Author: Jon Arnold

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RV trip, Florida weeks 6, 7 & 8

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted, so let’s catch up, shall we?

Three weeks ago we were in St. Petersburg again visiting with my Uncle Walter and Aunt Sue. As strange as it may sound, one of the highlights of their area is an Italian grocery store called Mazarro’s. Best fresh pasta ever.

Emily got to take in another flight, courtesy of the Young Eagles program (something we first learned about while camping in Osh Kosh.)

Emily was particularly excited about flying in her first twin-engine airplane:

The next day, Amy and my Uncle Walter knocked out a half-marathon:

At the end of that week, it was time say goodbye and move on down the road. We had so much fun with my Aunt and Uncle, and we feel fortunate to have spent so much time with them over the last month.

We spent the next week in Wachula FL, where it was standard work/school schedules — nothing too exciting. On Friday the girls took a field trip to a local horse sanctuary for rescued horses. Carrie and Natalie seemed to enjoy a taste of farm life:

Emily, however, would have rather been flying in her twin-engine:

On Saturday we relocated to Venice FL to meet up with Amy’s parents. They are taking a reprieve from the Ohio winter to spend some time with us in Florida. It was so good to see them.

On Sunday we went to Caspersen Beach, the so-called “shark tooth capital of the world.”

This beach certainly lived up to its reputation. These guys here would scoop a bucket of sand out of the water, sift it, and collect a dozen or so fossilized shark teeth each time.

They were on the hunt for big teeth, so they kindly gave away some of their little ones to us:

A few of us caught up on some Zzz’s. Nothing like napping on the beach to the sound of the ocean (in February no less!)

Natalie passed the time by digging an impressively deep hole:

That night it was a little Super Bowl party in the RV:

On Wednesday I took the middle of the day off so I could join everyone else on a trip to Myakka River State Park. We saw a few ‘gators…

…and had a nice walk on the trails.

The trail we took led to a suspension bridge held in place between two wooden towers. We were only 40 feet off the ground, so while not quite Indiana Jones, it was still fun and something different from the usual trail walk.

We ended the day at Nokomis Beach, which is known for its twice weekly drum circle:

It was a great beach; it felt so good to have my toes in the sand and water.

The signs of a good afternoon:

I love this photo (Amy shot it with her iPhone!)

Nat and Em making sand angels on the beach at Siesta Key the next day (a tribute, I’m sure, to those dealing with the current blizzard conditions up North):

We rented a boat on Saturday and cruised up and down the inter-coastal waterways for a couple of hours. That was a LOT of fun.

One of the highlights was seeing a couple dolphins swim up to the boat. (More than one local told us later, however, that we would have likely lost some fingers had we reached out to them.)

Back at Nokomis Beach that evening, catching another beautiful sunset:

One thing about living on the road is that you really appreciate seeing family. Of course, that also makes it hard to say goodbye. We had a wonderful week with Amy’s parents, and we hope they can join us again in a couple months (Washington DC, perhaps?)

This was outside one of the permanent-looking camp spots that Amy and I would see during our morning runs. I had to get a picture of it. It just made me smile every time we ran past it.

Big day for Nat today. She had finally saved enough allowance, Christmas, and birthday money to get herself an iPod. (We made a special mid-route stop at an Apple store near Tampa.)

We made it to Ocala FL this afternoon and will be staying at Silver River State Park for the next couple of days. It feels good here. The camping spots are ginormous, it’s super quiet and the internet is great.

We are slowly making our way out of Florida and will start to head toward Texas. I need to be in Austin for a conference (SXSW) early March.

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RV trip: Still in Florida. Still.

This is going to be another short post…we’re just not doing that much right now, and that’s totally ok by me.

As much as we liked Lake Kissimmee State Park, the bad internet was not conducive to a productive work week. Before we left on Monday, however, we were visited by some local whooping cranes:

…and wild turkeys:

We’re now in Claremont FL (just outside of Orlando) where the weather is as humid as ever. It hasn’t been rainy, but each morning everything is very wet:

Back in Greensboro we got connected via a friend-of-a-friend to a professor at Embry-Riddle University, a private university near Daytona Beach focused on aviation and aerospace.

Assistant Professor Alex Mirot was kind enough to give Amy and the girls a campus tour. They saw the labs, classrooms, flight line, and simulators, and Emily got some more expert advice on what a career in aviation might look like. Interestingly, Mr. Mirot characterized many of the students at Embry-Riddle as having developed an interest in aviation “when they were 10 years old.”

