BEHIND THE SCENES

Jules’ Journal:

By: Julianne Lillie, 8/22/22

Several of you have asked what’s life like living fulltime in our RV? And…How do you have the time to do every day “normal living” things while also squeezing in all that sightseeing? Excellent questions! And now that I think about it, all of my social media posts & blog posts have been centered around our sightseeing adventures in that area. So, since it’s raining and we’re stuck inside today, I thought I’d share some of the “behind the scenes” of RV living and planning out a 14-month trip to paint a more realistic picture of our nomadic lifestyle.

OUR RV:

In order to better understand our RV lifestyle, I should probably start by explaining what our RV is like. Our RV is a 5th wheel trailer that we tow behind our Ford truck that hooks into a very heavy duty hitch mounted into the bed of our truck. This means on travel days all 4 of us are riding inside the truck. Why don’t we ride in the trailer? Well, for one it’s illegal. And secondly, because our trailer has 4 slideouts that, when towed, have to be slid all the way in leaving no room. Here's an aerial photo of our trailer with our slides out and one of our awnings out:

Our largest slide is on the “campsite” side. And the other 3 slides are on the backside of our campsite. You can see them in the photo below:

And here’s what our slides look when they are pulled in for a travel day:

Really the only 2 rooms accessible on travel days is the bathroom and Master bedroom. But I must say having the restroom accessible is so handy, especially when there isn’t a rest stop or gas station in sight and one or more of our 4 bladder’s is full!

Our RV is actually quite spacious with all 4 slides out. We have a master bedroom (queen size bed - quilt compliments of my amazing mom!) with storage under and above our bed, 2 side tables, and a hanging closet. You can see in the 2nd photo I have photos of all of our family and friends surrounding us!

We have a full bath with toilet, shower, & a sink accessible from the Master and the hallway.

We have a kitchen with a full-size refrigerator (with ice & filtered water in the door), island with a sink and storage, full size microwave, separate pantry with door, and a 3 gas burner stove with small oven. And as you can see I’m collecting magnets from everywhere we visit!

Inside the pantry we also added a washer/dryer all in one combo machine. And I’m SO glad we did. I typically do 1 load of laundry a day (in the evening) to stay caught up. We’ve only had to use a laundromat once when Jett got sick in the middle of the night and we had to wash all of his bedding.

And here’s our dishwasher…LOL! I will say that is one thing I do miss is having a dishwasher!

We have a large open living room with a horseshoe couch (storage underneath) and removable dining tables (although we’ve resorted to using TV trays instead because it’s easier to maneuver around). And a large TV that hangs over the electric fireplace which duals as an electric heater.

To help keep our camper stay clean, we have a “no shoes” rule. Before we left I purchased this shoe caddy/bench that stores all of our shoes and keeps them from being a tripping hazard in the hallway.

And my FAVORITE part of the camper is the bunk room since it has its very own door to close off! The kids have a pretty large bunk room and before we did some renovations, it could sleep 4. We converted one of the couch beds into a hanging closet with cube storage. Jason built the shelving and hanging rod and Jaycie and I stained it. Then Jason added the cargo net to keep things secured when rolling down the road!

Each kid has their own bunk bed (both on top) with closable curtains for privacy & each have their own window. They’ve both been able to decorate their own bunk rooms the way they want – complete with lights! And as you can see, they each are collecting stickers and trinkets along the way to add to the decor. Can you spot all of their Jr Ranger badges they are collecting from all the National Park sites?

Jaycie’s Bunk Room: (with her nose in a book as always)

Jett’s Bunk Room:

And then they also have their own half bathroom which has a toilet, sink, & storage. I honestly don’t think we could make it without our 2nd bathroom!

Now don’t let the clean room fool you in the photos above. Since we’re limited on space, they use their floor space for activities & crafting. Which means their floor usually remains like the photos below until it’s the night before a travel day. The only way I stay sane is by keeping their bunk room door closed. :)

Lastly, we have an outdoor kitchen that has a sink, stove top, mini fridge, & TV. When the weather is nice (and bug free) this is usually where Jason is cooking. And it’s nice to have an outdoor TV to watch sports in the evening around a campfire.

I will say that an RV is a LOT of work to maintain. But I like to think that the 4Js make a pretty good team. Jason is in charge of setting up all of the outdoor stuff (unhooking, leveling, water, sewer, electric, unloading bikes, etc.) when we arrive to a new campsite and the kids and I are in charge of all of the indoor set up. I have the kids check everything like open drawers or loose objects to secure before I bring out all the slides. And then the kids are in charge of setting up their bunk and I’m in charge of the kitchen, bath, living, and master bedroom. Like laying out the rugs, unbuckling the TV, getting the TV trays out, hanging back up décor, turning on hot water heater, starting the A/C, setting up the shower stuff, etc. Yes, we have to pack everything up and set it all back out every time we move to a new location. And yes, it’s a lot of work, but after about the 3rd time we got the mental checklist down and it has become habit for us all!

