What's Up Wednesday #49 - The Moving Saga (Part 1) [Medical Medium Healing]

I told you the story of our moving saga in the blog posts in five parts. 

Part 1     Part 2     Part 3     Part 4     Part 5

I also made an accompanying video detailing even more of it. This is in two parts. Part one is my retelling of the getting into the RV. Watch it above.

With a Couple of False Starts (Part 5)

In case you missed them, Part 1 is here; Part 2 is here; Part 3 is here; Part 4 is here.

Of course you know by now that 4 hours took us almost 7. But this time it wasn't raining, it wasn't windy, the bikes weren't blowing and bouncing around like crazy, and I was less compelled to look at them in the rearview mirror. My son and I listened to and chatted about music, the animals were mostly calmer, the sun would peek in and out of the clouds as we drove. 

These were some of the more interesting clouds we saw, at least that I was able to photograph: 

And I did it. We did it - but from a healing perspective, I did it! My husband high fived me and said, "You did it! I'm so proud of you!" and he gave me a big hug. Yeah, I did do it. I was pretty proud of myself, because man, that was so much of a lot for me, and I still didn't know how I would feel the next day. And there was still so much to do in the RV to get it ready for us to actually sleep in. The animals and I waited in the car for a bit, as I was too exhausted to move.

But little by little, things got put together. Electrical plugged in. Water hooked up. Toilet ready for pooping! (We can't poop in it while we're driving for reasons, it's a compost toilet and it just isn't a good idea, I don't want to go into the whole thing here). Heaters plugged in, my son's computer out and hooked up so he could finally relax. Dinner started for my son - NOT curry! Lentil pasta with Caulifredo Sauce.

Little by little, putting things away. Getting things out that needed to be out. Feeding the animals. Feeding us. Getting the other bedding put on the bed (the hotel bedding gets washed of course, it's touched chemical beds!). Feeling my body unclench. Feeling the tension begin to leave. Thanking the Angels for all of their help on this trip (believe me, I was talking to them SO much during this entire ordeal, begging for their help to make it through/when crossing bridges/through the rain in the RV/etc etc). Breathing. Big deep sighs of relief.

We're here. We're going to get to see family now. Tomorrow is just a rest day. A do what we want day. There are some groceries to be bought and there are things to put away, but tomorrow is for rest too, and ha, apparently for blogging!

With a Couple of False Starts (Part 4)

If you missed them, Part 1 is here; Part 2 is here; Part 3 is here

My husband had gotten the RV almost fully packed the night before, however, so there was that. We were pretty much ready to go once we returned to the RV. Just a few finishing touches, then the rest in a laundry basket in the trunk of the car to be dealt with later. 

Just one thing: the food supply was getting low. I hadn't had the things I needed to make proper smoothies to go, and we didn't have much fruit left for snacks, nor could we take the time to shop for anything. We had some leftover curry in the Instant Pot but not much. Our snacks for the road were smoothies left over from the night before, some carrots, apples and mandarins.

But we needed to soldier on. We hadn't gone anywhere yet and no way could I do another night in that awful hotel. So we went for it and got on the road. My husband driving the RV. My son, the animals and myself in the car behind him. It was raining and windy. Every time I looked in the rearview mirror, I could see the bikes bouncing on the bike rack on the trunk, and my adrenaline would shoot up.

Here's the funny thing about eating a whole foods, plant-based mostly raw diet. For the first time in your life, you are actually hydrated. And if you are actually hydrated, you're peeing about once every hour. Had we been riding in the RV, this wouldn't be an issue, because usually I can just get up while we're on the highway and go pee in the toilet in the RV. But when I'm driving the car, this means pulling the RV over once and hour so I can go pee in the toilet in the RV. And each stop takes about 20 minutes with slowing down, finding a place to park, going into the RV and some of us taking turns to pee. 

We were stopping about every 45 minutes - I think because of the stress and my bladder just got a bit overactive too - but also yay for my keeping myself hydrated anyway, because if ever one needed hydration and lots of glucose and mineral salts, it's when under so much stress with the adrenaline running. And loss of sleep to boot. 

