Friends! I am just so excited to be writing here once again. The last time I updated this blog was in 2015 when we had just purchased our second RV to live in full time.

As they tend to, things have changed a whole lot since then. The abbreviated version goes something like this: In 2016, we got engaged (in beautiful New Zealand!) and found the property of our dreams in Salt Lake City. The house on the property was a bit of a fixer-upper—so after we got married in 2017, we started a major home remodel. (The type of major that involves tearing the entire house apart, down to the studs.) We still haven’t finished the exterior (we’ll get there eventually!), but we finished the interior remodel in the fall of 2018, just in time for us to welcome our beautiful daughter Thea to the world.

Life rarely works out exactly as you think it will, huh? I remember so many times during our full-time adventures, I would stop and tell Brandon, “Why would we ever want to live in a house again when we can live this way?” Even with all the changes we’ve gone through, that sentiment still resonates with me. Selling 90% of our belongings and taking off, just the two of us (and at the time, our two cats and pig!) felt like a little rebellion from normalcy. We woke up every day in our own bed, but in a new place, surrounded by interesting people to meet and adventures to be had. There’s still something about that concept that I will never get over—it’s so fun. Even once we found a home without wheels to call our own, we never grew out of our love of travel—especially RV travel. There’s just something about bringing the comforts of home along everywhere you visit that no other form of travel can beat.

Over the last several years, we’ve been confident that we’d buy another RV one day—but weren’t sure what kind we wanted and when the right time to buy would be. We looked at virtually every option on the market, from the smallest sprinter vans to the biggest diesel pushers. We wanted to get something that would be large enough for our little family to live comfortably in but small enough to fit in the many parks with 35-foot limits. So, fun fact about Brandon: he refuses even to consider buying a vehicle or RV unless we’re getting a crazy good deal on it. He scours the internet for months and haggles low prices down so low he practically steals them off the lot. (It’s a gift I don’t share, so good thing he’s so great at it!) Long story short, we found the perfect fit in a 2018 Thor Palazzo 33.3! It’s actually the only diesel bunkhouse class A under 35 feet. Brandon flew to New Mexico in January 2019 to buy it and drive it back home! We have big plans for remodeling the interior (stay tuned!), but for now, we are so happy with our choice.

In short, I’m thrilled to be back here on our little corner of the web, sharing our adventures. Roaming Free was a creative outlet for me years ago, and I’m excited to start it back up now. I hope to be able to capture a bit about our life on and off the road, traveling with a toddler, motherhood, healthy living, remote work, and whenever else comes our way whether you’re a fellow traveler or someone who is looking forward to their next adventure, thanks for following along.

Welcome to our new home!

Wow, this post has been a long time coming. (Yes, a really long time—my bad! As it turns out, just because you write for a living does not mean you always keep up with your blogging. Oops!) If you know us or have kept up with some of our older blog posts, you know that we took a break from full-time RVing to live in Utah from January until May, awaiting the arrival of our new home on wheels.

On May 8th—exactly 4 months and 26 days, 148 days, 105 weekdays, 42 weekend days, or 21 weeks later—we finally got our new home.

Here’s a little backstory: We ordered a new Montana High Country 293rk from a wholesaler in Ohio. When we ordered it in December of 2014, we were told it would take about six to eight weeks to be built and delivered to us in Utah. So, we decided to get off the road in January, sell our toy hauler, and settle back into a “normal” routine until our new place arrived.

Little did we know, Keystone was done building 2015 units when we ordered ours, and was completely changing the interior of the new 2016 models. So, every week, we would call the factory, and they’d tell us that it would take a few more weeks. We finally found out about this grand overhaul to our future home, and that we would be waiting until May to finally get it. We were disappointed that we wouldn’t be able to travel, but were completely thrilled for the upcoming changes.

And let me tell you: it was worth the wait.

Before looking at these pictures, you should go check out what the 2015 Montana High Country’s looked like. Let’s just say they made some big improvements to the design. Our new home is exactly as we had hoped and dreamed it would be. I mean, exactly. There’s hardly a thing I would change. How lucky is that?

So, I guess I better give you a tour of the place! I’ll be sure to point out my favorite features along the way.

Living Area & Kitchen

Things we love:

• Cozy reclining theater seating.
• The “living room” area, which is great for entertaining.
• A desk—we couldn’t do without one!
• A free-standing dining table (which doubles as a second desk for Brandon).
• The cute electric fireplace, which puts off a ton of heat without burning any propane. And looks adorable.
• A giant fridge and freezer.
• Pretty much every single thing in the kitchen—including my amazing pantry.

Bedroom

Things we love:

• King sized bed—ohhhhhh this bed is the BOMB. (You can buy one here if you’re in the market.)
• A giant open closet. We can organize all of our clothes easily with these Target storage cubes.
• Under the bed storage, which speaks for itself.
• A bench that doubles as a laundry hamper—brilliance.
• It’s just cute. So there’s that.

Bathroom

Things we love:

• Seamless shower. We had issues with our last one leaking, and this one cannot. So, yay.
• LOADS of storage. There are three large “closets” (not pictured) that hold tons of stuff.
• A porcelain throne. (Our last one was plastic. Call it weird but I love that it’s ceramic!)
• The skylight above the shower.

Other things we love:

• Easy peasy set up with auto-leveling. This whole fifth-wheel thing is SO much better than a pull-behind trailer (in my humble opinion).
• Gigantic pass through box that holds anything and everything we could ask for.
• Big beautiful windows with wood blinds.
• Nice aesthetics! I don’t love the design of the cornices (so I’ll eventually give those an update), but we’re completely smitten with everything else. Love the floor color, love the black leather couches, love the cabinetry…really we just like our home a whole lot.

Thanks for coming on the tour! Right now we’re working on a post about the modifications we made before we hit the road—including solar, batteries, our internet set-up, and more. Stay tuned!

