An adventure at Lake Abhe or Lake Abbe or Lake Abhe Bad or whatever...

Well, my most recent adventure takes place in the same place most of my adventures for the last couple/next few months will occur…Djibouti. Being a small country, you would not expect for there to be much to do in Djibouti. However, as kids from small towns with Wal Marts everywhere have found, there’s ALWAYS something to do. By the way, there are many uses of ‘’ in this and they mostly refer to comments that were made by my fellow adventurers. Sorry for most of the 10 readers out there, but you’ll just have to trust me that there is more funny stuff behind ‘’ words.

So, the destination this time would be Lake Abhe or Lake Abbe or Lake Abhe Bad or something like that. This beautiful gem is home of three tectonic plates moving away from each other, a salt lake, a bunch of mineral deposits and some hot springs. It was also the ‘location’ where part of the original Planet of the Apes was filmed ;) So, off we head for a great adventure to see some of the finest landscape Djibouti has to offer.

Djibouti Flying J

We start our trek down out Djibouti City on the paved roads towards Dikhil (yes, laugh to yourself as you say it, I know I do). This two hour drive has some of the finest roadside attractions around. There even appeared to be a Djibouti Flying J that we passed. I wanted to see if they had a Denny’s, but we had to push on.

Once we made it to Dikhil (still funny isn’t it?), we were to take N-6 towards Diksa (haha) and Kouta Bouyya. What does N-6 look like? I’m not sure, but I’m sure it was similar to whatever road we were ended up turning onto. Apparently, if looking for a ‘dirt road’ in Djibouti, you probably need a guide because they all look alike and they are about 100 of them every 100 feet.

Pee break

So, we took what we thought was N-6, and headed towards what we thought was Diksa. After a pee break where the only person that had made this trip prior said, ‘I don’t know if this looks familiar’; we continued on. We ended up in a town about half a mile from the Ethiopian border that probably hadn’t seen people like us in a long time (if ever). Since the road ended the ended, which was probably a good thing; we turned around and backtracked until we found another option to head ‘in the right direction’. Not sure how we knew exactly which direction was the right one. We had gps, but I don’t think any of our maps had latitude and longitude on them.

How come you guys have to pee so much?

Nonetheless, we continued and our pair of tracks eventually merged with what was clearly a dirt road. This was in fact, ‘The-6’, not to be confused with ‘The-5’ or ‘The-9’. We made it to Diksa, where we were greeted in the usual fashion of the local towns that you have to experience in order to understand. We had one local jump onto the lead car and help or something? After we figured out how to get through the town we continued. The road at this point was multiple sets of tracks weaving like spaghetti in the same general direction and of course, another pee break.

 

Gypsum tornado.

As we got closer we could see the gypsum fields that were a sea of white spotted with towers of dust devils. We made it to the pass and stopped for a photo op. We could see the towering limestone chimneys in the distance. Our destination was in sight.

After another couple of miles driving on a ‘road’, we decided to head straight to the closest chimneys. Turns out, there wasn’t a road to them anyway. Here we got out and walked around and took some photos. We were still about 3 miles from the water and were headed that direction.

      
After a drive over some mounds of grass and across a flat, we parked at the next set of towers. It was amazing. They were huge, mounds of limestone deposits that towered above and were surrounded by grass fed by boiling hot springs at the base of the spires.  As with any vegetation in Djibouti, a heard of goats feasted at the delicious sulfur-grass (I just imagine it tastes like sulfur, don’t really know). We had our fill of this spot and decided to make our way closer to the water. After crossing between a few towers, we quickly realized the ground was not going to cooperate. It was time to head towards higher ground.

We arrived back at our last stop, only about a quarter mile away, and stopped to tell one of the others the grounds wasn’t stable, time to head out. At the moment the other car started home, the third car cracked the hardened surface we were driving on and found the mud below. Immediately following their lead, the second car cracked through and was stuck. In a last ditch effort to speed across this unknown land, we too found ourselves axle deep in mud. It was absolutely incredible.

This was the type of scenario that makes you think of movies like Castaway. We had found ourselves in a crusted over bowl of Jell-o. The surface layer was about an inch or two thick and underneath was an endless mud pit with the consistency of wet pottery clay. The vehicles were not losing traction, but simply sinking under their own weight. The solution was simple; we would just get some rocks and get them under the tires in order to get traction. This was Djibouti after all. How hard could it be to find some rocks?