No, we’re NOT shopping for a new RV, but there is an RV show going on at our campground. It was a good excuse to get out and walk around on a beautiful Saturday. It’s always fun to see all the different options and floor plans that they’re putting in RVs these days.

Natalie has been wanting a US map to put up in the RV for a while…something to mark all of the places we’ve been since we left Indy 19 months ago (we’ve camped in 27 states so far.) It was never an official objective to hit every state in the continental US, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that changes before we call this trip “done.”

Last night we took an evening walk to a nearby lake to watch the nightly fireworks over Disney’s Magic Kingdom. We’re about 7 miles away from Disney (as the crow flies) which is plenty close enough.

All the orange-themed stuff around here had given me a craving for an Orange Julius, so last night we made a batch. Our slushy ice wasn’t perfect — we smashed ice cubes in a cereal bag with a rubber mallet — but the final result was delicious enough:

This makeshift clothesline was a result of half the campground’s dryers being out-of-order today. Problem solved, but it was likely our most flagrant display of redneckery to date:

So that’s our week. As much as I’m proud of the porch light I replaced and new shower head I installed today, I can’t bring myself to deem them blog-worthy.

We’re at this campground for another week, and then we’ll head back to St. Petersburg for another visit with my Uncle Walter and Aunt Sue. Florida is a pretty great place to ride out the winter.

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RV Trip, Still in Florida

I’m going to keep this short and bang through this quickly because 1) I need to get a jump on a very busy work week, and 2) my internet here won’t handle many photos.

There were only a few of us that partied hard enough to ring in the new year. But we were partied out and lights out by 12:02.

We spent New Year’s Day visiting some spots in downtown St. Petersburg. It was a beautiful day, one mared only by the observation that my 11-year-old daughter throws a way better spiral than me.

The next day I was back to work, but Amy and the girls (along with the rest of my Florida  family) found a place to take in some ice skating. They were prepared for a cool rink, but ended up shedding layers since the rink was outside.

Saturday morning, we got the oil changed in the RV and then hit the road for Lake Kissimmee State Park.

We really like it here. The camp sites are secluded, and it’s so, so quiet.

It was a beautiful morning for our Sunday morning walk. Not a bad day for being the dead of winter.

On our walk we came upon a cow camp, hosted by a “genuine” cow hunter. He was all “in character” the whole time, so it was a little weird, but it was interesting nonetheless to learn about the Florida cow hunters of the 1800’s.

On our way back to the RV, Nat spotted this armadillo. I’d never seen one before. They look like armor-plated possums.

Carrie also caught site of this cool tortoise. He started a 1 mph race across the road when we approached him.

We made sure he got across safely so as to not become some car’s speed bump.

This is the only down side to 80-degree weather in January:

More spanish moss. It’s so pretty the way it hangs off the live oak trees down here.

Lake Kissimmee State Park is not a particularly exciting place, but it feels great to be outside.

Natalie made baked mac & cheese for dinner tonight, and it was a smash hit. (For any of my former Irvington neighbors reading this, it was every bit as amazing as The Legend’s mac & cheese!) Natalie has become sort of a young Jedi cook in training, it seems; a young padawan to Master Amy.

It’s too bad that serene, tranquil locations are inversely correlated with good internet. We’ll be packing up in the morning and heading closer to civilization so I can get in a good work week.

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RV trip: Christmas in the Keys

Just a heads-up: this is a llllong post. It was an action-packed week.

The MVP of Team Arnold was out of commission on Christmas Eve. That’s right: Amy was sick in bed. Amy planned to make one of her signature meals that night, so it was up to Aunt Sue and me to fill in. How hard could it be?

Harder than it sounded. Our lasagna turned out more like a soupy casserole, but it was otherwise darn tasty. I’m calling that a ‘win.’