When we made the decision to sell our travel trailer and buy a fifth wheel, neither of us had any idea that we would be off the road for so long. It’s been over three months since we’ve lived full-time in our RV, but I cannot believe how quickly time is passing. We’ve had a lot of fun new adventures while here in Utah, and have learned a lot during this transition period.

To preface this, taking a break from traveling has been a good, dare I say great, thing for us. In a sense, it’s made us appreciate many aspects of traveling that we took for granted. Here’s a few details:

1) We love tiny spaces.

We’ve been staying in a good sized house for the last couple months. Friends and family have said, “I bet it’ll be a shock adjusting to life in 300 square feet after this!”

You would think….but, actually, we cannot wait to get back in a 30-something foot long space!

I mean, when you live in an RV, you are about 10 steps from everything you own at all times––do you know how great that is?! If you’re hungry? The peanut butter and chocolate chips are 4 steps away. Need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night? You can sleepwalk there in less than 2 seconds. Tell me that’s not a desirable trait!

Bottom line: When there’s more space, there’s more stuff. The proverbial “stuff” has become my enemy, and I can’t wait to live simply once again.

2) Living in a “Sticks-and-Bricks” house is much easier than living in an RV.

Honestly, RV living can be a ginormous pain in the ass. You are constantly planning out new driving routes and destinations, worrying about cell service and park cleanliness, and remembering (or occasionally forgetting about) every tank, plug, button, drain, potential leak, problem area, etc. It sucks up a decent portion of your time!

That being said, I am itching to have those problems again! I love planning new adventures and having to set up a table a half mile away from our trailer to get cell service (yep, I’ve done that).

RV living and traveling can be messy, and at times, downright frustrating, but it’s so much more rewarding.

3)  Predictability isn’t our thing.

This may sound odd, but we aren’t good at predictable routines. We just don’t deal well with having to do the same thing, day in and day out. I get so sucked into my routines: wake up, make a smoothie, work, take a lunch break, work, exercise, make dinner, watch Shark Tank, catch some zzz’s (or some similar variation of this).

I don’t mind the routine––I do plenty of routine things while RV living––but I miss the unpredictable. I loved getting invited to wine tastings, picnics, grill-outs, movie night, etc. with new traveling friends. I miss seeing new cultures constantly and meeting new people all of the time. I miss getting the crap beat out of me by folks in their 80’s during pickleball; who would’ve thought?

4) A travel break has been great for us.

I’m not going to lie and say we’ve enjoyed every second of this break, but I do believe that it has benefitted us in many ways.

When we first realized that we would be living sans-RV for a couple months, I griped. I was excited to spend time in a state that I love, and see my friends and family more, but I would have rather continued traveling. Hindsight is a funny thing, isn’t it? I now realize how fantastic this break has been for the two of us. We’ve been able to celebrate my incredible Grandma’s 89th (!) birthday, fly down to Texas for a week and spend time with all of Brandon’s relatives, have my best friend fly in from Seattle and spend a week with us, etc. Traveling makes those type of things much more difficult, and sometimes impossible.

We were also so focused on exploring that sometimes we forgot to kick back and relax with each other. It is critical to slow down and put up your feet every once in a while. I realize now that we never let ourselves do that in fear of “missing out” on something we could have seen; I won’t be making that mistake again.

5) We’re not ready to quit traveling.

Moving out of a trailer, selling our trailer, and getting settled into a normal routine forced us to consider this. Did we really want to go through all of the stress of getting back on the road? There is so much that goes in to a decision like this, so we didn’t take it lightly.

In the end, we both realized that staying in one place is still not our cup of tea. We’re not ready for the typical settling down routine. Adventure, exploration and travel have been infused into our bones, and we are constantly itching to get up and go somewhere new.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” – Mark Twain

We finally heard back from the factory that’s building our fifth wheel and we have an official build date! Our new home will be rolling off the line the week of April 24th. We have another month, give or take a bit, before we are full-timing once more. In the meantime, you won’t hear me complaining; I am going to take full advantage of the situation and soak up every moment we have here. Carpe diem, folks!

A while back, we mentioned that we were having such an incredible time living on the road that we didn’t plan on stopping any time soon. We also mentioned that we were starting to realize that we may need to invest in a bigger, more livable home on wheels. Months of research and one scary decision later….

We are extremely excited to share that we are the new owners of a 2015 Keystone Montana High Country 293rk! If you don’t speak RV-nese, that means we bought a sweet new fifth wheel and we are so  amped about it. 

To fill you in more, here’s a little Q and A I did with my imagination.

You said you “almost” bought one…what in the world do you mean?

Whoop, there it is! There’s the teensy little caveat mentioned in my headline. Nice click bait, huh? Bear with me.

We don’t actually have our new RV in our possession…yet. We ordered the unit from RV Wholesalers out of Ohio on December 12. That, folks, is exactly two months ago. Let me back up and explain the ordering process a bit. When you order and RV from a wholesaler, they place the order directly to the factory, therefore skipping right over the dealer (and lowering the price for you by a whole lot). Once the factory receives the order (and the deposit), they begin building the unit. Once it’s completed, it is delivered to the wholesaler and ready for you to love it.

RV Wholesalers told us it would be about 6-8 weeks before the unit was complete. That would be….today, at the latest. We kept waiting and waiting to hear an update, but every time we called the wholesalers, the salesmen gave us the runaround.

“Oh, ummm…let me call you back.” *click* And then we would wait another week, never hear back, and call again. It got to the point that a couple weeks ago we called the manager and left a seething voicemail expressing our distaste for the customer service experience. We finally got a call last week from the factory itself. They told us that our new little home won’t even begin to get assembled until the end of March, beginning of April. YIKES.

