Lets Get Lost February 2022 Travel Inspiration

One of the questions we hear most often is, “What is the best and worst part of living in an RV and traveling full time?”

The best parts are easy to talk about. We love the freedom, the variety, the changing landscapes, the long drives, the quiet campsites, and the sense that each week can look completely different from the last. Full-time RV living fits us in a way that feels honest and natural.

For a long time, I struggled to name anything I truly disliked about this lifestyle. But this month, the answer became very clear: the hardest part of RV life is being away from our daughters.

Neither Steve nor I are especially good at being rooted in one place. Building a life around a single neighborhood, a familiar routine, and a location-specific community has never been what pulls us forward. We spent 16 years in a suburban neighborhood in our hometown because we wanted our kids to grow up close to grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. We tried hard to give them a stable, grounded childhood.

Even then, though, we were always dreaming about the next place. We were always trying to get lost.

When our youngest left for college, we finally had the chance to live in a way that felt more aligned with who we are. And the truth is, we were not wrong. Both of us are built for a nomadic life. We love traveling full time. We love our home on wheels. We love the road.

But every beautiful choice has a cost, and following our wanderlust often means traveling away from our daughters.

While we were in San Diego, Kate, Anne, and Anne’s boyfriend Scott came to visit us. We had the best time together. We walked beaches, explored the coast, played tourist, shared meals, and packed as much family time as possible into their visit. When they left to return to their own lives, I felt the familiar ache of watching them go.

I think there is sometimes a misunderstanding around the idea of living authentically. I wake up almost every day deeply grateful for this life. I know how fortunate we are to travel, to work from the road, and to keep exploring new places together.

But living the dream, whatever that dream looks like, does not mean there will never be sadness or sacrifice. There is always a tradeoff. Choosing one good thing often means saying no to another.

Creating a life you love means having the courage to accept the consequences.

For me, that means saying no to many of the good things that come with having a permanent family home in one place near our daughters, with extra bedrooms, a large kitchen, familiar routines, and plenty of room for everyone to spread out.

It also means learning not to feel guilty about the life we have chosen. It means allowing myself to feel sad when the girls go back home to their own lives. Letting go is one of the most difficult parts of being a parent, isn’t it?

The good news is that having a house on wheels gives us flexibility. We spend a lot of time in Colorado, where both of our daughters live. If they move somewhere else in the future, we can visit them there, too.

It also gives us the chance to park ourselves in places they want to see and fly them out to meet us. That is exactly what we did this month, and it was wonderful.

San Diego Beaches

We spent part of January and all of February at the San Diego Metro KOA. You can read more about this campground and why we enjoy staying there in last month’s issue of Let’s Get Lost.

This was one of the longest stretches we have spent in one place since moving into the RV, and we were curious to see how it would feel. Would we want to stay longer? Would we feel restless and ready to get back on the road?

As it turned out, the answer was both. San Diego is not the kind of place we get tired of easily. The weather, the beaches, the food, and the endless opportunities to be outside make it an easy place to linger. Still, when it was time to pack up and move on, we were happy to return to the rhythm of travel.

One of our favorite things about Southern California is the beaches. The San Diego KOA is only about 10 minutes from Coronado Island, so we tried to spend as many evenings as possible walking along the sand at sunset.

I took an unreasonable number of beach sunset photos. Even after telling myself I had plenty, I kept taking more. The light, the waves, and the colors were impossible to resist.

We also spent a warm Saturday kayaking off the coast of La Jolla, ate sushi and watched surfers in Oceanside, and enjoyed a relaxed Sunday afternoon in Laguna Beach. It was a very full month of San Diego travel, family time, and coastal exploring.

A Few of Our San Diego Favorites

• La Jolla Kayak Tour
• The Butcher’s Cut Steakhouse
• City Tacos
• Balboa Park
• Gelato Paradiso
• Brigantine Seafood and Oyster Bar
• Flagship Cruises, San Diego
• Mariners Point, San Diego

I also have to share this photo just for fun.

This RV and car were parked next to us for a couple of weeks, and I found the whole setup absolutely delightful.

Riding Up and Down the California Coast

We spent a long four-day weekend riding the motorcycle from San Diego to Oakland and back. It was our fourth time riding along the California coast, and that route never loses its magic.

Day 1: San Diego to Pismo Beach, with stops in Venice Beach and Malibu.

Venice Beach seems to get a little more unusual every year. It is the kind of place where we can sit for hours doing nothing but people-watching and still feel completely entertained.

Day 2: Pismo Beach to Oakland.

Steve has an aunt and uncle in Oakland, and we love visiting them whenever we can. They took us out for a wonderful meal at Soi 4 and hosted us for the night in their beautiful 1912 home.

Along the way, we stopped to watch the elephant seals at San Simeon and had lunch with an unforgettable view at Treebones Resort in Big Sur.

Day 3: Oakland to Santa Maria.

The day was cold, damp, and overcast. By the end of the ride, we were chilled through, but with views like this, it was hard to complain.

Day 4: Santa Maria to San Diego.

On the way back to San Diego, we stopped for lunch at the home of the friends who first helped move us toward RV life.

In October 2019, we visited Dustin and Brenda at their home on wheels in Bonelli Bluffs RV Resort in San Dimas. At that point, living in an RV was still a brand-new idea to us. After that visit, we knew it was exactly what we wanted to do.

We will always be grateful to these two beautiful badasses for introducing us to RV living. We love spending time with them whenever we can.

They also made us an incredible lunch entirely in their smoker: smoked pulled pork, smoked potato salad, and smoked dump cake. We left very full and very happy.

