“I want to be sure you understand, okay? Look at me… Okay. So you’re going with NaNa on Sunday, and you’re spending the night at your friend’s on Saturday, so that means that Friday night is your last night in this house. And when you leave on Sunday, you’re not coming back to this house……. Do you understand? You need to spend quality time with your friends this week and say goodbye to them. We’ll come back to visit, but you won’t be their neighbor anymore after Sunday.”
So, hi, blog readers. It’s been a while, but those words up there that I said to Kendall tonight should give you a good idea of where we’re at now. We close on the house tomorrow! Yeah, I realize I never said much when we got the offer on the house. I was scared it would fall through, and honestly life has been SO busy for so many reasons that I didn’t have time to put words together in my head, let alone here on the blog. If you’re following @Happy.Loud.Life on Instagram, you may have seen me mention it a couple times there.
We have a 10 day leaseback, so we don’t have to be out until the weekend after Thanksgiving, but Kendall and Leyna, the two big kids, are going with my mom down to her place on Sunday. Scott and I will be here until the 25th with the 2 little boys- Lowell and Wallace. We have a lot of packing to do, but, most importantly, we have to see about buying a truck and an RV!
We have our eye on a 5th wheel mid-bunk model- a slightly used 2016 that we’re hoping we can negotiate a good deal on. Ideally, we’ll have it and the truck before we have to be out of here on the 25th, but if that doesn’t happen, we’re fine. We aren’t in a huge rush because technically we have another place to live for the rest of the year.
We’re going down to my mom’s for the month of December. She and her husband own Strawberry Pines, a vacation rental and event venue. We’ll be able to stay at one of the houses on property or at her house (when she has them rented for events). There also happens to be an RV park right across the highway from it, so we can park the RV there if/when we do get one.
I stressed about the timing of everything, but I’m seeing now that it all worked out so perfectly. I just wrapped up a big project that I couldn’t have worked on from the road, and we’ll be able to spend Christmas with my family. The kids will get a traditional Christmas morning in a house. We won’t have to stress about the logistics of Santa in an RV just yet. I think it will just make the transition much easier. We’ll also be able to take our time getting the RV moved in, decorated, and organized in a way that works for us before we have to live in it full time.
So! The plan!! I know a lot of you are probably like, “OMG are they ever going to leave?” When we announced our plans earlier this year, we really didn’t think it would take this long, but the best part of this is IT DOESN’T MATTER. We are on our own timeline, and that’s amazing. Now it’s looking like everything is coming together for us to spend all of 2018 on the road, and we’ll launch at the beginning of January.
We aren’t quite sure where we’ll go first. We’re going to spend a good amount of time in December figuring that out, but we’re strongly leaning toward heading for Florida and then working our way along the southern part of the country back to the west coast by spring. If you have recommendations of places to stay in Florida, let me know! I’m not kidding when I say we have ZERO plans so far.
And I promise to blog more soon. I feel like I can finally talk about all of this!
25 comments
Grayton Beach State Park in the panhandle (Santa Rosa Beach area near Destin.) My parents stumbled upon It during their one year RV journey in 2014 and they ended up selling out everything and buying a house in the area. 💙💙💙
Wow! Sounds like a glowing recommendation!
We’ve stayed there too. Granted we picked a week with a tropical storm, but the set up is great. My aunt and uncle took their 5th wheel and stayed while we were there.
No solid recommendation to stay, but we usually leave from our cruises from port canaveral. Last year we happened to be there during a launch and it was really neat, even without a launch the Kennedy space center is some place we keep meaning to visit and haven’t yet. There’s also an RV park that looks over the port so you can watch ships come in and leave. Last but not least we watch coyote Peterson on YouTube (highly recommend) and he swam with manatees in that area. I haven’t looked to see what age restrictions are (if any) because my kids aren’t great swimmers but that would definitely be life changing for the older kids if they’re allowed/more confident swimmers. I know Kendall has seemed on the fence about this (not judging, I have a 9 year old and they’re such moody creatures) so I’m just trying to throw out some things my 9 year old would love, maybe start the trip on a high note! When you make it to Ohio, I’ll have tons of ideas on what to do!
Thank you! You know, Kendall is really starting to come around, but we’re going to have to continually prove that this trip is “cool.”
How exciting! Just make sure you get your used 5th wheel inspected. Sometimes they and any camper can have some issues that can’t be spotted by a quick walk through. I hope everything goes smoothly for you all! Happy travels!