Fortunately, Amy bounced right back and we had Christmas morning as planned in the RV:

After opening all the gifts from Santa, it was fun to have a few more boxes to open from friends and family that were shipped to us in Florida:

I had accidentally left our eggs and milk at my Uncle Walter’s and Aunt Sue’s house the night before, so Amy couldn’t make our traditional breakfast. Natalie, however — armed with a spiffy new cookbook — whipped up a batch of banana muffins and saved Christmas:

Early Christmas afternoon at my Aunt and Uncle’s house, my girls opened their presents from grandma:

That afternoon we had dinner at my cousin Josh’s and his wife Lottie’s house north of Tampa. It was a full house, but we got to meet new relatives:

It was a big day, and a very fun Christmas. Everyone was ready for bed when we got home that night, but we had to spend some time cleaning up the Christmas mess:

The day after Christmas, we hit the road and headed south with my mom in tow. My mom loves her maps; she studies them as we travel like a mariner navigating the open seas:

We drove most of the day before getting caught in the single line of traffic leading out to the Florida Keys:

Our campground on Ohio Key was nice enough, and we got there in time for a sunset walk:

It was a strange feeling to stand barefoot in the ocean the day after Christmas:

There were some cool fish (like the kind you see in pet stores) swimming freely in the marina by our campground.

A few pics from sunset:

The next day we visited the Dolphin Research Center a few miles up the road:

As the name implies, they do a bunch of dolphin research, advocacy and education here, and do the dolphin shows and “swim with a dolphin” type stuff to help fund the place. It was interesting, but also pretty touristy.

Since my mom is with us, we have to double up in the back seat when we take a side-trip, which means Natalie has to sit in a lap:

My mom and Nat admiring the fruits of their puzzle-solving labors one night last week:

Amy and I went for a run Friday morning. The weather and the view were fantastic (it was very humid, however.)

We saw a lot of this in the Keys: sections of decommissioned bridges and walkways, cut off from access on both ends and no longer serving any purpose:

The view from another former on-ramp of a road to nowhere:

The beaches of the Keys tend to be very small. I believe this beach on Bahia Honda State Park was one of the larger ones, and it wasn’t very big at all.

By late Friday morning we had made our way to Key West, the most Southern part of the United States:

As the local merchants like to advertise, we were closer to Cuba than to the nearest Walmart:

A couple other notable sites that we strolled by while in Key West: Ernest Hemingway’s house…

…and the original Margaritaville. (Just you try not to get “Margaritaville” stuck in your head now…See? You can’t stop it.)

Instead of pigeons, the Keys have chickens roaming the streets and parking lots:

I’m not a huge Key lime pie fan, but we couldn’t NOT get some:

On Saturday we visited the Sea Turtle Center, a hospital that rescues, rehabilitates and — when possible — releases sea turtles back into the wild.

This place used to be a motel, and during the 80’s when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were popular the owner wanted to add a sea turtle to his motel-pool-turned-exotic-aquarium. Turns out the the only way to legally possess a sea turtle (an endangered species) was to make it a sea turtle rescue.

I guess the guy found his calling, because he shut down the motel and turned the whole operation into a hard core sea turtle rescue and hospital. Here’s one patient who will soon have some nasty tumors lopped off:

Instead of squirrels, the Keys have iguanas.

On Saturday we left the Keys and headed north, making our way toward the Everglades. Don’t let the golden light fool you — our campground in Florida City was a rat-hole:

Sunday was Natalie’s 9th birthday. We drove into Miami and hung out on the beach for a little while…

…Amy took in a short run…

…and then we stopped by Miami International airport. This was sort of a big deal for Emily because she got to see her first Airbus A380 in person. It’s the largest airplane in the world. I can’t believe it actually flies:

We hung out near the airport for a little while so Em could take in some more plane spotting:

That evening back at the RV, Natalie opened her birthday presents:

…and we all enjoyed some birthday cupcakes:

This morning, we visited a couple spots in Everglades National Park as we continued our travels back north. I’m not sure why my girls were holding hands as they walked along this boardwalk — just being silly, probably — but it was one of those moments when I was struck at what special times these are, our little family traveling around together. I’m soaking it in while it lasts.

We sure saw our share of gators today. They were everywhere, and fortunately pretty docile.

At least that’s what my girls were hoping:

Natalie, especially, was not taking any chances and stayed close to Amy:

These aren’t captive gators in some cheesy tourist trap…these are wild. We continued to see them off the side of the road as we drove.

The last stop of the day was an airboat ride through the Everglades:

Natalie liked it at first:

But then we went pretty fast:

Emily and Carrie loved it:

Natalie did not:

We made it back to my Aunt and Uncle’s house in St. Petersburg FL today. My mom flies back to Indy (and to the cold and snow) in a couple days, and then shortly after that we’ll be moving on down the road again. Where to I am not sure.

It’s been an absolutely wonderful Christmas vacation, but I’m kinda ready to get back to the ol’ grind in a brand new year. 🙂

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RV trip: Georgia to Florida

This month my girls have been doing a “good deed a day” advent calendar (thanks Aunt Sherry), performing some daily act of kindness as we count down towards Christmas. Monday’s challenge was “bake cookies for your neighbor.”

