Spending the holidays in your RV is a great way to spend time with family while still having the chance to travel. Whether you’re full-time RVing, traveling for vacation over the holiday season, or visiting family, there are tons of way to keep you holidays festive in a small space.
Last year, I filmed the video version of this blog post. If you’d rather watch instead of read, video is below for you!
When
spending Christmas in your RV, there’s no reason you can’t have a Christmas
tree! Albeit, it may be smaller than what you would have in a house, you can
certainly decorate one. We travel with our tree and ornaments year round. We
store them in the storage space under the couch so they’re always out of the
way, but easy to access when we’re ready to decorate.
Some
tips for decorating your RV Christmas tree:
Non-breakable ornaments
Keep it simple, don’t overdo it
Make sure it is something you can just lay down on a couch, a bed, or
the floor if you’re on the move
Other
holiday decorating tips for your RV:
Command strips and ribbon can be your best friend for holiday decorating
We place command strips on the inside of our pantry doors, tie ribbon to them and pull the ribbon over the front to hang our stockings. Use a pretty ribbon that matches the rest of your holiday décor to tie it all together
Keep your décor lightweight and easy to box up
Don’t forget to decorate the outside of your RV, too! Many RV parks have an RV decorating contest for Christmas.
One
of our favorite things about holidays in RV parks – particular in our winter
snowbird park – is all the holiday potlucks. If you’re traveling in an area
that has a lot of snowbirds, come prepared knowing there might be a holiday
potluck you can attend while you’re traveling. It’s customary to bring a dish
if you’re going to partake so don’t show up empty handed! Many RV parks host
these events for people who are traveling and won’t be with their family for
the holidays. It gives everyone a chance to come together as part of the RV
community and it typically gives you a chance to have a full holiday meal with
your family without having to cook everything. Everywhere is different, but our
current RV park actually provides the turkey and rolls for holiday potlucks.
All the RVers bring a side dish or dessert so you end up with a full meal at Thanksgiving
or Christmas without all the hassle of cooking all that good stuff in your RV.
I highly recommend searching for local holiday events wherever you find yourself. When we found ourselves in Gila Bend, Arizona for the Christmas season, the town hosted a little holiday parade a few weeks before Christmas. The RV park puts together a float for the parade and everyone not walking in the parade goes out to support the town and cheer on everyone in the parade. Many zoos also have night time events with lights around the zoo for the holidays so we always look into Zoo Lights options as well. There’s tree lighting ceremonies in almost every city in the country along with holiday plays, Christmas light displays, and holiday themed train rides depending on where you find yourself. There is so much to see and do and there are new things in every part of the country. Wherever you’re traveling, be sure to do some research on what they have going on in the area.
PS. Santa always finds you. Even when you’re out in the RV!
We get a lot of questions about how we make a living and stay connected while on the road. As full-time RVers and full-time employees, we have to make sure we’re connected at all times so we can work remotely no matter where we are located. We’re a little (ok a lot) untraditional in that all 3 of us have work-from-home jobs that allow us to be wherever we want to be. That gives us the freedom to live in the RV, travel the country, and work from wherever we are at the time. The downside to this is not having a home internet connection and a constant source of reliable internet.
First off, we use Verizon Wireless as our cell carrier. We did a lot of research about whether we should stick with Verizon or switch carriers and it seemed Verizon was the most reliable option for our traveling needs. They haven’t failed us yet so that’s been good so far. We each have an iPhone and we also have a MiFi 7730L Jetpack for our WiFi needs. We’re currently using about 300 GB of data each month so that one Jetpack is not enough. Thank goodness for companies renting out unlimited cellular plans. We would get throttled a lot if we only had the single Verizon Jetpack. We rent a truly unlimited data plan from someone that allows us to video conference all day, every day.
The most important item we own is the WeBoost Drive 4G-X RV Signal Booster. This thing has saved us on more than one occasion. We’ve never been out of cell phone range with Verizon, but sometimes in rural areas, it can be quite slow. Being in the social media field, I’m constantly uploading large files and documents online and with a weaker signal, it takes much longer than it should to upload these files. The 4G-X RV booster has allowed me to join video conferences when I would not have been able to do so with our Verizon coverage. The 4G-X is used by a lot of first responders who need to ensure they have a constant connection – with that being said, we trust this device a lot.