That's right, two Toyota Landcruisers and a Toyota Prado couldn't even survive the hidden trap at Lake Abhe. Notice the lack of rocks. The mineral deposits in the background practically crumble in your hands.

Well, apparently luck was not in our favor since there were no rocks in sight. That’s right, we were stuck in the country that could rival the US’s GDP if you could build everything out of rocks, and there was not a rock in sight. We divided and concurred and backpacks were emptied of food and used for transporting rocks. Who ever thought we would be in Djibouti carrying rocks in backpacks? Since we needed more surface area for ‘jacking off’ the Toyota’s, we had to dig a hole to place the spare so we could ‘jack off’ the tires. What did we have to dig with? Our hands, a couple sticks, and a small camp shovel that is more like a garden shovel.

1,000,000,000 flies

I will have to say that I was quite pleased with the group we had out there. I do not think I saw one sign of someone flipping out which means we had just the right people on this kind of trip. I will also say that everyone did a great job pitching in to help with our predicament, even the ones that somehow escaped getting covered in bugs and mud. Speaking of bugs, I don’t think I mentioned the bugs that seemed to be a cross between ants, flies, mosquitos and termites. Not sure what they were, but they really liked the shade. They hated when you disturbed their sleeping places which happened

Maybe it's 1,000,100,000

 to be every hump of grass and the shady side of anything. Yes, and there were in fact over a billion of them based on the number that we ate every time the wind blew. It’s a good thing they weren’t mosquitos and didn’t bite because we would probably have 12 cases of malaria to report. Of course the billion bugs probably would have drained us of life before we made it out anyways, so there wouldn’t be anyone left to show signs of malaria.

Don't worry guys, I'm getting awesome photos!

After three hours of attempting to get a vehicle out of the mud, we realized that defeat was closing in. We also realized that help was a four hour drive away and we had almost four hours of sunlight left. So, we broke out the iridium-phone to call dad to come help us. The best part was almost every person that would be the best to go to for help was already there! We explained our situation and the plan was to have someone come find us. So, we had the only person that had been there give directions. This was priceless. You could see the defeat in his eyes before he started speaking into the phone. The directions, ‘You take N-1 to Dikhil’. Pause…sigh…’then’…eyes close and head sinks…’take…N-6 to Diksa…then go through town and head northeast on N-6…you’ll go through a mountain pass and we’re about 2 miles off the ‘road’’. He knew, as all of us did, that no one could possibly find us before sunset even though we had given GPS coordinates. We couldn’t find ‘The-6’ and we knew where we were going!

For the next few minutes, we soaked in our defeat. Another SUV appeared about two miles away. Immediately, the senior member of our team took off running, waving and yelling. After about a half mile run, the SUV clearly slowed down to check us out, then sped off to abandon the crazy people at Lake Abhe. About 30 minutes after telling dad that we were stuck, a couple of entrepreneurial Djiboutians came out of nowhere carrying a 10’ sand ladder. Our knight in shining armor was in fact a couple Djiboutians out to make $6,000djf. Maybe they will learn the art of negotiating with desperate people someday, but $6,000djf was nothing for a bunch of people stranded 8,000 miles from home, 125 miles from our CLUs, and 2 hours from the nearest pavement.

So, back to work we went. In our time of sadness we were able to assess the vehicles more closely. I found that if I took a pointy stick, I could find solid ground by placing a little weight on it and had mostly mapped the area. I could drop the stick a couple inches and feel the crusted-over mud giggle below my feet. Within 20 minutes with our new sand ladder we had got the Toyota Prado out of the mud. With my ground checking stick in hand, ‘Shepard Steve’, with the Prado following, ’led us to the promised land’. This was about the time that a herd of donkeys wondered by and we couldn’t figure out which ‘one group of us was a bunch of jackasses’. We moved to the second vehicle which took about 30 minutes to free. Finally, we went to my SUV, which we had spent the majority of the three hours working on prior to the phone call. It turned out that the car we thought was the best bet, was in fact the worst. It took almost an hour to get it out and it was just enough time to grab our crap, strap on our saving sand ladder, grab one out of focus group shot and head for pavement. Of course, we left the shovel which we had lost about 1,000 times in the mud.