So they gift-wrapped and delivered their fresh-baked cookies to a dozen or so of our campground neighbors:

Wednesday was a double treat: I met up with my childhood friend Kristi (along with her boyfriend Chris) who I had not seen for over 20 years…

…and we all had lunch at the wonderful Mrs. Wilkes in downtown Savannah. Mrs. Wilkes used to be a boarding house in the early 60’s, but it became known for its legendary food. You don’t order anything; you just sit at a table (usually with strangers), and eat like it’s Thanksgiving. It’s Southern cooking at its fahhhnest.

After lunch, I sat in the car and worked while Amy and the girls walked around downtown Savannah:

My girls making some crazy videos on Amy’s computer one night this week:

We made it to our campground in Wildwood, Florida on Wednesday afternoon, just in time to hear the Weaver Believer Survival Revival rocking out down at the clubhouse:

Lunchtime outside on a beautiful, sunny Florida day:

Our RV park was right next to a cattle pasture. Natalie was excited to see a few baby cows:

Before hitting the road on Friday, we stopped by the local truck wash. It was very loud with all of the semi’s idling and the pressure washers spraying, so it at first felt like an angry place with everyone yelling at each other over the noise. But I soon realized it was just a bunch of cheerful swearing truckers.

We were so happy to finally reach St. Petersburg FL to be with my Uncle Walter and Aunt Sue. Walter met us at the RV park before we all headed over to his house for the evening.

Amy stocking up on fresh produce at the St. Petersburg farmer’s market on Saturday:

My girls helping Aunt Sue wrap gifts for her grandkids:

We of course don’t have a Christmas tree in the RV, so my girls had fun putting some finishing touches on Aunt Sue’s tree:

An evening out at Yorgurtology:

This morning we joined Walter and Sue for church — one of the rare times we’ve actually had to somewhat dress up!

My mom flew down from Indy today. She’ll be staying at Walter and Sue’s while we’re here in town but then she’ll join us on the road for a few days after Christmas.

I started this post talking about cookies, and I’ll end it talking about cookies. Three years ago my life was changed when I had one or 12 of Aunt Sue’s cutout cookies, so I was pretty excited to partake of them once again. Here are my girls helping with the initial cutouts:

…Nat whipping up some icing:

…the full Icing Team:

…and the final product. So, so delicious.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, so we’ll be hanging out with Walter, Sue and my mom, and perhaps knocking out some last minute shopping (and definitely knocking down some cutout cookies.)

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RV trip: South Carolina

Amy has been putting our mirror space to good use; it became her whiteboard for the family schedule while we were in Charleston this week:

The weather toggled between sunny and cloudy, but on Wednesday it rained and rained and rained all day and all night long.

On Wednesday night we had gen-u-ine lowcountry frogmore stew: fresh, local boiled shrimp, smoked sausage, corn and potatoes:

On Friday afternoon, we drove into downtown Charleston to visit a former slave mart. This was the first of many stops where I would struggle to fully comprehend that the buying and selling of human inventory actually happened.

After the slave museum, we visited the Fort Sumter National Monument. For you Civil War newbs, Ft. Sumter was where the first shots of the Civil War were fired in 1861.

We didn’t actually go see Ft. Sumter, as this required a pricey boat ride across the water, and there’s not much remaining of the original fort. But we could see it from afar, and the museum we visited was enough to rekindle my interest in Civil War history.

We spent Friday evening walking around downtown Charleston:

It was pretty cool seeing all of the old uppity houses, many of which date from the 1700’s (and a few from the 1600’s):

It had been a full day already, but that night Natalie and I did about 2 hours of Christmas shopping at a nearby mall:

On Saturday we visited Boone Hall Plantation, one of the oldest and longest-working (still working, in fact) plantations in the US. Check out the long driveway that leads to the house…sort of Forest Gump-ish, no?

Nine of the original slave houses (built in 1790) are still standing:

We learned that these were the “nicer” slave houses, reserved for those with more valued skills.

Natalie was freaked out by the manequins and preferred to stay outside:

There were lots of artifacts like this from the slave era that are simply hard to understand, hard to accept:

The main house was nice and certainly interesting, but it was the 4th house to occupy this site and built in 1937.  I was hoping to see an antebellum house of the pre-Civil War era.