Installation was pretty simple, but also a little bit scary because you do have to drill a hole in the outside of your RV (yikes!). They provide a cap that keeps the moisture out of the camper and seals off the hole you drill. It is pretty basic installation for the most part. After you figure out where you want to put the inside booster antenna and the outside antenna, you drill the hole and run the cable through. Plug in your booster and get rolling! Ok, so there’s a little more to it than that but not much. It is pretty simple!
One major thing to note – the inside antenna booster only works within a few inches of the device you’re using. So if you’re using it to boost a cell phone, you pretty much have to hold the cell phone and the booster near each other to achieve any boost. For me, I use it for my MiFi Jetpack. I’ve figured out the sweet spot of where to place the booster and where to place the Jetpack to get optimal boosting. When talking on the phone, I generally leave my phone near it, wear my Apple AirPods, and walk around while I’m talking.
We love our RV booster so much that we also have the same booster, but the car version – the WeBoost 4G-X. It works just as well, but doesn’t require any drilling or semi-permanent placement like the RV version. The original car version has a magnetic antenna for the roof of the car rather than a large bolted on booster like the RV.
The WeBoost really has allowed us to continue this lifestyle on the road while working full-time. It really wouldn’t have been possible without it. First responders trust it enough to use it for their jobs and emergency calls – it works that well and it works with all cell phone carriers.
We also each have designated work spaces. I have a desk in my room, Mom has working space in her room, and Dad utilizes the living room area. We have doors that close off each area allowing us to all three take phone calls. The set up is perfect for us and allows to be a full-time RV family!
With so many RV Clubs out there, how do you know which ones are worth it and which ones aren’t? Depending on your travel style, the clubs that work for us, may not be best for you and vice versa. Here’s a rundown of the clubs we’re members of and the value we see in each of them. If you’d rather watch in video format, I filmed a video for Campers Inn about RV Clubs last year that I’m embedding below.
Good Sam Good Sam is what I consider the “catch all” of RV clubs. While not every park offers a Good Sam discount, a good majority of them do. The club is cheap to join and it gets you a discount on merchandise at Camping World which, truthfully, probably provides us more value than the discounts we receive at campgrounds for being Good Sam members. The campground discounts are almost like an extra perk of receiving the club member discounts at Camping World stores. The campgrounds that offer Good Sam discounts are normally only about 10% off and while that’s better than nothing, a $50/night only goes down to $45 with your discount which isn’t really that great of a deal. We don’t actively seek out Good Sam parks like we do some of our other memberships, but we will stay at a Good Sam park over another park if the rate is decent.
Thousand Trails Thousand Trails is the most expensive camping club to join, but if you use the club right, you can really save a ton of money. You can’t join this club for less than $500, but if you take advantage of some of their specials, you can get extra months added on, extra regions, and a variety of other things based on their deals that typically fall around holidays or new seasons (fall special, President’s Day special, etc.). If you’re attending an RV show, that’s always the best time to buy into Thousand Trails because you’ll get the best deals there. If you’re looking at buying into the club and there’s an RV show happening soon that you can attend to buy in, it is well worth the drive to the show and the cost of admission for the extra benefits and discounts you can get.
We don’t use our Thousand Trails membership as much as we
probably could, but when we do, we take full advantage of it. In 2018, we
stayed at the Hershey Thousand Trails park during the Hershey RV Show. The cost
to stay at any parks in the area were inflated because of the popular show;
however, we stayed our maximum amount of 14 nights there and that more than
paid for our cost of membership which we bought for 3 years. Now, for the next
3 years, anytime we stay at a Thousand Trails campground with our membership,
we’re staying for free and in the positive based on how much we paid for our
membership.
Thousand Trails does come with a few cons though that you
should be aware of before joining. If you’ve never stayed at a Thousand Trails
campground before, you don’t know what it’s like to get to your site. It’s something
like being a Gladiator. Fight to the death. Fight for your site. Do everything
you can to get the site you want or need. Drive in circles trying to find the
right site. Lay down on the ground in a site so someone else doesn’t take it.
