A "chill" two-hour hop from Tampa to Orlando turned into bent banana trees, a flying chair, a wind-speed research session, and the same embarrassing mistake we swore we'd never repeat. At least dinner was good.
A week of boondocking at our first Hipcamp farm, and the water bladder we'd hauled around unopened for over a year finally earns its keep: 24 gallons siphoned into the fresh tank. The full 7 days off-grid? That part didn't survive contact with reality.
We spent a day in the Brinkley section of the Tampa RV Super Show touring the new GX 3500, the Model Z Air 297, and the I 265, comparing each one to our own Model Z 3515 and coming away a little jealous.
320 miles from the Smoky Mountains to South Carolina, hitch-up to after-dark arrival, with every stop in between. This is the travel day nobody puts in the highlight reel.
We boondocked in Brinkley's lot the night before a big service appointment, broke something new while parking, and picked up a rig with fresh wall panels and a brand-new fridge. Mostly a win.
Our first travel day after months parked: a to-do list that kept growing, a crossing of the Mackinac Bridge, and a Walmart parking job that turned into a marriage exercise.
We came back from six weeks in Brazil to droppings, chewed mats, and at least one uninvited tenant. Four days of traps, baits, ultrasonic repellers, and sealing later, here's what actually worked.
We put the Brinkley into storage mode, flew out of Chicago to Brazil for Fabiola's graduation, and gave you the full tour of our other home, electric shower and all.
A slow day in Marquette: chicken on the Blackstone, a hike at Presque Isle Park that turned into a cliff-jumping show, another round of trailer light detective work, and finally scratching our first states off the travel map.
Last day of boondocking, so naturally we cleaned every AC filter and ceiling fan in the rig, then skipped our Harvest Hosts plan for a casino parking lot. The slots were bad. The sleep was great.
Tiny roads, soft grass, and a 40-foot fifth wheel: our back-in at Richard Bong State Recreation Area took twelve minutes of video to resolve. Then Wisconsin got good.
We hauled our warranty list across several states to the Brinkley factory, toured where our Model Z was built, sat out a tornado watch in a house on wheels, and left with most (not all) of the list fixed.
Six months of full-time RV life, every dollar counted: truck, campgrounds, groceries, internet, propane, and the theme park tickets we're not sorry about. Here's where the money actually went.
A Cracker Barrel overnight where a truck nearly boxed us in, our first fuel stop with the RV hitched, a campsite made of mud, and a parking-lot haircut. This is the unfiltered week.
Our first Cracker Barrel overnight, the actual numbers from our CAT scale weigh-in, some math about water weight, and an insect invasion that hitched a ride from the last campground.
After two months parked, we hit the road to weigh the rig at a CAT scale. Stuck chocks, a hitching refresher, and a parking lot on a hill that lifted our wheels clean off the ground.
