Early Adventures (and dishwashing)

We’re doing it! We’ve been living full time in our RV for almost a month now. We’ve towed the trailer from Papillion, Nebraska through two states, and all the way down to Gordonville, Texas. We’re starting to get settled into this new lifestyle, but we know we’ve got a lot left to learn.

One of the biggest surprises for us so far is how little free time we end up with. We’re working less, don’t have a commute, no social commitments or scheduled activities, so we should have tons of time, right? We had all sorts of big ideas about how we would use this newfound time to have fun and better ourselves. Going on walks or hikes, cooking new things, reading more, keeping the truck and trailer sparkling clean and well maintained, exercising, blogging, and catching up on movies/TV shows/video games on rainy days. You know, the kind of things you promise yourself you’ll do when you have one of those rare weekday days off with no commitments. Well, just like those days off, the hours of daylight disappear quickly and most of the items remain on the checklist undone.

Working remotely on the computer, childcare, and meal prep take up most of our days. Also, doing the dishes. We don’t have a dishwasher in our RV so everything has to be washed by hand. And while we do have a decently sized sink, we don’t have very much counter space. This means there isn’t much room to pile up dirty dishes, and there’s not much room to set clean dishes to dry. So we have to wash, dry and put away dishes at least three times a day; a truly Sisyphean task.

Hopefully, as we continue to get settled in, figure out a routine, and really get the hang of life on the road we’ll manage to maximize our time for more fun activities. We have managed to squeeze in a few adventures so far, though.

There was a fishing pond at our first stop at an RV park in Seneca, Kansas. We don’t trust her with hooks yet, but Isabel had fun casting a little plastic fish out into the pond and reeling it back in. While in the area we also found a pumpkin patch and stopped by for some fall festivities.

One morning while we were staying in Altamont, Kansas, Charlotte had to present a meeting over the phone and preferred to not have a rambunctious 3-year old just outside the door to the office. So Izzy and I went to go see Big Brutus, a 160 foot tall, 10 million pound coal shovel. It was a cold, rainy morning, and Izzy wasn’t too impressed, so we didn’t stay long. Later that weekend we were able to attend a fantastic Halloween party. Izzy was excited to find another little girl dressed up as Gecko from PJ Masks, just like her.

Just yesterday, we finally caught up with the nice weather we headed south for. Izzy and I went exploring and found a little sandy beach on the shore of Lake Texoma right next to the park where we’re staying. She had fun digging around and dipping her toes in the water, although she was disappointed she couldn’t go swimming.

We have some big adventures planned for next year, but so far they involve putting the RV in storage and getting on a plane. For the next few weeks, we’ll continue to learn what we’re doing while hopping around Texas and hopefully finding a few adventures along the way.