Because of these frequent stops, we made what according to G00gle should have been about a 2.5 hour stretch of the drive in about 4 hours. And at one of our stops I noticed a Comfort Inn just off the highway across the street from where we'd pulled over and I said to my husband, "I want to go to there and sleep now." 

Looked them up, called, got their best rate, found out when we got there there was a $25 pet fee. Didn't care, wanted a bed and rest. Done and done. Immediately noticed: bigger lobby, wider hallways, better luggage carts (hooks on both sides for carrying bags, as they SHOULD be, also larger).

Upon entering the room, we were delighted: a whole sink with counter space in a separate space to the toilet, bigger better fridge, more outlets, bigger room, higher ceilings, so much less chemical smell. Still faintly one but not sweet and sticky and gross, more manageable.  I was amused at how times had changed:

This will do, Rabbit. This will do. 

 The beds didn't stink of chemicals or bleach either, and of course we again took off the bedding and replaced it with our own. Because we had the RV parked right outside. this time we were better equipped with VitaMix, juicer, IQAir, and all of the frozen fruit we had left for more smoothies the next day. I also ended up making another curry just because it's quick and easy and we had all of the ingredients. We were all a bit sick of curry but who cares, it's nourishing food and our tummies were hungry.

Okay, so I need to take a minute and say #victorycheck on me. Because sleep deprived, exhausted from driving, just wiped out to the core, still doing a thousand times better than at my sickest chronically ill when I wouldn't have been able to do even a fraction of ONE of these things. I mean. Because even with all of that going on, I whipped up dinner in the Instant Pot. We brought in the cutting board, knife, spices, can opener, the whole bit. We brought in the celery for juices the next day. Lemons and honey for lemon water. Fiji water to drink and mix.

And this hotel experience was SO much better then the previous night. I slept well. No stinky chemical odor getting stronger and stronger. No doors slamming all over the hotel all night long. No weird noises. My IQAir running in the background. The only thing that woke me up was Pendleton the Cat, but this time we brought the crate in and crated him. He still made noise, but he wasn't walking all over everyone and driving us mad. I wasn't too hot or too cold and I slept more deeply. 

The next morning I was able to make us lemon water, juices, smoothies made with melted frozen fruit from the night before. We had lemon water, water, the leftover curry, a couple of carrots, grape tomatoes, and an apple left for food and hydration on the road. I also had the jar of honey to take swigs from while driving if I needed to (I did). And I made myself an extra celery juice for later because I knew I'd need it.

Now. Now we were finally ready to drive the (according to G00gle) last 4 hours to visit our families for a month.

(to be continued)

With a Couple of False Starts (Part 3)

If you haven't read the first parts of this story, Part 1 is here and part 2 is here. 

Fast forward a couple of hours of my stewing, feeling like I'm losing ground on all the gains I've made in my health, knowing there is no way I can drive like this and we can't stay in an RV park because none are open (and the RV is still too much of a mess to drive). I'm sitting in the car where it's warm, my son next to me, because I've gone beyond my capacity yet again  and I'm so completely spent. I'm looking on my phone for deals on hotels in the area - I remembered even seeing a couple near where we adopted Pendleton, our cat. And here's a photo of him because he's adorable: 

 

I find a site online where you can book hotels at a lower rate than they generally book for. I booked a place nearby, only 3 miles from the apartment (and therefore the RV). I learned in that process that generally you can call the hotel and get an equivalent rate straight through them if you just mention that you saw this lower rate online. I made sure they took pets. I booked it online and off we went. 

Only when we got there an hour later (wrapping up some things first), they didn't have our reservation. After some back and forth and full on panic (non-refundable reservation + depleted nervous system + brain fog), they discovered that our reservation was actually for the 18th. Somehow in my brain fog and exhaustion I'd booked for the 18th thinking it was for the 3rd. WTF, how that happened I don't know, but I'm looking at you, Mercury Retrograde. 

