Our first full month as full time RV’ers was a jam packed adventure. We put 3,359 miles on the Mighty Thor, and drove through 14 states, and stayed in 8 of them. All those miles taught us a lot.

• Try to limit your daily drive to 4 hours according to Google maps. Once you add in gas and meal breaks, and slow driving up mountains or traffic jams, 4 hours will turn into 6 hours. There were a few days when we had to get in a lot of miles to get from one job to the other in time. Hitting the road at 6am, we thought we had a 6 hour drive ahead of us, but once you add those necessary and unavoidable delays, it quickly turned into 9 or 10 hours on the road. Tough on Al’s nerves, tough on my back, and just really bad for our overall health. We would take the time to find campsites that appealed to us, but we’d be too tired when we got there, or it would just be too dark to take advantage of all its amenities and hiking trails. And then we were on the road again the next day. No time for fun.
• Find time to exercise. We’ve both lost more muscle mass than we care to admit. You will have to change your exercise routine and step out of your comfort zone to get in some fitness.
• Take extra steps to have healthy food ready to eat on travel days. Boiled eggs and healthy snacks help cut down on the restaurant food (aka. Salt and cholesterol bombs). And you may arrive at some campsites in the middle of nowhere pretty late, without an open restaurant for a 10 mile radius. Have easy fix dinners available.
• I’ve yet to master cooking with the induction plates and convection oven. Practice makes perfect, I hope. But I have learned to manage the small counter space in food preparation.
• We’ve learned how to clean differently, using less water when doing dishes and taking showers.
• Plan ahead, but be flexible. Your plans can change. When looking to stay at prime locations during peak season, it is good to book in advance so that you know you have a place to stay. But be aware of the cancelation policy so that you can change your plans as need be. South Florida is very desirable in the winter, especially January and February, and reservations can be hard to get.  
• Call the campground if you see limitations on their booking sites that don’t fit into your schedule. Broward County Parks (South Florida) website will only let you book 7 day stays, but if you call them, you can book stays for up to 6 full months. This could be the case at other camp sites as well.
• If staying at a campsite you’ve never been to before, call ahead and find out the best entrance to use. Our rig was too big to fit into the main entrance at TY Park and we almost got stuck. We had to block the entrance while unhitching the tow dolly and car from the RV. At another site in New Jersey, the RV navigation took us through the back entrance and we were once again blocking traffic as we tried to figure things out.
• Driving your RV is the equivalent of putting your home through an earth quake. As such, you’ll need to do more repairs the more you are on the road. To date, the following repairs have been needed:
  • Automatic steps stopped working – repaired
  • Inverter that lets the residential refrigerator run off the generator while driving stopped working – repaired
  • Gouge in sidewall of tire – needs repairing
  • Check engine light came on – needs repairing
  • Sewage drain hose busted while pumping black tank – I don’t want to talk about it
  • Trim came off the windshield – needs repairing
  • Emergency window came off its hinges – repaired
  • Bottom of a kitchen drawer collapsed – repaired
  • Oil Change needed – will be done soon
  • One of the toilets keeps clogging – we keep unclogging
  • Pipe under bathroom sink came slightly loose and caused a small water leak - repaired.
  • Bunk above cockpit keeps coming down slightly on one side – live with it

It has definitely been a non-stop first month, which really needs to be covered in full in another post. Right now we are looking at a beautiful lake scene in Hermitage, Tennessee. This was not a planned stop when we took off in August. We were actually suppose to head back to Jupiter, Florida on Wednesday, with the plan to spend 2 weeks there before going to Cape Canaveral and eventually Palm Beach till January 31st. But then the threat of Irma became very real. So instead of heading home, because let's face it, Florida is home for us, we came to Tennessee instead. We could have gone anywhere, or just stayed in Virginia, but Al has a 2 day conference in Nashville next week, so it seemed like the logical choice. That logical choice may have put us right in Irma's path based on the 5 day outlook, but by then it should be a Tropical Depression. We've been through so many of those in our years of Miami living, and we're not too worried. But we've never been in one while living in an RV. Not sure if we are underestimating the severity. But Al has to be here regardless to work those days, and I'm not confident enough to move this bad boy on my own.

We downsized tremendously when we took that leap to full time RV'ers, with only a 5x10 storage unit. Not much in there that would devastate us if lost, but my car was still in Florida. We bought a plane ticket so that I could fly down and drive it out on Friday, but we started to worry that the traffic getting out of Florida would be at a standstill and gas would be hard to find come Friday (36 hours before the storm). So I called my friend to find out what her evacuation plans were. She had none at the moment and didn't know what to do. So I told her to pick up my car and drive it out of there on Wednesday. Traffic was pretty bad then too, but it gave her an exit plan in a safe vehicle and a place to stay to weather out the storm. As small is this RV is compared to our house, I knew we'd have house guests, and she wasn't the first one!

At this point, we really don't know where we are going next, or when. We have reservations in Cape Canaveral, but how much damage will that area receive from Irma? Al has a job in Atlanta for a day. Maybe we'll just head that way and hang out in Atlanta until the parks in Florida are ready to receive guests again. We're willing and able to be flexible. The beauty of living in an RV full time. We feel as if we dodged a bullet and had divine guidance that led us to sell our South Florida home so close to the water and get out while the getting was good. We're grateful that we won't have to worry about the clean up or damage to our homes and lives. But so many people that we love are still there, and we do not wish to see their lives be negatively impacted by this. The wait for them is the worse, not knowing if you are getting a direct hit, or how bad it will be. We are praying for them and staying in touch.