This was not the news we were hoping for, but at least it gave us an idea of when we will be back on the road again. For now, we are just waiting it out!

Why a new RV?

A few months back we started discussing our future plans. It didn’t take us long on the road to realize that a life on the road was pretty much meant for us. Once that was settled, we began discussing more and more how purchasing a different RV would probably be the logical next step. Our toy hauler was fantastic for hauling toys, which is why we originally purchased it, but it lacked some creature comforts that we both really missed. On top of that, it was a major pain in the rear to hook up every time we moved. All things considered, we knew a new RV was the way to go.

Why a 5th Wheel?

If you’ve ever purchased an RV (or a car or a house, for that matter) you know that there are a lot of choices to make. We weren’t set on any particular type, so it took us a while to narrow down our choices. At first we liked the idea of a class A diesel pusher, but decided against it for a few reasons: price, maintenance, and livability. Class A’s are expensive, and the ones that we really like are the price of a pretty nice house. We weren’t interested (or honestly even capable) of purchasing an older pusher and fully remodeling, so that left us with really expensive new units. Brandon hated the idea that you would have to bring your whole house to a shop every time the oil needed changing, and I really didn’t love the layouts. No matter how hard I tried, every bus I went in felt like a bus and not like a home.

Once we knocked the idea of a class A out, we settled on a fifth wheel. Trouble is, there are about a zillion types of fifth wheels! We began visiting every RV dealer we could think of and researched a lot online. We knew we wanted a high-end unit from a reliable company, but we also wanted to work within a budget. Another big factor for us was weight and length. We have a 3/4 ton diesel truck and wanted to be able to use that instead of swapping to a 1 ton. We also wanted to stay under 35 feet, as so many state and national parks have size restrictions.

It was a looooong process, but we finally selected the winner!

Tell us more about Montana High Country!

The 293rk is the shortest luxury model that Montana makes. The “rk” stands for “rear kitchen.” It is 32 feet 11 inches, which is a perfectly manageable size for us. It also has two slides, one in the bedroom and the whole wall in the main room. Here is the floor plan:

Our favorite features include:

• A bigger kitchen: A 13 cubic foot fridge, double sided stainless steel sink, Corian countertops and more cabinet space than I can imagine was a huge selling point for me!
• Length and width: This unit is 5 feet longer than our current trailer and has two slides, which makes it feel about 5x as big!
• Built-in Desk(!): Added emphasis because I am really excited about this one. Between the desk and the dinette, we will actually both have a place to do our work. Hurray!
• Freestanding dinette and freestanding dining chairs: A booth dinette was a big no-no for us; I love the solid wood table, but will replace the chairs with something comfier.
• Theatre seating and a couch: The positioning of the seating in the RV makes it feel like an actual living room, perfect for entertaining or watching a movie with friends
• Full size queen bed: No more having to crawl over Brandon to get to my side of the bed! Also, Brandon’s feet won’t hang off of a regular sized Queen.
• Walk in Closet: It probably goes without saying why this would be a huge plus!
• Enormous amount of storage: …and I mean enormous. We have a large spacious pass through box in the front of the rig, storage under the bed, and cupboards everywhere they could fit them!
• Auto leveling: This may be Brandon’s biggest selling point; no more manual cranking and stacking the RV wheels on blocks! We push a button and boom, our RV is secure and level.

I could go on and on about all the things I love about our new space, but I will leave it at that. Here are a couple more pictures that I pulled off the Keystone website:

Why does the interior look like it jumped out of the 80s?

What a great observation! Honestly? I have absolutely no idea. It blows my mind that 90% of RV companies haven’t made the interiors more modern. I mean, look at those cornices and that duvet (insert wide-eyed emoji). Some brands have done a great job at making the interiors feel more “2015” but they are far and few between. Luckily, this RV has great bones, a perfect layout, nice woodwork, great couches, tons of storage and a billion other wonderful features. I know with a few trips to Target and Home Depot I can make this baby look and feel like home sweet home. It looks like I have quite a while to think about my design plans, as well.

That brings me to my next topic…

So, what are you doing in the meantime?

We are taking a break from traveling during this transition. We are staying in Utah and have traveled to Texas to see family for a while. Even though we miss the open road, this has been a nice time to see family and friends and get prepared and excited for the next leg of our adventure. With all of our RV repair drama and the holidays, we’ve now been living out of a suitcases for 2.5 months! We’re really excited to get back on the road once our time comes, but for right now we are enjoying Utah and a temporary solitary lifestyle.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the “preview” of our soon-to-be new home! We can’t wait to show it off once we’ve put our personal touches in 🙂

Disclaimer: These pictures all came from the www.KeystoneRV.com. I do not own them! 

Santa Barbara was an area I was excited to visit even before we began full timing. I heard great things about it from my parents and several traveling friends, so I knew it was a must-do. I quickly learned why it is a hotspot for so many travelers; SB and all its unique neighboring towns are charming and idyllic. Join me on a little photo tour of some of our favorite areas (and a couple we may skip next time)!

Rancho Oso

After spending several weeks in the Bay area and a few nights in Morgan Hill, CA (outside of San Jose) following our big travel fail, it was time to head to Santa Barbara for a couple weeks.  It was a four hour drive down from Morgan Hill, and Brandon felt miserable the whole. His sinuses were stuffed up, he had a bad cough, he was achy — he was not a happy camper (pun definitely intended). We arrived after dark, and he had just enough in him to set up the trailer and collapse into bed, where he stayed for the next 4-5 days. We watched movie after movie, ate lots of soup and rested. This was a tall order for us; we are “doers” and have a hard time sitting still for more than 5 minutes.

