The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful- How goes the road trip 10 weeks in.

When we originally told people back home about the RV journey we were getting ready to embark upon, we received a range of reactions. We heard everything from, “That’s incredible, what an awesome experience you’ll create for your family” all the way to “You guy are nuts. Good luck!” Now looking at both extremes, they were clearly both right.

“So how has it been so far,” you ask, “like for reals?”

Well, I’ve broken it down in some stream of consciousness bullet points below grouped into the “good, the bad, and the beautiful.”

The Good:

  • Freedom from the incessant schedule. Don’t get me wrong, I still have to block out days for work appointments and coordinating with my team, but the madness of getting up early to get kids off to school all suited up with packed lunches has stopped temporarily. We get to wake up and enjoy each other. Jess will often teach them while I work. Sometimes when we stay up late, we just sleep in. Going with the flow is fun.
  • The conversations that spark up. So as we go to different parks, monuments, or places of historical significance, we’ll often read up on wherever we’re going in the car to get the background so we can boil it down for the girls. Everything from Harriet Tubman, to the Boston Tea Party, to the rise and fall of the Vanderbilt fortune has provided for some incredible family discussions. Only the inappropriate is off limits. Everything else is fair game. The Hutch Girls are becoming little “road scholars” at a young age. Also, when you get to hear the perspective of a 9-year old, you realize just how complicated we have made things.
  • Regular hiking and enjoying the outdoors. When your whole family is dwelling in a 41′ RV it becomes a common practice to enjoy the outdoors. On our way East we purposely navigated to some of our nation’s most beautiful natural treasures (Arches, Rocky Mountain, Badlands, and Acadia National Parks were among the most notable). Now that we’ve settled in the Northeast for a month we’ve made it a point to do things like the freedom walk through old Boston or riding bikes in Cape Cod. Not everyday can be on an adventure, but thankfully our campground for the month has an enormous pillow-like trampoline thing jutting out of the ground (see pic). I have to admit; I love bouncing around with the girls once I have my morning coffee. What a way to start the day.
  • New food. We’ve had really good luck finding hidden gems eating out, and we owe a lot of it to Yelp. This is a bit embarrassing, but I am an avid Yelper. So much so that they nominated me to be part of the Yelp Elite Squad. I don’t know what I did to qualify, but I decided a couple years ago that since I often used Yelp to make my own choices, I may as well give back and post. Anyway, it has helped us find everything from the freshest Maine seafood served in a plastic trough on a park bench to the most authentic Mexican food in Eastern Colorado while waiting for an impromptu RV tire change.
  • Old Town USA. In Southern California, an old neighborhood is a set of stucco track homes from the 70’s. That’s the 1970’s. Out East you often feel like you’re in a time warp while driving through little towns with the steeples and Victorian houses, or when you see a year stamped into the side of an ornate rustic brick building that starts with the number 18. It’s very cool to imagine the evolution from colonial America in these little towns as well as the old section of our modern metropolises.

The Bad:

  • RV maintenance. Right before we left when I was getting the generator fixed, I told the mechanic that we would probably save on living expenses residing in an RV. He just laughed at me. We’ve only been on the road just over two months and have had to fixed multiple things. We had the air brakes go out, changed a couple tires, the built in vacuum broke amongst other little odds and ends. It is a lot like a land yacht and “BOAT” does also stand for “Bust out another thousand.” With so many moving parts, it’s bound to happen. Hopefully the major stuff is behind us though. Fingers crossed.
  • Tight quarters. Well, we knew what we were getting into, the 5 of us sharing a bathroom and doing the do-se-do squeezing past each other in the sleeping quarters. But I have to say 10 weeks in, the space thing isn’t as bad as even I thought would be. Check with me in 10-more weeks and we’ll see if I change my tune. All I can say is “thank the Lord for pop-outs.” What a huge difference they make. I remember Jess telling me she thought I was overdoing it by getting a 41-footer, and that we just didn’t need something that big. How you like me now?
  • No babysitters…yet. What I underestimated, however, was being continually surrounded by these three, rambunctious, little, loud people that just won’t stop asking questions. Where do they get that from? Dads, I think we have to give moms across the nation credit for spending as much time as they do with our young. Of course we love them dearly, and after a long day of work we can’t wait to hang out with them before mom rushes them off to bed. “Hey, what’s the hurry?” I remember asking. Ok, I get it now. At this point I’m ready to try Craigslist, Care.com, anything for some alone time with my wife. She ain’t having it though. Something’s gotta’ give. Sitter suggestions anyone?
  • We miss the beach…the beach that’s way further South that is. So leaving in August and spending a lot of July prepping, we really didn’t get to enjoy much time at the beach before we left. We relished every stop that had a swimmable lake, and even a cool campground pool during those humid Midwestern summer days. We even jumped in the Atlantic Ocean and bodysurfed some small waves at the one sand beach in Acadia National Park in Maine. It was chilly but we got used to it rather quickly and were just happy to be frolicking in the surf.
  • The cold has just begun. The days of being able to throw on Rainbow Sandals to run outside and grab something are over. Now granted we’ll be slowly migrating South as Autumn turns to winter. But as we watch the leaves change around us, we’re not used to having to wear long pants every single day or even socks for that matter. I’m sure we’ll appreciate San Clemente that much more when we return.

The Beautiful

  • Seasons? What are those? So the clear benefit to giving up our perma-70-degree environment is something called Autumn. Wow! I remember seeing it in the Fall of 1994 when I lived for a brief stint in Concord, Hew Hampshire. It turns out I got out of dodge before Winter hit in December, and the same will prove to be true this time around. But we purposefully picked a central campground in Connecticut to use as a hub to bounce around the Northeast for our little Fall field trips. I’ve been carving up my work schedule and blocking and tackling so we can do 2-3 day trips per week around this pre-winter wonderland.
  • Stars. Jess loves the show Gilmore Girls, which is experiencing a bit of a revival with the new episodes on Netflix. Apparently the town is set in a fictitious town called “Stars Hollow” and that actually describes our campground setting perfectly. The campground itself is enveloped by tall trees that are just starting to turn, and our rig is parked in the middle of this huge clearing. So at night, it’s like we’re in an amphitheater of the constellations. The girls and I often bundle up and go out with an app called “Starlight” to identify the pictures in the sky. It’s cool because it shows all the stars but then draws a picture of what each constellation is depicting as you scroll across the different stars. Once we get a bearing on one, we can usually find some more.
  • Our nation’s treasures. Whether it’s Arches National park preserving some gorgeous oddities of nature or the decadent Guilded-Age mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, we’ve had a lot of moments of gratitude together as a family. Not just for having the opportunity to enjoy these times and places together, but also to be able to reside in this wondrous land with all its treasures. I’m continually reminded of Woodie Guthrie’s song “This Land Is Your Land.”

“As I went walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway
Saw below me the golden valley
This land was made for you and me”

Regardless of what’s happening in your life or with your checkbook at the moment, please realize that just by living in the United States you really hit the human-being lottery. Undoubtedly, there are some of its natural and man-made treasures nearby for you to enjoy even if you can only carve out one day away. We hope to be an inspiration to many to do just that. Take just one day away and be grateful for where you are, what you can do, and who you can be right here in the US of A.

Happy Trails,

John “Hutch” Hutchinson