The Instagram version of RV life is a rig parked in front of a mountain at sunset. Our version this week was scraping mud off our shoes at Johnson County Park and hoping the truck wouldn't sink. We're still working our way north toward Michigan for our Brinkley service appointment, and this leg of the trip handed us one small problem after another.
Almost trapped at Cracker Barrel
We overnighted at another Cracker Barrel, which has become our default free stop on travel days. This one almost went sideways. A truck parked close enough that for a while it looked like we weren't getting the fifth wheel out at all. Forty feet of trailer does not do tight U-turns, so we sat there running exit angles in our heads until a path opened up. Lesson learned: when you park for the night, think about how you're leaving in the morning, not just how you got in.
First fuel stop while hitched
Somewhere along the way we did something we'd been putting off: fueling up at Love's with the RV still attached. Up to now we'd always unhitched first or planned fuel around empty stretches of pump. Pulling a 40-foot trailer through the truck lanes for the first time comes with surprises, like figuring out which pumps we could actually reach and how the payment process works on the truck side. It went fine, mostly, but there's a reason so many RVers rehearse this stuff. Once you're in the lane, you're committed.
The mud pit we call a campsite
Then we arrived at Johnson County Park in Indiana, where recent rain had turned our site into something closer to a swamp. Setting up camp when every step sinks half an inch is its own kind of workout. We spent the setup trying to keep the mud outside the rig, mostly failing, and placing our gear like we were playing a board game where the penalty for a wrong move is a soaked shoe. The park itself is nice. The timing was not.
A haircut in the middle of nowhere
One underrated problem of full-timing: haircuts. You can't keep a regular barber when your address changes every week. So Fabiola cut Nathan's hair right there at the campsite. She's gotten good at it, which is fortunate, because the alternative is walking into a random small-town barbershop and hoping for the best. Add it to the list of skills we never expected this lifestyle to teach us.
Peanut butter, bacon, and Franklin, Indiana
The week's reward was exploring Franklin, Indiana, a small town we'd never have visited if the service appointment hadn't routed us this way. We found a local brewery with a menu that took some chances, including a peanut butter and bacon burger. We ordered it. No regrets. Little discoveries like that are why we keep choosing small-town stops over interstate exits when we can.
None of this week was glamorous. A cramped parking lot, a first-time fuel stop, a muddy site, and a parking-lot haircut. But this is the actual texture of full-time RV life, and honestly, the messy weeks make better stories than the sunsets do.
Watch the full episode, mud and all, on YouTube. We also send a short weekly newsletter about where we are and what broke this week. The signup form is on our newsletter page.