ByFaithFullTime

  “I’m gonna know what it means to live and not just be alive”  -MercyMe One week after visiting our nation’s capital, we decided to take a tour of New York City! In an attempt to somewhat plan ahead for the trip, I had to first figure out where we would park the rig. There really aren’t many RV park options anywhere close to Manhattan, unless you want to pay fancier hotel prices for a parking lot stay and follow very specific route instructions in order to avoid the countless “no-go” areas for trucks and RVs. I knew I didn’t want to chance any of it, and since our rig is so big, it was best to stay as far away as we could from the city and all the urban mess of vehicle size restrictions, stop-and-go traffic, and the like. I knew we also didn’t want to drive our beastly F-350 in the city and try to find overpriced parking when we’re too tall for many garages and stick out like a sore thumb in regular lots, so I researched the local transit systems, figured out where the train ...

  “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us…”  ~ John Winthrop  ~ We’ve been engaged in a serious march up the East Coast for the past several weeks, seeing as much as we can in a very condensed timeframe. Along the way, we’ve enjoyed the privilege of spending a day at a time touring some of the more prominent cities in our country, and I’ve decided to take a short break from the chronological travel recaps in order to tell you about them while it’s fresh on the brain (and the more-recent footage is easier to access for Mr. Videographer.) I think it goes without saying that the East Coast is full of history. And I. Love. History. Especially American History. What better place to start soaking it all in than our nation’s capitol, Washington, D.C. Our launch point was a campground in Pohick Bay, not too far south of Mount Vernon on the Potomac River. I had previously lived in D.C. for a semester in college, so I was fam...

  “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”  ~ Isaiah 41:10 ~ No matter how busy we get or how much we see, God continues to be central to it all. He is the peace that surpasses all understanding, the light in the darkness, and the ever-present help in trouble. A few weeks ago, we were continuing to make our way up the East coast, this time from Virginia Beach to just south of Alexandria outside of Washington, D.C. I was so fixed on avoiding the low-clearance height of the northbound Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and creating a safe route through Norfolk to the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge Tunnel that I neglected to research the rest of the route. As we neared our exit en route to Pohick Bay Regional Park on the Potomac, we noticed a bright yellow low clearance bridge sign. I was in disbelief, and I’m not quick on my feet, so I thought for sure it would ...

  “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” ~ St. Augustine ~ Our route southward from the desert took us back down through San Bernardino toward Palm Springs. We overnighted at a Casino in Indio, witnessed an incredible sunset over the mountains with palm trees in the foreground, finished up our customary in-town chores, then continued the next day to the dispersed camping area south of Joshua Tree National Park. What a cool place to hang out for awhile!!   We found a spot with plenty of space and enjoyed several days of bike-riding and low-key homeschooling. The kids had fun collecting whole dead bushes for campfire fodder, and Taren went to work hand-carving a long and elaborate track for everyone to ride on throughout the wide campsite. It turned out great!! The day we ventured in to Joshua Tree, we drove up through the South Entrance past a bunch of Ocotillo and to our first quick hike around the Cholla Cactus Garden. It was crazy to see thousa...

  “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”  ~ Helen Keller ~ As promised, here is the short list of things that have broken down or otherwise “gone wrong” in our nearly 9 months on the road so far. I am certain I’ve left at least a couple things out, but I’m also sure neither of us will lose any sleep over it. Just in the couple weeks since I posted Part 1, we’ve had a couple straps cut and stolen from our bike rack, one of our landing gear snap pads cracked and popped off on a high curb, we incurred a fuel leak in the engine bay of our truck, the plastic awning motor cover snapped off due to a low tree branch, and Justin had to figure out how to adjust a slide on our RV that wasn’t opening all the way out. Although fixing the issue is often fairly simple, RV ownership does take a certain amount of patience and resourcefulness. That said, don’t let the following list scare you away… Much of what goes wrong can be categorized as simple wear and tear. I’ve lost cou...

  "There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind."  ~ C.S. Lewis ~ After boondocking in the Sawtooth Campground for several days, we splurged a bit and chose Launch Pointe RV Resort in Lake Elsinore as our base for the next few days to explore more of what LA and the surrounding areas have to offer. The resort was amazing, with amenities like a splash pad and playground for the kids, a boat ramp on the lake, a pool (and hot tub, which we got to utilize!), and a neat area with vintage airstreams to camp in. We were shocked that it was only $50/night and mostly empty.. I guess it was the off-season? I didn’t think SoCal had an off season, but we were happy to be some of the only campers there! The kids did make friends with a young girl Freya (whom Justin taught to ride her bike without training wheels!) and her brother Xander, although we didn’t stick around the campground much with so much else to see and so little time!   Our first full day there, we dr...

  “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”  Matthew 5:44 When living full-time in a moving house, there’s a lot that can go wrong. I mean, a lot. When we consider that our home is just a big box on wheels that sustains long drives, bumpy roads, rowdy kids, temperature swings, varying weather, leveling challenges, and set-up and tear-down (opening/closing slides, vents, and jacks) almost daily, it’s no wonder we run into regular maintenance issues. Most thankfully, Justin is very handy and able to remedy almost any repair need that comes our way, and we haven’t had to deal with anything devastatingly bad so far. But what prompted me to write this post now and include the particular verse above was something a little out of the ordinary: The night before last got unexpectedly chilly here in southern Indiana. When we arrived a week ago, the weather was sunny and comfortably warm during the day, but we got hit with several days of rain and a cold...