It got sorted. We got a room. We weren't being charged for the 18th. We took ourselves and everything we needed inside, my husband got us all situated and then went back to the RV to do just a bit more inside. 

The hotel was not ideal. It didn't seem that clean. There was candy on our room floor when we went inside. There were chemical smells. Sort of subtle but too sweet, too much like a plug-in air freshener, which are the most toxic of toxic - those and perfumes/colognes. We searched the room and nothing seemed to be specifically making the smell. There was a bathtub where I could take a bath and the bathroom seemed clean. We bring our own bedding to hotels, so we pulled off the hotel bedding and put ours on. We watched cable - they had all the kids channels my son likes, so that was okay.

The chemical smell seemed to get stronger the longer we were there, and when I laid down to try to sleep, all propped up with pillows, I had a panic attack and was crying and having suicidal ideations (symptoms of a reaction to chemicals). My husband, I don't know if my angels were in his ear or what, but he didn't know how to help me and then all of a sudden he just started massaging my feet (like he sometimes does to help my plantar fascitis). 

I immediately calmed down and was able to fall asleep. The room got too hot during the night, from the heat kicking on at random times. Lots of door slamming noise throughout the night, waking me each time despite having a fan running near my head. And Pendleton the cat would not relax, so he kept me up all night, then decided I should just get up already around 3 AM. Which I did, because I had given up. 

I tried taking a nap for a bit later in the morning, but it didn't work, and I was as groggy as ever - and today we were going to drive. 

(to be continued)

With a Couple of False Starts (Part 2)

If you haven't read Part 1 of this post, it's here.

I tried to help by going into the RV to organize and put things away while my husband brought them out, to help speed the process. But I might have mentioned before how I have a very low tolerance for cold due to my overtaxed nervous system. Well, it was freezing outside, and cloudy, and that made the RV feel 10 degrees colder inside than it was outside. And it over stressed my nervous system so that I just crashed. The last thing my poor husband needed was to have to do all of this himself, with zero help from me.

And yet that's what happened. My adrenals were depleted, and the more I tried to help, the less I was able to, but I could make food. So that's what I did. I did my best to keep my husband (and my son and myself) fed and nourished while he powered through like some kind of workhorse and he carried all of the things out to the RV and tried to find homes for them inside ON HIS OWN. I made extra smoothies and lemon water for the road, and I loaded up the Instant Pot with the ingredients to make a curry so that once we stopped, all we had to do was plug it in and turn it on, and then there would be a warm nourishing meal at the end of a long day. I loaded up the cooler with the smoothies and fruit and tomatoes and carrots (what we had left).

I feel that it's pertinent to add here that my husband wasn't just carrying boxes and bins and furniture (the bed) out from a first floor unit into a straight shot, like a driveway. We lived in a second floor apartment at the other end of the hall from the elevator. So He had to load up the utility cart (which has 2 levels thankfully), roll that cart about 150 feet to the elevator, ride down to the first floor in the elevator, then roll the cart out the RV, which because of its size was about 300 feet from that door. 

Each trip took about 30 minutes because of that, not including loading and unloading the cart. It was brutal on him. The walk to and from the apartment building was also on an incline, and doing that multiple times a day - I mean just once took it totally out of me. I don't know what it's like to have a normal able-bodied human amount of energy, but he was so beyond exhausted at this point. And yet he had no choice to keep going. And so he did.

Because of our scheduled time for the final walk through with the apartment manager, and the fact that it just wasn't humanly possible to have the RV packed in an organized fashion before then, he at one point was just putting things in bins, carrying them out to the RV, and dumping them on the bed or on the table, just so we could have it out of the apartment. And we would deal with putting it away later. He got as much as he could put away during this process, but packing an RV for travel is like playing an intricate live-action game of tetris - everything needs to be put away securely so as not to become projectile missiles during travel. And that really just takes time. Time we didn't have.

As of the scheduled time of our appointment for the walk through, when the apartment was supposed to be both empty and thoroughly cleaned, it still looked like this: 

 

Which you may be thinking, that's not so bad - but we hadn't cleaned yet. Notice you can see the RV out the sliding glass doors, which are filthy. Oh my goodness. 

