was such a relief after having our RV pipes continually freeze and struggle through other winter-RV-related drama over the past couple months.

Highlights: Perfect boating conditions to take out the kayak and SUP at Amistad National Recreation Area, having access to a campground gym that actually didn’t suck and toning up some muscles by lifting weights, the surprisingly impressive frontier village of the Whitehead Memorial Museum, online ordering and campground delivery success so I don’t have to buy new clothes/shoes in an actual store, being super active with trail running and lifting to the point of actually seeing results, impressive campground Wi-Fi, another round of tent camping and a 15+ mile hike at Devil’s River State Natural Area
Lowlights: Taco trucks with no meat-free options, getting sick yet again and having to go to a shady urgent care clinic, popping a tire while mountain biking

San Antonio, Texas: Home on the Road #106

I booked us a campground for an entire month here in San Antonio so we have a stable place for home base during the upcoming non-RV travels. Unlike Marfa and Del Rio, I’ve been to San Antonio a couple times before but have always enjoyed the place. So, far, we haven’t really been able to do anything very fun or touristy here though, due to constant rain, working ahead, and being pretty far away from downtown.

Highlights: Warmish weather with no freezing nights, few distractions = more time to work ahead before our Japan trip, finding a local, cage-free home stay for Monkey during our vacation, finally breaking out the sewing machine again, boba tea and fro-yo
Lowlights: Crowded campground with lots of barking dogs tied outside, no fitness center or other campground amenities, crappy Wi-Fi, rainy and dreary weather, mud everywhere, surrounded by suburban sprawl, being 30+ minutes from all things to do in the city and from hiking too, a second trip to an urgent care clinic

This Month’s Ramblings from the Road

I saw my first javelina at Big Bend Ranch State Park! They’re kind of cute and dopey, but apparently people try to hunt them for some reason.

We always try to find self-serve dog washes to give Monkey a bath every month or so, but in some places, that’s easier said than done. This little lady hadn’t had a bath since before Christmas and was starting to stink, well, like a dog. This campground actually had a dog washing sink and enclosed area, but the water was ice cold with no adjustment options. So, this happened: a bucket bath in the middle of a dead grass/gravel pit!

We recently celebrated Monkey’s 5th birthday here in San Antonio! We adopted her three years ago and threw a little camper party and wen on a rainy hike to celebrate.

In an effort to be a little healthier, I’m doing my best to drink more tea instead of booze. To make tea more of a “thing,” I’ve been experimenting with loose leaf tea and a tea infuser. I’m pretty into it, but it’s still a challenge.

Today is my 6-year freelanceaversary! I’m been full-time freelance writing for 6 years now as of today, which is kind of crazy. To kick off year #7, I’m in talks with a publisher about writing a book about gnomes. In other gnome-related news, I’ve also recently taken over the leadership position of the International Gnome Club.

Looking Ahead to Next Month

Month #32 is set up to be one of the most exciting months EVER! Literally tomorrow, we jet off to Japan for a week of Asian adventures. It’ll be my first trip to Asia, and I’m pretty much all packed and ready to hit the mean streets of Tokyo, Nagano, Yamanouchi, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, and wherever else we happen to land instead because of mishaps in complex train navigation. Sadly, my flashcard and Duolingo app efforts to learn basic Japanese have been in vain, and I’m exhausted with constant travel planning. We’ve figured out a few things, but have left quite a bit unplanned in an attempt at spontaneity.

Within a few days of getting back, I’m back on a plane again but this time to Las Vegas for a girls’ weekend. And in between all of this madness, I’m hoping to see bits and pieces of San Antonio too.

Until next time…sayōnara!

Catch up with the journey:

Picking Up the Pace of Southwest Adventure: Month 29 of Nomadic Life

Posted on December 14, 2018 by alyssa

It’s holiday season, which means chaos and cold, even for your favorite nomad out on the road. Since traveling full-time, the Southwest has carved out a soft spot in my heart. But over the past month, we’ve been moving through it at record speed.

We’ve been in search of warmth and off-the-beaten-path places that we might not make it back to anytime soon. We’ve also been in search of change and something to drive us towards decisiveness to start a post-camper-life phase of life next year. On top of all that, this time of year is always insanely stressful for me with work thanks to everybody and his brother having last-minute projects and year-end deadlines.

But first, it’s a race towards Christmas, which will once again take us “a long way away from home” to Georgia, Illinois, and everywhere in between. I’m exhausted and burnt out at the moment, so hopefully the change of scenery and schedule will help rather than hurt.

