Operation Leave for Epic Road Trip to Montana commenced yesterday at around 5:30 PM when we rolled into the driveway from Father’s Day weekend.  The list of things to do included:

• Wash all the clothes and bedding that smells like campfire (so… all of it)
• Grocery shop for fresh foods (Aldi to the rescue)
• Make a few meals ahead (meatballs, taco meat)
• Gather all the things we didn’t remember on our practice run: whisk, the good spatula, meat thermometer, flip flops
• Prepare instructions and money for the pet sitters
• Protect Defend the furniture from pets who like to nap where they are not allowed 
• Real showers for all since we can’t say for certain when the next real shower will be

Rob wanted us to be ready by 10:00 PM.  Adorable.

We were not ready at 10:00 PM.

Still not ready at 11:00 PM

Then it was 12:00 AM.  And we were ready.  Two adults, four kids, zero dogs, 6 i-Pads, 12 pillows, eight blankets, half a tank of fresh water, one giant rainbow poop emoji, one x-Box, one U.S. map with scratch off states to mark where we’ve been, one Keurig and ALL the coffee in the world!  If you have been camping with us, you know we do not pack light!

I said four kids!  My heart is so full of joy… Amaya is going with us and I love that we are all taking this trip together.  It’s been months since we were all under the same roof and it is wonderful.  Forced family fun at its finest.

We rolled out of our neighborhood in the dark, Kevin and the “toad” groaning under the weight of all our gear.  The thrill of leaving on an epic adventure in the middle of the night only added to the excitement.  Alyssa and Marlie, tucked in their bunks, played on their i-Pads quietly.  Kai settled on the couch to play a video game, and Amaya put on her headphones and climbed up to the bunk over the cab.

In order to make efficient use of two drivers, Rob suggested the “You sleep, I’ll drive/ I sleep, you drive” strategy.  He would take the first leg of the trip and we would continue alternating sleeping and driving for the next 30.  Yes, 3-0, Hours.  That is how long it takes to get to Livingston, Montana.  And really, that is a conservative estimate.  

All I know is that I went to sleep around 1:30 AM and woke up around 6:30 AM in a Walmart parking lot somewhere near Scranton, Pennsylvania.  I knew I was supposed to initiate the next leg of the trip, but I was terrified I would do something incorrectly, like leave the stabilizers down and drag them behind us, or get lost leaving the parking lot and have to detach the “toad” (you can NOT back up while flat towing a car).  Turns out, I was paying attention (mostly) and was able to get us on the highway pretty quickly.

So. Much. Pressure.  How am I even allowed to drive an RV?  Rob didn’t seem at all worried about me driving Kevin.  He really should have been.  I can only assume, he was delirious from lack of sleep and his judgement was severely impaired. 

It took me a good two-hours to really get my bearings.  My apologies to the good people of central Pennsylvania who drove behind me today at 40 miles an hour on I-80W.  My hands actually hurt right now from white-knuckling my way across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana.  

During the time that Rob slept today, I found myself enjoying the ride.  I listened to my book (currently listening to The Midnight Library by Matt Haig – so good!) and a playlist of songs I curated especially for this trip.  The highways were open and landscapes changed dramatically from Pennsylvania through Ohio and Indiana. This is the farthest west I have ever driven, and I wish I could have taken photos.  I called for the kids to look several times, but they were… busy. LOL

As we drive through Chicago on our way to, yet another Walmart parking lot for the night, I am reminded of today’s big takeaways:

1. The GPS is fickle.  It will say that you only have 25 hours left in your trip.  Then, when you stop for gas and start back up, it will say you have 26 hours left in your trip.  We drove all day and we still have 20 hours left to drive.  Ugh. How is this even possible?
2. You need to remember to shut the blinds in the camper at night when you want to change your clothes or you risk flashing the drivers behind you. 
3. Pennsylvania is seriously the longest state in the world.  I feel like we drove through it for a hundred hours. When you enter it, beware because you will spend half your life driving across it,
4. Ohio is full of flat farmland.  Most of it looks like a scene out of Twister.
5. Although you can hang out in the back of the RV,which is great, if you need to walk around, you will look like Bambi when he tries to cross the frozen pond.  Teachers, it’s like walking the aisle of a moving school bus when you are on a field trip.  You know the feeling.
6. I can function on three hours of sleep and I will go into any gas station or rest stop without a drop of makeup on and camper hair.  I must have lost my shame somewhere in Pennsylvania.

Today’s greatest accomplishment:  cooking a full dinner while waiting in standstill traffic (bad tractor trailer accident).  Cheese, chicken, and black bean quesadillas with salsa and avocado.  No one needs to eat like savages just because we’re RV’ing it!