But also, holy crap, my husband somehow pulled off, all alone, having damn near everything completely out of the house and shoved into the RV. I mean, let's all take a moment and send him some huge props, because seriously, that was some superhero magic there. Amazing. 

And our wonderful apartment manager was late (on purpose) because she saw that we were still loading the RV. I love her for that. Also when she came to do the walk through, she said don't worry about cleaning because they have professional cleaners come anyway, just vacuum (because the carpet cleaners were also coming). And she gave us our deposit back. I heart her, she is such a kind and generous human. 

So then before we tried to drive 6-7 hours to visit our family, all we had to do was organize the RV. Because remember, tetris. Projectiles. Everything needs to be secure.

Still cold in the RV but less so. And it looked like this:

You can't see the back but I assure you it was full too. So we started. And. I move at a snail's pace. I was able to get a good amount done for me, but I knew that after spending my energy in that way, there was no way I would then be able to drive, even 2 hours.

Now, a couple of hours before, my husband had suggested that we perhaps get a hotel room for the night, and because I was crashed and depleted and my overloaded nervous system often causes that symptom called 'mood swings', I'd let him have it for even daring to make such a suggestion, so he piped down and just did his best to get things put away.

You see, hotel rooms are often cleaned with all manner of toxic scented chemicals, and though there have been hotels I've managed to stay in during my healing - okay, one hotel - I certainly can't count on them to be consistent with that one - which I did react to the chemicals used even though we requested a chemical-free room. An impossible ask at a regular hotel, because one day of not using chemicals doesn't erase all of the years that came before where they did. That stuff soaks into everything, especially the scented parts - and it just permeates.

Anyway, I wasn't thrilled about taking that risk when I know I'm already at my end and my nervous system is on full overload. I was already worried that taxing my system in this way was setting my healing back so many steps. And that it could take such a long time to even get back to where I was before. My adrenals haven't run this hard since I was fully chronically ill with no hope in sight. I have come SO far in my healing, and the PTSD of going anywhere close to 'back there' was just in full force at this point. So when my husband suggested a hotel, my whole healing journey just flashed before my eyes and I couldn't do anything to express my fear and pain but yell in a panic.

And because this is not something I do very often anymore, my husband knows that I'm really overloaded at that point and he backs off and gives me space to process, which unfortunately when I'm really overloaded also involves more yelling. Or more like lecturing. I also threw in some blame just to make it really over the top. Not my finest moment. I'm not proud, but this is what happens and it's a part of my journey.

What does Matt Kahn say? He just said it in his Hay House radio show this past week. It's not about loving that this thing happened (that triggered you), but loving the one who is triggered. Okay. So I love you. I love that you are triggered right now. I love that this thing happened to show me what still needs healing. I love you. I love you. I love you. (to self)

(Read Part 3 here)

With a Couple of False Starts (Part 1)

So wha ha happened was....

Our original plan.

Ha. Those words. Don't they always ring a bit hollow? I mean, let's face it. Whenever anything starts with "the plan", you just know that that is NOT what is going to happen, right? 

I'll tell you what ours was anyway. It's part of the story after all. 

Our lease was up in our apartment on March 31st. Originally we were going to be in a local RV campground in the RV by March 30th. We were to bring the RV to the apartment the 23rd and begin packing the RV over the course of the week - because it takes a LONG time to pack an RV when you are living a healing lifestyle and are planning to live in said RV for about 2 months. Especially when you are healing, so the whole idea is to do said packing with as little stress as possible. Slow and steady, that's the way of healing. Slow and steady. 

So we would stay in the RV at the campground while my husband went back and got the apartment cleaned, took the rest of the things to storage that we'd accidentally forgotten in the original packing, and tied up whatever loose ends there might be. Slow and steady. We had 5 days at the campground. We could then stock up on groceries, get food prepped for the long drive, and also rest before we had to do this big drive.
When my husband brought the RV home, it smelled so strongly of exhaust inside that I wondered how my husband made it alive, and how many brain cells of his didn't. Seriously, it was terrible inside. Note that we'd been storing the RV in Wisconsin outside in the winter. Two winters now. 18 months. Who knows what could have happened, right?