Here’s a quick recap of this past month’s batch of homes on the road. Oh yeah, the husband recently pointed out that apparently, I don’t know how to count. So, I’ve adjusted the “home on the road” numbers and just reached the big #100 in Gallup!

Lee Vining, California: Home on the Road #95

When I think back upon our extended weekend in Lee Vining, one word comes to mind: freezing. We’d driven through this tiny town of approximately 222 people once before while spending three weeks in nearby June Lake. However, this time, we dry-camped in a forest service campground with no hookups to revisit the area while passing through.

This part of the Eastern Sierras is a favorite place of the husband, who’s a big fan of snow-capped mountains, green forests, and skiing nearby. There’s no denying it’s stunning, but we’ll get to my all-time favorite landscape a little further down.

Highlights: Making it through Tioga Pass before it closed for the winter, the most peaceful campground nestled among the trees, walking again among the tufas of Mono Lake, revisiting our favorite June Lake Brewing and its Hawaiian food truck
Lowlights: Further realizing how miserable I am when I don’t have a warm place to escape to

Tonopah, Nevada: Home on the Road #96

For Thanksgiving, many people have traditions of traveling to see family, going shopping, and eating turkey. Our Thanksgiving tradition involves none of those things. Instead, we aim to find remote destinations that no one goes to in order to escape crowds, traffic, and consumerism. This year’s Thanksgiving destination was Tonopah, Nevada, a place where we hoped to learn a bit more about this mysterious state outside of the usual trappings of Vegas and Reno.

The town itself is a bit run-down and dusty, but it has a quirky charm to it that really can’t be beat. I mean, seriously, where else can you find a creepy Clown Motel, haunted cemetery, and spray-painted cars upturned in the dirt all within a few miles of each other?

Highlights: Exploring mining history areas that were dog-friendly, discovering that casino campgrounds really can be alright, getting spooked by haunted attractions in town, walking through a car graveyard not unlike Amarillo’s famous Cadillac Ranch, delicious pesto tortellini for Thanksgiving dinner and craft time with clay and construction paper in the RV
Lowlights: More freezing cold days (a big theme of this month), the only brewery in town had not-so-great service and no vegetarian options (but the beer was pretty good)

Mesquite, Nevada: Home on the Road # 97

In search of a little more warmth and to check out another random Nevada town we’d never been to, we booked a spot at another casino campground in Mesquite. Casino campgrounds seem to be the norm in Nevada, go figure. However, the route for getting here was a big part of the intrigue. You see, we took a drive down the Extraterrestrial Highway (Nevada State Route 395) in search of aliens, UFOs, and anything else on the paranormal spectrum.

But upon reaching Mesquite, an entirely different type of invasion actually occurred. Much to my surprise, my best friend conspired with my husband to book a spontaneous flight to Vegas and then drive to Mesquite just to see me. I had literally just taken my last bite of Saturday morning pancakes and was two seconds away from hopping in the shower when I stuttered, “Um…what is Michelle doing outside the camper right now?” It was baffling and amazing at the same time.

Highlights: Stocking up on alien souvenirs and a grilled cheese sandwich at the Extraterrestrial Highway pit-stop of Little A’Le’Inn, getting a surprise visit from my best friend and spending the day in the desert and later on the Vegas Strip with her, biking around Mesquite to check out the town, ending our stay at the hot tub at the Casablanca Casino & Resort
Lowlights: Only having a weekend to check out this new part of Nevada, having to say goodbye to my favorite lady and send her back to a blizzard in Illinois

Kanab, Utah: Home on the Road #98

If I had to pick a place to live based upon landscape alone, I’d pick Southern Utah. Ever since my previous visits to Zion, Bryce, Arches, Canyonlands, and Kodachrome, there’s been something magical that draws me to the impressive red rock formations of this area. We stayed in the nearby town of Cedar City for a couple weeks last year and made Kanab our destination this time. Aside from having our first snow of the season, Kanab welcomed me with views I never got tired of, uncrowded trails, and non-annoying people.

Highlights: Best landscape views ever, awesome BLM hiking that’s dog-friendly and uncrowded at this time of year, seeing snow on the red rocks, touring the dog and potbellied pig areas of the Best Friends animal shelter facilities, getting into the Christmas spirit with a local musical production, slot canyons you can walk right into, going to my first-ever real estate open house (maybe SoUT will be in the future plans?)
Lowlights: Trying to work while wrapped in a sleeping bag/countless layers/hand warmers/etc. when our propane heater broke once again, almost getting stuck in the sandy backroads

Monument Valley, Arizona: Home on the Road #99

Our stay in Monument Valley was short – just an extended weekend. But we packed a lot into it and saw Navajo National Monument, Monument Valley National Tribal Park, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Sites, and the Chaco Culture National Historic Park. This circuit encompassed Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico and was a bit of a three-day whirlwind.