Having a few days of laying low had its benefits; we met our next-door neighbors on both sides of us, both of whom lived at Rancho Oso year-round. Martin and his spirited chihuahua Roo were on one side, and Christian and Josh and their sweet 2-year-old on the other. A couple days in to our stay, Christian invited us over for a potluck with some of the Rancho Oso residents. We weren’t about to pass up an invitation for good food and great company, so Brandon dragged himself out of bed for the occasion. Josh, a lobster fisherman, fried up some fresh caught Rockfish (uh, yummy) and we feasted on spinach puffs, salads, roasted chickpeas, cheese, crackers and mocha chocolate cheese cake. Double, triple, quadruple tastebud dance yum.

‘RV resort’ only describes a bit of what Rancho Oso actually is. Aside from camping, it offers some really unique lodging options—you can rent a teepee, covered wagon, log cabin or “Western village” tiny home. They offer horse back rides and horse boarding, a weekend mini rodeo, wine tastings, movie nights and plenty more. The ranch is set on over 300 acres in the San Ynez Mountains, which is a quick 20 minute drive from downtown Santa Barbara. As Brandon gained his strength back, we began to explore the ranch more. We discovered that the ranch has a few pet goats, chickens, and a 900 lb pig named Bob that live on the property; they were the sweetest! Bob filled my porcine void, and we took carrots and cheerios down to them almost every day. I took advantage of the rural location and went trail running every day. The only complaint we had about the park was the lack of cell service and WiFi. Of course, that just comes with the territory when you RV in a remote location. The adult lodge does offer free WiFi but it’s slower than tar, so consider yourself warned. Luckily, they have a cell signal booster in the lodge, and the boost was enough for me to tether WiFi from my phone. Hallelujah for Verizon!

Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara’s state street is about as cute as they come. While we were there we ate a great healthy lunch from Natural Cafe, devoured some not-so-healthy ice cream from McConnell’s, and much to Brandon’s dismay, did a bit of shopping. At the top of state street is the Courthouse, which oddly, is a lot of fun to visit. You wouldn’t typically tour a courthouse in any given city, but the Santa Barbara one is an exception. The incredible mission-style architecture and interior have been preserved, and the view from the lookout is fantastic. Best of all, it’s free!

Let me just hold the phone right there and mention that one day, we discovered Los Agaves Mexican restaurant…and it was life changing. They had the best Mexican food I had ever eaten. The salsa bar was on point, the guacamole was incredible and the flavors were just superb. My mouth is watering just typing this (and watered again as I edited)! If you are in SB, don’t mis Los Agaves!

In my rush to consume ALL the salsa, I accidentally dumped the green one, my favorite, all over the table. #oops

Another highlight was catching a sunset at Arroyo Burro, or Hendry’s, beach. It is also a dog beach, and overall just a nice local spot with a relaxed vibe away from the main tourist-ridden boardwalk areas.

If art, history or architecture appeal to you, the Santa Barbara Mission is another unique landmark to check out. By the time we got there we were too tired from a day of exploring to pay admission and take the self guided tour, so we just walked the exterior and snapped a few pictures.

Goleta

Goleta is just 15 minutes north of SB, and frankly I can’t speak much for the city itself as we really didn’t spend much time there. However, I can speak for the Goleta Butterfly Preserve! We parked and took a mile or two walk to find the clumps of thousands of monarch butterflies. WOW! They were so gorgeous! Without the occasional shuttering or flapping of wings, you might mistake the clumps for a bunch of leaves. If you go, make sure you have a telescoping camera lens or a pair of binoculars to really appreciate how incredible it is.

Solvang

Oh, Solvang. I so badly wanted to love this little european copycat town, but I just didn’t.  I was expecting the Danish-modeled shops to feature imported european art and collectables, but most of them were filled with cheap toys, “I Went To Solvang” tees or other dinky tourist trap memorabilia. The food and pastries were also a big disappointment. I know what you’re thinking — how on earth to you ruin a Danish pastry?! Those were my thoughts, also. My advice? Drive through Solvang on the way to explore the neighboring wine countries, snap a few pictures…and don’t get out of your car.

Los Olivos

Enter Los Olivos: now, that’s a small town I can get behind! It’s a one stop sign town, made up almost exclusively of wine tasting rooms and art galleries, with a few eclectic boutiques scattered here and there. It is BEYOND cute (even Brandon used the word ‘cute’ to describe it) and I would highly suggest this for anyone. Anyone who enjoys wine, that is.

Do not, I repeat do not leave without doing a wine tasting at the Carhartt tasting room. It advertises itself as “the smallest tasting room in the world,” which I don’t doubt, as it’s a teeny little log cabin with only enough room for a bartender and two or three chairs. Behind it, however, is a beautiful tasting room deck. It has plenty of seating with handcrafted wooden lounge chairs and tables, planters spilling over with greenery and trees everywhere. A water features trickled in the back corner and Danny’s Song by Loggins&Messina crooned in the background — it was truly relaxation at its finest! A five wine flight was only $10 per person, which was well worth it considering the quality of the wine. The bartenders were friendly and talkative. We will be making a special trip back to Los Olivos just to visit this place!

Following our wine tasting straight from heaven, we walked around J. Woeste succulent garden and the labyrinth at St. Marks church. We couldn’t leave without checking out Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch — or, at least the gates that lead to it. We’re both MJ fan and had fun checking out the gates to his property.

We had a peaceful and wonderful two weeks in the Santa Barbara area. I’m pretty excited for our return trip in a couple months! Have you visited before? What is your favorite thing to do?

Happy New Year to all of our friends, family and followers! 2014 has been a big year for us. We have faced some incredible ups and some heartbreaking downs, but we both agree 2014 is a year we will never forget.

