Top Ten Realizations After One Month of Living on the Road
10. You can never have a big enough data plan!
I started the month at 10 GB and quickly increased it to 15 GB; which I expected I would. I ended up needing a bump to 20GB and struggled to stay within that. And this was without even trying to stream Netflix or anything else - except a few YouTube videos. A big part of it is learning to manage the whole thing - and it turns out I'm even more of an Internet junkie than I thought.
9. I'm not boondocking as much as I should.
My monthly budget for "camping" is $525 but I really hoped I'd come in well below that by camping for free at various boondocking spots along the way. I only did that once - along the Hoh River, for a couple of days. Part of it is that I wanted to enjoy some spots in the Olympic National Park but, even still, I need to whittle this back because I spent about $730 this first month. The good news is that my fuel budget came in $300 under budget, so I'm in good shape.
8. Nature is fascinating!
I spent most of this past month exploring the Olympic peninsula - especially the Olympic National Forest. I loved sitting at Fort Worden and staring out at the Strait of Juan de Fuca and watching ships and birds pass by. Or being at Hurricane Ridge and taking in the views of the Olympics. And who knew that every night I would want to sit and watch the sunset? Crazy!
7. I am reading more and not feeling too guilty about it yet.
I finished four books this past month and got caught up on all the back issues of Outdoor Magazine and Entertainment Weekly I had stacked up. Sitting outside and reading is one of life's great joys.
6. There is no TV reception in the State of Washington
While my dependency on television has waned I did find myself checking to see if I could snag any over the air TV signals at each campground I stayed in. I could not get a signal at even one of the places I stayed in Washington - but as soon as I got into Oregon, I pulled in signals from 12 stations!
5. One episode a night seems to be enough.
Speaking of TV, I have several sets of DVDs with me and I have settled into a routine of watching one episode a night. I've been working my way through all four seasons of The Tudors. Even though back "home" I often watched TV for 3-4 hours a night, this one hour of TV has been enough. (Or maybe its because The Tudors has about three times the sex and violence of most shows.)
4. I need more quick, easy to fix recipes.
I am not eating as well as I should. When living in and RV it is easy to gravitate to fixing quick things for a meal. Not that I ever have gone to great lengths to prepare gourmet meals but I need to find some easy but nutritious things to fix.
3. Being inside on a rainy day is not so bad.
Over the past week the weather has been pretty miserable. A lot more rain than we should be seeing for this time of year. While I know it helps tamp down the fire danger, for me it's kinda crummy. BUT, when it's rainy and cold, sitting inside the MoFo for hours on end is not as claustrophobic as I would have thought.
2. It's gonna take me longer to see everything than I thought!
I thought a night or two at each scenic place would be enough but once I get somewhere cool I kinda find that I wanna stay. For example, I stayed two nights at Lake Quinault but I met some cool people and the setting was gorgeous. It would have been easy to stay for a week.
And the Number One Realization After One Month of Living on the Road . . .
It feels like home. Living in the MoFo is is pretty easy, all in all and even though it is a true "tiny house", it definitely feels like home. And I think Rudy thinks so too.
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