Highlights: Seeing incredible rock formations with hardly anyone else around, epic photos of light snow on the formations, learning about Navajo history, receiving a beautiful turquoise and silver Kokopelli necklace as an early Christmas gift
Lowlights: Having the Jeep’s battery die and failing to successfully charge it with our solar system battery or push it to the front of the RV for a jump (had to ask a neighbor for help…ugh), lots of time driving and passengering in the RV, stray dogs everywhere and lots of dead dogs on the sides of roads

Gallup, New Mexico: Home on the Road #100

Our last pre-Christmas journey on this road-trip-called-life was Gallup, New Mexico. We’d been to Gallup before and honestly weren’t all that in love with it. But it was the next logical place to stop before starting to head east. Plus, we wanted to check out the Red Rock Park and see a different side of town.

Highlights: Scenic hike up the Pyramid Trail and hike to Church rock, quiet campground and no neighbors for few work distractions, surprisingly decent Wi-Fi, the best public laundromat experience I’ve had in a long time
Lowlights: More stray dogs everywhere, work stress galore, immune system shutting down, all the prickly thorns that get in Monkey’s feet from the desert shrubs (she got carried for almost a whole minute before squirming her way down), no time or inspiration to do anything in town

This Month’s Ramblings from the Road

You always have to pay attention to tunnels when you’re driving a home on wheels. Our RV is about 12 feet tall. This tunnel was 13 feet and three inches. The one after this was only 10+ feet on the sides but taller in the middle. Spoiler alert: we made it through.

Maybe it’s a sign of getting old, but my body is having serious trouble adjusting to the cold. However, I’m sure it would be more manageable if I had a comfortable place to wake up and come home to instead of an un-insulated tin box with a chronically broken propane heater. The circuit board gets flooded, no matter what, every time it rains, which kills it and only a $100 replacement gets the back heat on again. This is a shot I took on a morning when I woke up to 31 degrees inside the RV. Warming measures we’ve taken include 1 space heater (2 blow a fuse), covers for the roof vents, carpeted floor mats, and complaining a lot.

Then there are days like this…pretty, but no thanks.

I’m not a fan of snow, but if I have to see it, I prefer it to be lightly coating some glorious red rocks in Utah.

These are Thanksgiving crafts we made to celebrate the holiday out in the middle of nowhere in Nevada over copious amounts of wine. Because we’re like five.

Picking up non-space-consuming souvenirs from super-random places is a favorite pastime of mine. This license plate now lives on the front of the Jeep (that’s legal, right?), I can never have enough fun tank-tops, who wouldn’t want to drink out of an alien shot glass, and my insanely large souvenir patch collection continues to grow.

Looking Ahead to Next Month

From here, we embark upon our big Christmas journey back east and sans RV. It never makes sense to schlep this gas-guzzler across the country for just a short amount of time, so we’re sticking it in storage and heading eastbound in just the Jeep.

We shifted over to Albuquerque to make the transition because we found a campground with onsite monthly storage, which makes everything easier. The RV sofa is already piled with crap to pack, yet my packing list has a confusing number items yet to be checked off. Well, you know what I’ll be doing for the rest of the day. Until next month, signing off and happy holidays to all!

Catch up with the journey:

Adventures Off the Grid: Month #27 of Camper Life

Posted on October 14, 2018 by alyssa

As my last post hinted at, month #27 was a bit of a unique one. Somewhat suddenly, it seems that we have entered a new phase of full-time camper life – a phase that’s more off-the-grid, more self-sufficient, and a whole lot eco-friendlier.

It all started with a solar panel system investment while we were staying in Bend, Oregon for a couple weeks. The research, ordering, and setup got off to a rocky start thanks to components that didn’t work together as expected. After some irritating returns and Plan Bs, we emerged with a battery and inverter that look like this and are connected to cables running out the RV window to connect to the solar panel.