Until tomorrow! With one day under our belts and just 36 hours to make it to our first actual campground, we will need to make really good time and cover a LOT of distance. Whatever happens, it’ll be an adventure, for sure!

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”

~Lewis Carroll

So, our practice run went really well. 

And what I mean by this is that a bunch of things went slightly amiss and that is a good thing because we were able to fix them before heading on the long trip. 

You must thoroughly submit to the reality that things on your RV or camper will have to constantly be adjusted, fixed, repaired, or replaced.  No camper, no matter how luxurious, is free from this troubling actuality.

Before the weekend was up, Rob had replaced a fuse for the water heater, re-attached the shade over the dinette and replaced a few random screws that magically appeared on the floor after we arrived onsite at the campground. Thank goodness he is handy and a problem-solver. I am more easily frustrated and grumpy about the things that go wrong with the camper.

Anyhow, pro tip: always pack your tools in the storage bay of the RV. Kevin is full of plastic shoe boxes and bins (my contribution to camper organization) with various tools, screws, adhesives, tape, flashlights and other gadgets and gizmos to keep her running smoothly so we can minimize the time spent finding the right tools to get the job done.

Pine Acres Camping Resort is located in Oakham, Massachusetts and we meet friends there every Father’s Day weekend.   It is one of the nicest family campgrounds we have been to in the northeast.  It has spacious sites with gravel parking at each site (this is super important because it helps keep dirt out of the camper), full hookups (electricity and sewer), a pool/splash pad, dog beach, mini golf, an arcade, a fully stocked camp store, paved bike paths, and a pretty sweet little beach on a pond that is good for swimming, kayaking, and fishing. 

Before you tell me that it sounds more like “glamping” than camping, I will tell you that you are correct and also, I do not care.  I’ve been “dry camping” (no electricity or sewer) and “boondocking” (camping off-the-grid on public land) and it is absolutely great.  For the weekend. Without Kids.  When it’s not hot, steamy, and buggy.  This trip is an annual Father’s Day tradition and we spoil ourselves with indoor plumbing and air conditioning.  I own it.  My days of carrying all my camping gear and trekking through the woods to pitch my tent never existed.  In fact, if you had asked me five years ago if I would even consider camping as more than a bucket list item, I would have responded with a “Hell no”.  I like to spend time outdoors and sleep indoors. 

Theoretically, being outside in nature is relaxing and rejuvenating, but that is not what it is like on Father’s Day weekend.  There are pool reservations to make, an activity schedule to follow, dogs to wear out at the dog beach, and about a dozen people to feed for three meals a day. I usually love camp cooking, and I have my favorite tried and true recipes.  This weekend was a little awkward.   I knew my way around the old trailer, but I’m not exactly where everything is in Kevin.  It was a little awkward and clumsy, but practice makes perfect, so I was glad to use the weekend as a warm-up for the main event (in T-24 hours… I am not freaking out… much).

One of my favorite things about camping is being together.  No other type of vacation will give you the kind of quality together time you get from  living in 270 square feet of RV.  (If 270 square feet for six people and two dogs sounds tiny, just remember that Kevin, at 270 square feet, is an upgrade from the 145 square feet of the last camper we had.)  Granted, we spend 90% of our time outdoors, so we have lots of space to spread out, but it is 100% family fun time.  My heart is full watching the kids tear around on their bikes, taking Lemmy and Finn swim to fetch balls at the dog beach, playing tag in the pool, making s’mores by the campfire and paddling out on tubes to the little island in the middle of the pond.  We are ON 24-7 and it is EXHAUSTING.  

I will let you in on my little secret for keeping myself sane.  Sometimes when we walk up to the pool, I will “forget” something back at the camper.  I hang back for a bit and then walk to the pool ALONE.  I grab a cold seltzer, pop in my AirPods and get five whole rejuvenating minutes to myself.  It’s just enough time to gather my thoughts, gear up for the pool, and get ready to be present for the people who matter most to me.

We had a great Father’s Day  2021 weekend.  I couldn’t have asked for a better trial-run for the Montana trip than this weekend.  Good friends, good food, good times, great memories.  We’ve been practicing the art of camping for a while now, and I can’t think of anything more perfect.

Time to repack Kevin for the next adventure.

Kevin is a Class C 2021 Jayco Greyhawk.  If you don’t know what any of that means, don’t worry.  Neither did I.  To break it down, a Class C RV is a driveable with an overhead bunk above the cab. From the trailer you step down a bit to enter the driving area. It’s different than a Class A bus where the floorplan is all one level. We have two bunks in the back, a master bedroom with a door, (This is a really big deal, you guys. In fact, I would say it’s a game-changer. We can all change clothes without kicking everyone else out of the camper. You can shut the door and take a nap… in short – AMAZING.) and a couch and dinette that also can be converted into sleeping space. There’s a good sized-kitchen and a bathroom with a shower, toilet, and sink.