Ok, kidding. That’s a little dramatic. We do love our Thousand Trails
membership, but I would go as far as saying – IT IS STRESSFUL to pull in and
not know if there’s going to be a site long enough to fit your RV, to not know
if there will be a full hook up site available, and everything that comes with
finding your site at their campgrounds. Read everyone’s reviews online before
buying in. Take everything into consideration. Test out checking in at one of
their campgrounds before buying into the membership. Make sure the stress is
worth the savings for you.
The other negative aspect of a Thousand Trails membership is
their 14 (or 21) night policy based on your membership level. When we stay at a
Thousand Trails campground over a certain amount of nights and up to 14 nights,
we have to be out of the Thousand Trails system for a certain number of days.
Ultimately, this just keeps people from living off the Thousand Trails system
and never paying fees, but it does make it challenging to travel solely using
their memebership. It’s still valuable, but sometimes you have to wait a few
extra days before you can check in using their system.
Honestly, I think Thousand Trails is most valuable if you
travel on vacations like spring break, winter break, and even weekends away,
but only if there are a bunch of different Thousand Trails campgrounds in your
close travelling area. Since you don’t have to deal with the “14 Days In” and a
certain number of days out issue if you’re only traveling a short period of
time.
Passport America Passport America is another great one we bought into because honestly, one night a year normally covers the cost of membership so everything over that first night each year puts you in the positive financially. Passport America campgrounds typically (from our experience) aren’t necessarily the nicest or newest campgrounds, but they’re great for one night stops during travel stretches. We typically use them for booking pull through sites when we don’t want to unhook the fifth wheel. They’re normally not in the most common of areas either so sometimes we have to drive a little out of the ways to get to our campground, but we’ve had times where we’ve paid only $10 to stay at a full hook up site with our Passport America discount. The discount is normally about 50% off, but it varies from campground to campground.
KOA Kampgrounds of America mostly referred to as KOA is one of our most used camping clubs – truthfully, because of the convenience and the almost guarantee of a nice campground. We typically will book most of our stays from location to location at KOA Journey campgrounds because they are normally within about 2 miles of the interstate (if not closer). We will pretty much book a KOA without even seeing pictures if we know it is in a good area – simply because we trust the KOA name and brand. While this isn’t always my recommendation to book sight unseen, we’re willing to do that with KOA campgrounds. The discount itself is only 10% off the regular nightly rate, but you can earn rewards with them that can be redeemed for free nights or additional discounts. If you stay enough with KOA, you can become a VIP with them which brings additional benefits like a reduced or eliminated cancellation fee which is normally about $10, but is eliminated most of the time when you become a VIP.
The truth about KOA for us is we simply trust their campgrounds and know each campground goes through rigorous reviews each year to continue meeting quality standards of the brand. We love KOA so much that we’re not only members, but we’ve been workampers with them in several locations and have been for a few seasons. We were KOA loyalists prior to becoming workampers and that’s just fueled our love for their campgrounds even more – say hello to some great amenities – especially in the KOA Holidays and KOA Resorts.
There are 2 categories of gift-givers during the holiday season.
You’re either a pre-Thanksgiving (and maybe Black Friday)
shopper or a Christmas Eve shopper. The rest of the weeks between those are
simply made for sipping hot chocolate by the fire while watching Christmas
movies, attending Christmas parties, and building gingerbread houses – am I
right? 😉
So with the Christmas season upon us, everyone is talking
about what to get the people in their lives for Christmas. I’m here to tell you
my go-to gift this year!
I’m talking about the gift of portable power! You heard that
right, I’m here to tell you my top 5 types of people who would LOVE to receive
a gift of portable, renewable power for Christmas – or any other holiday for
that matter!
Let me introduce you to AIMTOM,
a company committed to clean, renewable power being made available anywhere,
anytime. As a digital nomad, this is a huge deal. I need to be able to work
from anywhere and have a constant, reliable source of power. No power means no
work so I always need not only a portable source of power, but also something
reliable enough to get me through power outages at campgrounds.
I personally have the AIMTOM SPS-500 (also known as
the PowerPal Raptor) which is their most powerful model. This baby has a 540Wh
capacity and weighs only 11 pounds. This lithium battery power station is 20%
lighter than other power stations with a similar battery capacity. Since every
pound matters when your home is on wheels, this is a big deal for us! Here’s
the thing though, it doesn’t just power up 1 or 2 items, it comes with 9
outputs – that means, I can charge my phone, iPad, and laptop – all while
running my coffee maker. Which by the way, is a true story… I am so thankful to
have this AIMTOM because we’ve lost power several times this year and it always
seems to happen in the early hours of the morning when I won’t be able to make
my coffee to start the day.