There also is another aspect… things do break in an RV! So far, Jason has had to fix our shower drain twice, replace the bathroom fan motor, clean the bathroom fans filter, replace the water filter, adjusted/re-attached cables on 2 of our slides, and clean out the A/C filters twice because they were locking up. Just last night we detected a slow leak in our kitchen sink… so at some point Jason will have to take it apart and use plumber’s putty to reseal it. Jason also has to monitor the propane to ensure we always have enough to cook with and heat our hot water. We have 3 propane tanks and he’s only had to fill up twice so far. Not to mention every 6K miles we have to rotate the tires & change the oil on the truck. Jason has had to do that already twice. Our motto is “It’s always something!”

TRIP PLANNING & SCHEDULE:

So now that you know what we’re living in, I’ll share with you our overall trip plan and typical schedule. Since we’re trying to cover the entire Eastern portion of the US before Christmas we are having to move pretty fast. The below photo of the kid’s US Sticker Map will give you an idea of the route we’ve taken so far and what states we have left to cover.

When Jason and I first mapped out our route back in January of this year, the idea was to go North for the summer and South for the winter (like the birds!) making sure we hit all major National Parks. And then we picked spots along the route to be our “base camp” spots. Our base camp is where we set up our RV for a few days and then from there will travel on day trips in our truck to surrounding areas to explore. We try to limit the day trips to no more than 1.5 hours away from our base camp. However, we have done a couple day trips that were 2+ hours away – which made for long days as it was a total of 4+ hours of drive time. We typically stay at our base camps anywhere from 3-4 nights on average. However, there are some places that warrant extra time such as NYC this week (8 nights) and then Washington DC in September (15 nights).

Each base camp I have a spreadsheet outlining this stent’s activities. Here’s an example of our spreadsheet for this upcoming stent in NYC

I screenshot this and send to Jason so he can be aware of what we’re doing when and can schedule his work around it. I also send him the addresses for everything on the travel day so it’s easy for him to pull up on his RV GPS. Yes, you heard that right… there are special RV GPS apps that Jason uses to find the best “truck routes” to get to our destinations. Our trailer’s height is 13’6” so we have to be sure to avoid any low bridges, etc.

So back to planning… unfortunately in this day and age you can’t just show up to base camp and then decide what to do. We’ve found that most places, especially the larger National Parks, are requiring online reservations/tickets being purchased in advance with timed entries. So most of my evenings and some of my travel time (when I’m not teaching) is spent planning out our activities and purchasing tickets in advance. I try to stay about 1 month ahead in the daily activity planning and about 3-4 months ahead in booking the RV campgrounds. I’m not going to lie, it’s become almost like a full time job. So, I guess it’s a good thing that I enjoy spreadsheets and planning!

Our typical schedule for a travel day is get up between 6:30-6:45am and get ourselves around. Once we’re all ready for the day and have packed up the items we need in the car (like School bucket, computer bag, snacks, waters, etc.) we start packing up the RV. The kids are in charge of packing up and securing their bunk room & bathroom. Jett is also in charge of gathering trash and taking it to the dump while Jaycie is in charge of vacuuming the rugs before I pack them away. I’m in charge of packing up and securing all other things inside (especially inside the refrigerator) and pulling in the 4 slides while Jason is in charge of flushing our gray water (shower/sink water) and black water (toilet) tanks, unhooking everything outside, loading bikes, closing up the outdoor kitchen, and hooking up the trailer. We aim to pull out of our campground between 9:00-9:30am.

Once we pull out of the campground we pray over our trip, do the pledge of allegiance (to a random flag we find in the RV park) and start our school day! Yes, we do school on the road plus of course other days not on the road. But we certainly have school every travel day on the road. Why? I have found that the kids focus really well (better actually) in the car, it makes the time go by quickly, and it’s fun to do a unit study over the state we are literally driving to in that moment. I’ll touch more on roadschooling later on in this blog.

Once kids are finished with school, if we have extra time left over, we listen to the audio Harry Potter book series. Since we are visiting Harry Potter world at Universal Studios in November, we all want to be able to fully appreciate it! Then once we have arrived to our campground, we check in and park the RV in our new campsite. And then everything we did that morning to pack up…. we all undo in reverse order. Yes, it’s a lot of work but we’ve gotten pretty good at it. And I would say from start to finish we can set up camp in about 30 minutes. Usually travel day evenings are spent grading schoolwork & filing it away, grocery shopping and prepping for this stent’s sightseeing activities like mapping routes, etc.

Although we want to pack in as much sight-seeing as we can in places, it is also important that we have some “down days” sprinkled in. So every 10 days to 2 weeks I make sure we have a “down day” like today where we can all sleep in, let the kids craft (AKA make their bunk room look like a tornado’s path) or play around the campground, and most importantly CLEAN the RV. We have split up the cleaning responsibilities so that it’s a family project and it only takes about 2 hours from start to finish. I’m in charge of deep cleaning both bathrooms and mopping the floors. Jaycie is in charge of wiping down all countertop surfaces and cleaning all the mirrors. Jett is in charge of dusting everything especially the window sills and is also in charge of gathering up trash and taking it to the dumpster. And Jason is in charge of vacuuming and quality control. It seems to work well!