Before I dive into the details of this year, I should preface with this: I was never sure that a life on the road was in the cards for me. Brandon is a wanderer at heart. He moved to Utah without ever visiting before, all for the love of the great outdoors and in the name of adventure. He’s lived all over the East Coast for work, and gets stir crazy staying in one spot for too long. I, on the other hand, adore being a homebody. I was born and raised in Salt Lake City, and while I have always loved to travel, I also love coming home. I loved to see new places but didn’t think much about leaving Utah behind. When Brandon presented me with the idea to leave my family, friends and comforts of home behind for a life of on the road, I didn’t take it very well. How would I ever call a tiny box with wheels my home? My sense of identity was very much wrapped up in Utah, and I wasn’t sure I even wanted to try living elsewhere.

Brandon encouraged me to look up the blogs of other “resident travelers” and read about their lives. I did just that, and the tides began to turn. Soon I found myself intrigued by the idea. It didn’t take too much longer for me to cave and agree to try it out, but with a caveat. I told Brandon that we would travel for one year, then reevaluate how we were liking it and whether or not we should continue. I recall telling my friend Amy that there was no way we would last longer than a year on the road. “He just needs to get this out of his system,” I told her. Regardless, I committed to the plan. We set a date to get out of our house, told our families about our crazy plan, and forged on.

Summer 2014

May, June and July were possibly the busiest months we’ve ever had. We had a sister get married, a serious accident and shoulder replacement for mom, a nephew born and a grandfather pass away, all in less than two months. On top of that, we were preparing for our big move, all while balancing work, relationships, and the aforementioned events. I remained hesitant about the entire situation; some days I would tell Brandon that I just didn’t think the timing was right to move to a nomadic life. There was so much going on with our families, and I felt like we were abandoning them. He assured me that we were doing the right thing, and despite my hesitation, we continued on a path towards our projected “takeoff” date.

At the end of August, my family packed up a minivan and a Penske truck and moved my brother and his family from Utah to Virginia, where my brother would attend graduate school. We spent five days driving there, a few days helping them set up in their new home, and a few days touring Washington D.C.. From D.C., I flew to Los Angeles and met back up with Brandon. We saw the Eminem and Rihanna concert (a dream of Brandon’s), stopped in Vegas for a few days to celebrate his birthday, and then finally got back to Salt Lake. Once we were in Utah, we had only 17 days to move everything out of our house and in to our RV.

August was….nuts. We parked the RV at the local KOA so we could have everything plugged in and tested before we left. My best friend helped us organize and orchestrate a massive garage sale, which allowed us to sell more than 75% of our belongings. We divvied up the rest of what was left in our house between the trailer, our storage unit and the local donation drop-off center. We worked from sun up ’til sun down, every day. On top of everything, both of us ended up sick for a time. To say we were exhausted wouldn’t quite cover it.

Somehow, we finally pulled everything together, and on August 28th, 2014, we began the trip of a lifetime!

September 2014

Quick Facts:

• Visited: Jackson Hole, Sacramento, Eureka and Crater Lake
• Megan’s Favorite Moment: Walking amongst the giants in Humboldt Redwood State Park in Northern California
• Brandon’s Favorite Moment: Seeing my first black bear in Jackson Hole; he ran right in front of us!
• Honorable Mention: Visiting Crater Lake
• Travel Fail of the Month: Driving 1,000 miles to a failed pig adoption (see below)

Our first stop was Jackson Hole. Brandon and I both love the Tetons and September is stunning in Jackson, so it was a no brainer. My parents met us up in Jackson for Labor Day weekend. We would sometimes stop and look at each other and say, “Can you believe this is real?” It felt like we were on an extended vacation. Saying ‘goodbye for now’ to my parents and younger brother was one of the toughest things I have ever done. Once I got past that blow, we had a lot of fun with some of our ‘firsts’: first time doing laundry at the laundromat, first time having to conserve energy to save battery power, etc. We loved it when anyone asked where we lived — both of us were jumping at the chance to tell them that we traveled full time.

Our original plan was to be in Jackson for a week or two and then head up to the Pacific Northwest while the weather was still nice. The problem was that by day one, we both knew that we weren’t going to be able to make traveling with our sweet mini pig work. Winston was used to his regular routine, and was not interested in changing it up. He needed a yard to graze in and more than a tiny corner of the RV to call home. We began searching tirelessly for a perfect home for our baby. We finally found what we thought was going to be a great home for him in Sacramento, CA. This was not even close to our original travel plan but we agreed it was important to place him somewhere good, so by mid-September, we were on our way to California.

Well, our Winston saga didn’t stop there. Turns out the family that we drove over 1,000 miles to deliver Winston to was completely insane and backed out after two days. Caught off guard, we spent two weeks in the blistering heat of Sacramento figuring out “plan B,” and finally found an ideal home 6 hours away in Eureka, CA. It was a tough few weeks and there were a lot of tears shed but we were so relieved to have found his new pig mama and pig brother.

We left Eureka the last part of September and headed north towards Bend, Oregon. Along the way, we stopped at beautiful Crater Lake for an afternoon. Crater Lake is one of the most stunning places we have both ever seen. If you haven’t yet been, add it to the bucket list!

October 2014

Quick Facts:

• Visited: “Tour de Oregon,” San Francisco, Virginia (Megan only)
• Megan’s Favorite Moment: Kite flying and walking on the beach during a windy day in Seaside, Oregon
• Brandon’s Favorite Moment: A wild night out for Halloween in San Francisco with traveling friends
• Honorable Mention: Learning how to play pickle-ball in Bend, Oregon, or visiting my brother and his family in Virginia
• Travel Fail of the Month: Water heater failure, which led to sponge baths for several days (even that wasn’t so bad; October was a perfect month!)