We made it about halfway between Diksa and Dikhil (still funny) before it became really dark. The good news was that Dikhil had lights and we could see it in the distance. After an eternity, we could still see the lights in the distance. About 20 minutes later, we stopped for a pee break and powwow. We could still see the lights in the distance and some were questioning our heading. We trucked on and a few minutes later found pavement. It was another 2 terrifying-Djibouti-highway-hours later and we arrived safely. It was by far the best adventure I have had the chance to experience here and hope that I can have a fraction of the fun I had on that trip in my remaining time here. And the best part of it is; Planet of the Apes was NEVER filmed there!

More thoughts and tips on being a fulltimer

Good job! That covered a lot but, here are my additions. I was going to just comment, but the list grew and grew. I know I still haven’t hit everything, but just ask.

Positives:

Fishing - Katie mentioned it, but it's absolutely great. When I would be mowing the yard, I'm out in a kayak fishing. When I would be painting walls, I'm out in a kayak fishing. When I would be stuck at the house trying not to spend money, I'm in a kayak fishing not spending money. Actually, I'm saving money because I usually catch dinner! I have the freedom to go fishing whenever I want (and Katie wants). I also get to take the kids! It's great. I can't believe that Katie said it was good, since sometimes I feel that I go too often, but she seems to enjoy fresh fish! Did I mention that I launch kayaks 1.25 miles from where we stay?

Money - It may not be less expensive than owning or renting a house, depending on what rig you purchase. I lump the truck and trailer and consider it a 'mortgage' but, all of that is going to something I want and I don't have to sell it after a couple years and hope to break even. When you factor in truck, trailer, and site rental; it does come out less than rental/mortgage plus utilities. But, it’s definitely more expensive per square foot than a house. If you’re doing it to save money, you will probably find yourself in a RV that you do not like because you were too cheap and hate full timing.

Location - Even if you're in an area and hate the location you're at, you just move to a different park. There are usually multiple parks at any given location.

Military - If you're a member of the military, almost every base has an RV park on it. The rates are very reasonable (or unreasonably cheap - meaning that I feel like I'm getting too good of a deal). They usually have great amenities like wifi, 50A full hookups, nice clubhouse/restrooms, cheap/free laundry, and incredibly convenient location to work). Keep in mind that you will get ridiculous looks, questions like 'are you f*#%%# kidding me?!?!', and anger from jealous people who wish they weren't spending twice their BAH on their mansion. Not sure why you get angry at people for living how they want to, but I’ve seen it.

Camping – Believe it or not, we still tent camp. It’s fun to take a tent and just hang out at a good lake, forest or beach. We also take the RV camping. We can just pack up, get on the road and go somewhere. We keep our tent camping gear in boxes ready to go and our RV is always stocked with food since we live in it.

Downsides:

Home brewing - This is truly disappointing. Home brewing is great, until you move into an RV. There is just no place to put 5 gallons of wort while it ferments. There's no place to put a bunch of 5 gallon kegs. There's no room for lots of that stuff. My short term solution, not homebrew :( My long term solution is to get a smaller cargo trailer when we upgrade RVs and put a heat pump on it...Whamo, instant temperature regulated fermentation room.

Gardening - We are working on getting around that and we should be back to SC near a giant pecan grove before the pecans ripen. We are also working on getting better at gardening in pots and would have had some herbs growing in the ground if it weren't for the pesky birds eating all the seeds.

RV Size – I have seen people living in tiny RVs. It seems like it would work for a short while, but would get incredibly crowded and miserable. However, the downside to large RVs is you become limited to the parks that you can stay at, especially state and national parks. Once you break the 30-35 foot range your options become quite limited. National parks and a lot of state parks in California can limit you to less than 20 feet. One of the reasons that we would like to upgrade is to get a diesel pusher in order to be a little more maneuverable. As it is, we have 42 feet of trailer connected to a 22 foot truck. When you take the kingpin connection point into consideration that means we sit at about 61 feet in length connected. We can remove about 20 feet of that by going to a diesel pusher. That will not open up any more parks, but will make getting into the 40 foot sites a little easier.