With all of that being said, here are my top 5 types of people I think would love to receive an AIMTOM from Santa this Christmas!
Adventurers
Sure most of our readers are RVers, but I didn’t want to just say this gift was awesome for those who travel via RV because listen, there are plenty of other adventurers out there who would an AIMTOM. I’m talking tent campers, RVers who love campgrounds, RVers who hate campgrounds (here’s looking at you Boondockers – hats off to you as always!), hikers, boaters, and explorers of any kind. While I’m featuring the largest of the AIMTOM portable power stations because it’s the right one for me, they make plenty of smaller options to stay even more lightweight for things like hiking days. And, maybe you don’t need this much power to tent camp because you only need to keep your cell phone charged, that’s cool too!
Southerners in Hurricane Zones
This is a nod to all my Jacksonville folk and everyone else in a hurricane zone. Get this gift for your Dad or your husband! He’ll totally feel all-powerful having this, but when the hurricanes come and knock out your power for a bit, you’ll be able to charge your cell phone and iPad. It’s a gift for him, it’s a gift to yourself – no one will ever know the difference.
Digital Nomads
Remote workers – seriously, this is a must-have. Obviously, we love to travel, but having the AIMTOM has completely let me have more freedom with traveling. I’ve always said I can work from anywhere I have cell phone service, but truthfully, that was always limited to however long my laptop battery would last. Now, I never have to worry about heading back home when my laptop starts to blinking low battery warnings because I always have my AIMTOM.
Tailgaters
Tailgating has come a long way. It isn’t just about the grill anymore people! Listen, you have to have power now for things like crockpots and griddles to cook, speakers for music, TVs to watch the games that come on before your game. You need all the power or your tailgate is going to be a total dud. No offense, but no one likes a lame tailgate.
Climate Activists
If you have a climate activist in your life, this is definitely the gift for them. Have I mentioned there’s a solar option you can add on to this? Yep, you can recharge this with the AIMTOM solar panels that actually fold up for easy travel. You can generate your own power from the blessing of the sun and be the most green, eco-friendly gift giver around.
That’s a diverse crew, isn’t it?
Here’s the thing. If you’re a living, breathing, human who
uses electricity like a modern civilized human, you’ll like the AIMTOM. It’s
never convenient when the electricity goes out. Your phone always seems to be
at 5% battery life when you lose power, right? Or, you aren’t able to finish
blow drying your hair to get to work because the transformer down the street
blew and your whole neighborhood lost power. All of these things can be
remedied with a portable power station.
So what are you waiting for? Go and get you and everyone you
know and love one for Christmas because our discount code is only good THIS
WEEK THROUGH THANKSGIVING! Enter RAPTOR540 at checkout to receive 20% off here
at this Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YHDH319.
Remember, this code is only valid this week until November 28, 2019 at 11:59pm
(PST). So, go go go!
We get so many questions about trip planning and how we go about setting our route for our RV travels. We recently did a video for Campers Inn RV talking about how we plan our trips and you can watch that here or keep reading for even more details.
Whether you’re living in your RV full-time or you’re simply hitting the road for a vacation, trip planning plays a huge role in the success of your trip. With proper planning, your trip can have the upmost success; however, if you don’t plan properly, it’s easy to get overwhelmed on the road while trying to figure out where to go next. We always spend lots of time planning ahead as we’re planners more so than “go out and stop at the next campground” type people – not that there’s anything wrong with. I envy those who have success with that, but my Enneagram type 1 personality comes out and doesn’t let me do that. I’m a natural planner.
And by planner, I mean, we have a giant physical map, a Sharpie, and a bottle of Goo Gone. We start by sketching out places we’d like to go on the map and then we bring in an online trip planning tool called the RV Trip Wizard to help plan out our exact campgrounds based on the route we want to take. This tool is such a gem for us. It costs about $40 a year and it’s the best tool I’ve found for trip planning.
