Day 24 - Unexpected Perks of Living Full Time in an RV

To my surprise I have a growing list of the unexpected perks of living in a pop up camper (maybe you're the type of person that would like to hear what is NOT working out? I've been accused of being an perpetual optimist (I prefer the term silver lining-ist, which I coined myself (I think). Being an perpetual optimist (aka silver lining-ist) seems like a good thing but would you believe it can actually make others resentful and annoyed with you? I can tell when this happens BUT I'm a silver lining-ist, which often means I ignore the growing resentment or tidal wave of negative energy coming at me and come up with a probable and positive reason for that negative energy and go on with my little parade. So, my point is, this blog may not deliver on the negative but....every now an then, my negativity fountain does start flowing, so don't ever give up hope!)

So, here we go! Perks of Living in an Extremely Small Space on Wheels and Vinyl Walls: 

1. No toilet = No seats = No pee on the toilet seats! Which means the only family member that sits to pee (that's me) never has to sit in other people's pee!! Woot! Woot! In fact, I don't ever have to know when anyone has gone to the bathroom (minus the baby, for now) and so I don't have to smell anything either! Double woot! Earlier in the month we were digging holes in the woods of Vermont and doing our business there (TMI?). Luckily, both of my kids have a ton of experience digging holes. This took literally no training whatsoever. When we told them that these were the rules for staying in the National Forest they didn't even bat an eyelash. This week we have porto-potties and actually, following the party weekend at the campground, I'm sort of missing the digging holes in the woods thing. Here's a screenshot from the government's website...if you're having a hard time believing this:

Believe me now?

2. No walls = No full body mirror = Wear whatever you want and just KNOW you look great! Case in point = yesterday when I wore a legit sleeping bag to go to a posh beach in southern Rhode Island (note: my family lives in northern Rhode Island = very different). We have photo evidence but oddly enough we are having a computer glitch right this very moment. 

3. Now's the time to get over your lifelong No Food Touching rule. We haven't fired up our onboard water system yet. Even when we do, it doesn't hold much (6 gallons, maybe). We've got one five gallon water jug, another smaller two gallon jug and a 2.5 gallon Berkey water filter (this thing is a beast and can filter anything you put through it. We got it originally to filter out fluoride from our drinking water when we lived in the city. It's like our one claim to Doomsday Prepper fame!). In all total that is a storage capacity of 9.5 gallons for five people (plus six more when we finally getting around to using the onboard water system). At our current site we have water spigots to refill our water supply. We probably go through about two of the five gallon jugs per day and less on each of the small ones. We filter all of our cooking and drinking water through the Berkey, to be safe. Anyway, what this all means is that we would like to avoid things like using a clean dish to serve dessert, or something like that. Travis and the kids usually have absolutely no problem with this. Me? I'm a lifelong no food touching kind of person. So I was both empowered and only slightly grossed out the other day when I ate fried plantains (google it Cats) from a bowl that had recently held a fried egg. Repeat after me: everything is going to be okay. This plantain is going to taste so good. Maybe you'll really like eggs and plantains after this! 

"remotes lakes, streams and stagnant ponds" oh my!
(We haven't actually tried this but it's clear this thing is a filtering beast!)

Perfect family, eating in the woods. 

4. Got a toddler (or 8 year old or even an adult partner) who likes to suddenly start spitting out their food at dinner? Do they like to upturn their plate without a moments notice? If their drink is unsatisfactory will they simply pour it on the ground? If this sounds like your life I've got the perfect solution for you...put your table in the middle of the woods! Voila, your mess simply disappears and you can finish your dinner in complete peace. Who knew?!

Last but not at all least is...

5. It's never really clean, which makes cleaning a breeze! As I mentioned before, it takes about two minutes to clean our camper but it takes about two minutes to trash it as well. This is really a glass is half full sort of thing. As a silver lining-ist I don't have to tell you how I see it (usually). Travis and I probably need a bit more credit in this department. We have spent A LOT of time going over and over and re-doing, re-thinking and re-working our organizational systems and tools. As of yet we still do not have it down but once we do it will be very important that everyone sticks to the expectation that everything has a place and that is where it goes when you are through with it. The kids aren't strangers to this, so hopefully it all goes without a hitch (or perhaps, in this case, with a hitch??). Of course, being organized will only help us deal with the muddy, sticky tree sap, leaves and pine needles, frogs and bug exoskeletons, etc. that usually cover our tiny little floor moments after waking, to a certain extent... but if you'll just focus on the giggles that accompany those things (and keep your sweeping brush nearby) you'll be just fine.

~<3 The Wanderlings

The best laid plans...(actually we're crap at laying plans but we're great at making lemonade!)