We left Charleston and drove a couple hours to Hunting Island State Park. Along the way, we made one stop that Amy rarely passes up:

Carrie and Amy decorating a real wreath (picked up from the local farmer’s market) the closest thing we have to a Christmas tree in the RV. It smells wonderful!

Last night was our annual Christmas viewing of Elf:

Amy and I took an early morning walk on the beach this morning, just a short distance from our campsite. This gets my vote for the absolute best sign of the trip:

I rescued a crab out of a washed up crab trap on the beach. He did not seem very grateful.

Our campsite this morning, amidst the tall pine and palm trees:

The sun started to burn through the mist and created some really cool lighting. This looks almost like a video game to me:

After breakfast, it was time for our weekly Sunday morning hike. This type of terrain and foliage is known as a “maritime forrest.” It felt very jungle-y.

We came upon this cool lighthouse, but we didn’t have any money to go up in it (yet).

Our trail continued toward the ocean…

…and off came the shoes:

Good thing, because it was high tide — very high tide — and we had to find our own path through the water:

We eventually made it to the beach and had great time walking along the water:

Before leaving the park, we drove back to the lighthouse with our $2/person entrance fees:

As one would expect from a lighthouse, it was a nice view!

We drove to Savannah GA today and made it to our campground just before dark:

Tomorrow will be a normal work/school day, but on Tuesday we’ll explore downtown Savannah and then leave town on Wednesday. We want to be in Florida by Friday!

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RV trip: North Carolina, week 2

While making our way to the Outer Banks in NC, we noticed what looked like litter on the sides of the roads everywhere. Turns out it was just cotton. Everywhere.

We rolled in late on Monday night to discover that our targeted campground was closed for the season. The owner let us boondock on an empty patch of grass for the night (we found an open and much nicer campground down the road the next day).

The Outer Banks has some of the best mobile internet of the trip. Wicked fast (for me, anyway):

Amy and the girls were eager to see an ocean for the first time since being in San Diego:

A big side trip for us was seeing the Wright Brother’s museum at Kitty Hawk. This was an important stop because of Emily’s interest in airplanes, but also because the girls have been studying and reading historical fiction about the Wright Brothers.

A park ranger gave us an informative presentation in front of a Wright Flyer replica. Emily correctly answered all of his questions.

The site of the Wright’s successful flight (and Emily’s unsuccessful flight):

On Thursday, Amy and the girls took a field trip to Corolla to see the wild horses. Their tour guide April drove them down the sandy roads to find the horses. The Scion would have never made it over the dunes and down the beach!

There are over 100 Spanish mustangs that live in this area, roaming freely in the marshes and on the dunes.

The horses prefer to travel along the cleared roadways created by the 4-wheel drive vehicles.

This is the Bodie Island lighthouse on the Outer Banks. Just south of here, the road continues to be passable only to 4-wheel-drives after it was washed out by Hurricane Sandy. We are back to wanting a jeep.

It’s a Christmas wonderland in the RV. Carrie strung up lights, and Amy, Em and Nat made paper snowflakes and garland:

Amy had to have some fresh-out-of-water-still-flopping-around sea food, so we had a rare and enjoyable dinner out on Friday night:

Amy and I discovered that the little hill in the middle of our campground is actually a creepy-cool old cemetery, so that’s a first.

Our last couple of days in the Outer Banks were pretty foggy. Everything is very damp, all of the time:

On Saturday, we hit the road and headed south. Along the way we stopped at the site of the “lost colony” of Roanoke Island. It’s clearly the off season…the park ranger visibly reacted with delight to us walking into the otherwise empty visitor center.

I always thought the Thanksgiving pilgrims were the first English folks to try to make a go of the “new world.” Not so.  The Virginia Colony was an English settlement on Roanoke Island in 1584. They ran into hard times, sent their leader back to England for provisions. By the time he got back 3 YEARS LATER, everyone was gone. No one knows what fate befell them, hence the name “lost colony.” These mounds are one of the few things that indicate anyone was ever here. Sad story.

I’m loving these gas prices. $3.15/gallon with my spiffy Flying J card. Yesterday we saw a couple places with $3.03 gas. When one gets only 8 miles per gallon and one’s tank is 65 gallons, this is a significant cost savings.

We slummed out in the Lumberton, NC Walmart parking lot on Saturday night:

We spent most of Sunday morning traveling before arriving at James Island County Campground in Charleston, SC. It’s so warm here. It smells like summer.