You enter your information such as average distance on a tank of gas
for your vehicle, RV height, and how long you like to travel in a day. The RV
Trip Wizard takes all of that into account when showing you what campgrounds
are in the area that you’ll end up staying based on your driving distance
preference.
The app warns you about clearances that are close to your maximum height.
The tool even provides information on gas stations along your route which
is particularly helpful for larger rigs like ours. Since we prefer to hit truck stop style gas
stations like Love’s, Pilot, Flying J, and Travel America, the tool helps us
plan how far we’ll go before we stop for gas and even the exact gas station we’ll
stop at during our travels. This helps alleviate any uneasiness that sometimes
accompanies travel days – particularly in rural areas where you don’t know
where the next gas station might be located.
Because
we work from the road, cell phone service is imperative for us to have and is a
huge part of our trip planning process. We use an app called Coverage and it
displays all the major carriers in 1 map for you. This is great for us because
we utilize multiple carriers to cover more land area with cell phone and data
hotspot coverage. This app lets us pull up the map for our multiple carriers at
one time instead of having to flip back and forth between carrier websites. We
pay a yearly fee for the premium version of this app, but you can definitely
use the basic version of the app for just the app purchase fee of a few
dollars.
We
also really like the State Lines app (which was created by the same team that
created the Coverage app). It lists each state and the various laws you might want
to be aware of.
Examples include, default speed limits, whether you are allowed to
right turn on red, emergency phone numbers beyond 911 like highway patrol
numbers, maximum tow lengths and speeds, whether or not you’re allowed to
triple tow, rest area overnight rules – that’s an important one to know whether
or not you’re allowed to sleep at rest areas or not
You
can actually purchase those apps as a package deal. You’ll get 3 apps if you
purchase the package and it also includes a public lands map which is great if
you like to boondock. We personally always need full hookups due to our work so
we don’t use this app, but we have it in case we ever need it.
On a more fun note, let’s talk food apps. I love the TV Food Maps app and website. While the app infrastructure is a little slow sometimes, it shows you if there is any food in your area that has been featured on a tv show on channels like Food Network, Travel Channel, or the Cooking Channel. Since we love watching these shows so much, we love this app. It helps us find unique places to eat that we likely wouldn’t have found without the app.
A big thing for us is checking the weather. We mostly utilize Weather.com for that. We check both current temperatures and historical temperatures, rainfall, and anything else we may need to know about an area. This is definitely important for trip planning especially if you plan to be somewhere for a significant amount of time. Do you have the equipment and the rig to stay warm in below freezing temperatures? More importantly, do you want to be in below freezing temperatures? While the weather might not be totally predictable, you can at least see what the average temperature is like before you get to an area.
What
else do you use to plan your trips? Be sure to let us know what you use in the comments
and tell us what we should be using if you think we’re missing something. We’re
always looking for new trip planning tools just like you. We’d love to know if
we missed anything that you love to use!
There’s always a downside to even the best things. While living the full-time RV life is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, sometimes it’s tough. Right now, I’m sitting on a plane flying back to my RV home for the winter, a place I love. But even going back to a place you love doesn’t satisfy your need to be feel close to the people you love. I flew home for almost 2 weeks and while in some ways, it feels like I was there a long time, in other ways, it feels like I could use just a few more days. It always feels just a few days short.
I don’t miss the city life. I miss my people.
I love being on the road, being a mostly free spirit. Sure, life is still very structured with a 9-5 job, but I can do that job from anywhere. I like the simplicity of life on the road, but sometimes, actually every time, I go home, it’s tough to leave. People I love are there. People I used to see all the time, but now I never know when the next time I’ll get to see them is. Sure planes and trains and RVs can take you wherever you want to go, but I hate the feeling of missing people. It makes you feel hollow inside knowing that nothing you can do will bring them any closer.
So I sit on this plane thankful for the time I got with everyone back home, but still listening to sad music because sometimes, that’s just what feel good inside.
(Image quote created by me, song “Wherever You Will Go” by the Calling)
We get the question a lot about how we handle Cash’s vet situation living on the road full-time. It was really difficult with while he was a puppy because he had to go in for vaccinations every few weeks and each time he needed vaccinations, we were in a new location. We did a lot of research before deciding to get a puppy because we were very concerned about this aspect of having a dog on the road.
