Planning and planning and more planning

Since waking up today I have worked out, showered, taken my walk to the river to sit and take a minute to appreciate the day, made breakfast, cleaned the camper, and done dishes like 3 times and I now I don't know what to do with myself so I thought why not write? 

Every time we mention to someone that we live fulltime in our RV traveling states they either say, "I have always dreamed of doing that" or "can you bring me?" When I look back over the past year and remember all we have done to begin to prepare for this adventure I wish I would have documented it more. That whole process has been as much fun as it will be moving from place to place. Once we picked out the camper and completed the financing we quickly began the next step, pinning a map. I had made a list of must see places in each state so Chris bought a 4x3 and attached it to cork board. The fun then began. We would take about 10 minutes a night to pin a few stops. It wasn't as easy as just dropping a pin. We would google the place, find the town and mark the pin as close to the location as possible. We had to think about time of the year we will be in that place to be sure they were open for the season. (We have had to change the route twice since we first thought it was complete. Once being last week because we would have been at the Grand Teton before the park opens for the season.) We also noticed that the EDC (electric daisy carnival) is in Orlando in November so we made sure to add that as a stop along the way. 

Once the map was pinned we then began picking campgrounds in the area that we are staying. I also made a spreadsheet that I entered the State, what we are going to see, the distance and milage between the stops, the dates we will be staying and the parks name, address, phone number and website. Finally on February 25, 2023 we had all the stops, campgrounds and dates figured out. I felt so happy to see the planning was coming to life. 

Our lease was up at the end of February so we had been also packing. This was the hardest pack I have ever had to do. We had to sort thought all of our things and think what will we need in the camper for the next couple years and what goes into storage. Chris had to remind me many times that if we didn't bring it with us we can always buy it while we are on the road. We were moving into a furnished home for the next 3 months so we ended up bringing a lot of what was going into storage to his brothers and the rest came to the house. After the 3 months we were moving into a room we were renting from a friend so even more totes went to storage and only what was going into the camper would come with us. We had to do one more storage run before we officially moved into the camper for July 1 but we were very happy that so far everything we have needed we have had with us. 😁

Now that I had all the stops and parks picked out I had to begin to make reservations. Of course, we have had to put a budget together as deposits or even payment in full will be needed for reservations. Over the next couple months I made reservations all the way up to Thanksgiving. We are super excited to be in the French Quarters in New Orleans for this week. We decided we would take a break making any more reservations until we are on the road incase we learn some tricks that make more sense. 

Spring was now upon us and we knew we will be picking the camper up soon so now to start purchasing items we are going to need. I had done a lot of research to find the best products and what other RV's suggest. I almost feel I should have gave our FedEx, UPS and USPS person a gift because the amount of deliveries we had every day was crazy! We bought sewage house, stands, hoses, power surge box, StarLink equipment, electric bikes, cordless vacuum, rugs, new mattress, sheets, outdoor chairs, table, and the list goes on and on...

Finally, it was May 13 and we were picking up the camper! I was so excited to start putting all of our things in it to see how they would fit. I still pinch myself sometimes because of how well everything has worked out along this whole process. It makes me believe that this is exactly what we are supposed to be doing in our lives now. After working on putting things away over a few weekends we finally had everything but some clothes that we would wear before moving into the camper and bathroom items. 

I was able to look at all the work and planning we had put into all of this and see it in action. The feeling in my soul was one for the books. I don't think I can ever put into words how I felt the day we pulled out of the driveway and headed to our first campground. It is indescribable.