Will do! Thank you!
Heath and Alyssa say to check out Harvest Hosts.
Oh yes! We’ve heard great things about that. Thanks!
There is a beauty in the realization that all your planning and worry and stress got tossed out the window, and it all turned out perfect anyway. I just wish I could remember the last part when I am busy doing the first part!
Totally! I think we are to the point now that we just realize there’s no point in over planning our life. It’s all going to work out.
You deffinetly need to hit up the new science museum in Miami! It’s amazing! Along with all the other obvious attraction in Florida… Disney, universal, epcot, legoland ect in Orlando. But travel down south further to miami. It has tons of great museums in different fields of study. And viscaya is just a beautiful place to pop into as well as Fairchild tropical garden and the food and spice park. You can head to the keys and visit the southern most tip. To get there you’ll need to go over the longest/ largest bridge over water in America. I rember as a kid taking a tour through the swamps among the mangroves in keybiscayne. Very educational and fun!
The keys are high on my list of must-see! I’m worried about how they were affected by the hurricane, but hoping there’s enough there that’s up and running for us.
This is more a suggestion for the year instead of a location, but I highly recommend getting a membership at one of the science centers in the country. You’ll get free or discounted entrance at all of the other affiliate centers, and since you’ll be traveling, can plan to hit a bunch of them.
http://www.astc.org/about-astc/about-science-centers/find-a-science-center/
I live in VA, but have a family membership at the Maryland Science Center that I got on Groupon last year for $75. We’ve visited centers in 4 other states now, and it’s more than paid for itself. With the groupon deal, we had to redeem in person at the center, but maybe you could find an affiliate center that’s also on the cheaper side somewhere along the southern coast.
Such a great idea! These are things we’re buying for Christmas gifts this year. 🙂
If planning Florida first, start calling places now. I work for a campground here, and we have been booked up for winter since June!
Yeah, I know it’s going to be tricky. We may have to get creative and do some Air BNB stays. We also want to go to Disney, and it’s impossible to get into their campgrounds in Jan, so we may stay at a resort.
Yaaaassss! I know nothing about RV parks in Florida except that there are a ton of them. You guys would love Sanibel, which is an island near us. Or go down to the Keys!
Yes! So excited. Do you know if the Keys are open for business this close to post hurricane?
Hi and waving from the Tampa, FlL area! Yes, the Keys are definitely open for business, and will undoubtedly be more so 6 + weeks from now. I also wanted to second the suggestion above regarding Kennedy Space Center! We have annual passes there on account of our space obsessed 5yo, but I have to admit it’s very cool. Even plenty of hands on stuff to keep my 3yo happy too! St Augustine is also a great stop… tons of history there, which makes it a popular field trip spot. But also just a very sweet little city. Holler if we can help you at all. Good luck!
Watching your family go through this gives me such anxiety! I would love to travel, but there are so many unknowns on an adventure like that! Good luck with the planning! Good for you! When you stop in Wisconsin, make sure to stop at one of our wonderful state parks-Devil’s Lake is beautiful and take the kids to a cheese factory where they can try fresh cheese curds! They’ll be warm and squeaky when you eat them! I can’t wait to see all your adventures and live vicariously through you! Good luck brave Mama!
Anastasia Springs State Park, I believe it’s on the Irmond/Flagler Line. So beautiful!
As a native Floridian, I recommend visiting siesta key in sarasota or Sharkey’s pier in Venice. You are guaranteed to find a ton of sharks teeth walking on the beach. They also have an amazing restaurant that leads to the pier where you can fish or watch the dolphins. As a home schooled myself, it’s awesome to teach my son (9) about different sea animals and then drive down to the beach and see some of the things we learned in that days lesson.
A friend just sent me your blog… I just moved into a 5th wheel. Renting my furnished house for now. I have 2 kiddos and a husband deploying to Iraq in January. We are driving down the interstate- 90miles from Florida right now!, where I will be through March! I plan to rv full time for the 6 months he’s gone. I have reservations all over for this time and suggest you get on it!! I too am starting in the Keys:) Fiesta Key. Also going to Madeira Beach, Cape Canaveral area, St. Augustine, Itchatucknee State Park, Pensacola.
I would have done Sanibel or Ft Meyers but they are booked. I also would have preferred anything closer to Seaside area of panhandle.
Maybe we will see each other on the road 🙂 ?!?
I’m so impressed by your commitment to do this solo! We got a couple reservations in Orlando and Destin. Hoping to add more soon!