After all our research, we decided to use Banfield Pet Hospital as our Veterinarians of choice. Our main reason for this is their use of digital medical records. We’re simply able to make an appointment at whatever location we’ll be near and they’ll have his records already. We never have to worry about calling and having them transferred to a new Vet. We never have to give all our information to a new Vet. All we have to do is make the appointment and show up.
This has been a huge life saver for us. Cash has been to the Vet in San Francisco, San Diego, Las Vegas, Palm Coast, Jacksonville, and Phoenix already in his first year and a half of life. Puppies need so many vaccinations to keep them healthy and Banfield has taken care of us every step of the way.
Plus, they’re located in most PetSmart locations so we know we’ll always be able to find them just about anywhere in the country we may end up. This is so reassuring for us to almost always know we’ll have a vet wherever we are. Not to mention, Cash enjoys running around the store to find new toys and treats before his appointments, too! 🙂
Have questions about living in an RV with your pet? Be sure to send them our way. We’re happy to share our pros and cons about life on the road with a pup!
We’ve been on the road full-time for a little over a year now, so I think it is about time for a must-have list! Whether you’re new to the RV lifestyle or you’ve been living or traveling in your RV for years, there’s just certain items you should always have on board with you. Here’s my list of 7 things every RVer should have on board.
Command Hooks – Let’s be real. Command Hooks were secretly invented for RVs. Ok, maybe they weren’t actually invented for RVs, but there truly is no better way to hang and organize items without drilling holes or damaging walls. With the various types of hooks available now, you can use Command Hooks to organize just about anything in your RV. We use them for everything from key hooks to cord organizers to décor hangers.
Diffuser – While this one might not be a necessity, a diffuser is a great substitute for candles. I love burning candles and the aroma they disperse across a room, but since it really isn’t safe to burn candles in an RV, I’m almost always diffusing scented oils for a clean, fresh environment.
Level – I hate when our RV doors slowly creep closed or the shower doesn’t quite drain all the way because we aren’t precisely level. While we might not always get it just right, we keep a small level right inside the door of the RV, so when we park at a new location, it is always easily accessible.
Tape Measure – While a tape measure is good to have on hand for a variety of uses, you can use it to determine if you have enough space to let your RV slides out. The worst thing is when you get parked and leveled, but you go to put your slides out only to find out you’re an inch too close to something like a tree or the electric box. Open your tape measure to your slides and use a permanent marker to mark your distances. If you have multiple slide depths, be sure to mark the various depths on your tape measure.
Surge Protector – I think it goes without saying that surge protectors are immensely valuable, but I often see people hooked up to electric without them. Don’t use the mentality of “There are no storms here” or “The power never goes out here” when deciding whether or not to use a surge protector. A power outage is always out of your hands, and it only takes one time for an electrical surge to cause damage. Did you know many of the RV surge protectors come with a replacement warranty? Some companies will replace your surge protector for free if it gets fried from a surge.
Tire Pressure Gauge – Never leave for a trip without checking your tire pressure. We travel with an air compressor in our front storage so we can always fill our tires on the go. While you may not have room (or the weight capacity) for an air compressor, a tire pressure gauge weighs next to nothing. Keep one in a handy location and check your tire pressure before traveling in your RV. This will help keep you and your family a little safer on the road. Plus, tire pressure is a huge contributor to gas mileage.
Extra Hookup Supplies – No matter how you travel in your RV, whether it be casual travels or full-time living, you should always have extra supplies for hooking up at campsites. We see so many people purchasing longer water hoses, additional sewer hoses, and even new electrical cords from campground stores. While it is nice that a lot of campgrounds have these items for purchase, they are frequently overpriced and often not exactly what you need. Most people buying in a campground store are purchasing out of necessity rather than by choice. By traveling with an extra set of hookups, you’ll always be prepared, no matter what situation may arise. Road & Home has put together a nifty Ready for the Road Checklist and we travel with extras of almost all the items on their list. You just never know what kind of campground setup or hazard you may run across while traveling!
*We’d like to extend a huge thanks to Road & Home for sponsoring this blog post and sending us a backpack of supplies including their Ready for the Road Checklist which you can find HERE. Road & Home products can be found online via their website and at many Lowe’s stores across the country.*
Everyone knows I love a good Podcast or a good book or a good Netflix binge or really anything that I can relate to or anything that makes me happy – I like.
