After four months parked in one spot, we finally hitched up for a full travel day, and everything that had gone soft from sitting still (our systems, our checklist habits, our patience) got tested at once. This was the first night of the drive from Marquette down to Indiana's RV country around Elkhart, where a Brinkley service appointment was waiting for us. The first stop wasn't even glamorous. We were taking our house to Walmart.
Watch the full video on YouTube.
Packing up after months of sitting
When you move every week, pack-up is muscle memory. When you haven't moved in four months, it's archaeology. Things had migrated to counters and corners that have no business being on counters and corners at 60 miles an hour. Finishing the packing took longer than planned, and the to-do list grew while we worked through it, which is a special kind of demoralizing. The hitch, at least, went on the first try. "I told you that was perfect."
Dumping tanks and getting out
Before we could actually leave we had the full dump-and-flush routine, and this is where a long stay bites you: everything takes twice as long when the gear has been stowed for months and you're re-remembering your own process. By the time we pulled out of the campsite, the "quick morning departure" was already afternoon.
Crossing the Mackinac Bridge
The drive itself was the easy part, including a crossing of the Mackinac Bridge, which never stops being a little thrilling with a fifth wheel behind you. Five miles of suspension bridge over the Straits and a truck that suddenly feels very tall. It went fine. It always goes fine. Our heart rates disagree. We'd crossed it once before, on the Upper Peninsula road trip from back when we started the channel, the one with the zoo and Michigan's biggest spring.
The Walmart parking drama
We were racing the dark by the time we got close, so it helped that we'd done our homework. We called the store ahead to make sure we could stay the night, and we'd checked the lot to be sure there was room for the rig. The parking itself was simple. We pulled all the way to the back, out of everyone's way, with no tricky back-in to argue over. And this is still the part of the video where you get to watch a real married couple communicate under pressure, because it wasn't about the parking. It was about tone. "You're being sassy." "You hung up the phone." There was a "let's reset." There was the moment we both remembered we're on the same team, which sounds cheesy until you've been the couple bickering over the phone across a parking lot.
Looking back, the argument was never really about the parking. It was the end of a long day after four months of sitting still, and the stress came out in how we talked to each other. The fix wasn't a better parking plan. It was stopping, taking a breath, and remembering the other person is not the obstacle.
The reward: groceries without leaving home
The upside of taking your home to the grocery store is genuinely great. We grabbed Subway, did a full Walmart shop, and carried the groceries about thirty feet to our own kitchen. No coolers, no ice packs, no "will the frozen stuff survive the drive home." The next morning we woke up after a quiet night in the parking lot, went to a Bob Evans nearby for breakfast, and rolled on toward Indiana.
If you overnight at Walmarts, we'd honestly love to hear your parking tactics and how you keep travel-day tension from boiling over. Every couple we know who travels full time has a version of this story. The ones who claim they don't are lying or newlyweds.
Watch the full travel day, the bridge crossing, and the parking drama 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.