Well, we wrapped up our first month on the road full-time RVing. Its been a while since we updated the blog, as not only have we been busy overcoming new challenges that living in an RV presents, but we’ve covered over 3,000 miles since we left Florida in May.
I thought I’d do a one month update to share where we’ve been, what we’ve been up to and how much we’ve spent. Its a good refresher for us too, as one month goes by so fast and its easy to forget what’s happened. I was also really curious to see what we’ve spent so far. I do these expense reports every so often (like in Europe here and here and New Zealand here) as we always like to compare the cost of living in different cities and different lifestyles. I have to say, I was pretty shocked when I saw the numbers. We both felt like we’ve been swiping that card a lot lately, and sure enough, the numbers proved that to be true.
I’ll cover a little about our adventures over the past month before diving into the fun (or not so fun) stuff. This is what our route so far has looked like.
Vogel State Park, Blairsville, GA
We were anxious to escape the Florida heat, so we beelined it to the mountains for 3 nights in North, Georgia. Vogel State Park is a place I visited when I was younger but never camped there. We love the area and we were excited to get back to the mountains, to do some hiking, see some waterfalls and just soak up the fresh air. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a work crisis and ended up spending more time working than anything, but that’s just part of this lifestyle. At least we had a pretty awesome office while we worked.
Forest Lake Thousand Trails, Winston-Salem, NC
After we left Georgia, we were supposed to head to Asheville, NC (one of my favorite cities in the US). Unfortunately, the rain had moved over the entire east coast and it was dumping buckets for days. We also couldn’t find an available campground near Asheville, so we decided to make use of our Thousand Trails camping pass (more about Thousand Trails in this video) and headed to the Forest Lake RV Resort near Winston-Salem for 5 nights. Because of the rain and our work crisis, we figured it was a good (free) place to buckle down and get some work done. We did manage to get away one day and explore Winston-Salem. My brother and his girlfriend met us from Raleigh and we spent the day bar-hopping with them (per the usual!). Check out our video from GA & NC here →
Bull Run Regional Park, Fairfax, VA
We continued north to Fairfax, VA to meet up with some of Charlie’s family and friends. We stayed in Bull Run for 3 nights, which was a decent campground and a good location, despite some unhelpful staff. We had a nice time catching up with family and friends and visiting Charlie’s old stomping grounds.
Beaver Creek State Park & Cleveland, Ohio
It was officially time to start heading west. It was the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend when we left Virginia and we knew finding a place to camp last minute would be difficult. A few weeks prior, I did a search of any campgrounds available within a 6 hour drive which led me to Beaver Creek State Park in Ohio. I knew nothing about it, except that it was in the westerly direction and not too far from my friend, Karen, in Cleveland. I snagged the last spot and I’m glad we did. We had an awesome time exploring Cleveland and catching up with my friend. The park itself was pretty cool, too! Check out our Cleveland vlog here →
Findley State Park, Wellington, Ohio
We saw our friends, Home on the Highway, posting pictures of their recent visit to the Ohio State Reformatory which was the primary filming location of The Shawshank Redemption. Being Charlie’s favorite movie of all time, he insisted we add it to our itinerary. It was practically on our route anyways, so we made the stop at Findley State Park, which was less than an hour drive away from the prison. It was actually really cool to tour the prison, and we enjoyed the mix of seeing the different filming locations and the ghost stories that have taken place there. See our Shawshank prison tour here →
Indiana Dunes State Park, Indiana & Chicago
Indiana was a new state to visit for the both of us and we were pleasantly surprised. To be honest, I never really knew what to expect of Indiana and I definitely didn’t have beautiful beaches in mind. Indiana Dunes was a really cool park and we enjoyed a beautiful day on the coast of Lake Michigan. The next day, we took the South Shore Line train into Chicago and spent the day exploring the city. The station was less than a mile from the park, and it was just over an hour ride into the city. It was the perfect way to see the city without having to drive in traffic, worry about parking, etc. Although it was super windy (go figure) and cold the first half of the day, the sun finally came out in the afternoon and we enjoyed a beautiful afternoon in Millennium Park catching up with an old friend of Charlie’s.