You know what they say about the best laid plans and all of that? Our plan was to leave Vermont last Monday, after a evening in a hotel (with a pool - my kids would literally sleep in an alley if it had a pool) and dinner at a favourite Vermont restaurant. We were going to party our way out of Vermont! The trouble started the Sunday before, (actually, the trouble started months before but we'll just stick to the less distant past). We woke up after another wet night in Vermont and slowly started to pack up. During the week and a half, being close to home, we had run so many items back and forth between The Cloud House and The Lightning Bug but as we packed we began to notice our super rookie mistake...we had been underestimating the weight of many of the new things that had joined us at the campsite. It took the better part of the day to pack up. As we drove away you could feel the strain that our van, Rhonda Lotsaseats, was under. We thought we'd just make it home and unload the items that were staying there, and replace them with the sure-to-be-lighter things going to Rhode Island and everything would be great. Rookie mistake number two?

You see, packing has been a challenge. Since we are packing longterm and for a trip through multiple climates at multiple times of the year, choosing what to bring has been challenging to say the least. On this road tripping leg we have packed pretty light, but as we loaded up the boxes of clothes for England/Europe it was clear that Rhonda just couldn't haul all of this stuff 265 miles to my mother's attic in Rhode Island. We were crunched for thinking time because Ezaias was going to be awarded a Vermont Outstanding Student Award at a Lake Monsters baseball game that very evening. Hence the decision to stay in Vermont until Monday, (Ezaias was much less than enthusiastic and was probably praying we'd miss the game, which we ended up doing. I love happy endings). In a pinch we decided Rhonda could make it to Burlington and from there we'd rent a car, redistribute our weight and drive safely to Rhode Island. We made it to Burlington with no problem and Travis started to doubt our concerns about the weight. So we cancelled the car rental. The next morning after taking appropriate advantage of both the pool and laundry facilities at the hotel, we sent off. A minute later, as we turned onto the highway, two of our bikes fell off the trailer into the road! Luckily, no one was hurt. We got the bikes back on the car and Travis did all he could to shake, jostle and put all of his weight onto the bike rack. The bikes seemed good and solid. We pulled back out onto the highway. A few moments later the bikes fell off again. Luckily, no one was hurt. We were a bit shaken up and we knew we had to reassess. As you maybe know if you've visited Vermont, the highway exists are very far apart. So we slowly made it down the road and pulled off to go over our options. We didn't feel safe driving Rhonda with all of this weight. 

Back to the car rental plan. There are three things you must know to fully understand this part of the story: A.) I was born in 1981. Depending on who you consult I am a Millennial. (I've actually heard the term Xennial for people like me, born squarely between Gen. X and Millennials and having experiences that straddle both generations. A, part 2.) Travis is younger than me. He's definitely a Millennial, though you wouldn't know it from his cool and chill persona. B.) Millennials are really very resistant to taking on any more debt than a college education requires. So they are very unlikely to have things like credit cards. C.) To rent a car from an airport you MUST have a credit card. C, part 2.) We live in Vermont. There really aren't things like car rental agencies that are outside of the airport. So, long-story-short, no go on the car rental plan. 

Next we did something that we are really very good at - we sat on a curb and discussed our situation while plucking grass. Luckily the toddler was asleep and we've been training our older kids to do this since they were three, so they were game. If you know me, you'll know I've had many peculiar and out right strange experiences in my life. I used to blame it on the other people I was hanging around with at the time, but eventually, I had no choice but to accept that it's not them... It's me. So I thought to myself, I MUST have experienced something like this before. Oh, right, Maine! When I was 18 (too young to rent a car) and stranded in a car that suddenly wouldn't go above 5 miles per hour, which spontaneously projectile-ejected cassette tapes into the backseat and "auto-tuned" (before there was auto-tune) to the nearest latin music station, while 200 miles from home and parents that chose to practice tough love at that very moment! That was the day I met the U-haul box truck! Travis, let's rent a U-haul truck! Well, if you know Millennials, you'll know that $300 for an empty truck is not something that will jive. If you know Vermont, you'll know that all the Budget and Penske trucks were sold out that night (cause there are only three of them in the whole state).

So, we got another hotel. With another pool (with a bonus waterslide) and went to another Vermont restaurant and the next day we rented a Budget truck for $167 (all of which perhaps totaled $350, and if you know Millennials, you know....no just kidding) and finally made our way to Rhode Island, but not before taking appropriate advantage of that sweet pool!

That was a long way around to the pictures! Of course we took them! Have fun making you own lemonade (if you've got lemons) until next week when I'll tell you all about Rhode Island! Enjoy!

                                                                                                                   <3 - The Wanderlings

Having been born in 1981, I occasionally lament the fact that my children will never understand both the thrill and hard work of manually rolling down a car window. Perks of poor planning!