Good or bad? Not sure:

Diving - I couldn't decide if this was a positive or a negative. I think I have actually been in the water more since I got in the trailer and I definitely plan on increasing the time I go on dive trips. However, dive gear does take up a lot of space and I have had to leave behind the idea of getting back to instructing. Again, I think that is driven more by my job and less by the RV life, but it would be nice to teach again. It's also tough to find dive buddies at every location, but again, that's military driven not RV driven. I'll just have to keep hoping for that job in the Keys! The good thing is that I do have plenty of room to store enough gear to do any diving that I would like. And, I can take it with me anywhere we stay.

Guests - Another one that is tough to settle on positive or negative. For the most part, we have guests over just like we did before. I finally found a point where it actually felt crowded when we had about 12 guests over while in California. That's about 14 adults, 2 kids, 2 dogs and we were in a park where we couldn't be too loud outdoors because some of the 'typical fulltimers' would complain. That felt a little crowded, but would have been fine if we could be outside more. The other drawback to our current RV is the layout of the kitchen. This is a product of toy haulers since they are designed around a large garage in the back. The next model will have a more open layout and will not feel as crowded. We do have people over often and for the most part they seem to enjoy it. Yes, it can get cramped, but it's nothing terrible and we are usually only hanging around inside in the evening and morning. The rest of the day is for fishing and whatever girls do while we're out fishing :). I think the only people that would not want to hang out with us are people that I wouldn't want to come hang out anyways. So, overall, it's probably a positive.

Tips:

- The best advice we ever received when starting our search for a RV was find what we want and get at least one size bigger. We went as big as we could and sure enough, we still want to upgrade. Now, we would not have been able to

- Get an RV with enough counter space to have an electric toaster. We have a model that has double racks and a rotisserie. The oven that comes on the RV is small but wide and uses gas. We use the electric one and the grill outside. If we need extra oven space due to guests we'll fire up the gas oven and it's almost like having a regular oven. The only thing that we can't bake is turkey, but turkey was made for frying!

Grill – If you get one, get something sturdy. It doesn’t matter how shiny and stainless it is, travel destroys grills. If it screws together, the screws will fall out. It needs to be bolted with lock washers or welded. We are looking for the perfect grill for RV life and haven’t found it yet. There are a couple options that I’ll have to look at closer that run around $300 or more that you can set on a table. They are made for RVing/tailgating, so we’ll have to check them out.

- Get an induction cook top. They sell single cook tops that are induction and they work well. Keep in mind that you have to use the correct cookware for induction to work. This is another why use gas when you can use electric thing, plus it gives you more cook space, though less counter space. Induction is much better than resistance (standard electric cook tops) because the temperature response is more like cooking with gas.

- Get heavy duty storage boxes if you will be storing stuff outside. Tuffboxes from Lowes or Home Depot work well. I've used these for dive gear for the past 10 years and they are well worth the investment. Cheaper ones will break when you try to stand on them or stack them. Even if you're not storing outdoors, you can still use them for pass through and they make great tent camping boxes for dishes, sleeping bags, tents, party lights, etc.

- Get a cargo trailer. If you're in the military, you will move a lot. Any size moving trailer will usually pay for itself in one move. If you get a self-propelled RV, then you can tow it with your RV, if you have a trailer, then you can tow it with your truck. It will come in handy when you're trying to figure out what to do with your stuff that you want to have with you but will not use daily. Most bases have storage on base and you just park it. You can do what we do and leave it somewhere safe like back at your HOR. It's essentially a storage shed on wheels. When we upgrade, we will likely get a smaller trailer to carry around with us for storing/moving the things that we take in the garage of the toy hauler.