Before we started doing any packing of our possessions into it, we took it to see a mechanic. That took a couple of days, and he said we have a cracked exhaust manifold. He said it could be repaired, but that takes a lot longer than just replacing it, and also replacing it is a better choice because of it being stronger than a repair, since a repair involves welding and reshaping and no. In the meanwhile, he said we can seal up the back closet (where most of the exhaust was leaking into) and be able to "safely" drive it. Which we discovered meant with all of the windows open because no, the exhaust still leaks heavily into the RV when driven - just maybe slightly less heavily. 

The mechanic's shop was really full with work and he wouldn't be able to get us in for the repair until a few days after we were meant to be out of our apartment, so we thought okay, let's just drive the car with myself, my son and the animals behind the RV while my husband drives the RV freezing his buns off with all of the windows open. Because remember, Wisconsin. Still cold in the beginning of spring. And our first destination, where we'd be visiting family, is only a 6-7 hour drive according to G00gle. I can drive that myself, right?

So okay, we had a new plan. 

The first two nights we were booked at the RV campground were slated to be 18 and 24 degrees overnight, and we  knew that we wouldn't be able to handle that in the RV. So we asked the Apartment Manager if we could possibly stay an extra couple of days until it wasn't below freezing overnight and mercifully, she said we could, she'd just prorate the rent for two days and we could giver her a check. Great!

We called the campground to shuffle our days and they said they were just about to call us as well. It turns out that they had just bought the campground this year, they were the new owners. And there must have been a glitch in their system when changing hands because they didn't actually open until April 5th, and the water wouldn't be on until then either. Which meant that we didn't have anywhere to stay, because they were literally the only campground open before May 1st in a 50 mile radius. 

Okay, hm. We called to ask the apartment manager if we could extend our stay again, only this time she couldn't. She felt terrible but the apartment was already rented for the 5th, and she had the cleaners, the tub repair guy and the painters coming to get everything ready for them, literally all at once, so we had to be out on the 3rd.

Okay, that definitely increased the pressure on and we had to start packing the RV stat. Only the closer we got to the day of leaving, the less my energy levels and capacity seemed to get, and I was essentially no help at all. I could prepare food but anything more just erased me. My adrenals were depleted, as were my glucose reserves, despite my best efforts.  Which meant that my husband was on his own trying to pack the entire RV, put the remainder of our items into storage, and clean the apartment before the final walk through. In something like 3 days. Rather than the 10 we had originally scheduled for ourselves.

(Read Part 2 here)

RV Travel Life - The First Few Weeks

A travel update seems appropriate since we've been on the road a few weeks now.

Things that have happened while traveling thus far: 

1) Our windshield wipers stopped working while we were driving down the highway in the rain. (This had happened previously in the rain in the dark and we paid someone to fix them. But.)

2) The lower part of our passenger side mirror flew off on the highway. In a 40' RV you REALLY rely on the mirrors to drive.

3) We discovered our radiator hose was cracked and paid a guy to fix it. (Thank the goddess there are lots of traveling RV repair people, and the RV parks usually have a relationship with someone they can recommend. Also, our radiator needs replacing. So that's going to be fun to pay for. 

4) When pulling into the RV park a kiddo was asking us to blow the horn. We tried and discovered it didn't work. Something to do with the same issue as the wipers, perhaps? 

5) I-5 between Vacaville and Watsonville, CA is so jacked and raggedy that our curtain rod literally bounced out of its holder and fell onto the floor while we were driving. Several other things bounced out of place as well. We must have gotten spoiled by those smooth Oregon highways?

6) I had a strep flare-up while in our first park, which we liked so much it wasn't the worst place to be. I called upon my intuitive practitioner, Carolyn, who works with Anthony, the Medical Medium, and she had me up my sovereign silver, zinc, Vitamin C, lysine and drink copious amounts of honey lemon ginger tea, and it knocked it right out. 