Down days also allow time for us to do things like catch up on laundry, blogging, make grocery runs, rotate tires, and give the boys haircuts. Jason cuts Jett’s hair (and has for many years – see photo below at one of our campsites) and I cut Jason’s hair. I actually just learned how to cut Jason’s hair right before this trip (lessons from his stylist and mine). I am getting better each time, although he’s super particular so I know I don’t have it down perfectly yet. He’s sweet about it though. Although now that I think about it…. he’s wearing hats now more than he ever has! Ha!

In our schedule, we also make it a priority to attend Church on Sundays either online with our home church, Cedar Point, or in person as a guest to a local church. We also make a point to listen to worship music on Sundays either in the camper or the truck (instead of Harry Potter book). And on Wednesday nights, Jaycie and I tune in to Cedar Point Students to worship with our church youth group. Here’s a photo Jason took of us one Wednesday night:

And last, but of course not least, Jason and I make time for work! After all, we’ve got to pay for this crazy adventurous lifestyle we are living! Most of Jason’s work he can do on his own time as long as he meets his client’s deadlines for desktop appraisals and reviews. However for me, I have regularly scheduled conference calls and video calls I attend. Therefore, our daily activities have to be scheduled around those. We are just super grateful to have the opportunity to work remotely and are so thankful for my company, CerpassRx, for being so flexible and supportive of this crazy dream of ours! Here’s a funny photo that Jason snapped of me during one of my video calls:

ROADSCHOOLING:

So now that you know how we’re living and what our overall schedule looks like, I’ll share in more detail of how we’re roadschooling. We started the kid’s schooling back in June. We thought it would be easier to get into a good rhythm from day 1 and we could use the extra summer months to get ahead in case we start falling behind mid-year.

As far as school curriculum & reading lists go, we are using the same curriculum and reading lists their school back home uses. The thought process here is so that when they plug back into school after our trip they should be up to speed! Their school back home is Owasso Preparatory Academy (OPA) and it is a “University Style Model” which is like a private/home school hybrid. The kids went to school 2 days a week where their teacher conducted lessons & experiments together in class. And then on their 3 days of school at home worked on their independent assignments. We felt this school has been a huge blessing to us the past 2 years (throughout the pandemic) and even now preparing us for this adventure! The kids are used to receiving a lesson and then working independently on their folder work. So that’s exactly what we are doing now as well. I’m hoping they will be able to transition right back into OPA upon our return from the trip.

Jaycie’s in the 7th grade so she is working through IEW (Writing/Language Arts), Math (Pre-algebra), Reading, Vocab, History, & Science. She also is tasked with writing at least one blog per stent which is creative writing & typing. And then of course she has fallen in love with sending postcards to her friends and family… which can also be considered creative writing!

Jett is in the 5th grade so he is working through Writing, Math, Reading, Spelling, Cursive, & History. He also is tasked with writing at least one blog and typing it plus post cards.

I mentioned earlier we have school on every travel day and down days plus some additional days/afternoons. And if you think about it, pretty much all of our sightseeing is also educational…Aquariums, National Parks, Historic tours (Freedom Trail, Mark Twain’s House, Boldt Castle, Battlefields, Seaports, whale watching, etc.) and Museums just to name a few. We view our sight-seeing as field trips!

And we aim to do as many National Park sites as we can during each stent. Many of these parks are either historical or science-based or both! And each site has a Junior Ranger program that consists of a work booklet to complete. In order to complete the booklet you have to watch the park video and do at least one activity or more led by a Park Ranger. Once the booklet is completed, the kids submit it to the Park Ranger for review and questioning. If they pass the Park Ranger’s humorous questioning, the Park Ranger has the kids take an oath to protect their National Park sites and then presents them with their very own Junior Ranger badge! The kids just LOVE these programs and have made a goal to collect at least 100 badges from our trip. They are currently have 35 badges! And the best part of it all – it’s all FREE with our “America the Beautiful” pass. Here’s some photos of the kids earning some of their recent badges:

In addition to all of that, we do a unit study over the state we are traveling to on that day. It starts the night before when Jason maps out his route using the RV GPS app and reviews it with the kids in our US Atlas. They are learning a lot on how to read a map using the grid, the legend, and how to calculate the mileage.

Then the next day, after all folder work has been completed, we read about the state together. I have 3 different books that provide different information on each state that we read through and discuss. One book focuses on the state facts and economy, another on the history & tourism, and the last one on fun facts such as famous people or inventions that were from that state. One of the fun activities we’ve grown to like is Jason and the kids guess the state population number. On several occasions one of them has been dead on! This unit study is fun because we are all learning together as a family!

So there you have it! I hope that answers some your questions on what our trip is like and how we’re weaving “real life” into what seems like the never-ending vacation! If you all have any more questions, don’t hesitate to ask and I’ll be sure to weave those questions into future blogs!