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Yep, we began touring once more.
But it isn’t what you assume.
I’ll get again to that in a second.
Our entire lives for the previous six years have been about journey.
Visiting all fifty states. Re-visiting 45 states and dreaming about driving to Alaska once more. Setting our sights overseas to different international locations the place we will RV. Making enjoyable maps of all of the locations we’ve been.
Well now journey plans all over the place are being canceled. Our buddy Nate who runs Faredrop informed us that there are practically 90% fewer planes within the air proper now in comparison with standard.
That’s an enormous dive for the journey trade.
But what about RVs?
We journey in our houses. We use fewer public services as a result of we’re self-sustaining. Many campgrounds are using contact-less checkins. Most of us spend the remainder of our time in nature—six-feet away from strangers by desire—anyway.
I’ve heard many individuals say RVing could increase this summer time as a result of it appears like a safer solution to trip in comparison with flying. I’ve seen associates on Instagram getting again on the highway previously week.
Can we return to journey as standard?
Heath & I’ve talked about this lots over the previous month.
Our beforehand deliberate travels this 12 months had us spending April & May in Tennessee. Driving as much as spend a few of our summer time in Michigan—one of many few states we have now solely visited as soon as and are dying to discover once more! We deliberate to fly to Oregon to go to associates, attend a rally at Winnebago HQ in Iowa, after which end out the 12 months within the Rockies—Colorado, Wyoming, possibly even Montana.
We scrapped all of our plans.
After Ellie’s well being scare final month and speaking to fellow full-time vacationers, we knew we needed to throw that map out the window. We wanted a brand new plan that allowed us to journey within the most secure approach potential.
Because you see, we journey full-time.
We don’t have any residence. No property. No land. No place to remain put for some time.
“Home is where you park it” as they are saying.
We couldn’t keep in Alabama perpetually. So we got here up with our personal tailored journey plans.
Step One: Drive to Texas
Ellie turns ONE (😱) this month so she has her one-year-old test up at her pediatrician right here in Texas.
When the stay-at-home order in Alabama expired final week, we packed up and drove to Texas. Her appointment isn’t till the tip of the month, so we’re holding it in park at Heath’s dad and mom’ home and spending time with household.
We thought of extending one other month in Alabama earlier than driving again to Texas, however wished to ensure we had been within the state no less than two weeks previous to her appointment. Plus we’ve obtained full hookups together with 50 AMP service right here within the driveway! It’s luxurious moochdocking.
Step Two: Summer journey?
Heath and I are taking part in it cautious.
We didn’t wish to preserve our outdated journey plans traversing a dozen states. There’s an excessive amount of danger with getting sick, spreading the virus, or ending up caught someplace.
But we additionally don’t wish to keep in a driveway in Texas all summer time.
When we sat down to debate all of our choices, we talked about selecting only one state. One state the place we might be completely happy spending June-October. Somewhere with good climate, a day’s drive away from Texas if we would have liked to return to household, and ideally someplace we would wish to open our first campground.
Colorado.
It’s been on the prime of our listing as we’ve looked for a campground (together with Tennessee and Maine) and it ticked all of the packing containers for a spot the place we would wish to spend an prolonged time period.
How We’re Traveling Moving Forward
When we drove from Alabama to Texas (roughly 11 hours Google Maps time or 15 hours RV/child time), we made the entire drive in in the future. Normally we might cut up the drive in two, however with the Texas-Louisiana border being monitored, we didn’t wish to cease in Louisiana.
(They did cease everybody on the border on I-10. They requested us after we pulled by means of at 11 PM the place we had been driving from and the place we stopped alongside the way in which earlier than they waved us by means of. The entire dialog lasted lower than 15 seconds.)
While restrictions are being lifted throughout the nation, nobody is aware of how this may play out and the way journey will proceed to be affected.
That’s why we selected one single state for our travels this summer time. We have family and friends throughout the state. We can fortunately keep parked for a month with out worrying about tornados.
I don’t know if our one state concept is the best solution to spend our 12 months. I feel most individuals would agree that the most secure factor for everybody to do could be to remain near residence this summer time.
But as full-timers with out a homebase, we knew we would have liked to the spend the subsequent few months someplace.
And what higher place than the place you’ll be able to park with views like this?
Those are our plans as of as we speak. They will most likely change by the tip of the month. But it’s the place we’re proper now.