- Options. Yes, there are a lot of options on RVs. For full timing, you really need to know what you’re buying. Here are a few things to think about.
A/C: get heat pumps. If you don’t, at least get heat strips. You will want it. Heat in an RV is from the furnace. That means propane. Lots of propane. Heat pumps are the way to go. Biggest regret we had was not getting heat pumps. Also, get as many heat pumps as they offer on that model. You never know where you’ll stay and the more the better. In the southeast, our 2 A/C’s will run full time and keep it about 15-20 degrees cooler than outdoors. That means it’s about 80F inside when it’s 100F outside. It’s not unbearable and they do a great job removing the humidity, but more would be better. Our model only came with the option for two.
Windows: Dual pane – another expense, but well worth it. If you go single paned, you’ll have sweaty windows in the winter which equals mold. It also adds more insulation which means your heat pumps that you purchased will be more effective.
Materials. Get the upgrade on fabric. It will last longer. It also helps if you can match the fabric to the color of your dogs :)
Stabalizers/jacks: go electric/hydraulic. After manually jacking your stabilizers a few times you’ll understand why you should have gone for electric. There are many different types of stabilizers, get them all. Everything helps. Diesel pushers come with leveling jacks, again, I’d go automatic. If you get the 5^th wheel, get a king pin stabilizer and scissor chocks, they cut down on the rockin’ which is good when you’re doing laundry.
Laundry: go ahead and get washer/dryer when you start, you’ll want it.
Fantastic vents. They’re great, get them if you can. Remember, you may have to shut off the rain feature if you have one in the bathroom. A steamy shower will close the vent.
Tire covers. Your RV is going to be outside all the time because you live in it. Spend the small amount of money for tire covers and protect your tires from the sun. While you’re at it, get some for your cargo trailer too.

- Trailer/5^th wheel vs. self-propelled. There are advantages to both categories. If you’re going to live in it, I’d ditch the trailer and go for 5^th wheel or self-propelled. 5^th wheels handle better than trailers (sway and turning radius) and you get more living space for the length. They do however, require a larger tow vehicle. I would not full time with anything less than a Ford F250 diesel or larger (or equivalent government motors) and a 35’ 5^th wheel or larger. Make sure you get a truck that will meet the requirements for your NEXT trailer. You will want to upgrade, so go big on the tow vehicle. Diesel engines are MUCH better than gasoline for towing. Mileage, power, acceleration, handling; it’s all better with a diesel. Yes, diesel engines are expensive and diesel costs more. But, you will regret it if you go gasoline. You can get a truck and trailer that are much nicer than the equivalent purchase price for self-propelled. That brings me to purchasing. Consider down payments on type too. Over $100k and you’ll need at least 20% down with good credit to go self-propelled. Our trailer MSRP was $87k and we purchased for $55k. Don’t believe MSRP on RVs, they’re way too high. Add another $65k for a truck and now you see why I considered it a mortgage. For the same luxuries in a 40’ diesel pusher you’re looking at STARTING around $150k (purchase, not MSRP).

So, You Wanna Be a Full-timer....

As Steve has already told you, we aren't living in our trailer right now, he is in Africa, the kids and I are in Texas. However, I have been approached more than once by friends or friends of friends who are interested in the full-timing lifestyle. I am always happy to field questions about it, and usually send multiple wordy emails detailing the why's and how's. So I figured it was about time that we put it all out on here! I may not cover it all, but if don't see something you want to know, just ask.

Originally we had decided we wanted a camper (small, something to actually camp in) so that we could take our dogs on a camping trip and not have to be right next to them all the time. We were locked at the campsite because you can't/we wouldn't leave them alone, and although they are 'welcome' at the campground, they are not allowed anywhere else. The camper would give them a comfy place to stay while we explored, and then we could all retreat to the air conditioning in the evening! So we searched for something that we liked, and to be honest, we didn't really find a small-ish one that we loved. We saw a lot of different trailers, A LOT.

One trip we went to a dealership on a whim, and told them what we were looking for, the guy says, 'We don't sell the small ones here, I mostly deal with the big luxury rigs'. Well I disliked him immediately, and we walked around just looking and mocking his elitist trailer attitude. We walked inside of the exact same rig we have now (well not exact, it was one model year older) and I said 'Holy cow, to justify buying this, you would have to live in it!'. The seed was planted, and from that point on we carried the brochure around and dreamed about whether or not it was even possible.

For the next year we had planned, talked about it, imagined what it would be like, checked for blogs of families like us (there were very few), watched RV (with Robin Williams) for inspiration :) . Part of me never really thought we would do it. I mean, I wanted to, and then again I was scared to. I knew that the social aspect was not an important one, but it was always in my thought process. What was everyone going to think? Of course there are many other questions to ponder....how do you do laundry, where do you put all of the clothes, where will the toys go, ugh dishes by hand, where will my sewing machines fit??? Important questions, like that, and I will do my best to answer those and more....