We arrived in Bend, OR the first part of October. October in Bend was perfect; warm days, chilly night and abundant sunshine. It was there we both agreed our real journey could actually begin, now that we didn’t have the stress of finding Winston a home. We met tons of full time travelers, including a couple whom we are now very good friends with. We learned how to play pickle ball, had campfires with friends, attended Bend’s Fall Festival and more. As our time there came to a close, our new good friends Troy and Deanna invited us to Seaside, Oregon with them for another week of fun and exploring. We didn’t have definitive plans at that point so we happily agreed and took off towards the Oregon coast.

Though entirely different than central Oregon, the coast was serene. The days were foggy and damp but we didn’t let that slow us down. We spent as much time as possible on the beach, hunting for sand dollars and perusing the boardwalk. It was fantastic sweater, soup and apple crisp weather. Once we waved goodbye to our new friends, we began our trek down the coast and stopped for in Florence, OR for a time. The weather was beginning to turn at this point, and the misty cool days turned in to long rainy ones. We were ready to see the sun again and finally packed up and made the three day trek from Florence to San Francisco.

San Francisco was great, but it was not at all what either of us expected. We spent most of our time around the ‘house’ and in the campground instead of in the city. A group of traveling families—some of which we knew, and some we hadn’t yet met—were staying in the Bay the same time as us, so it was very fun getting to know a whole new group of travelers and hear their stories. I took a few days during our time there to fly to Virginia to visit my brother, sis-in-law and baby nephew. It was so great to see them and witness the changing leaves and autumn colors along the Blue Ridge Parkway, as they were completely absent along the California coast. Brandon stayed behind and spent time with some of our traveling friends. On Halloween, they ventured in to the Castro district and had a wild time partying together, which he claims was one of the most fun Halloween’s he has ever had.

November 2014

Quick Facts:

• Visited: Santa Barbara, Palm Springs, Salt Lake City for Megan’s moms surgery
• Megan’s Favorite Moment: Wine tasting in Los Olivos, CA
• Brandon’s Favorite Moment: I second the wine tasting!
• Honorable Mention: Feeding the giraffes at the Living Desert Zoo, and surprising my family (Megan)
• Travel Fail of the Month: Missing Alcatraz due to a check-out date mix up or our RV flood

By November, we had wised up and realized that moving 4-5 times a month was exhausting. We decided to only book two campgrounds for the month: one in Santa Barbara, the other in Palm Springs. Both cities ended up being such a good time. From wine tasting to a mini rodeo to the monarch butterfly preserve, Santa Barbara really won us over. Brandon got to see the gates to Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch as well, so that was an added bonus. The night before we were scheduled to travel from Santa Barbara to Palm Springs, our shower pipe burst and the RV flooded. That was a bit of a nightmare; you can read about it here.

Despite the setback, we moved on and spent the next few weeks in Palm Springs. It was in Palm Springs that we finally found a home for our kitties. We tried everything we could to acclimate them to a life of travel but they just weren’t having it. The couple we found was wonderful, and had recently lost their two cats to old age. The cats settled in to their new home effortlessly. It was another tough blow to take, but it was the right thing to do. We also celebrated Thanksgiving in Palm Springs; our first Thanksgiving without our families. We had Bob, a fellow traveler and neighbor, over for an turkey-less (and still delicious) feast.

After giving it a test run, the decision was made to no longer keep the Smart Car with us. We thought we would store it in the toy hauler when we moved from point A to point B, but it was too lengthy of a process, so I always ended up driving behind Brandon. We thought it best to kill two birds with one stone, so I drove the Smart Car solo back to Utah and surprised my mom the night before her shoulder surgery. I had an awesome weekend helping her recuperate, left the car in storage and flew back to Palm Springs.

The month was packed, but we also made time for plenty of fun. Brandon, an avid quad-copter enthusiast, met up with another quad ‘pilot’ who lives in Palm Springs and enjoyed flying with him several times during our stay. We also got to feed giraffes at the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, which may go down as one of my favorite travel moments ever.

December 2014

Quick Facts:

• Visited: Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Houston (Brandon only)
• Megan’s Favorite Moment: Finally reuniting with my entire family in mid-December
• Brandon’s Favorite Moment: Going home to Texas and being with family for the first time in six months
• Honorable Mention: Exploring the Vegas strip and Fremont Street
• Travel Fail of the Month: Major technical difficulty getting our RV fixed in the shop and put in storage

December was an interesting month. We had to bring our RV in to the shop for the aforementioned flooding damages, so we were without a home in Vegas for a week and a half. Homeless or not, we tried to make the best of it and enjoyed discovering some parts of Vegas that we hadn’t seen before. Following an insane day of trying to get our RV put in to storage and winterized for our Christmas vacation, we were finally home-bound.

Being reunited with family and friends after months away is one of the best feelings in the world. Brandon spent a few days in Salt Lake with my family before flying to Houston to spend Christmas with his own. It was strange going back to Utah as a visitor instead of a resident, but it made me appreciate it just that much more. We filled our days with holiday parties, food, snow runs and lounging around.

After over two weeks of fun with the family, we drove back to Las Vegas with Brandon’s family to say farewell to 2014 and ring in 2015. We watched Maroon 5 perform and then celebrated with 300,000 of our closest friends!

Phew! That’s it! If you’ve read this entire novella, or even bits and pieces of it, thank you! We are both so grateful for 2014; what a journey it has been. We will forever remember it as a major turning point in our lives. 2015 is going to be unforgettable, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store.

Happy December, Happy Holidays, Merry late Christmas and Happy New Year!  We love this time of year; there is so much to be thankful for, and we love the cheerful atmosphere, bright lights, holiday parties, decorated trees and plethora of desserts. Both of us cannot believe that 2014 is coming to a close. I have fallen off of the blog train a bit. My dear friend mentioned I need to post more regular updates; her wish is my command!

On a separate note, today marks our FOUR month Roam-iversary! I feel like I just barely wrote our three month update. My, how time is flying. It has been a crazy month, but we are embracing the crazy and ready for more.