Things that have been a delightful surprise thus far: 

Right now we've been driving through California during their off season for camping. This means it's been delightfully easy to find accommodations for us - well, as easy as researching on the internet (using rvparkreviews.com) where the decent places are, then booking, usually via the internet but sometimes via phone. 

The parks have also been accommodating about receiving packages and us changing our dates. In Weed, CA, we just got there too late to get any decent weather. It was cold, and we have not winterized our RV for cold. We were planning on staying a week, then maybe 4 days, and once we were there we left after a night - it was just way too cold for us to be comfortable, even with the extra space heater the office mamager lent us. We ended up paying for two nights, but because of their written policies it could have been for the whole week we'd have had to pay. Off season plus kind humans made that compromise, which we felt was fair and reasonable. 

We've gotten a Good Sam discount at every park we've stayed in thus far. Except the KOAs, which give a KOA discount. Both memberships pay for themselves after about 3 mights camping. Worth it. We do know about Thousand Trails, but we're  not sure we want to make that investment yet, and I haven't really seen TT parks in many of the locations we've been in. And when I have, the ratings on rvparkreviews.com are usually pretty low. 

The campground we're in now is a KOA and they have been most accommodating. Firstly, off season means we have everything to ourselves pretty much. For the first day or two there were a couple of other families here with us, but they've gone now and we own this place. There are long-term renters here somewhere, but they're nowhere close to us since we're in the playground area - and this park is huge. I'm sure we'll get more folks come the weekend, but right now it's ours.

They've been great at notifying us about everything. Off season also means maintenance, so they're doing something with the water that they told us about in advence so we wouldn't be showering or something when they had the water off and on. They are spraying for weeds (gah, don't get me started) and notified us of that. I'm highly allergic to most chemicals as you might know, so my husband called the ofice to see if maybe they could leave off spraying anywhere near us until after we leave. They spoke with the manager/owner and got back to us and said no problem, they won't spray near our site and the sites around it. While we can't ask them to not spray the park, we feel this is a reasonable compromise. And we'll be gone tomorrow when they do it, the RV will be locked up tight, and Muffins will go to her first doggie daycare. 

Speaking of Muffins, she is LOVING the life of a travel dog. She LOVES exploring each new stop, and it's gotten to the point where once she realizes we're stopping somewhere, even at a rest stop, during travel, she cannot WAIT to get out of the vehicle and go explore. She is in her element. She is loving all of the sand at this one - so many places to dig! And almost every park we've been in have had a dog run - a fenced area where she can go off leash and sniff all of the other dog scents that have been before her.

The kiddo has been loving almost having the park to ourselves. There might be one or two other kids at times, but that's a doable number for him - less intimidating and anxiety-producing. And right now staying someplace for a couple of weeks is nice for all of us. We can just relax a little bit, get some groceries, do some maintenance on the RV, get some things fixed, do some rearranging of the under storage areas, and get out the holiday decorations. And in between those things, we'll go see some really cool stuff, and I'll tell you about that another day. But right now we're feeling pretty good about this travel life, and are looking forward to more adventures to come!

Mount Saint Helens

Before we set out on the road in our RV, we did a little test trip with my son's BFF and his mother (who is also our friend). We wanted a place not too far away, halfway betwen our homes, that could accommodate both tents and RVs - namely our 40' Class A motorhome, which is a bit of a behemoth.

We decided on Mount Saint Helen's - there was a KOA not too far away, and we could have a fun weekend there both sightseeing and hanging out together. 

The drive to Mount Saint Helen's from the KOA was close to an hour, but the kids had a fun time amusing themselves in the back of the van. There were some curvy roads, which made it hard for me, but we did it! And I didn't throw up. Win! It was also very beautiful.

 We got to the Visitor's Center and there was a walk up, up, up a ramp to get "the best view", I'm assuming. At first I thought I wouldn't be able to handle it. But then I thought I'd give it a go, and I did make it all the way up - go me! 