Back in my day it took four hands and a foot to get a little air in here! 

I asked them to look at me for a picture. This is their response 86% of the time.

This is their response 12% of the time, which I can live with. 

This is the other 2%. Where'd they get their hipster from? 

When life hands you lemons...

(Or, more accurately, when you hand yourself lemons cause you naturally suck at any sort of proactive planning....)

You've got to make lemonade! 

Wait, What's Boondocking?

(I wrote this post a few days ago. We spent a total of 10 days at this site. Today we head to Rhode Island.)

We've been cut loose from The Cloud House for about 7 days now. Actually, Travis has been anything but cut loose. He is still going there daily to square up some things before we head out. Ezaias, Micaiah, Simeon, Cappy (that's the dog) and I have been boondocking in The Green Mountain National Forest, specifically at Mt. Moosalamoo, when we weren't meeting up with friends to say so long. We were joined on Monday by one of our cats, Gwendolyn, while she recovers from surgery. The park ranger came by the day we had her out on a leash....great, so now we are those people!

The kids have a made an easy home in The Lightning Bug! It has been a very seamless transition as far as they go. Everyone seems comfortable with the tiny amount of personal belongings we have brought. In fact, no one has even opened the designated toy drawer yet! They are too busy splashing in the stream just behind our camper or building forts out of small tree branches. The other night, as we were going to sleep, Micaiah (age 8) was just talking and talking all about his day and what he plans to do tomorrow. I asked him if he was excited and he said yes. Travis and I have many, many objectives for this trip but the biggest of those is getting back to true, meaningful and concentrated connection with our kids. It's amazing how school, work, social lives (of the kids. Not really the adults cause I can attest to having absolutely none to speak of since March 12, 2009 (Happy Birthday, Ezaias!!) home maintenance and all that stuff, which is actually meant to bring families together, can draw families apart. That's been our experience, at least. So to glimpse a tiny reward so early, was really amazing and a tiny bit emotional for me.

In the past week the most frequent question we've been asked is, "what is boondocking????" It's a fairly new term for us as well! In fact, when we were first researching this trip I refused to use it. But, over time, it became clear that it is the way everyone describes and differentiates what they are doing. Boondocking is camping in an RV without the typical RV amenities like electricity, water and sewer hook ups. It's useful to use it when searching for free sites across the country. It usually occurs on federal government land, which is free to camp on!! And it is typically, though not always, disbursed and remote. It happens more frequently in the west, since there aren't as many federal lands in the east. I think it's thought of as a pretty radical thing to do. So far, I don't think so. I have never camped with the amenities mentioned above and we normally live in a remote place, so we've transitioned fairly easily so far. Next week, in Rhode Island, we will "dry camp" - dry camping is camping at a designated campground that does not offer any amenities usually. It is cheaper than traditional campgrounds. We'll be around lots of camping neighbours! The kids are excited for that but it may be a bit of an adjustment to Travis and me.

So, here's what boondocking has looked like for us this week.

We have a propane powered, tiny refrigerator, grill and burner (for morning tea!). We have lights that are run by a 12 volt battery. It charges when our car is running. Since it was only a 30 minute drive we didn't get too much power! So our lights have come from battery operated lanterns. We also have onboard water storage, though it is small because it's a pop up camper and when available we can plug in and go totally electric. The creek was a perfect water supply for doing our laundry! The kids loved to help! We tried as much as we could to simulate a true boondocking experience, in order to be sure we were taking the appropriate things and the right amount of them but we did sneak some dishes and laundry to Travis' Mum's a few times!

Enough talking! Here are the pictures! Thanks for following along with us!!

The Lightning Bug, looking good in her natural habitat! It was a bit of work sneaking in around all those trees but Travis is a man of many talents. We are working on an outdoor kitchen set up. This week we hope to finally choose the best screen room so we don't have to deal with water and bugs. When camping in bear country (Vermont is that sort of place) it's advised not to cook in your camper. They may be attracted to the smell and though black bears are rarely ever a threat to humans (you can scare them off pretty easy) if you aren't there they could really destroy your camper looking for the food you cooked. So, outdoor kitchen. 

Cleaning is a breeze in 80 square feet but it gets dirty fast too! I probably cleaned twice a day. It took 2 minutes, literally. We brought a small selection of decorations to make it feel homey (including 5 geckos that "wander" around our Wanderling home. You have to get creative when your walls are vinyl!). This week we are planning to paint constellations on the ceiling with glow in the dark paint!