One of the biggest differences from the travel trailer is the storage (*cue angels singing).

We. Have. Drawers. And. Cabinets.. And. A. Pantry.

Even the bathroom has a tiny medicine cabinet and the bedroom has a little nightstand. It feels so spacious, all 31 feet of it.

Having a drivable camper is great for a couple of reasons:

1. You can all travel together. It was tough finding a vehicle that can seat six of us, plus two dogs and haul the trailer.
2. It keeps everyone entertained. Kids can sleep, sit at the dinette and play games, or watch TV on the couch all while driving. They can also use the bathroom, get a snack, and charge their electronics (yup, we allow electronics – not even sorry).
3. It’s cool.  Well, it’s “campground cool”.  If you’re a regular at campsites, you know what I mean.

Now for the bad news.  

Even though you drive the camper to your destination, you don’t really want to have to move it until you leave.  It is big and slow and tall, which means you have to be careful when going in tunnels and under bridges or around corners.  I absolutely do not want to be the one who shears the AC unit off the roof.

This means if you want to sightsee outside of the campground or even just run out for ice cream, you will need to tow a vehicle.  The vehicle is affectionately known as a “toad” or a “dingy.”  We are flat towing a vehicle, which requires a towbar to be installed in the back of the  camper and a series of no less than 15 steps to prepare the vehicle to be towed.  Also, you need a breakaway cable and this device that steps on the brake in the vehicle in case of a quick stop – there is a monitor on the dashboard to let us know if everything is working properly.  If you are thinking that sounds complicated, you are right.  

In my quest to be able to do all the RV things, I am learning how to not only drive and park Kevin, but also to attach the “toad” to the towbar.  I sit in the front of my Jeep Cherokee (I traded in my go-go-grocery-getter Kia Sorento just to be able to have a vehicle to tow behind the camper. I L-O-V-E this vehicle. Why didn’t I get a Jeep sooner?) with the manual on my lap and read through the steps, shifting, braking, putting the car in the neutral position and testing it to see if it moves on its own.  Rob could definitely do this a lot faster on his own, but it makes me feel useful and more capable to be able to help. It’s a lot like when your toddler wants to “do it herself” and ends up making more work for the mom.  It’s me. I’m the toddler.  But, after all, Kevin is 50 percent mine, so I’d better know what to do, even if I slow us down. Significantly.

So, after a HUGE shopping trip to stock the pantry and adding some small personal touches like a chalkboard, a wall organizer for remotes and charging cables, swapping the horrible RV bedding for a soft and comfortable bedspread and our own pillows, we are pretty ready for this weekend.

What is this weekend, you ask? Well, it’s our annual Father’s Day camping trip to Pine Meadows Camping Resort in Oakham, MA.  

But, Jenn, I thought you were going to Montana?

We are.  This is practice trip – a dress rehearsal, if you will.  Even though we are only an hour from home, we packed up three kiddos and two dogs (and one “toad”) and ALL our gear for two days of fun with friends.  This is where we will see what goes wrong, what needs to be tweaked, what we forgot… 

This is where we get the jitters out because in only 48 hours, we will be on our way to Big Sky Country!

“Adventure is worthwhile in itself.”

~Amelia Earhart

Welcome to our blog, Wandering, but Not Lost. We are Jenn, Rob, Amaya (19), Kai (12), Alyssa (10), and Marlie (9) – a big blended household of mayhem and madness. Rob and I bought a home together (sort of on a whim) right at the beginning of the pandemic, you know, before the cost of homes skyrocketed, and we all moved in together in June 2020!

We are a busy group of people. Between soccer, dance, baseball, skiing, snowboarding, work, and general life chaos, we are always on the go! Don’t be fooled – we kind of thrive on the hustle and bustle and we bring on a lot of our own chaos. Even with the frenetic pace of our day to day life, we love to see new places and camping has been a part of our lives for the past four years. Rob had a 21-foot travel trailer that we all crammed into (3 kids, 2 adults, and 2 dogs – the 19-year old opts out most times) and had a blast. But we knew we needed a change if we wanted to do longer trips with these growing kiddos, so…

… we bought an RV during the pandemic (which was also on a bit of whim, so if you are questioning our fiscal responsibility, you would not be out of line). And then we named it Kevin. (We are huge fans of The Office… and, honestly, the RV basically named itself. LOL)

After being cooped up together in our home for the better part of a year, why not take our show on the road and be cooped up together while seeing America? Let’s go!

We hope you join us on our journey. We have no idea where we are going.

Not all who wander are lost.

J.R.R. Tolkein