'What will they think'....anyone even considering full-time rving, especially as a younger couple or family will undoubtedly be asking themselves this question . The funny thing is, it's the least important! Society shouldn't rule your thoughts or hold you to a certain idea of living. If you are happiest living in a tent, you should do it. If you are happiest living in a house, you should do it. When you are considering living in an rv, try to block out your thoughts of what other people will think of you. In our case, all the people that mattered still came around, we still had dinner parties, we still had guests stay overnight and visit from out of town. Our kids are still young, so I can't say that it hasn't scarred them for life, but I can say that they love the trailer life, and still refer to it as their 'home' even though we are currently living in a house and they have their very own room. Sometimes they just want to go sit in our trailer for a little while, nothing exciting going on, they just need to be in it.

I was worried about laundry, and how in the world I was going to keep it under control. The truth is, it wouldn't matter if I had 5 washers and dryers, there would still be a stack of laundry. I'm not good at keeping up with it because I hate doing it, and that goes for pretty much all cleaning chores. So, when we first moved in to the trailer, we were staying at an rv park on base. They had laundry facilities, I think it was a $1 to wash, $1 to dry, maybe $1.25...it's hard to remember. So it adds up, but you just budget it in, and remember to get change in the form of quarters when you go to the grocery store. I didn't enjoy lugging the laundry to the laundry room, just to find that they were all being used, but you get used to it. I would just leave my laundry there and go back every 30 min or so. When I started a wash cycle I would set an alarm on my phone or a timer on the microwave for 30 min, then I would go to switch it around, set the timer for 45 min for drying. If I didn't set the timer, I forgot. I also tried taking the kids with me to sit there while the laundry was going. Long story short, that didn't work. So we walked over and walked back until it was all done.

When we were in California the laundry facilities were free! And, always full. But being a stay at home mom was an advantage, I could launder while most other people were at work or off doing whatever retired people do :)

When we traveled across the US to our next duty station, we stopped and picked up a washer/dryer combo!! To say I was excited is an understatement...I was thrilled! It did make life easier. I rarely had to walk to the laundry room for any washing. Sheets and blankets are typically too big for our little washer/dryer, but I don't keep up with that kind of washing very well anyways, so it didn't put a big dent in my time ;) Our rv only allowed space for a washer/dryer combo...that's just one machine that does both jobs. It takes about 3-4 hours per load. That is not an exaggeration, that is a fact. If you have dogs that shed like crazy, you will get hair and lent built up in your machine...took about a year for us....and it is easily solved by doing some cycles with no laundry or soap, just filling it up and letting it go through the cycles. I hope that in our next rv (didn't I tell you we were already going to upgrade....there will be another post about that) we have a separate washer and dryer. A dryer that is just a dryer, dries faster than a dryer that is also a washer. And it speeds things along to wash, then throw it in the dryer, then while that is drying you can wash another load.

Next question...where do you put all of your stuff. Well, it's really up to you! I suggest that you make a list of things that will have to come along, and then another list of things you want to bring along. Take that with you when you go to look at rv's and then picture where in that place could you store the things on your list. You may laugh, but it is important when shopping for your future home on wheels that it has room for your most important things, and for the things that will make you happy. If you are 'stuck' in a trailer without something you want, it might sour your opinion of the trailer life. For example, my hobbies are sewing and knitting. If I couldn't have room for yarn or fabric storage and space for using my sewing machines, I would feel 'stuck', and probably crabby. But since we found something that had plenty of storage for my things I was very content living in the trailer.

We also maximized our indoor storage by utilizing outdoor storage. We bought heavy duty boxes and stored all kind of things in them: camping gear (tent camping), Steve's scuba gear, all of our shoes, and random stuff that wasn't used that often. Those boxes were stored either under the trailer, or stacked neatly somewhere next to it.

If you are able to get your stuff organized to the point that you know where to find it, you don't have to pull out a million things to get to it, and you can fit the things you want most, then you are doing good. Just try to minimize your frustrations by just keeping things you really need/want inside, and finding alternate storage outside for the rest.

