ByFaithFullTime

After our jaunt in northern Oregon and a trip to Rainier National Park, we parked the rig at the Fairgrounds in Puyallup and spent the next week visiting family at a lakehouse nearby. All I can say is - it was a week of amazing fun and great times! A vacation from the vacation. Lots of lake play and water activities plus late-night card games and good conversation. The quintessential summer, wrapped into a perfect week with Alyx’s extended family. All I can say is, if you don’t have a funcle (Fun Uncle) in your life, you should look into adopting one, STAT!! ;) Our next stop after that was meant to be in the Northern Cascades, but when we arrived at our camp spot, we not only learned that they had since decided to dis-allow overnight stays due to issues with transients and trash, but also that the highway (Hwy 20) was closed just a few miles up the road due to wildfires in the area. That meant that in order to get to northern Idaho as planned, we had to go all the way back down I-5 thr...

  "The heart of a man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps." ~ Proverbs 16:9 ~ When we first got the idea that full-timing was something we wanted to do, we had a Ford F-150 and a 7-seater Expedition. The initial thought was that since our truck didn’t fit our whole family, we would need to use the SUV as our tow vehicle. Once we decided that a bumper-pull was a no-go, however, Justin was in the market for an upgrade to his truck. He did extensive research and scoured the web for F-250s, especially looking for one that came with a fifth-wheel tow package already set up. Unfortunately, though, coming off the back of the “supply chain” issues and the strange Covid wipeout of newer vehicles altogether left us with a limited selection and ridiculously high prices. Justin was at one point eyeing a truck in Texas (private party sale), but once he was gearing up to make an offer, he learned that they had just increased the price by $5k the night before. It was dishearte...

Our second week full-timing began with a quick tour of Sun Valley, then a trek from Ketchum, Idaho through Boise and to the Oregon border. A late start and a lengthy delay due to a bad RV accident on the freeway meant we reached the Rest Area/Visitor Center at sunset and stopped for an over-nighter in the parking lot.  Next day, we headed up the highway to a Forest Road near La Grande for a quiet camp in the rainy woods. The rain only lasted half the day, so we enjoyed hiking and biking around the area the rest of the day.  We set off in the a.m. and drove west all along the gorgeous Columbia River toward the majestic Mt. Hood. We had 3 nights booked at the KOA in Cascade Locks; a decision I had made when we set out, believing we’d need a set spot to look forward to resting, refreshing and taking a break from constantly monitoring water and electricity usage (hookups are a luxury for us!) It was nice to know we would have a few days to re-up on groceries and do laundry on-s...

  God is everywhere, always. So far on our journey, we have experienced (and will undoubtedly continue to experience) an abundance of little reminders that God is present in our lives. We want to document the special times and different ways He has helped us and reminded us to keep the faith along the way. Periodically, but in no particular order, I will share these sweet stories. We’d love for you to share your God stories with us in return! It’s amazing all the ways we can recognize Him in our daily lives, if we just pay attention :) ________________________ Back in April of 2023, our whole family traveled across the country from northern Colorado to eastern Alabama with the hopes of purchasing our rig. We hit a number of obstacles along the way, including a busted brake caliper, rejections on financing, and communication issues with the dealership.  We expected to make the purchase on a Friday and head home after a short visit with family in the general area. Instead, we we...

Our launch into RV life began in a whirl. We packed like mad as we rushed out of our Colorado Springs house, selling and donating our things like crazy and storing just a few of the items we weren’t ready to let go of (like motorcycles, winter gear, and a whole lot of books). We spent just a few days at my parent’s house to get on our feet, then off we went, before really grasping that this 45’ fifth wheel really was our home now.  The first real day was magical and terrifying. We had taken the rig out for some tester nights only a few times since purchasing it, but this was now the real deal. We took the Million Dollar Highway (southwest Colorado) up north of Durango to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The drive was spectacular in many areas (Silverton to Ouray is a MUST), with surreal rock cliffs and mountainous terrain. It was probably not our best idea to drag a house behind our truck over multiple passes, tight hairpin curves and steep drop-off edges, but what the h...

How on Earth did we get here - living full time in an RV with little kids?! What prompted us to make such an unusual and life-altering decision? Why are we doing something we know will be criticized, challenged, and misunderstood? Are we nuts?!  My name is Alyx; wife of Justin and mother of 4. Back in the spring of 2023, we had this wild notion that we were being called to a very different way of living; that God was leading our family to something other than the conventional American Dream (at least in this season of life). Only a month after that first mutual realization, we were on our way to purchase our first-ever fifth wheel RV, states away, not quite convinced that this was really happening. Neither one of us had so much as camped in one before, let alone lived in one, towed one, or ever thought about owning one. But here we were, with our new “house on wheels” and no real clue as to how to make it work. We took it out on a few “trial runs” and watched some YouTube how-to’s,...