Initial Off-the-Grid Observations from week #1:

We are moving the solar panel for a more optimal sun position more than once an hour
To save energy, I’m wearing a headlamp to do dishes, brush teeth, eat dinner
Usable electronics with solar power: laptops, phones, watches, essential oil diffuser, electric toothbrush
Non usable electronics with solar power: electric blanket, space heater, dog heating pad, hair dryer, TV
Sleeping in hats, sweatshirts, gloves
Allowable generator use hours are exciting! Charge everything all at once!
Filling up water with an outside spigot in a jug to save tank usage
Watching TV shows on laptops/iPhones instead of RV television
My new laptop has a really long-lasting battery – yay!
No distractions out here = crazy work productive
It’s pretty hilarious to watch my husband use his dental Waterpik over the kitchen sink and plugged into an extension cord connected to the inverter after warming up water in the tea kettle
1 solar panel is enough to keep our devices for the week charged but our RV batteries are running low…something we didn’t anticipate
Using public showers again just like in the old pop-up camper days
Don’t flush just for pee
Made it 7 days without dumping tanks – success!
ABC: Always Be Charging
ABS: Always Be Strategizing (about how to keep this going for as many days as possible)
Only enough propane to heat up the RV for less than an hour each morning to get out of bed in the cold….oops rain touched the circuit board and now the heater is broken
Man, this is cheap living
Washing dishes with cold water
Using decorative Halloween pumpkins as lights – ’tis the season
How is there internet out here?! Hooray!

But backing up a few steps, here’s a quick recap of this past month’s batch of homes on the road.

Bend, Oregon: Home on the Road #84

I’m torn about Bend because yes, it’s a bit crowded, trafficy, and becoming overdeveloped, but it’s also still an outdoor lover’s dream with every type of recreation you could ever want. This is also where I checked off a long-time bucket list item: riding in a hot air balloon!

Highlights: Super peaceful hot air balloon ride over beautiful landscapes, hiking Smith Rock State Park, best indoor climbing gym I’ve been to in a while, breweries galore, decent campground laundry facility, got a yearly doctor checkup taken care of, nearby visit to Newberry National Volcanic Monument, seeing a local play at 2nd Street Theater
Lowlights: Not having time to climb at Smith Rock State Park or go mountain biking in the area, traffic, more (un-monitored, dog-groping) kids at breweries than adults, catching up on shopping and spending way too much money, crowded shantytown-like campground

Crater Lake National Park, Oregon: Home on the Road #85

I’d never been to Crater Lake before, and now seemed like the perfect time to check it out: late enough in the year to avoid the worst crowds but not yet too cold and snowy to close campgrounds.

Highlights: The stunning blue color of this crazy lake, surprisingly few crowds on hiking trails, hiking a new section of the PCT with Monkey, playing our current favorite board game (Ticket to Ride) outside at the campground with the new India expansion location
Lowlights: Having to move to 3 different campsites to escape partying teenagers and lack of shade to leave Monkey behind in this dog-unfriendly park, nightly lows in the 30s

Keno, Oregon: Home on the Road #86

Staying in southern Oregon was our first foray into what I like to call goondocking. Boondocking has more of a connotation of free and pulled off the side of the road in a random place. We can’t necessarily do that because we work full-time. So goondocking is our compromise between that and crowded RV parks, inclusive of a good internet connection but not really anything else. Also, “Goon” is one of the many nicknames we call Monkey. This random spot we goondocked in a couple miles outside Keno, Oregon felt more like a magical piece of property than any campsite we’ve been to.

Highlights: So much room to spread out, playing guitar and working outside, trails for running and dog walks, no distractions and great work productivity, surprisingly awesome public showers nearby, nice Monkey trailer-friendly bike trail in nearby Klamath Falls, decent beers at the one brewery in Klamath Falls, sunrises and moonrises over the Klamath River from our campsite, super peaceful afternoon of kayaking and SUPing on the river
Lowlights: Failing at our first goondocking attempt at the Topsy Campground because of crappy internet, the craziest dust that permeated everything

Lava Beds National Monument, California: Home on the Road #87

About four years ago, we did a quick visit to Lava Beds on a late-summer vacation. It’s one of the coolest national monuments I’ve been to because you can explore lots of caves on your own without a guide and without lots of tourists everywhere.

We originally didn’t intend to camp overnight at all here, but then we discovered that the area had surprisingly good AT&T and Verizon internet. Yes, I realize that this post makes me sound like I’m obsessed with internet, but oddly it’s really the driving force of where we go these days. With national monument campsites at $10/night, we first booked two nights, then a third, and finally a fourth. This extra time allowed us to check out nearly every cave in the park after work days!