But, today we’re talking about Favorite Things (which will hopefully become more a of regular series on the blog). And when it comes to favorite things, The Minimalists Podcast is one of my ultimate favorites. I was first introduced to Joshua and Ryan thanks to stumbling across their documentary on Netflix one day back when we were still living in a house with a ton of stuff we didn’t need and I was feeling overwhelmed by all the STUFF. Stuff we didn’t need. Stuff that was just filling corners. Stuff that was just there because the space was there. At the time of watching the documentary, we were an RV family on the weekends, I was working my office job, and I had purchased a house at 25 years old (which at the time felt like an accomplishment). Then it all started weighing me down. We started talking about full-time RVing, but we weren’t sure what we would do with all our stuff. I watched The Minimalists documentary on Netflix and started getting rid of everything I just didn’t need. I started purging. I sold over 15 trash bags of clothes, close to 50 pairs of shoes, and so much other stuff that was just unnecessary. Now when I think about how much I got rid of, it makes my head hurt to even imagine having that much stuff and that’s really just the clothes. I now have a closet with about 40 hangers and even that still seems like too much.
The Minimalists Podcast continuously brings all of the stuff into perspective. Joshua and Ryan have soothing voices and rational thinking behind why all the stuff is just stuff and methods for sorting through and getting rid of everything. I know you’re probably thinking, “Why do I need a Podcast to help me get rid of stuff?” and I get it. It sounds so easy to get rid of all the things you don’t need, but when it comes down to it, it’s easier said and thought about than done. Each time I listen to their Podcast, I come away thinking of something I can get rid of to simplify my life.
The best part is, they started this Podcast years ago so I’m still catching up. I hate starting a Podcast and having to wait for new episodes. With The Minimalists, I started from the beginning and just continued along. They have hundreds of episodes so I’m no where near being caught up. Anytime I need a little boost as to why we’re living so simply or I’m thinking about not having something that I want, I take a listen and most of the time realize I don’t need what I want. If I’m still thinking about the item I’m wanting in a few days, I start to evaluate if I need it or if a purchase would be just a quick, fleeting gratification.
This Podcast is great for anyone who feels overwhelmed by all their stuff, anyone trying to simplify their life, or anyone thinking about the RV lifestyle. While they didn’t create it for RVers, it really exemplifies what RV living is all about.
This post is way overdue! We stayed at Yosemite RV Resort – an RVC Destination just about a week after bring Cash home in October. It was great for us because it gave him plenty of space to run around with not many people around since we were here during the off season. They were dealing with the dry California weather while we were there so everything was very dusty, but there was nothing they could do about it. We can only imagine how beautiful this place must be when they aren’t in a drought. There are so many beautiful hills that would be green grass if there wasn’t such a water shortage.
This place has the best bath house I’ve ever seen. The stalls are huge with hooks for hanging clothes, towels, and more. They also have fully locking doors instead of just curtains you pull – this is a huge plus in my book! The entire shower area was fully tiled and seemed very new. The water was so hot, it could burn you. I love when I can’t turn the water all the way on high heat!
The laundry room here is decent, but not fantastic. While it was very close to our campsite, it was just your standard laundry room. Nothing about it stood out as above average, but there was nothing wrong with it either.
They do a great job at ensuring activities around for all ages. There was a pool up front near the office and there was a bounce house right near us. Each morning, they would come blow up the bounce house around 10 am and each night, they would come deflate it for the evening. There was also a very large dog park for dogs to run around free reign. If our new pup wasn’t so little, we definitely would have taken advantage of the large fenced in area for him, but he was too young to be in areas where other dogs have been.
This park was pretty convenient to Yosemite, but it was still an hour away. There were a couple of small little towns in between us, but nothing major. We were only here for a weekend so we could visit Yosemite and that was long enough for us. While the park was nice, there wasn’t much else around. There were very few restaurants in the area, but we did find this great whiskey distillery in the area called Oakhurst Spirits Distillery. We love visiting these unique, local distilleries. They’re always so different, but the best part is always listening to the stories of why and how they got started.
If you’re looking for some of our pictures from Yosemite National Park – go to this blog post for those.
Freeway Gypsy 