Our Month:

We have had one curveball after another lately, but we are learning how to roll with the punches. Allow me to rewind a bit. A little over a month ago, the pipe beneath our shower decided to give out on us. We came home from a fun day of adventuring to find water pouring out of the underbelly of our coach. We had the pipe under the shower fixed as soon as we could, but we weren’t able to get the RV in to the shop until we arrived in Vegas, which was a couple weeks later. The repairmen told us that the water had completely ruined our insulation, and that the repairs were going to cost some major  bucks. Bah, humbug! We decided to file an insurance claim to get it taken care of.

Saving our baby Christmas Tree before our home is hauled off to the shop!

Vegas at night — Beautiful!

To make a long story short, our insurance company wasn’t keen on coughing up the money, even though we are fully covered through full timers RV insurance. After a week of fighting them, they finally agreed to cover the damages in full. Hurray! Unfortunately, they didn’t agree to cover the damages until the day before we were scheduled to pack up and head home for the holidays. The short notice didn’t give the shop enough time to complete the repairs, so we decided we would have to wait until we got back in January. We are a little bummed, but still thankful that the costs will be covered!

We knew we didn’t want to haul the trailer up to freezing cold Salt Lake City, and had planned months ago to leave the trailer at a storage lot in Vegas. Sparing you the details of the day, we spent roughly 8 hours attempting to park in the original lot, failing (due to the fact that the storage workers booked us for a spot entirely too small for our rig), finding a new lot, forgetting to dump our tanks, finding a place to dump our tanks and winterize, going back to the new trailer storage lot, and packing up the rest of our belongings for the trek home. As a cherry on top, the giant California storm hailed as “the largest in five years” hit Las Vegas right during this fabulous adventure (two cheers for you if you can audibly hear these words dripping with sarcasm). I can look back and chuckle at it now, but I will be the first to admit that it was not a great day!

Our ridiculously tiny spot; It’s tough to tell from the picture, but there was no way in hell we would have fit in that spot!

A selfie that captured my rage was necessary 😀

The next day, our truck smooshed with necessities, we laid our crabbiness from the day prior to rest and were absolutely thrilled to drive back to Salt Lake City. My brother and his family arrived to my parents house on the same day, so the reunion was even more exciting.  On the 18th, Brandon flew to Texas to spend a week with his family, so for the fifth year in a row we spent Christmas apart. I will relish the day we can spend Christmas together, but for now this is the best solution we have found.

The past couple weeks have been wonderful for both of us. We loved spending the time with family and friends. Salt Lake dumped snow on Christmas day, which was picturesque. We don’t miss living in the snow, but it was an awesome Christmas surprise. On Christmas night, Brandon and his family flew in to Salt Lake for a week of fun in the mountains. Our gifts to each other this year were travel-inspired : Brandon gave me a Kelly Moore camera bag so I can stylishly tote around my camera and lenses and a few warm sweaters, and I gave him a Pickleball Paddle that is sure to bring pickle-domination to those who dare to cross our path on the court!

Christmas Eve at Grandma’s house

Complete homemade gingerbread house…and by homemade, I mean made my Trader Joes and assembled by the family 🙂

Brandon’s family on Christmas day

My sweet nephew meeting Santa Claus for the first time!

Brandon’s sweet Grandma

Sugar cookies!

The Re-Ignite Viking Paddle! Check out that game face!

My perfect camera bag! I am in love.

A Few More Updates:

As you may have surmised through my description of the past month, RV life hasn’t been simple or easy. We have spent more time living in hotels & family homes the past month than we have in our RV. Even though it has been a tough month, we are still absolutely loving and missing life on the road. If this tumultuous month showed me anything, it’s that we are cut out for a nomadic life perfectly. We’ve loved spending time with our families but both of us are itching to get back to our own version of normalcy.

Our travel plan has taken a dramatic shift over the past month. We had planned on heading through Arizona, Texas and on to Florida for the remainder of the winter. After some thoughtful consideration, we decided that would be far too fast. As I have mentioned in some of my previous monthly updates, we don’t enjoy traveling too quickly. Our new travel plan is as follows:

• Early winter in the Southwest
• Early spring in the mountains of Central California
• Mid-spring and part of summer in the Pacific Northwest
• August and September in Glacier, Yellowstone and Jackson Hole
• Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta in October.

This is obviously a rough sketch of what our next year will hold, but it’s a work in progress. We are feeling much more comfortable with this plan and cannot wait to further explore everything we can in the West.

All in all, life on the road (and not so much on the road) has been good to us. Traveling full time isn’t all sparkles and sunshine; it can be exhausting, and will, at times, push you to your limits. Regardless, we would not trade our wildly unpredictable life for anything. Bring it on 2015, we are ready for you!

San Francisco is a destination I have always built up wildly in my imagination. The food, the people, the squished colorful houses — the bay area has an eclectic, busy vibe that I love. My mom and I took a girls trip there last summer to celebrate my graduation, and we had an incredible time shopping and eating our way through the city. Last summer, Brandon and I drove through the city (stopping only to grab lunch and some chocolate from Ghirardelli square) on the way to buy our trailer. I was dying to stay for longer, but we were on a time crunch. On top of that, I planned a 5-day trip to visit my brother and his family in Virginia in late October, and found an amazing deal on a flight from SFO. All things considered, it was a no brainer to stop in the city for a couple of weeks during our migration south.