Highlights: Taking headlamps and bike helmets into caves to explore the underworld on our own, reasonable generator use hours to get all our stuff charged, good but not great internet, peaceful, lots of space, making up our own “cave loop 5K race” even though I came in last place out of the three of us, getting better at conserving water/electric
Lowlights: Painfully bumping heads and backs on sharp cave roofs, some rain and cold but not too bad, no public showers equals more days of grossness

Lassen Volcanic National Park: Home on the Road #88

Although national parks and monuments certainly aren’t off-the-grid, they are places we never used to be able to camp due to lack of hookups and our 24/7 reliance upon campground amenities. We originally planned to spend three nights at Lassen, but cut that short to just two. The campground walk-in reservation system was confusing, and the temperatures were downright frigid up in the mountains. Regardless, I’m glad we finally made it here to check out the sights.

Highlights: Interesting geological features from the eruptions 100+ years ago, waterfall hike, bubbling mud, campfire
Lowlights: Confusing campground check-in situation with no staff onsite to help, morning temperatures in the 30s with no heat, trying to shower in a freezing RV, nothing is dog-friendly

Oroville, California: Home on the Road #89

We’d never been in the Oroville area of California, and honestly it was a bit of a disappointment throughout the week. The state park we stayed at had some crazy rules, most of the trails were closed and all are dog-unfriendly, the area was filled with shady characters, the park conducted a series of controlled fires leaving us smoky and worried what might happen if they got out of hand. Things got even more interesting when another camper set a car on fire and was threatening suicide while being pursued by rangers with big guns. At least it was warm, and my oh my how life is better when I’m warm.

Highlights: Amazing weather in the 70s and 80s, sitting outside to work, going bowling by the casino, making do with our solar energy and generator with no hookups once again, decorating for Halloween, surprisingly great casino buffet and brewery, a nice day trip to Chico to check out Bidwell Park and the brewery scene, dog-friendly 8+ mile waterfall hike to Feather Falls
Lowlights: The reminder that much of California hates dogs, smoke and haze, weirdos everywhere, businesses/boat ramps/trails closed unexpectedly, so much laundry to do at a really dirty laundromat, too much work to squeeze in personal time and fun, being on lockdown at the campground while cops investigated a madman on the loose

This Month’s Ramblings from the Road

Saturday morning pancakes are my culinary specialty.

I’m trying to draw better landscapes in my sketchbook, starting with trees. This little workbook is helping.

We’ve missed playing tennis since living in our posh old apartment complex in Atlanta. Our old rackets got lost in the move, but we’ve picked up a couple new ones and have played twice at local parks in places we visit. Spoiler alert: I always win 🙂

Holy shopping spree! We pretty much cleared out the clearance section of the Columbia Outlet store in Bend. But when all you pretty much wear is hiking clothes, it’s justifiable!

My favorite new place to work: patch of dirt with a view of the Klamath River and a steady internet connection.

We’ve been coloring pages in our national park coloring book as we visit new ones. Just finished up with Lassen!

Looking Ahead to Next Month

Now back in California for a while, Month #28 will feel oddly familiar. While Month #27 was all about getting off the grid, Month #28 will be all about going to places we’ve already been. We’ll actually be staying in a couple of the same campgrounds as last year and different ones in familiar cities in order to visit the in-laws and celebrate Halloween and Diwali.

The days ahead should be pretty warm, which is good news since our heater still doesn’t work and this aging body of mine is having serious trouble heating itself up. Our needs for solar energy may be a bit less as we get back into the civilization of Northern California life for a little while, but hopefully I can still find some peaceful places (like this one below) to take a deep breath in and think about what lies ahead for this camper journey.

We’re looking to narrow down and reevaluate our wall of post-it notes identifying potential plop-down places to start planning ahead for our next phase. It’s something I’ve been personally procrastinating for a long time because committing always makes me feel a bit sick to my stomach. There are some things that make me feel really excited for whatever our next phase is, and other things that make me nervous as heck because this has been my “normal” for two years and three months now. Change is never easy, even when you change your home every week or two. Right now, I’m only able to narrow down my list of plop-down places to about six or seven. So, it seems I have some soul searching and real estate research ahead of me in the month ahead.

Until next month…

Catch up with the journey:

A Very Idaho Birthday & Back on the Oregon Trail: Nomad Life Month #26

Posted on September 14, 2018 by alyssa

Mountains, wide-open spaces, and plenty of sunshine…just how this time of year should be.

Idaho was the last of the lower 48 states that I have visited, and I’m really not sure why it took me so long to get here. Before spending a month in Idaho, I really didn’t know what to expect from the state. Even now, I’ve only scratched the surface of exploring Idaho, but some things surprised me in a good way, so I’ll be back.

Idaho was where I had the pleasure of ringing in a new year of old age, where I got to hang out with some folks that truly understand full-time camper life, and where I discovered my new favorite city. Then as month #26 came to a close, we hopped back on the Oregon trail to check out Eastern and Central Oregon, which much to my relief are much drier and warmer than the six weeks of spring we spent in the state.

