What exactly does a travel day look like???
If we are on top of our game the bed of the pick up is all packed up and the outside stuff is pretty much done the day before we are actually pulling out. All the chairs, the outdoor rug, the toys, bikes… all of it in the bed of the pick-up all packed up.
We truly do not have to move much in the camper. There’s a little bit in each area that we have to secure or put away for travel. All my plants go in the shower, it turns into a little green house 😊 (My Grandma taught me that trick!) We pull the slides in and we are set for hooking up to the pick-up.
The last thing we do on the outside is disconnecting all the hoses. The sewer hose and it’s holder, the water hose with the filter system and the electric cable all go into a giant tub. This tub goes right inside our door. It’s the last thing we put away and the first thing we get out so it’s just easy for it to be right there.
When the camper gets hooked up to the pick-up Chase guides me as I (and Merrick) back the pick-up up….he’s better at the guiding part 😉 and then Chase (and Mac) hook it all up. The last thing we put away after hooking up are the wheel chocks (things you put beside the tires so it doesn’t roll). There’s been 3 or so times we have forgotten this minor detail and they have gotten run over…easily replaced but hopefully we’ve learned our lesson enough on that one!
As we travel we use three apps to really help us out: Trucker Map, All Stays and Google/ Apple maps. We use the trucker map app to show us the route semis would go from point A to B. We compare this to regular ole google maps and figure out our route. The “All Stays” app has so much info on it. It’s a map based app and it tells you about low clearance bridges, big down hill road grades, and most importantly to us…. where gas stations are that we can easily fit. Not just a Casey’s in a tiny town with one pump but the huge trucker travel center type gas stations. It’s gives details on these. Some big one even have RV gas lanes. An RV lane has no cover and are easily accessed by larger rigs. With our pick up and camper we are 3 ft shy of being as long as a semi….but we don’t have a diesel pick-up so we need huge regular gas lanes and they are not everywhere. Chase has become a pro at maneuvering through normal gas station when needed. 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
When we get to where ever we are going and it is hopefully a pull through spot (exactly like it sounds you pull through to park) but if it’s not I get out and guide through the backing up and then we reverse everything we did on the packing up process.
I’ve made a lasagna in the morning put it in the fridge during travel and then put it in the oven while we set up. We usually try to do something easy like that or leftovers etc for our dinner meal upon arriving. We pack lunches and snacks for the actual travel time. Our stops are for gas and that is when everyone has to try to go to the bathroom. The boys are sooooo good with this, I honestly can think of one time these past 15 months that we stopped because one of them asked to go to the bathroom.
When we take off we say a family prayer and we play On the Road again by Willie Nelson and I usually take a selfie of all of us. Sometimes on longer travel days we listen to a story telling pod cast called “Circle Round”….20-30 minute story with a moral or audio books. It’s amazing how much we have all grown fond of Ingalls family after listening to 7 of the Little House on the Prairie books. (So fond we had to travel to a homestead of theirs, I’ll try to write about that one of these days!) We didn’t know what we were doing when we first started this traveling thing but we’ve really gotten the hang of it and travel days are an enjoyable part of the adventure!