The kids liked it, too - they found a staff-type stick and were doing fight moves and playing all the way up and down - and they enjoyed the amazing view of the volcano.

There was a presentation inside the Visitors' Center in the form of a movie - we caught the last show - but it was more than I could handle. I didn't know it would be like that, it was WAY too much movement and "following the path of the lava from the lava's perspective" for me to be able to handle. I had my eyes closed through most of it.

 But the rest of the visitor's center was interesting, and had a scale model of the volcano with lights where the lava flowed, and it told a story of the eruption back in 1980.

This was a wonderful first place to go - none of us had been to Mount Saint Helens before, and it was a beautiful sunny day, so we had clear views all the way. We really lucked out!

More photos of this amazing volcano...

The steep ramp up that at first I thought was more than I could do. 

But then I made it to the top!

And was rewarded both with a sense of accomplishment and this gorgeous view.

Looking back down the ramp.

Mount Saint Helen's in all her majesty.

This compass map was at the top. 

I'm not encouraging scratching words into wood or anything, but my people had apparently been here.

Some of the foliage. 

A tree that had been scorched by lava. 

More wildflowers. 

My family and the volcano. Proof they were there! All in all I'd say this was quite a successful first trip out in the RV - and a great destination. Apparently it's a beautiful world out there  - if you can, go see it!

(I Don't Know) How to Plan an RV Trip Without Pulling Out Your Hair (Part 2)

If you haven't, may I suggest you click here to read part 1 of this post. I'll wait. 

So you're caught up? Good. On we go. 

While we're in California, we want to do things like go to Universal Studios and go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (of course), see the San Diego Zoo, LEGOLAND, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and of course see several of the national forests and parks that are there (Yosemite, Joshua Tree, and don't forget the Giant Redwoods).

I also have a couple of friends I want to visit that I haven't seen in years, and of course there are the beaches, My problem lies in that California is a huge state, and instead of starting in the north and wandering down at a leisurely pace, we're basically having to skip a bunch of those things and go straight to Los Angeles right away, if my realtor is correct in her estimation. Then we have to decide whether to go north or south, and if we want to continue around parts of California or head through to Arizona and then New Mexico before heading to the midwest to see our families hopefully.

I found this terrific website called Roadside America - it basically lists all the cool and unusual roadside attractions in every state - and I found so many great things I want to see! Including - did you know that George R.R. Martin bought a bowling alley/artists' haven and has turned it into a sci-fi children's museum/interactive art space? Neither did I! But Roadside America did, and now we HAVE to make it a part of our trip somehow!

It's called The Meow Wolf Arts Complex and House of Eternal Return, and you can read about it here. They also have their very own website (of course) here.

My brain works like this: try to find the most efficient (while also being scenic) way of getting from point A to point B, etc. Try not to go too fast, because we need to pace ourselves so we don't burn out and also allow for lots of recovery time because of chronic illness. So starting from the middle is essentially scrambling my circuits, because there is no way to suddenly make this trip efficient. And we might have to skip some things that are REALLY important to me to see and do.

So as of right now my brain is still trying to process how to make this trip one where we can see all we want and do all we want and still have enough down time and not spend too much time on the road or relocating. I haven't figured it out yet, not by a long shot.

But I do have some tools to help, and I thought I'd share some of them.

In a fit of frustration and bewilderment, I searched YouTube for "how to plan an RV trip" and found this video:  


From there I found a great hour plus long chat from one of my favorite RV YouTubers, Technomadia, and I actually listened to the entire thing until the end:


I found both of these to be helpful, and after watching the first video, I:

1) Started making a private map of all the places I want to go in Google Maps "My Maps" feature. I'm still figuring out how to use this more effectively, but right now I'm digging how I can color code and choose my own icons for each place on the map. So I can place something and see where it is, places I want to go only.

2) Went to the Good Sam website and began taking advantage of their trip planner (we were already members). This one is useful for mapping fuel stops along the way, realizing you're in an RV and not a car, and some of the campgrounds.