It was nice to see my kids back to playing outside in the dirt.

There is a major Christmas light display going on at the park we’re staying at, so we spent some time last night walking around checking it all out.

The lights were really cool, but it was a strange sensation strolling through a “winter wonderland” of christmas lights while wearing shorts.

This campground is a little nicer than what we’re used to, and at $40/night it’s a little pricier than what we’re used to. But we’ll enjoy our time here before continuing southward this weekend.

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RV trip: North Carolina

Before leaving Greensboro at the end of last week, we were visited a couple times by Greensboro News & Record columnist Jeri Rowe. He did a story on our trip which ran in yesterday’s Sunday paper.

Amy with her Greensboro running buddies after their last run together. Amy really enjoyed getting connected with such a fun group of fellow early-morning runners.

Just like getting into my sister’s driveway, getting out was a little tricky. Amy backed up the RV while my brother-in-law Chris and I rode up top to manage the low-hanging branches:

Once out in the street, we were able to finish packing, hook up the car and get pointed in the right direction:

Our sad goodbyes:

Emily left a dozen or so strategically-placed mementos around the house:

It was dark by the time we got to my former-college-roommate Justin and his wife Tina’s house/farm on Thursday evening (here’s the view the next morning:)

Justin and Tina were at work and their 4 kids were at school all day Friday, so we made ourselves at home and enjoyed their very spacious house:

That evening, we suited up for some coon hunting. Yes, I said coon hunting.

Not pictured above is Stanley, Justin’s Treeing Walker Coonhound who is sort of the star of the show. It works like this: you take Stanley into the woods, release him from his leash, and after a little while Stanley’s mournful howls reverberate through the woods indicating he has found the scent of a raccoon. When Stanley locates and trees said raccoon, he does what he has been bred to do: totally flip out. We didn’t get a ‘coon this night, and a subsequent effort the following evening came up ‘coon-less, but I at least got to see Stanley do his thing, and it was very impressive. Here’s the sound of Stanley barking up the tree of where a raccoon had recently been: Stanley-treeing-walker-hound (mp3)

My girls enjoyed being around the animals:

On Saturday morning, this calf got it’s head stuck in the rungs of a fence, and it took lubricating her neck with soap to get her free.

…Natalie got to help wash off the soap:

Justin took the time to give Natalie a few pointers on how to show farm animals in front of judges:

We all took a turn walking the calf:

Of course, we made time for some shootin’:

Emily about to snipe a pumpkin:

The only thing more awesome than Amy is Amy with a 12-gauge shotgun:

Emily can now say she shot a 20-gauge shotgun:

The effects of administering some shotgun justice from ~4 feet away:

Just hanging out that evening:

Justin has 7 pregnant cows in his field, so we were hoping to witness the birth of a calf. The earliest birth from this group, however, won’t likely happen until next week. Justin promised to send us some video.

[UPDATE 12/6/2012: Justin called to let us know that this calf was born this morning. He named it Natalie.]

We camped one more night in Justin and Tina’s driveway last night and did work and school today at their house. Now we’re heading to the Outer Banks of NC for the rest of the week.

We’re looking forward to seeing the ocean again!

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RV trip, Summer/Fall recap

It’s been quite a while, and it’s time to dust off the ol’ blog with an update. Here’s what we’ve been up to for the last few months…

Shortly after arriving back in Indy after our roughly-year-long RV trip, we headed off to the Arnold family reunion in Thornville, Ohio:

Our camping spot was perfect: a vacant lot in my Uncle Mark’s neighborhood.

A couple days after that, we dropped Carrie and Natalie off at a week-long farm camp in the Amish country of northeast Ohio. It was Carrie’s second time and Natalie’s first time at “Camp Manure” (not really its name; that’s just what we call it.)

Back in Indy, my mom’s neighbor unfortunately took issue with us living in the RV behind their house, so we ended up relocating the RV and moving in with my mom. One thing we can all agree on, however, is the awesomeness of my parking job:

Having access to my dad’s woodworking tools allowed me to do an upgrade I’d been itching to do all year: replace the circa 2002, 700 lb. bubble TV with a lightweight, energy efficient LED HDTV:

Emily got in three flights courtesy of the Young Eagles program we learned about while in Osh Kosh, WI. Here she is manning the controls during a flight in August:

While at home, Amy and the girls did a study of our Amish family ancestry and culture, which included a trip to Northern Indiana. While there, they were invited to visit my mom’s cousin and their dairy farm.

