Roaming Free In An RV

That’s how many days we have been living on the road: 2,190. We had no idea when we started this journey six years would pass in the blink of an eye and that we would still be loving the RV lifestyle. There are times when living on the road is tough: not seeing loved ones regularly, missed birthday parties, not being there for the birth of a friend’s child. But there are times when living on the road is great: meeting up with friends when they are vacationing, regularly going on random adventures, experiencing once in a lifetime events.

The last six years have been eye opening to what really matters to us and what we want to accomplish with our lives. We gave the 9-5 job another try and were stationary for over a year. Though that time was well spent, we realized that’s still not for us. We like the short seasonal jobs, meeting new people, going to new places. If we do not like an area or job, it’s no big deal as it’s only temporary, which we have experienced. We are not ready to seattle down anytime soon and are happy to just go with the flow with jobs.

The biggest surprise this past year was getting a kitten. I (Jennifer) have been wanting a pet for awhile so when Brad came home from work one day and said someone found an abandoned kitten, did I want to meet him, of course I said yes!! I held that week old kitten and was hooked. We named him Buckley, as he was found at a park called Buckley Cove. Buckley will be a year old next month and has woven his way into our hearts. We have tried to make him an adventure cat but he prefers to stay indoors but does love his bubble backpack, which is a win-win! He doesn’t get dirty from walking around (he’s a long hair cat and attracts dirt like crazy!) but we can still take him outside with us.

Now for the fun part, the run down of what we have been up to since last July……

Where we have traveled the last year:

Most of the past year was spent in Northern California, trying out the stationary job. We left California in January and drove to Pahrump, Nevada, right outside Death Valley National Park, where we worked as seasonal employees.

In April, we left Nevada to start the journey to Grand Teton National Park, where we will be working all summer. Along the way, we stopped in Mesquite, Nevada and Pocatello, Idaho.

Our top activities:

Both of us:

*Taking Buckley on his first “hike” in his bubble backpack in California.

*Flying out to Chicago to see Jen’s family and meeting up with Brad’s family in Nevada.

*Lots of trips to the Pacific ocean!

*Getting a hammock. Why did we wait so long to get one?!?!

Jen:

*Car camping

*Yosemite

*All the hikes at Death Valley National Park

*First time on an ATV in Grand Teton

Brad:

*Yosemite with basically no visitors

*Bordega Bay in CA when it was over 100 everywhere else

*Hiking Paintbrush Canyon to Cascade Canyon in GTNP

RV/truck fixes and maintenance:

*The normal truck, car and RV maintenance (oil changes, cleaning roof, sealing rubber on slides, ect)

*New RV tires

*In January after a long travel day, we had a broken kitchen shelf and the furnace/fridge was not working. Long story short, we needed a new converter, which Brad was able to replace.

*Leaking toilet petal. Finally fixed!

Our future plans:

No idea. Ha ha. No, we do have some ideas of what we will do over the winter and next summer but so much is up in the air. Guess you all just have to stay turned.☺️