3) Went ahead and sprung for the membership for RV Trip Wizard (I like that it also helps calculate distance traveled per day and fuel costs as well as other expenses (provided you know what they will be ahead of time). It also accounts for the height of your RV and lets you avoid routes that may have low clearances, You can also tell it to avoid toll roads, which may save some $ in the long run. It's fairly clunky as apps go, and their website needs a lot of help, but I do like the features and the simplicity of it. Hopefully I'll figure out how to use all the useful features that make it worth the $.

4) Discovered that Trip Advisor is the Yelp of destinations, and tells you where to go in any city in any town anywhere. I have fallen down several rabbit holes on that site. I haven't used their trip planner because it doesn't seem to be useful to me but I do like that you can make a little interactive map on your profile of where you've been and where you hope to go. It's kind of cool to see that.

So I've started at least, and am feeling a bit less overwhelmed with it all than I did the first day I started planning. I know RV parks can fill fast, so I need to book ahead, but I have a slight advantage of traveling in the "off" months, even though the states I'm traveling in DO have more likelihood of hosting the fulltimers. (They're the warm places!)

Now I just have to get my head around what's going to be the best route for us with the most downtime that's also still got all the fun stuff.

So what do you use to plan your RV or other road trips? How do you keep your sanity while you do it? I need all the help I can get!

(I Don't Know) How to Plan an RV Trip Without Pulling Out Your Hair

So here we are, in the final stages of getting our house on the market. My husband is losing his mind (and body) to the exhaustion of getting all the things just so for the house, so it can go on the market. We have an amazing property, so we know it will sell fast, especially in this market of low inventory and high demand.

And I seem to be losing my mind to a later departure date than intended and a specific time frame in which we need to be almost  thousand miles from here.

Wow. As I'm typing this post, a perfect example of how our life has been working just happened. The refrigerator in the RV started leaking water. Or rather, my husband noticed that is has been leaking water, so this means of course STOP EVERYTHING NOW, because water leaks = mold, and we can NOT have mold in the RV. No.

I just had to interrupt the writing of this post to go do some research really quickly about the possible causes of water leaks in RV fridges and what can be done about them. It's the freaking ice maker that I've rallied against since the beginning - no good can come of a water line running into an appliance with no plumbing when you're driving down the bumpy roads of the world. I'm NOT a fan of ice makers. No.

Right now he is out there trying to cap these lines and do a quick fix that will work for now, but we are replacing this fridge. I've had it with this nonsense with this damn RV fridge. Pretty much no new decent coaches are made with RV fridges anymore - they use residential ones. Because they are BETTER. Even for riding down the road in an RV, which they aren't particularly made for. And all you have to do to make them work in an RV is add latches to he doors. No, they can't run on propane, but no one seems to care. Left and right everywhere I read, people are replacing their RV fridges with residential ones. Especially the full-timers!

Now, where was I? Planning the RV trip (if we ever actually leave). 

My original plan was for us to amble down the Oregon Coast (I thought we'd be leaving in early October, which is THE best month of the year for the Oregon Coast - it was going to be perfect). We'd stop at all the cool beaches and wander through the small beach towns and take lots of great photos to share on Instagram and here. We'd stay a week here, two weeks there, and make our way down the coast and into California, where we'd continue at that pace until we finally arrived in Los Angeles at the beginning of November. (My event is November 5th). 

But when I told my realtor I expected we'd be closing on the house by October 6th, I imagined her laughing inwardly as she informed me that it often took around 45 days to get the loan through once the house had an offer. Which puts us at more like October 25th.

I have an event in Los Angeles November 5th. It's enough of an event that I REALLY don't want to have to cancel. I cannot fly to LA for ALLTHEREASONS, so that's out. For this event, I'd like to be settled into an RV park at least 5 days prior, which only really leaves 5 days to drive down from Oregon to Los Angeles, California. And that means skipping the entire Oregon Coast, Northern California (the Redwoods) and my friends in those areas.

DAMMIT.