RV Tripping…Day 1 & 2

Have you ever wanted to load up 4 children under the age of 12 and drive 1600 miles round trip with basically no plan?

Well, apparently we wanted to do this bad enough that….we did it. HAHA.

Over Christmas break, we decided to use 5 days of our extended break to rent an RV and just….drive. We had a few low-level goals like “warmer weather”, “hiking”, “low budget”, but otherwise- we were ready for a grand free-for-all adventure.

We woke up on Friday, Dec 26th and the kids and I worked on packing up all the stuff while Theo went and picked up the RV. We used a company called Cruise America, which operates similar to UHaul in that you can find a station near you and rent the RV for a predetermined amount of time. We had an overall good experience working with the company, although we didn’t feel like it was GREAT.

At first they told us (after we had already paid our deposit) that we could use the RV, but it wasn’t un-winterized, so we wouldn’t have any access to water or bathroom on the RV. We told them in no uncertain terms that that was probably the top reason for renting an RV in the first place, and if they didn’t plan to have bathroom/water access to RVs in the winter, they probably should put that in BOLD PRINT at the very tippy top of any of their rental agreements. Anyways, the kind man agreed that was kind of the point, and agreed to un-winterize the RV for us before we picked it up. He did so and we were appreciative, until we learned 30 hours into our trip that he didn’t do it correctly and we didn’t have any HOT water the duration of our trip- but we did at least have water, so no shower or clean dishes, but at least we did have the toilet and cold water to somewhat rinse/clean the dishes.

Anywho- back to our trip.

Theo pulled the RV into the driveway and the kids went WILD. They were SO EXCITED. They explored every inch of the RV and tracked mud and dirt into every crevice within 5 minutes of its arrival.

We got everything loaded and buckled up and pulled out of our driveway around 12:30pm on Friday the 26th. We hit the road heading south.

We drove for about 2 hours and then looked for a nice hiking trail somewhere in Kentucky. We pulled off the highway and drove the rig down some curving mountain road only to discover that the park was closed for the holidays, with a gate covering the main drive. Theo turned the 35 foot RV around in a hillbilly mountain driveway and this was where my stress level overcame the fun level. It’s all fun and games until you have to turn the RV around in someone’s driveway!

We headed back towards the highway- everyone’s spirts were dampened and Ori was over it all. I was getting carsick and asked Theo to just find somewhere to pull over and stop. The RV was very LOUD and rattly- it felt similar to being on an airplane to me. Here we were just a few hours into our trip and I seriously contemplated going back home. We stopped and took a little break to just calm our nervous systems and upset tummies, and then got back in and found a nearby park for the kids to play at while Theo and I tried to do some planning.

We picked up some pizza and then set up a movie for the kids and drove for a few more hours that night. We found it much easier to drive at night when there were less distractions from the kids. Pretty soon into this trip we realized that Theo was going to be the only driver which meant I was going to be the default parent while driving. Typically on road trips, we take shifts in each of these roles, because they are tiring in different ways. But this trip meant that we needed to stick to one role each, and that was just plain exhausting!

We ended up pulling into a Walmart parking lot near Chattanooga, TN that night. This is called “boondocking” and is a great way to save money while traveling with in an RV.

We woke up to a beautiful, warm December day in southern Tennessee. We decided to go up Lookout Mountain to find Lover’s Leap, only to discover that to access Lover’s Leap you have to pay to get into Rock City, a little tourist village thingy (?we couldn’t really figure out what it actually was?). For our family to get in, it was $280!! What? No. So we drove back down the mountain to ride the Incline Rail, only to arrive at the incline rail and find out it was sold out for the whole day. WOMP WOMP. We were all in tears by this point- nothing had gone according to plan, which wasn’t much to ask considering that we didn’t even have a plan! Although, that is probably exactly the problem…we didn’t make a plan, so we planned to fail, or something like that.

We took a minute and then pulled up All Trails and just looked for a little trail nearby. We couldn’t drive to the trailhead, so we decided to walk. This was a BAD choice as we had to walk along an incredibly busy road with no shoulder. We were seriously just about to give up on the whole dang thing at this point.

And this is a testament to how hiking and fresh air can reset even the worst of days. We hiked for about a mile and the weather was GORGEOUS. We were all so grumpy and disappointed, but hiking helped SO much.

We got some ice cream when we got back to the RV, and that helped, too. Lunch was snacks that we had in the RV, but rest assured that we ate the ice cream first!

We decided to leave Chattanooga behind and try our luck there on the return trip, instead. So we hopped back on the highway and drove for most of the afternoon.

Next stop: Buc-ee’s!

Along with at least 1 million other people. What is the draw of this store? Why do we all feel the need to stop there? Where are the sociologists and why are they not studying this phenomenon? Imagine if someone said “we are going to make a gas station. And it’s going to be HUGE. And then we will put a store there. It will have a little bit of EVERYTHING. Yes, everything. Sparkly cow skulls. A random toy. Fudge. Cookbooks. And then everyone will want to come.” What? Make it make sense! And yet…here is the Hines family…stopping at Buc-ee’s. Adding to the chaos. Also, trying to drive an RV in the Buc-ee’s parking lot is even worse than trying to turn an RV around in a mountain driveway.

Anyways, we came. We saw. We left.

Back in the RV with much lighter spirits and a fun destination in mind: Stone Mountain, GA.

We arrived at Stone Mountain right around 4:30pm. This was place HOPPING. We really struggled to find parking for the RV- actually, everyone was struggling to find parking, even the cars. So it was a hopeless case for our big RV. So Theo dropped the kids and I off near the trailhead and went off to find parking. He had to run about a mile back to join us. Of course, Ori picked this point to poop. Theo was actually driving by us right then and I yelled “I need wipes!” and he slowed to a crawl and threw them out the window at me. hahaha.

By the time Theo found parking and ran the mile back to us, it was 5:00 and we didn’t have too long until sunset, so we started to book it up the hill.

Stone Mountain is a big, big stone/rock mountain. There is a trail that goes straight up the mountain. It’s a fairly easy trail, but you are walking from stone to stone the whole 1+ mile up. And it gets pretty steep in some areas! There were SO many people there- I was really surprised by the amount of foot traffic going up and down.

One child is missing from this photo because he had to poop, of course. We are really good at needing to poop while hiking. And staggering our poops. If you are counting, this is the second poop in the wilds of Stone Mountain.

Oh, look- everyone present and accounted for. Nobody off pooping. Oh, wait, where is Theo? Just kidding- he’s taking the picture.

There were lovely overlooks all throughout the hike up the mountain. Every time I thought we were at the top, there would be another smaller hill to climb up!

We finally made it to the top- absolutely BREATHTAKING. The sunset was perfect, our timing was perfect- this was a top core memory for our whole family.

We spent about 20 minutes up at the top watching the sun set and taking pictures. There were people all around, but it didn’t feel crowded. It felt peaceful and beautiful and like we were all sharing in this beautiful, sacred sunset.

Bless the sweet stranger who agreed to take this photo for us.

Here’s what the puddle actually looked like, so it took a bit of a creative eye to get such a stunning photo in a muddy puddle!

A couple more shots before the sun went fully down:

We hiked down the mountain and it was dark by the time we got down. Walking down all the rocks in the dark was a little bit more challenging than doing it in the daylight!

We went out for Mexican for dinner, but it wasn’t great. I was hoping for an AMAZING meal after our day, but it was just ok. We got the kids set up for a movie/sleeping and then drove a few more hours and stopped at a rest area for the night.

And that’s a wrap on day 1 and 2! I will be back next time with day 3, 4 and 5!