Let’s see…where were we on our adventurous RV trip? We had just stopped at a rest stop somewhere in Alabama. We rested there for the night, nestled in amongst the semi trucks. It was actually a very quiet night and we didn’t mind sleeping at a rest stop at all. Our sleep on this trip was very poor every single night, but each night was for a different reason. The first night was loud and I just couldn’t sleep well. The second night the kids were up a lot, the third night the carbon monoxide detector kept going off, and the 4th night was SO COLD.
But back to the 2nd night…sleeping at the rest stop was great, if only every person in our family had actually slept. We were up early and decided to hit the road. It was at this point that we were really feeling (and smelling) the effects of not having a hot shower on board. Sure, the shower worked…but nobody wants to take a shower in frigid cold water. We drove for a ways and then stopped at a Waffle House for breakfast. This was such an enjoyable meal, honestly one of our favorites from the trip!
We drove a little further down the highway and then spotted a YMCA. We have a local YMCW membership and can get into any YMCA in the country, so we decided to stop to use the showers! Only….it was a Sunday and they were closed. WOMP WOMP. I think that might be more disappointing than pulling into a Chic-fil-a on a Sunday!
We continued our drive south and within 2 hours hit the gulf coast, our final destination. We had called ahead and booked one night (Sunday night) at an RV resort. We called ahead and were able to pull in a couple hours early. This RV resort was the cutest thing…a great spot, a pool, beachside access, some fun game areas, a laundry room, etc. We LOVED our 24 hours here. The weather was in the low 70s and we literally just basked in the warm air and finally not driving!
The kids were so excited to see the ocean. Just as we arrived, a thick fog blew in so when we ran out to the beach we literally could not see ANYTHING. The fog cleared within an hour or so, don’t worry.
And look…..A WARM SHOWER. This was one of my top three moments of our trip 😉
We parked ourselves at the pool/beach all afternoon. You couldn’t have convinced any one of us to do anything differently.
Ori actually took a nap (his first – and only- nap of the whole trip!) and we just SOAKED up that whole afternoon.
We went out for dinner that night- at first, we walked to a restaurant right across the road, but the kids didn’t like any of the food options so we had to go load up the whole dang RV and drive to a restaurant nearby. I was less than thrilled with this arrangement, let me tell you. That is the other major downside of traveling in an RV- it’s the only form of transportation we had, so there is no quick “zipping over to the store”. We debated getting DoorDash or even getting an Uber to take us to a restaurant, but just ended up taking the RV itself.
The nice part of this situation was that there was an Aldi right next door, so I was able to stock up on some snacks and groceries.
We headed back to the campsite and played some games before heading to bed.
We woke up in the morning to WIND and rain. The rain cleared off, but then it was about 40 with a wind chill of 31! In Florida!
Our checkout time was 11am, so we started to get things loaded up, got some breakfast, I did two loads of laundry – without detergent because I didn’t bring any and didn’t know where to get some!
It was COLD- but the sun was shining, at least!
We got loaded up and ready to head back towards HOME- Ohio. But first, we decided to swing by and see the actual ocean. Apparently we were in a little bay- so the water was ocean water, but it was very calm and not blue like the ocean.
I’m so glad we did this, because the kids were SO excited to see the actual waves and ocean water. Again- it was SO cold- note the coats and hats!
And now- headed for home. This particular day- Monday- was pretty much just driving. We stopped at gas stations and possibly stopped for lunch somewhere, but the kids watched a couple movies and we just drove. We were EXHAUSTED.
We stopped at Applebees for dinner. Theo and I were just about ready to collapse from exhaustion. Very little sleep and constant driving for 4 days will that to ya.
We were laughing at Tera because she always wants to take just the ice after dinner, so she is always pouring random cups of water and ice and it always takes FOREVER to leave a restaurant.
We put the kids to sleep and drove for a few more hours, stopping in Chattanooga again. This was possibly the worst night of sleep because it dropped below freezing and we were really worried the RV was going to freeze, which would be bad, bad, bad. Thankfully, the RV had a furnace so we were able to keep our bodies warm, but we were worried about the RV!
We bundled up and headed over to- The Incline Rail! Yes, again. This time we were smart and booked tickets ahead of time 😉 And we were the first ones on the train!
The Incline Rail is a train car that goes STRAIGHT UP the mountain. I think they said the incline is 72% at its steepest point, but it absolutely feels like a 90 degree angle! Pictures do not do this thing justice, and we all loved it. We also felt like it was affordable – our whole family was $58. The incline is one mile up, and then you can visit the gift shop or even go hiking while you are up at the top, then get back on the train car to go back down.
Once again- it was COLD! We didn’t last very long at the top before we rode the train car back down and hopped back in the RV.
Our next stop was in the middle of nowhere somewhere East of Nashville to get the RV winterized. The temps were very cold and we it wasn’t going to go above freezing before we returned it, so we found a Cruise America place that had a technician that could do it (for a fee). We had to go sit inside their little RV store and played an ancient board games while Ori played with some OG Lincoln Logs. The first thing that the technician said when he came back in from winterizing the RV was “did you know that the hot water valve wasn’t connected?” Why, yes. Yes, we did know that. We were a bit disappointed that we were never offered an apology or compensation for how inconvenient this was, and that we still had to pay a fee to have it un-winterized and then re-winterized. To me, if you pay to have something done, but it’s done incorrectly, you should get a refund. So we weren’t really thrilled with the customer service of Cruise America in general. It wasn’t awful…but it wasn’t “above and beyond”, you know?
Then on to our last stop…Mammoth Caves National Park in Kentucky! Once again we arrived in the late afternoon, and all the tours for the caves were sold out (bummer!). They said we can still hike to the mouth of the cave, so we went ahead and did that. It was in the 20s and COLD! We really enjoyed seeing the first 10 feet of the cave and hope to go back sometime with an actual booked tour to see the whole cave(s)! We took a longer hike back to the parking lot and then hauled ourselves into the RV for our very last leg of the trip- HOME!
We arrived home around 9pm, sent everyone to bed, took a warm shower and crawled into our own beds at home!!
WHAT A TRIP!
And then we woke up the next morning….to our septic overflowing.
WELCOME HOME, SUCKERS! Real life doesn’t stop for anybody hahahaha.
So, the most common question I get is…would we do it again?
Ha. Um. It was….A LOT. We would absolutely need some time to recover….like 1-2 years of time LOL. We would absolutely wait until Ori is old enough to not be a in a carseat, nor needing a nap. Those were two really stressful factors that made the trip extra challenging. It also would have made it much easier if the weather had been warmer all around, and if the hot water had worked in the RV it would have helped greatly. One thing that we noticed that was interesting is that both of the people in our family who have a tendency to get carsick did NOT feel carsick in the RV. Interesting, huh?
So, yes. I can absolutely see us doing this again. We learned a lot and we built some INCREDIBLE memories. I’m so glad that we did it, and the kids loved it so much. It was exhausting in every way, but these are the kind of memories that we are hoping to build with the kids.
This is one of those trips that you are going to be talking about and reminiscing about for years; both for the bad and the good. It actually reminds me a lot of trips my family took when I was growing up and we STILL talk about them!