This summer season has been packed stuffed with adventures, but our RV hasn’t left our home-base campsite in any respect! We’ve been out exploring our native space on day journeys, tent tenting within the woods, and making essentially the most out of our work journey for Satisfaction month. This has been so much completely different than the way in which we used to journey, however it isn’t any much less thrilling or rewarding for us.
Day Journeys
Day journeys are positively certainly one of our favourite methods to get out and see the realm we reside in. We frequently joke that we might spend ceaselessly simply touring round Oregon and by no means get sick of the sights right here. We’ve fallen in love with the PNW and are head-over-heels for the plush forests, raging waters, and snow capped mountains that encompass us. One in all our favourite issues to do has been deciding on completely different cities inside Mt. Hood Territory to spend a half or full day in. A current vacation spot consists of Oregon Metropolis. Willamette Falls might be seen from above after taking North America’s solely vertical avenue up through the municipal elevator. We additionally visited a working farm in West Linn, a riverfront state park in Canby, and a suspension bridge in Marmot. The hidden gems sprinkled close to us are so enjoyable to find . After we really feel somewhat extra adventurous, we hit the highway early and go additional out of city. Inside solely two hours we might be in Bend, Seaside or Vancouver, WA for a full day of enjoyable! After so a few years on the highway, we’ve discovered that native exploration beats out vacationer traps any day. There’s one thing to be mentioned about avoiding crowds and studying from the locals for suggestions!
Tent Tenting
After we settled into RV Life, we by no means imagined we’d ever need to downgrade to tent tenting! Why sleep on the bottom after we might sleep on our reminiscence foam king mattress? Why use a tiny camp range and cooler when we have now a full kitchen in our house on wheels? As a result of life is an journey and we need to expertise all of it! Because it seems, tent tenting will get us nearer to nature and one another. Slowing down, simplifying and stepping away from our routines creates a chilled mindfulness and appreciation for a way we’ve been in a position to reside our lives.
We love our excessive finish glamping arrange in our 42-foot fifth-wheel. Having a home-base campground and adaptability to take longer journeys with a assured full-hook-ups spot (bonus factors for a giant rig pleasant pull through website). However we additionally love sleeping subsequent to a river and waking as much as an exquisite blue sky above our tent! Tent tenting has at all times been one thing we daydream of, however we by no means felt fully referred to as to the country expertise that it’s typically portrayed as. We aren’t eager on bugs, we have now hips and backs that take pleasure in a snug sleeping floor, and we love a scorching bathe within the morning. What we have now came upon is that tent tenting might be as versatile and adaptable as RV dwelling!
After borrowing and renting choices to attempt issues out final yr we lastly bought ourselves our personal gear. We scored a steal on REIs 6-person Wonderland Tent, bought our Magma 15 sleeping luggage on a current REI marketing campaign we did, and located ourselves equipment that actually work for us, together with Rumpl blankets and pillows, Barebones lanterns, and a Stanley pour-over for morning espresso. We now have managed to make even tent tenting very comfy.
We sleep on blow up air mattresses with buoy in air pumps. These are powered by our Anker Battery, which recharges with our 100 watt photo voltaic panel. These purchases got here with numerous thought and choice making, alongside a good price. We waited till we knew that we’d be frequent tent campers earlier than deciding on and buying gear. We additionally shopped used choices from REIs Resupply shops each regionally and on-line.
We had our first tent tenting expertise at Tollgate Campground in Mt. Hood Nationwide Forest early in the summertime and knew we had made numerous proper decisions for ourselves and the merchandise we selected! We slept soundly, loved sluggish mornings fueled with camp espresso, breakfast and the trickling sounds of the Salmon River simply toes away. We had been in a position to have numerous issues discovered, however nonetheless took away two massive suggestions for future journeys:
- Plan Much less. We thought we’d need to stand up from camp, go on a hike after which eat out, however each time we have now camped we discover ourselves simply desirous to be at camp. To take a noon nap, take pleasure in writing or studying outdoors, and decelerate our traditional quick paced each day lives.
- Be Uncomfortable. It’s okay to fall out of our each day routines after we are tenting. We normally stand up, bathe and do our RV chores very first thing each morning earlier than attending to work on our small biz. After we are tenting, we lean into altering issues up, however it isn’t at all times comfy. We didn’t bathe throughout our two nights at Tollgate. We had no cell service, so work was out of the query, and it was chilly within the mornings, which meant we stayed tucked into our sleeping luggage hours previous our regular get up occasions. It’s okay to let go and loosen up a bit after we’re tenting.
Satisfaction Occasions
Past our day journeys and tent tenting experiences, we have now been touring weekly for LGBTQ+ Satisfaction occasions all through the PNW. We started our Satisfaction Month in Bend, traveled to Vancouver, WA and wrapped up in Seattle. That is at all times a busy time of yr for us, however we like to take the time to understand all of the completely different locations we get to go to. In Bend, we completed our weekend with an area hike round a glacial lake. In Vancouver, we perused the Saturday Farmer’s Market earlier than our occasion began, and in Seattle we ate at scrumptious native eating places. Though we’re busy busy busy after we are merchandising at Satisfaction occasions, we additionally see this sort of work as our most enjoyable and it fills our hearts with queer pleasure to satisfy and be part of Satisfaction!
After we stopped touring full-time within the RV, we felt a little bit of an vacancy. We frequently ask one another, “what now?” What we’re coming to appreciate is that we have now hearts of exploration. We’ll at all times exit and discover some enjoyable new locations to go to, new trails to hike, and new cities to skip by. It wasn’t RV life that made us vacationers, we have now at all times been vacationers. We’re not sure if we’ll hit the highway full time once more, however for now we’ve discovered methods to diversify our adventures!
Be taught extra from Wander Free and Queer:
Journey Planning Classes from Wander Free and Queer
Stationary RV Life vs. Touring RV Life with Wander Free and Queer
Working a Small Enterprise from the Street with Wander Free and Queer