The Road Test
Dec. 28, 2024 - Jan. 3, 2025
Sesquicentennial State Park, S.C., Congaree National Park, S.C.; Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Whenever it comes up in conversation that we are planning to leave this summer to travel for a year in an RV, we often hear the same response: “I want to do that, too!”
Nick and I nod and smile, but in the backs of our minds, we are thinking about the years of preparation it has taken for us to get to this point where we are nearly ready to leave town. Something as simple-sounding as traveling for a year has taken a lot of planning. Here’s a quick recap of our RV journey to date:
2008/2009 - Nick announced his wish to travel the country in an RV for a year following his retirement from the Navy in 2025.
2016 - Nick, Sadie & I (with Nate on the way) rented a pop-out travel trailer from the Navy’s recreation department for a family trip to see family in New Jersey and camp at the Delaware Gap. We enjoyed the travel perks of sleeping in the same bed each night and cooking our own meals while on the go.
2020 - Five years away from our possible trip, we decided we better start learning how to RV so we make mistakes and learn lessons now instead of on the Big Trip. Bought an F-250 and 29’ travel trailer in Houston, Texas, and drove it back to our duty station in Palo Alto, California.
2021 - Used the travel trailer every other weekend to explore Sequoia, Yosemite, Monterey and to ski at Lake Tahoe.
Summer 2021 - Crossed the country during our move from CA to VA, exploring Lassen Volcano, Crater Lake, Yosemite, Tetons, New River Gorge National Parks. Bought a house with no HOA and a big cul de sac out front so we’d have somewhere to park the trailer before and after trips. We lived in the trailer another month on Dam Neck Beach while we did work on our house. (Best move ever).
2022 - Towed the trailer 15 hours from Virginia to Acadia National Park in Maine.
2023 - Local camping trips to First Landing, Little Creek, and Kiptopeke SP.
2024 - Now with bigger kids and a need for more storage on the longer trip, we upgraded to a 36’ fifth wheel. (The people we bought the fifth wheel from traded for our smaller travel trailer). Nick modified the truck’s suspension to handle the extra towing weight.
2025 - Nick installed a new hitch and a hydraulic brake system in the trailer. We found renters for our house, sold my car, moved everything we own into storage/the attic/the shed. We moved out of our house, and un-enrolled the kids from school.
I have no doubt that there’s some version of this RV trip where you wing it, buy a van, and just go. But that’s apparently not how we roll. We have been actively making calculated steps toward this goal for many years.
The Road Test
Since upgrading to a fifth wheel in spring 2024, we have been making modifications to suit our specific use of living and traveling in it full-time. We did two local trips to the nearby RV park on Dam Neck (the base where Nick works) so we could get used to the new setup and figure out what changes we’d like to make.
After owning the rig for six months, we felt comfortable living in it. But we didn’t have any idea how it would tow long distances.
The week after Christmas was our best opportunity to road test the rig before leaving on the Big Trip. Hoping for warmer weather, I planned a trip to drive south. Susquicentennial State Park in South Carolina caught my eye for its location just 30 minutes from Congaree National Park, plus having full RV hookups, a rarity for state parks. We’d spend the rest of the week at the beach on Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
We left Virginia Beach with lots of questions. Would the rig tow smoothly? Would the new hitch setup work well? Would going from site to site be a huge hassle?
And we got our answers. The rig pulled well, we had no significant issues related to the hitch or towing. Packing up and moving from site to site was straight-forward. But all the moving around caused a few things to break.
Our repairs this trip involved a leaky bathroom sink and a leaky hose connection, both of which Nick was able to fix with tools on hand and a trip to Home Depot (well, two trips since the first store was out of the part). Thankfully the state park was just outside the medium-sized town of Columbia, SC, so there were multiple locations to choose from within a 20-minute drive.
Another purpose of the road test was to practice packing up, hitching up, and towing to the next stop. We opted to do a stopover the first night just outside of Raleigh so we could split up the longest leg of the drive. This was the busiest legs since we had to take I-95 during a holiday weekend (oof).
This trip also gave us an opportunity to try out bringing our bikes on the bike rack. Nick converted the outdoor kitchen into a garage to store his gym equipment and fancy mountain bike. We rode our bikes in the state park, a favorite in the area for mountain bikers. There were miles of hilly trails of many difficulty levels. Nick and Nate opted for the hillier stuff. Sadie and I rode down to the lake where we found a more chill 2.5-mile trail that circled the lake. We enjoyed it so much, we rode the loop twice.
Overall, the road test trip went really well, including magical 60-degree days exploring Congaree National Park and the state park. But once we got to North Carolina, winter temps found us, which limited our options of things to do. We spent a day at the indoor pool and fitness center on the Marine Corps base. But with sub-freezing lows looming (not good for draining tanks!), along with the work of packing up and returning to school and work, we opted to drive home a day early.
Sunrise on the beach
Staying so close to the Atlantic Ocean prompted a comment I made a comment to Nick: “In all these years we’ve lived on the East Coast, I’ve never see the sun rise over the ocean.”
“Well this is about the easiest it’s ever going to be,” he said. We looked up the sunrise time for the next day, 7:20am. We set our alarm for 7, got up bundled up for the 32 degree morning and made coffee. Before leaving, I went to wake up Nate, our only taker for coming with us to see the sunrise.
I tapped him on the shoulder through his sleeping bag and whispered, “Nate, do you want to come with us to see the sunrise rise?”
I will never forget the sight of his little face peeping through the sleeping bag shaking “noooooooo,” then rolling over to face the wall and fall back asleep. That’s how Nick and I scored a morning date to watch the sunrise, just the two of us.
The sunrise that third day of the new year was absolutely worth the trek (which from our campsite was less than a one-minute trek!). The sky was painted with magical colors that mirrored but were somehow a slightly different palette than sunset. The sea birds provided the soundtrack to the morning. The dolphins put on a show. We snuggled together sipping our coffee, not saying much, both of us thinking forward to the big year ahead.
This time next new year, Nick would be fully out of the Navy and, if all went well, we’d be six months into traveling the country and homeschooling. If all went as planned, we’d ring in 2026 with a sunset over the ocean in San Diego.
In that moment, it was easy to think about all that lie ahead for us, all there was still to do to get ready.
I pushed those thoughts out of my mind and watched the sun lift up over the water, to stunning effect. I felt the Lord say, “Trust me.”
Believe me when I say, we have come so far to get to this point. In the Navy. In our marriage. In our family. And the Lord has continually proven himself trustworthy.
When the sunrise colors dispersed and our coffee mugs needed refilling, we returned to the rig. We woke up our sleepy children, ate breakfast, packed up and headed home. Four uneventful hours later, we were back at our brick and mortar unpacking and getting read for the routine week ahead.
Our new rig passed the road test. All the meals and memories and long spells of restful winter sleep made it start to feel a lot more like home.
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For those just finding us, hello! Inspired by the Year of Jubilee in Leviticus 25, our family is embarking on a yearlong RV road trip in 2025 to celebrate my husband’s retirement from 20 years in Naval Special Warfare. We hope to reset and reflect before civilian life begins.
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