Amy and the girls enjoyed this special field trip with my mom and getting to meet new cousins.

Remember how scratched and dented the front of our poor Scion got? Well, after being back in Indy for just a couple days, someone rear-ended it while it was parked and scraped up the back. But then a miracle happened one early August morn: a tree limb fell on the hood and busted it all up:

The homeowner who owned the tree reimbursed us for the repairs to the front, and the body shop accidentally damaged the back. So we got a free new front:

…and a free new back! 🙂

After staying with my mom in Indy for about a month, we moved on to Amy’s parents’ house in Ohio. An early highlight was spending a day at a water park that Uncle Clint manages:

Amy’s mom had recently acquired several chickens, so we enjoyed many farm-fresh eggs. Emily helped name the chickens and really enjoyed taking care of them.

We lived in Amy’s parents’ house instead of the RV while we were there, so that gave me the opportunity to do my most daunting RV project to date: installing an inverter. This inverter takes DC power from our bank of batteries and supplies the outlets with AC power when we are disconnected from an electrical source. It was hard work — I had to rewire much of the electrical system of the RV and install a new breaker panel — but having the internet, TV and any other AC-powered device operable while rolling down the road is simply magical.

One of our side trips while in Ohio was touring the Fleetwood factory in Decatur, IN (our RV is a Fleetwood).

I love seeing how stuff is made, and learning all about how our RV was assembled was particularly interesting.

Carrie turned 13 in October!

We ended up staying 6 wonderful weeks in Ohio with Amy’s parents. The last few days were unfortunately pretty crazy — I had to go back to Indy for a conference, leaving Amy to drive to our next stop in North Carolina by herself. Amy is a very capable RV driver, but it would have been a long and potentially stressful drive. I’m eternally grateful to Amy’s dad for riding along with her. (Thanks John!)

Our first stop in NC was a weekend-long hippy music festival in Asheville called LEAF. For years my sister Shelley has been telling me about how much fun it is (she and her family go twice a year).

Most people tent-camp at this event, but there was a small section for fellow RVers:

The music was good…

…but it was mainly just about being outside and hanging out with friends. Shelley was right — we all had a great time.

After LEAF, we drove to Greensboro and set up camp at the end of my sister’s driveway:

It was fun spending Halloween in Greensboro. Here are my girls with their cousins Caitlin, Cole and Matthew:

Amy, me, my brother-in-law Chris and my sister Shelley ran the Greensboro Zombie Run. It was so much fun!

Amy hit the big 4-0 in August, then it was my turn this month:

A former Woolworth’s store in Greensboro is the site of a notable sit-in during the Civil Rights movement. It’s now a museum that we were eager to check out:

Emily turned 11!

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. It was a full house:

We had a wonderful time with my sister and her family, along with the Stracks from up the street. (This is the same family that we met up with while in Yellowstone several months ago.)

On Friday we took a trip to Hanging Rock for a short hike with all the kids:

It felt so good to be outside, climb up on something high and see a spectacular view again.

This is our last week in Greensboro. As much as I’m eager to get back on the road and start this second chapter of our RV trip, it will be very sad to leave my sister and her family. We’ve really enjoyed our time here.

We head out Thursday to visit my old college roommate who lives in Warrenton, NC, and that will mark the official return to fulltime RV living — and weekly blogging.

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The cost of a year-long RV trip

Below are some stats and figures from our trip. Was it almost a year? Was it over a year? Depends on how you look at it.

The timeline:

Just 6 weeks into our travels, my dad died. We spent about two months back in Indy living with my mom before resuming our travels.

The stats:

RV miles 15,689  
Car miles 13,031  
Total miles   28,720
Photos taken 17,293  
Campgrounds camped at 111  
Average campground fee $19.43/night  
Highest camping fee
(Los Angeles, CA)		 $55/night   
Lowest camping fee
(manure hill at Hell’s Canyon, ID)		 $10.56/night   

The financial breakdown

I remember when we first got the hankering for some RVing, the first question we had was “how much would it cost?” To help any readers that stumble upon our humble blog wondering the same thing, read on. I’m not saying that this is what it would cost you, this is just what it cost us.