Milwaukee, WI
The best part of a USA road trip is getting to see so many friends and family along the way. We headed to Milwaukee, where Charlie’s family hosted a massive feast for us. It felt like Thanksgiving, and it was awesome to meet so much of his family I had never met before. Charlie enjoyed seeing faces he hasn’t seen in decades and catching up. We also got to meet up with our friends, Adam and Hannah @ Getting Stamped, who gave us the VIP tour of Milwaukee (bloody mary’s and beer). Oh, and I finally tried frozen custard for the first time and it was amazing. I’m completely addicted.
Boondocking in the Badlands
We were ecstatic to get west of the Mississippi River, finally. We decided to book it all the way to the Badlands, where we scoped out an awesome boondocking site on a cliff. It turned out to be just as epic as the pictures showed. The only problem was the wind was craaaaazy. We didn’t get much sleep as it honestly felt like the trailer was just going to tumble over the cliff. Even still, the Badlands were incredible and we fell in love with South Dakota.
Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore was always one of those things I figured I would do if I was in the area, but I was never that excited to see it. I definitely didn’t plan on going out of my way for it. However, since we were close we knew we had to pay it a visit. It actually ended up being way more impressive than we thought and we were glad we had the chance to view it. We were even more impressed with the Black Hills in general. There was so much more to do and see in the area than just Mount Rushmore. We loved visiting Custer State Park, driving the Needles Highway, visiting the old western town of Deadwood and more. We were only able to get a campground for 2 nights (Oreville Campground), so we decided to move on. But South Dakota definitely stole our hearts.
Sheridan, WY and Bighorn National Forest
We ended our first month in Sheridan, WY. After a hectic first month, we needed a little break from the road and a place to catch up on work, laundry, shopping and normal people stuff. Turns out, we picked a pretty cool little spot. Sheridan is a quaint town, with a charming little downtown area. I’m pretty sure you can get anywhere in town in about 5 minutes, unless you get stuck waiting for the train of course. Sheridan has a Walmart so we could stock up on necessities, and plenty of cute, coffee shops to chill out and get some work done. It is also just a short drive to the Bighorn National Forest, which is one of the coolest places we visited. The mountains are gorgeous and the wildlife is plentiful. We finally saw our first moose! To be honest, we didn’t really want to leave that lovely little town but it was time to head to Yellowstone.
Expenses for 1 Month Full Time RVing
And that’s where the first month ends. I decided to do a summary of our expenses over the past month and I have to say, I was completely blown away. And not in a good way. I realized how important it is to track your expenses because you might be really surprised to see where your money is going and how much you are actually spending. I broke everything down into categories.
| Gas |
1095.79 |
| Groceries |
1023.99 |
| Dining Out |
495.11 |
| Campgrounds |
749.57 |
| Coffee/Beer Runs |
93.57 |
| Insurance (Auto, Health) |
714.8 |
| Cell/Internet |
225 |
| Tolls |
80.02 |
| Entrance/Parking Fees |
115.25 |
| Misc |
129.86 |
| Total |
4722.96 |
Nearly $5,000 in one month?!
I think the groceries surprised us the most! It seems crazy that we are spending over $1,000 per month for two people. That being said, we have been cooking almost every meal and focusing on a healthier lifestyle and, lets be real, healthy food isn’t cheap. Gas was also super expensive, but we’ve covered a lot of ground this past month. Hopefully we will be spending more time at places going forward and that will come down a bit.
Most of our “dining out” was spent when we were going out with friends, eating well and drinking a lot. That should also (hopefully!) go down a bit this next month.
Our cell phones and Verizon hot spot are necessities for working on the road and we definitely get our moneys worth. Tolls were primarily from driving in Ohio and Indiana where the roads were the absolutely worst we’ve ever seen. This kind of boggles are minds that we had to pay to drive on crappy roads, but what can you do?
Then there’s the insurance. *sigh*
Health insurance and truck/trailer insurance are something that definitely drives us mad but we can’t really do much about, except leave the country again. And don’t get Charlie started on that!
Needless to say, some of these expenses are to be expected when living on the road and covering as much ground as we have. We’ll definitely be watching our spending a little more closely this month. It will be interesting to see how we do!
Month two begins in Yellowstone, which is where I am currently writing this post. If you made it this far, I’m very impressed! I really didn’t expect this post to be so long, and its crazy to see on paper all of the places we’ve been and things we’ve seen in the past month. It’s definitely been an incredible journey so far, but its just beginning. If you want to keep up with us on the road, be sure to subscribe to our Youtube channel for weekly vlogs or follow us on instagram.