Making the tea!
Beyond this lovely tea maker you may be able to see the kids' bunk. We zip tied message boards to their tent pole so they can still collect stuff (and ooohhh do they collect stuff). So far there is a mini spear in Ezaias' that Micaiah made for him out of a stick and a sharp rock fastened on with a long piece of grass (we are reading the Hatchet series about a boy who is stranded in the northern forest when he is the sole survivor of a plane crash. This week we made a spear, too!) They also chose to bring a strand of kukui nuts in their favourite colour that their grandparents brought from Hawaii during their last visit (Simeon's are rainbow coloured - until he tells us his favourite colour and are hanging on our bunk end) and a battery operated paper lantern that really gives great ambiance! When we are all snuggled up before bed the The Lightning Bug must glow beautifully because it feels that way inside. (Even when Vermont decided to give us four days of torrential rain that eventually permeated the bunk ends!! We love you Vermont!!)

Exploring on the first day! This is the creek (and eventually the river, after all the rain) that ran directly behind our camper.  For the first few days Simeon could just splash around in the rocks with the supervision of a big brother, which was fun for all. Beyond the log there is a Micaiah waist deep swimming hole, so parents had to join before they ventured there. 

Look Mom bear marks! (They were actually ant tracks but a little adventure never hurt no one.) The ranger did remind us that we were camping in bear country but we reminded him we live 20 minutes away, still in bear country. The boys and I hiked Mt. Moosalamoo mid-week and at the top there were tons of ripe berries. My guess was that those would keep the bears occupied, all the way up the mountain, during our stay. 

Our normally laidback dog, Cappy, was in doggy heaven being so closed to this swimming hole (water gives him severe obsessive issues). Whenever we had to leave he would protest long and loudly! 

Can we NEVER leave??! (Cappy is probably loving this trip already! He hasn't been alone for over 10 days! He's actually sleeping beside me right now as I type. For a dog that LOVES his family, this has got to be the best thing ever!)

I get by with a little help from my bro.

The three of them spent most of the day designing and building a tree fort with small branches. They may have done this at home but with fewer distractions they really put a lot of effort into it. 

Frogs, frogs everywhere.

Especially in the muddy puddle in the road!

All hands on deck for laundry day! (Don't worry that is a brand new plunger and biodegradable soap!)

Simeon was the most enthusiastic about laundry. In fact, it's probably more accurate to say he did our laundry this week. 

I did try to help. 

Then they were on to making torches our of tree sap. 

See?! (It actually helped me light our fire during typhoon season.)

Beautiful and dead. (It's a poem.)

We went up to the mountain. 

It took six hours, but we won't talk about that. 

Feels like home! We really felt at home in The Green Mountain National Forest (I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that we actually live there) and we were a little sad to leave.

So long Vermont! On to the next thing! 

So Long to The Cloud House! Hello to The Lightning Bug!

Yesterday we said goodbye to our beloved, beautiful home in the Green Mountains of Vermont (our living room and bedroom windows have uninterrupted, panoramic views of the lovely and majestic Mt. Abraham! This place is amazing!) and moved into our new-to-us pop up camper, affectionally named The Lightning Bug. Next we drove, just 30 minutes, to our boondocking campsite and home for the next 11 days. We have a few loose ends to tie up in Vermont before we take off to Rhode Island next week, not the least of which is how the heck to boondock* in a pop up camper with three kids, one in diapers, and one camping novice (that's me) and one out of practice wilderness expert (that's Travis and I use the word expert quite loosely) and a dog, in a pop up camper that we don't know how to use. But we are, perhaps to a fault, go with the flow types. So we are confident we'll figure it out or have a good laugh trying. Maybe both.

We are so excited to share our experience and adventures with you all if you choose to follow along. So far a lot of people have asked what the kids will do without school. We plan to unschool/world school. We have studied a lot about this method and feel confident that we learn with our children every single day. We'll keep you in the loop about it! We are choosing to boondock across the country (we have traveled across the country many times, once with two kids, so we know something about how it goes. We thought we'd add a camper for some convenience this time and to save some money, maybe).

Before we start we wanted to pay a little tribute to the home that we have in Vermont. We have lived here for the past five years and we love it. We often ask ourselves how we got so lucky to score this beautiful house! God knows we aren't wealthy!! Goodbye for now The Cloud House! We'll miss you!

Oh, lovely The Cloud House! We will miss you so...

We will miss your chickens (each one called Mildrith) and your cats (whom we forgot to photo)

And your floor to ceiling windows which may sometimes make a mother of toddlers cry ugly tears

And, mostly, your breath taking views, even on hazy and hot summer days.
But the open road is calling (as it has often done ((at least before parenthood)) and so we must say adieu....)

A

good

photo

is hard

to come by!

*boondocking - camping without any amenities (no running water or electricity, except what you can store) and usually dispersed (away from other people) and on federal land (in the US).

If you have questions, we are happy to try to answer them!