The First Few Days

We had just gotten our paperwork and license plate. It was time to get on the road. We had been waiting weeks to start traveling. The story begins…

Our First Adventure - Working

What we actually did on our first day was sit in a random parking lot less than one mile from our originating location and work. In fact, most days go like that. We have pretty demanding jobs and we work normal hours. Our first day on the road was spent working. It was a long and demanding day which meant almost 12 hours in a random parking lot. We moved approximately one mile.

We ran over to Walmart. This was right down the street and we restocked. One of the great advantages of upgrading to the RV is that we can retain normal groceries. A full size fridge means we can keep vegetables, red bull, gatorade, sandwich meat, frozen meals, and an assortment of other goodies. This allows us to pull over and have lunch wherever we are. The microwave is a little brutal to our battery capacity so we are learning to limit the frozen meals. Having a kitchen with a fridge and microwave wasn’t a huge selling point for me but it’s turned out to be a wonderful convenience.

We got a few hours of driving in. Alex was fading fast so we agreed that I would drive that evening while she slept. She would get up early and drive in the morning. I wanted Alex to wake up in a exotic location with miraculous views. I pulled over and parked at a McDonalds and went to bed for the night.

Extravagance - Day 2

One of the challenges Alex and I have had in our wonderful relationship is that I am a morning person. I don’t sleep much and I work a lot. I usually wake up at 4AM - 6AM and go to bed around 12AM - 2AM. Alex is my opposite. She would sleep through an earth quake, fire alarm, or nuclear blast. She also can get tired at 8PM and sleep until noon the next day. With this in mind, it was not surprising to wake up in the same spot. We were still at McDonalds. A certain someone did not get up early and move us down the road. She is pretty cute when she wakes up so there’s not much you can do about it.

I eventually coerced her to get behind the wheel and move us. She has to first stretch and snuggle in her soft blankets for an hour. Eventually, she joins the land of the woken. She got us a whopping ten miles down the road to a gas station. We worked another full day from there.

Water Tank Reset - Day 3

During the winter we are finding that a lot of the gas station options for fresh water have their taps disabled. Most have claimed this is normal during the winter. For boondocking this is challenging because we need to fill up on fresh water every few days. Finding a place to dump our tanks tends to be a little easier than finding fresh water.

Another particular is that I’m a little overboard with cleanliness. We vacuum daily, mop the floors weekly, and I run bleach across all the bathroom surfaces once a week. I drain and run bleach through all our water tanks once a weeks if the resources are available. To flush and clean our holding tanks requires we have a dump and fresh water available.

We left the gas station we were working at a little earlier in the evening. I noticed a KOA Camping sign on the highway and recalled from previous experiences with my other RV that KOA’s tend to be super nice with full hookups. They tend to be a bit on the pricy side sometimes but they are really nice. Alex called them and they were able to accommodate our late arrive.

Full hookups means that we can connect to power, sewer, and fresh water. This allows us to clean our tanks and start with a fresh and full tank of water. Perfect for a couple days off-the-grid.

Time For Some Hiking

We didn’t start off with anything super fun to talk about but tomorrow we’ll make our way into a Nat’l Forest and hopefully we will get in a hike this weekend.