We stayed at the San Francisco RV Resort (LOL at the name); basically, it’s a dilapidated parking lot that is all but crumbling away into the ocean off a 60 foot cliff. It is located 20 minutes (give or take with traffic) from the heart of the city in nearby Pacifica. We had the misfortune of getting to the resort at the exact same time as the couple assigned to the spot next to us. The couple spent nearly an hour trying to pull their 40-foot bus into a space far too tight. After he finally finished parking, we were able squeeze into our space and set up. We hardly had enough room to open our door without whacking the Breaking Bad-esque rig on our other side. All we could do was laugh; this was a stark change from the wooded forests and spacious sites we had in Florence only a few days prior. That aside, it was certainly not a negative experience. The staff—well, most of the staff—was friendly and helpful, the laundry facilities were updated and clean, and we were parked just feet from the ocean, which would lull us to sleep each night and gently wake us in the morning. Aside from not being able to open our windows or talk louder than a whisper, it was more than adequate. The immaculate sunsets right outside our front door were a cherry on top. What a wonderful example of training your mind to see the good in everything.

In the first few days, we got some wonderful pizza from Gialina Pizzeria, wandered the streets of San Francisco at nighttime, and explored more of Pacifica. We discovered a trailhead only about a mile away on Pacifica beach; it lead up into some bluffs and stretched on for miles. We explored those trails nearly every day, which gave us a perfect escape from the crammed RV park. We spent an entire Sunday afternoon in Golden Gate Park, walking and people watching, followed by a late lunch at San Tung Chinese. They are applauded by locals as having some of the best fried chicken in the city; Brandon noted that while it was good, but it wasn’t the best he’d ever had. I did get a great fortune, though:

A few days into our stay, I caught a 5 AM cab to SFO and met up with my family in Virginia. I stayed very busy there (you can read about my trip here), and Brandon had a few days to to tinker around with his film gear, ride his electric longboard and see several new movies. He was also able to get down to the wharf and see some of the great tourist sights in the area. Every day, he called me and told me that I was missed and he couldn’t wait for me to come back. That, I tell you, is one of the best feelings in the world. I came home to a sparkling clean house and a vase full of flowers, which means that he really missed me.

Flowers on the table and champagne in coffee mugs. #classy

After I returned we had (ahem: I thought we had) five more days to get my “San Francisco bucket list” activities in. The thing was, we were having so much fun staying close to “home” in Pacifica that we didn’t really feel like spending all of our time in the city. We found two aaaaamazing restaurants near the campground; a gourmet deli that was home to one of the best vegetarian sandwiches I had ever eaten, and a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant with some killer homemade salsa.

I had to capture the perfection that was this sandwich. It may not be much to look at, but ahhhh the flavors!

While I had been in Virginia, some of our new friends (Jenn and Brent and Jema and Jon), whom we had met in Florence, arrived at the RV park. Another four or five full time families arrived soon thereafter, making the resort a giant party. We met tons of new families, all with kids in tow, who had full timed for years. All of them had such different stories, but there was one common denominator; they all love—no, adore—nomadic living. Have I mentioned what happy people RVers are? We spent countless hours talking with these new friends about their adventures, rigs, favorite cities and campgrounds, cooking and more.

A couple days before we were scheduled to leave, we made the trip into the city to the Tuesday farmers market at the Ferry Building. There were several booths and plenty of fresh produce tents set up outside, but my favorite treasures were found inside. Every shop in the Ferry Building is a “browsers” paradise. You see, I can’t buy little trinkets anymore – my 27-foot palace won’t hold them! But, I can browse. Luckily, we can (and do) still buy a lot of delicious food, so I grabbed a couple loaves of ACME bread and Stonehouse olive oil and balsamic dipping mix. Feeling in the mood for a treat, we grabbed an ice cream cone from nearby Bi-Rite Creamery. Organic, select ingredients, and big flavors — YUM.

That same day, our new friends Jim and Kathy invited us to a bathhouse in Japantown. They explained that we all had to go on a Tuesday, as that was the only co-ed, family friendly day where swimsuits weren’t optional. We were a little hesitant but our curiosity won us over. What an experience it was! The wide open room had access to open-air seated showers, a cold and hot tub, a dry sauna and a steam room. A table in the corner held water cups, lemons, cucumbers, washcloths soaked in ice water and bath salts. Talking was not permitted, and there was no time limit set; once you paid your $25 entry, you could stay in as long as you pleased. We stayed for nearly two hours—relaxing, scrubbing and soaking. As an overactive person who has a hard time sitting still (or not talking), I was pleasantly surprised that the experience was calming and rejuvenating. I would highly suggest checking out Kabuki Springs and Spa for an unconventional San Francisco experience.

Our trip was coming to a close, and I still didn’t feel like I had crossed off all of my “to-do’s” from my list, so we made reservations to tour Alcatraz. We didn’t quite make it to the tour before a very irritated RV park employees called and informed us that I had mixed up our departure dates. I wrote about that mix up in greater detail here, but long story short, we didn’t get to participate in our “touristy” final day in the bay area.

The closest we got to Alcatraz was this picture that Brandon snapped while I was in Virginia. Oh, well!

San Francisco was not at all what I had expected, but everything I could have hoped for. I didn’t get my “cute picture in front of Golden Gate,” or our Alcatraz cruise. We didn’t stop by Ghirardelli Square, ride on a cable car, or peruse China Town. And frankly, that isn’t a problem at all. San Francisco—or any place that we travel to—doesn’t just consist of it’s tourist hot spots. If I would have stuck to the plan of everything that I “needed” to see, I could have missed out on meeting new friends, watching the incredible sunsets from our home, or experiencing a Japanese bathhouse.

Each city we stay in offers some kind of personal metamorphosis; I never leave the same as I arrived. The cities, people, culture, diversity, beauty, atmosphere — these elements seem to mesh together and modify my life story, adding a chapter, a twist or a turn that I never expected. I have said before that I believe we all have the power to write our own stories, and I still believe that. But as we continue to travel, I so strongly believe that new places and people and experiences all act as editors, revamping our story and adding meaning that we never saw ourselves. I love this beautiful adventure; I am so excited to write (and edit) the next chapter.