Clothes are something you can't live without....well in most places. So you have to find a way to store them. We have a good sized closet, but Steve's uniforms took up 1/3 of it. (he might argue, but that's the truth!) Part of our moving in process was cleaning out things we never wore. That worked really well for a while, but eventually you get tired of wearing the same few outfits, and you buy more clothes. We had a set of three plastic drawers when we moved in to the trailer, so I put that in our closet and it held all of the kids clothes. We hung up any bulky clothes to maximize the drawer space. I had another tiny plastic drawer set, I used that for underwear, bras, and Steve's work socks. We saw a couple at one park that lived in a very small trailer and their clothes were stored in plastic bins outside. I assume they kept their favorites inside and the rest outside. We also toyed with the idea of turning our half bath into a closet, but we never followed through with that, fearing the worst for resell value.

Ok, now I want to talk about the benefits of living in a trailer vs. living in a house. I liked both. I enjoyed painting walls, having a garden, hosting fun parties, and having a big kitchen. I also like not painting walls, not tending to a large garden, still hosting big parties, and cooking outside. An unintended benefit for me, was how much family time we get to have. I knew that since we were living in a small space that we would frequent the outdoors, but I had no idea how much we would get to do together, Steve included. You forget sometimes that living in a house means you have to care for that house, and the yard, and garden, and so on. It seems like Saturday and Sunday that was a big part of what we did while living in a house. If you ask Steve, he enjoys mowing the grass, and tending to the garden, and working on things in the garage, but not as much as he loves fishing whenever he gets a chance, or riding bikes to the park with the kids, or having a lazy weekend morning watching fishing shows and eating biscuits :) We kayak, and run, and go to the beach, or go camping, we go to the pool, we go visit friends. We fill those two days with fun stuff that we can all do together.

I keep a small herb garden in containers, and I hope to expand that once we get back to living in the trailer. I plan on taking advantage of being in a house and having a big garden for spring and summer. Maybe I can come up with a way to have a decent veggie garden in pots, not sure though. I love the idea of a community garden, but I would have to look into that more before pitching it to the camp host.

Another huge benefit, for us, is that we move every two years. We have actually moved a lot more than that this past two years. Millington, California, South Carolina, Texas, all within the last two years. And, we will be moving back to SC at some point in this year. When we had a house, we packed everything up, moved it to wherever we were going, unpacked, and before we knew it, it was time to pack it up again. It was exhausting to move. I hated moving. I never was able to really decorate or make a house 'ours'. It was just too temporary to try. Living in the trailer, we already have our stuff. So when it comes time to move, we load it all in the trailer and go. If we hadn't been living in the trailer, we wouldn't have moved with Steve when he was sent to California for 3 months, and we wouldn't have come home to Texas when he was sent to Africa. All of that time apart adds up, and I am grateful that we were able to spend those months together rather than apart, and I'm grateful we can come home to a great support system while Steve is out of the country.

The freedom and flexibility is so nice. When we go on trips we can drive until we don't want to drive anymore and then sleep wherever we can in our own home. No worries about hotels that don't take dogs over 20 lbs, or no vacancy. We stay at beautiful parks, Wal-Mart parking lots, welcome centers, it doesn't matter. The inside of our trailer looks the same no matter where you park it!

I'm trying to think of some down sides....there is stress involved in pulling a trailer or driving a bus. I think you get used to it to a point, but there are things like construction or traffic that you can't control or avoid and can cause some stress. Small kitchens...there's just no getting around the fact that you can't have a giant dream kitchen in a trailer. But you can make due and be plenty happy cooking outside as well as inside your rig. Hosting parties is not as easy, but can still be done. You will need friends that don't mind sitting next to each other :)

I can't think of a lot of down sides to trailer living, but if you do choose to live in one you will have days that you might get frustrated with it. You may be mad that you have to walk to do laundry, or that you have to cram your clothes in the drawers, or that your washing machine is full of lint, but it will be fleeting. You'll get over it. You'll enjoy the time spent with your family, finding new hobbies, or enjoying old ones. You'll enjoy telling people that you live in a camper and watching their reactions :)

Feel free to share your story, ask questions, we enjoy talking about it!!

The pictures throughout this post are random ones from the last year of trailer living....just a few a my favorites.