Here’s a quick recap of this past month’s batch of homes on the road.

Bellevue, Idaho: Home on the Road #81

We delayed our arrival to Bellevue due to wildfires, but everything was looking and fire-free by the time we arrived. Camper life and spending way more time by myself over the past two+ years has made me more introverted, so social settings leave me feeling more drained than they used to. Regardless, it was fun to step out of normal routines and schedule in some fun social plans with awesome people.

Highlights: Hanging out with locals/full-time campers Sara, Mike, Phoebe, and Aaron; free outdoor concerts galore, cheap campground right in town, great bike trail, forest road hikes with no one else on them
Lowlights: Crowded shantytown campground conditions, injuring my knee on a trail run which put me out of the active game for several days, negligent dog owners who have clearly never heard of leashes

Boise, Idaho: Home on the Road #82

Boise kind of took me by surprise. I’ve been pretty anti-city lately because they stress me out with all those people hovering about and traffic on the roads for no good reason. I’ve put in my city time dues while living in Chicago and Atlanta. Yet Boise was a refreshingly small city with just enough to do but not too much, and just enough people to see from a distance but not get too close.

Highlights: Nice-sized city with parks/breweries/downtown area; birthday weekend road trip to Malad Gorge State Park/Hagerman Fossil Beds/kayaking the Snake River, Banbury Hot Springs, camping and hiking at Brueau Sand Dunes State Park/low key concert in Eagle/Western Idaho State Fair; great city bike trail; chill breweries; responsible dog owners who know what leashes are; my first-ever waterpark
Lowlights: Not booking enough time here to hike very much or do a bunch of city things that we wanted to

John Day, Oregon: Home on the Road #83

Have you ever been somewhere
Where time slows down
The pace isn’t hasty
You’re not rushing around

There’s a river nearby
It’s small but it flows
I have it all to myself
A place nobody knows

Water over rocks
Enveloped by trees
Last hours of sunlight
Barely a breeze

Today feels endless
In a wonderful way
Didn’t expect to find peace
In the town of John Day

Highlights: Super chill and uncrowded Labor Day, boating on Lake Magone, painting on the side of the lake, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument’s Painted Hills and Blue Basin; feeling strangely relaxed and peaceful; solo hike to Strawberry Lake and Falls; able to walk to everything in the small town of 1,700+; cheap campground
Lowlights: Nothing really coming to mind

Ramblings from the Road

Semi-sewing project: No, I can’t claim to have made this purse – I wish! I actually won it at a paddling film festival raffle in Revelstoke. But it didn’t come with a strap, rendering it pretty dang unusable. So, I bought some webbing, made it into a strap, and BAM! Sadly, I found no time for crafting otherwise this month. But my favorite holiday of Halloween is coming up, so homemade costumes may be in our future.

I’m a big fan of boba tea. Small towns fall short in this regard, but Boise had a great spot downtown.

35 years and not a single cavity! Thanks for the cleaning and checkup, random dentist in Boise that I’ll probably never see again.

Looking Ahead to Next Month

From John Day, we’ve recently moved onto Bend, Oregon, which I’ll save for month #27. Somehow, this is my first time to this outdoorsy destination, and we have some big adventures coming up here. First impressions:

Bend campgrounds are insanely crowded or insanely expensive.
This has prompted us to invest in our first solar panel system! It isn’t cheap, but it feels like our key to getting more off-the-grid and staying sane.
Our practical shopping errands have really piled up and I’m pretty tired of buying things and then finding places to stash them in our tiny home.
There are more kids than adults at Bend breweries (kids that love groping strange dogs without asking and then cry when you send them back to mommy and daddy).
Best rock climbing gym I’ve been to in ages here.
The traffic red lights are brutal.

But thus far, Eastern and Central Oregon have been much kinder to us than Portland, Salem, and the Oregon Coast. Unlike our six weeks of Oregon springtime, it’s not raining, it’s not cold, and the camper isn’t filled with mold and mud.

Right now, my #1 dislike about camper life is being surrounded by people all of the time. That’s why I’m putting a lot of muted faith in this solar panel system that is a work in progress. If all goes as planned, we might be able to stay off the grid more often and avoid these dreaded RV parks that are the sheer definitions of claustrophobia and annoyance. Either way, my next month’s blog could be substantially more interesting…

Catch up with the journey:

RV-Free Road Trip to the Midwest & Back: A Nonstandard Month #25 of Camper Life

Posted on August 14, 2018 by alyssa

It’s been a long, weird month. Most of month #25 on the road was actually spent outside of the RV and in other people’s houses, a tent, and on long drives in the Jeep instead.

