When I was nine a group of students from Penn State University came to my school and spent the day with our class. One of the activities that day was a song they sang and I still remember it. The words were simple:
The seasons keep changing and changing and changing, arranging themselves they're all different and new and if you take the time to look all around, around you you'll find that you're changing too.
Nothing in life ever stays the same. Spring turns to summer, summer turns to fall, and fall turns to winter.
As we have traveled we have also changed. We've been blessed by wonderful sites, amazing weather events, and delightful people. We've also learned how we like to travel and what works for us. Starting out with the truck and trailer was a fairly inexpensive and simple way to begin our nomadic life. We discovered how to find free camping, set up and take down the rig, and generally live in a small space.
Many people have asked us why we decided on such a small trailer and we always tell them the same to things. First, we bought small because we wanted to go to National Parks which usually can't
accommodate large trailers or RVs. Buying a twenty-one foot long trailer we figured that we'd be able to go anywhere. We may have been wrong. It turns out that when making reservations at a national park they don't want the length of your trailer but the length of your total rig; truck included.
Hooked up our total length was thirty-eight feet.
Second, we hadn't actually planned on being full time in the trailer. As teachers we thought that we would simply be traveling on holidays and during the summer, but everything came together perfectly for us to hit the road and start seeing our great nation.
This brings me back to change. As we figured out how we liked to travel and camp we came to the conclusion that we would like something different so while in Texas we made a bit of a change. We are now the proud owners of a thirty-six foot long Foretravel motor coach and a Jeep Cherokee. There are several reasons that we decided it was time to make this switch, one is rather obvious from the image. The size. Although the little camper was cozy and we were not uncomfortable, it was not designed for as much travel as we do. The new RV offers more comfort, better heating and cooling and fits the way we want to move.
Most of our camping is Boondocking or dry camping and this means that we are completely off grid. We love being out in the wilds unplugged and seeing nature all around.
When you are taking your rig down an unknown dirt, gravel, or generally unpaved road the best practice is to drop the trailer, drive the road and find a clear safe place to take your camper, but who wants to unhook, then re-hook just to unhook again? So the most practical answer is a smaller RV. Yes this is considered smaller.
On top of the added benefits of being able to tow the Jeep then unhook it to go exploring, when we are set up we are far more comfortable for long stays. We even have a table to eat at.
So this is my super special little secret that we have been keeping until we got back to Florida to surprise the family. Oddly enough our son simply looked at it and said "Why didn't you do this to start?" Pretty funny.
For now we are stopped in Florida at our home base to wait out the worst of the cold weather but then we are planning on rolling on to new adventures, destinations, sights and sounds.
I hope you have a wonderful Holiday Season and a Blessed Christmas.
If you would like to help support our mad, wild, and crazy lifestyle consider signing up for my newsletter and buying my silly books. For now happy travels.