The RV

1999 29’ Coachmen Leprechaun Class C RV
Our first RV, purchased in 2010 on a home equity line of credit at a ridiculously low rate of 3.25%. Some months we would only make the minimum monthly payment of $180 and other months we would pay more.
 $18,500.00

Start-up costs

Below are the additional RV items that we purchased in the first half of 2011 in preparation for our year-long trip:

Towbar (used)
This is what connects the back of the RV to the front of car for towing		 $400.00  
Baseplate
This is a near-permanent modification to the car’s frame and provides a place on the front of the car to attach the towbar		 $335.00  
Supplemental brake (used)
This is like a mechanical foot that presses the brake in the car when it feels the RV braking. Thou shalt not tow a car without supplemental brakes.		 $610.00  
Taillight wiring kit
More modification to the car that allows the cars brake lights and turn signals to work in tandem with the RV’s.		 $50.00  
Inverter
A rather expensive device and one that requires a complex modification of the RV’s electrical system. We never installed it, but if we had it would have converted electricity from our bank of batteries into AC power and powered the RV’s AC outlets even when not hooked up to electrical service. We thought this would be a requirement for living full time on the road, but we made do without it. I will, however, be installing it in our current RV before we start our next trip.		 $1,175.44  
Hitch Adapter
This was a special hitch thingy that allowed us to attach both the towbar for the car AND a bike rack to the back of the RV.		 $109.76  
Bike rack
A bike rack for 5 bikes (note: I regret taking the bikes)		 $288.00  
Total expenses for RV “stuff”   $2,968.20
Income from selling other crap   ($3,046.49)
Net gain   ($78.29)

I was very surprised that the “expense” number was that low. Even though we were being as frugal as possible by buying what we could used off of eBay and Craig’s List, I remember feeling like we were hemorrhaging money.

In the months before we left town, we donated and pitched as much stuff as we could. There were a few items, however, that made it worth the hassle of selling online to make a few bucks. Having recently downsized my office, I had several computers, monitors and other high-ticket electronics that I was happy to part with in exchange for much-needed cash. Selling stuff online was a total pain in the butt, but I’m glad we did it; it more than paid for all of the stuff we had to buy for the RV.

This would be the last time, however, that RVing would be any kind of money-making endeavor.

RV trip expenses:
Below are the total “trip-related” costs for the 50 weeks we traveled. I use that term loosely, as I am trying capture all of the expense even remotely related to living on the road.

Camping fees $6,800.51  
Gas: RV $8,146.04  
Maintenance: RV $3,668.75  
Propane $511.03  
Gas: car $1,566.13  
Maintenance: car $106.24  
Groceries $13,515.69  
Admission fees
We managed this very carefully by purchasing annual park passes and avoiding expensive touristy things 		 $2,055.88  
Dining
We don’t even eat out that much, but it apparently adds up.		 $1,491.38  
RV payments
We purchased a bigger RV halfway through the trip. I’m extrapolating our current monthly payment ($394.41/mo) across the entire 50 weeks to derive what we would have paid if we had the current RV from the start. This makes this figure both simpler and more conservative.		 $4,732.92  
Car payments $3,480.00  
Insurance (RV and car) $1,536.00  
License plates $456.65  
Home-school stuff
Curriculum, books, online classes		 $2,258.64  
Gifts
This is hardly a required expense, but it was part of the traveling experience to send stuff to friends and family from the road		 $2,102.06  
Recreation
Amy’s races, yoga classes, hiking shoes, bike repairs, etc.		 $828.24  
Miscellaneous Expenses
Mailbox forwarding, firewood, parking expenses, toll roads, ferry fees, stuff like that.		 $820.10  
Total RV trip expenses for 50 weeks   $53,080.97
Average RV trip expenses/month   $4,600.35/mo

Fixed, non-RV-trip expenses:
Apparently, one still has to pay one’s mortgage even when one is not living in one’s house.

Home mortgage $10,376.88  
Home maintenance
Ouch. We had to replace the AC.		 $5,200.75  
Home insurance $861.00  
Property taxes $1,029.34  
Total fixed non-RV-trip expenses   $17,467.97
Average fixed non-RV-trip expenses/month   $1,455.66/mo

 Summary

Total RV trip expenses $53,080.97  
Total fixed non-RV-trip expenses $17,467.97  
Total gross expenses   $70,548.94
Average gross expenses/month   $5,879.08/mo
Rental income ($13,400.00)  
Net expenses (The Grand Total)   $57,148.94
Average net expenses/month   $4,762.41/mo

So there you have it. We had a few other business and personal expenses that fell well outside the scope of our RV traveling, but otherwise this “Grand Total” represents the cost of a family of five to live, laugh and love for a year in an RV.