The Tools of Our Lives: Shake, Rattle and Roll

by Steve Blackwell

Before we sold our house and moved into an RV, I spent hundreds of hours researching nearly everything related to RV life. But there was one important detail I somehow did not think about. Looking back, it was one of the most obvious things to miss.

We have a motorcycle: a 2017 Indian Roadmaster Classic. It is relatively new, but it has been well used. We have ridden it through all 49 states in the United States and through several Canadian provinces, including Prince Edward Island on the East Coast and the Yukon on the West.

We ride a lot.

During the first year we owned the motorcycle, we put 20,004 miles on it. The next year, we added another 15,000 miles, and a couple of weeks ago we passed 60,000 miles.

Before buying the RV, we had never trailered the motorcycle. Why would we? We wanted to ride it.

So it was a surprise when I loaded the motorcycle into our new RV for the first time and realized I did not actually know how to tie it down properly. I had researched so many parts of full-time RV living, but I had not given enough thought to the logistics of transporting the motorcycle beyond making sure we bought an RV that could haul it.

I am not sure why I skipped that piece of research. I can say, though, that on our first day as full-time RVers, our minds were not on the motorcycle. Just three days earlier, while we were in the middle of moving out of our house and into the RV, we lost our son to suicide. Securing the bike was not at the top of my mind.

On that first trip, the motorcycle fell over and damaged the side stand. On the next trip, I thought I had done a better job with the straps, but it fell again and damaged the front side panel.

I finally realized I needed help, so I watched videos online and bought a motorcycle tire chock. It still fell over. If the chock is not immobilized, it does not help much.

Once I screwed the tire chock down, everything changed. No more problems.

Over time, I used fewer and fewer straps until I was down to just two. During almost two years of RV travel, I have loaded and unloaded the bike in rain, snow, ice, and high wind. I have learned a few things the hard way.

Here are my tips for loading and unloading a motorcycle into an RV:

1. Have the engine running. This is obvious when loading, but it is just as important when unloading. Our bike weighs around 900 pounds. For more than a year, I backed it down using only the front brakes, and it was always nerve-racking. Being able to give it a little throttle and ease off the clutch on the way down gives much better control and feels far safer.
2. Have your tie-down straps placed and ready before you load. There is not much room to work once the motorcycle is inside the RV. A little preparation saves a lot of frustration.
3. Make sure your tire chock is screwed in place and ready to receive the front tire. A loose chock is not enough. It needs to be secured.
4. Do not rush. Even if checkout time has passed and people are waiting for you to move, take your time. Loading a motorcycle into an RV can be dangerous and can cause damage if done carelessly.
5. Make sure the straps are tight. Straps can shift and loosen as you travel. Pay attention to where they tend to settle and try to position them that way from the beginning. If your chock is secure, the bike should not move much, but on a long travel day, it is still smart to check and tighten the straps when you stop.

Hopefully, when you arrive at your destination, you will be able to ride. That is the whole point of bringing the motorcycle along, isn’t it? Ride well and keep the shiny side up.

Playing Tourist: Disneyland and Universal Studios with Our Daughters

Steve and I have never thought of ourselves as big theme park or amusement park people. But while our daughters were visiting us in San Diego, we took them to Universal Studios and Disneyland, and we had an absolute blast. Maybe we are theme park people after all.

Universal Studios

Our family loves Harry Potter, so we spent about half of our time at Universal Studios in the Harry Potter area. Annie is the biggest fan among us and has listened to the entire audio series more times than any of us could count. She was in heaven.

I took a chance and paid extra for fast pass tickets that allowed us to skip the lines. I am happy to report that they were absolutely worth it.

The park was not especially crowded, but the fast passes allowed us to do everything we wanted, including riding a few attractions more than once. More time playing and less time waiting made all five of us very happy.

Disneyland and California Adventure Park

I also purchased what I thought were skip-the-line tickets for Disney, but they were not quite the same. Genie Pass tickets allow you to use an app to schedule a time to ride an attraction without standing in the regular line.

The catch is that you can only schedule one ride at a time. Once you have completed that ride, you can schedule another. Often, though, the next available time is several hours away.

So what do you do while you wait for your next scheduled ride? You wait in line for something else.

Unlike Universal Studios, Disneyland was busy. I suspect it usually is. Even so, we managed to squeeze an impressive amount of fun into one day, splitting our time between Disneyland and California Adventure Park.

Our favorite part of the day was Galaxy’s Edge, Disney’s Star Wars land. The whole area is exceptionally well done, and we were genuinely impressed.

One day is not even close to enough time to do everything in one park, let alone two. But one day was what we had, so we did our best to make the most of all 12 hours.

The fact that we all needed a week to recover probably means we did it right. If you do not leave Disney exhausted, are you even trying?

Did You Know There Is RV Parking at Disneyland?

This may not be news to everyone, but we were surprised to learn that Disneyland has a parking lot with plenty of RV parking spaces.

Overnight parking is not allowed, but it still seems like a convenient option, especially for families who are not staying at one of the Disneyland hotels and want the ability to return to the RV for an hour or two during the day.

From San Diego Beaches to Arizona Sunsets

I am writing this from Ironwood National Monument in Arizona, where we are boondocking for the next couple of weeks. We will share more about that in our next issue, but for now I can say that it feels about as far from the energy and busyness of San Diego as we could get.

Steve and I keep saying, “It’s so quiet!” as though silence is a new discovery. In reality, we have spent plenty of time in remote places far from towns and cities. It has just been a while. The contrast is noticeable, and it is welcome.

We spent a week in Ironwood last year as well. It was our first boondocking experience, and if you are curious about how it went, you can read about it here.

Thanks for reading, friends. We will see you next month. As always, if you have questions or comments for us, please leave a comment. We love hearing from you.