What do I have to show for it? Lots fun times with family and friends, a crazy number of photos (brace yourself, readers), way more miles on the odometer, and a whopping seven more state stickers* added onto our camper life map.* The West: conquered.

*Note: we only add a state sticker if we have camped overnight in a state (hotels and people’s houses don’t count, nor does just driving through) since full-time camper life began on 7/14/16.

To attend a friend’s wedding in Chicago, visit buddies in our old stomping grounds, and put in my annual summer family trip to Illinois, we decided to make a tent camping adventure out of this journey. On the way from Montana to Chicago, we camped for one night each in Wyoming, South Dakota, and Iowa. Then on the way back from Arthur to Montana, we pitched the tent in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota. Sure, checking states off a list is a bit arbitrary, but having silly little goals helped make the long driving days more bearable and it was fun to see parts of the country that we probably wouldn’t be visiting otherwise anytime soon.

Here’s a quick recap of this past month’s batch of homes on the road.

Bozeman, Montana: Home on the Road #78

Back in April 2013, we stopped by the Bozeman Hot Springs for a much-needed warm-up and shower after tenting in Yellowstone National Park with no facilities and 19-degree temperatures. With fond memories of the place, we brought our RV here for two nights to treat ourselves before heading out on the cross-country road trip.

Highlights: Refreshing hot spring pools with live music, lovely sunsets, the chill and semi-dog-friendly Outlaw Brewing nearby, free campground breakfasts
Lowlights: Insanely expensive to camp here, crowded and traffic-y in town

After ditching our RV at a storage facility just outside of Bozeman, we headed east and made overnight stops in each of these places.

Devil’s Tower National Monument, Wyoming

Monkey wasn’t a fan of braving a thunderstorm in a tent, but the storms resulted in an epic double rainbow and a peaceful hike around this crazy rock formation the next morning.

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

This was our second time to both Devil’s Tower and the Badlands, both areas I really get a kick out of. In between these stops, we also checked out Custer State Park, Mt. Rushmore Brewing, and Mount Rushmore.

We rarely get to camp in national parks and national monuments due to the lack of RV hookups for workweek convenience and internet reception for actually getting work done. But on these road trip days, we were getting in half days at best and most of that was done in the Jeep’s passenger seat between driving shifts.

Nations Bridge Park, Stuart, Iowa

Tenting here was a bit rough due to ruthless mosquitoes and no showers yet again. Iowa: check.

Chicago, Illinois

The main reason for this whole road trip was going to my awesome friend from college’s wedding in Chicago. A couple amazing friends in town let us stay over for a couple nights and soak up the luxury of a real bed, shower, and even a couple games of shuffleboard. Monkey particularly loved this part of the trip because she got to hang out with her new best friend, Moki, and coexisted with another dog quite nicely to my surprise.

In addition to two nights of wedding stuff, we managed to squeeze in a brewery outing with a bunch of friends, brunch with gal pals, and a visit to my favorite family in the ‘burbs. It was a whirlwind of visits and conversations that reminded me that I haven’t entirely lost my social skills just yet. This was also a great opportunity to show off our four- minute and 20-second “RV Life Film Festival” trailer that my crazy-talented husband finished on the way here. If you haven’t seen this epic video and would like to, send me a quick note!

Arthur, Illinois

After the wedding bliss came to an end, it was time for a family visit a few hours further south. My parents were cool enough to celebrate my birthday a month early and planned lots of things for us to do together, including an Amish buggy ride, lunch out with Grandma, a sightseeing tour of over-sized roadside attractions in Casey, Illinois, yard games, and a backyard spa day for my Jeep.

NOT GEORGIA!

When we set out for this trip, there a reluctant side trip to Georgia hanging over our heads. Last December, we made a special trip back to Atlanta to get an emissions test so that we could renew the Jeep’s license plate sticker and continue driving legally as nomads. Long story short, some idiot typed the VIN number wrong on the report, the DMV wouldn’t accept it, and no one would help us resolve the issue. However, that silly sticker was expiring at the end of August, so we had to take care of it ASAP.

After starting the eastbound journey, I had this strange feeling that I should make one final attempt to get out of driving all the way back to Georgia for the sole purpose of doing the test all over again. I got a different person on the phone who was strangely willing to help this time. We completed some forms, provided proof of campground stays and recent auto repairs, waited a few days, and magically, we were granted an exemption literally on the day before we would have begun the Georgia journey! What a relief not to have to waste 20 more hours on the road with two more back-to-back driving days!

Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin

With Georgia off of our itinerary, we spent a few more days in Arthur and then headed north to Lake Wissota State Park in Wisconsin. Spending that extra time at my parents’ house was exactly what I needed to recharge and do nothing. Wissota was a spacious and wooded park that felt nice to call home and be back on the road again.

Fergus Falls, Minnesota

I’ve been wanting to visit Minnesota really for just one reason lately: the Happy Gnome restaurant in St. Paul. This was an amazing spot all around: dog-friendly outdoor patio, 90+ beers and lots of Belgian ones, mutually agreeable food menu, and gnomes all over the freaking place. From there, we kept heading west to the tiny town of Fergus Falls to set up camp for the night at Delagoon Park.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

Prior to this month, there were two states in the lower 48 that I had never been to: North Dakota and Idaho. After crossing into North Dakota for the first time ever, we stopped at in Jamestown to see the world’s largest buffalo and check out the roadside tourist shops.

From there, it was a Panera lunch and a brewery stop in Bismarck and then on to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. By the time we rolled into the park, it was 100 degrees outside and since national parks hate dogs, so we took turns going on hot hikes and making sure Monkey didn’t melt back at the campsite.

Lewis & Clark Caverns, Montana: Home on the Road #79

After another grueling day of driving, we finally got back to our RV in storage – safe and sound. To transition back to normal life, we spent the weekend at Lewis & Clark Caverns for our last Montana home. The caves were accessible by group tour only, which was a bit annoying but totally worth it. As an added bonus, the park provided free and shaded dog kennels onsite so we could do the two-hour tour together without having to worry about Monkey boiling in the heat.

Highlights: Felt so good to be back home and in the mountains specifically, awesome cave tour, great dog kennels, peaceful park
Lowlights: Super stinkin’ hot outside, still using public showers here

Arco, Idaho: Home on the Road #80

Our first-ever visit to Idaho began in the tiny town of Arco (population 995) to check out Craters of the Moon National Monument and the atomic energy historic stuff. This was a great place to fully transition back into standard camper life because there wasn’t much to do here, making it ideal for catching up with work and settling back into normal routines.

Highlights: Hiking at Craters of the Moon, pulling off the side of the road to take a dip in natural hot springs, learning about the disturbing world of nuclear testing and fatal meltdowns
Lowlights: Not being allowed to go in the caves at Craters of the Moon because of bat drama, most things are out of business and boarded up here

This Month’s Ramblings from the Road

Work, work, and more work – so much of it.

One out of three machines working isn’t too bad, right? Laundry on the road can be rough at times.

Monkey really gets a lot out of having a dog pal around. Having two goons in a camper sounds like a really bad idea, but she’ll get a dog sibling one day when camper life comes to a close. In the meantime, she’s literally the best road trip dog ever.

Looking Ahead to Next Month

We’re hanging out in Idaho a little while longer – Bellevue and Boise – before making our way into Eastern Oregon by Labor Day. Bellevue is a fun stop because we actually have a couple friends that live here – former full-time RVers that we met on the road last year. Then I’ll ring in the big 3-5 in the Boise area next week with apparently, some surprise shenanigans planned.

After that, we’ll try being Oregonians again in a different part of the state (the John Day and Bend areas) that promise to be much warmer and drier than our spring on the coast. Constant travel research and planning feel more tiring and burdensome to me than even before the road trip, which doesn’t bode well for keeping this lifestyle going for the long-term.

While tenting for a couple weeks was a fun adventure and reminiscent of the four- and six-week tenting trips we did back in 2013 and 2014, it feels damn good to be back in our comfy and cozy RV. The experience reminded me about all the things that make tent life harder: sharing a bathroom with strangers, walking outside to pee in the middle of the night after a few too many beers, trying to get work done, keeping devices charged, showering every three days at best, etc. It’s funny how the little creature comforts of this home on wheels make this lifestyle so pleasant and sustainable – little things like my amazing bed pillow, not having to say good morning to strangers on my way to release a morning pee, and not worrying how I’ll put in another long day of writing work. But while I’m not cut out for full-time tenting right now, I do still love it for a few days at a time so we can get off the grid in ways that RV life doesn’t allow.

On that note and before this rambling carries on any longer than it already has, I’m signing off. We have a lot more to see and do in this rugged wilderness of potatoes in month #26 and until Christmas before another RV-free road trip is in the cards.

Happy trails!

Catch up with the journey:

Alyssa v. Nature

Where the nature outside collides with the nature inside

Tag Archives: camper life

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