RV Life Season 5

Birthdays on the road: a retrospective

Nicole Anderson

26 Jun 2026 • 16 min read

You might not know this, but we started blogging our travels because of birthday celebrations. In 2017 and 2018, Anthony and I planned epic road trips in honor of our respective 30th birthday years. In 2017, we traveled down the East Coast, all the way to Key West and back up. Then in 2018, we flew to San Diego, rented a car, and drove all the way up the West Coast to Seattle. We wrote a private blog for our family and friends, which is now public and archived right here on our website.

But we didn't actually celebrate our exact birthdays on the road. Anthony's birthday is in February, and since we didn't want to road trip in winter, we waited until April to take our East Coast Road Trip. My birthday is in May, but we waited until July to take our West Coast Road Trip. What did we do on our actual birthdays? Pretty much the usual, having local adventures and celebrating with family and friends in MA.

This was what we liked to do. Birthdays at home meant being surrounded by loved ones. As we planned to hit the road full-time, we wondered what it would be like to have these milestones in unfamiliar places, far away from anyone we know. Would we come to enjoy the novelty, or would we feel homesick?

We launched on the road on February 22, 2022 – a mere 4 days after Anthony's birthday. This meant our first birthday on the road was mine in May, and we made sure to place ourselves in a fantastically festive part of the country.

Birthday #1: Great Smoky Mountains

We really made this celebration extra festive. We each took time off work and had an entire "week of fun," as we affectionately called it. We went into the national park, went to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, and found an amazing cupcake joint.

But most of these activities weren't on my actual birthday. On my actual birthday, we went to Anakeesta in Gatlinburg, a place we ended up returning to later in the week. Not because we loved it and wanted to go back. Because on my birthday, I was sad and didn't enjoy it.

We never talked about this in the blog before, but for all the preparations we did, I was missing home on my birthday. It was just me and Anthony, way out in Tennessee, and this was a big change for us. This day has since been known as "sad birthday," but we're happy to report that it was isolated to that one day. Overall, my birthday week was spectacular, and our Smokies adventures gave me a glimpse into what birthdays could be like on the road...if I was able to adjust my perspective.

Birthday #2: "Mexico"

As Season 2 of travels rolled around, we realized that Anthony might get the short end of the stick as far as birthdays go. We returned home to New England every year for the holidays, launching back out just after...or sometimes quite long after...New Year's. Even if we left on time, we were usually en route to greater destinations come February. This meant we never planned a birthday destination for Anthony, but instead celebrated wherever we happened to plop ourselves. In Season 2, we had some leeway as we blitzed across the country to get to our solar install appointment in AZ. We were making good time, which meant we could venture off the beaten path a little. We decided to journey down to Big Bend National Park in the days leading up to Anthony's birthday. It felt nice to be able to treat him to a beautiful national park for his first birthday on the road, because I got one for mine.

We love to tell the story of how we celebrated Anthony's birthday in Mexico that year, because we did. We took a row boat across the Rio Grande in Big Bend and had a birthday lunch in Boquillas del Carmen, Coahuila.

Easily our most unique birthday on the road, but if we're being sticklers...this wasn't on Anthony's birthday. We had to get back to I-10 and continue our blitz west, and so we went to Mexico the day before Anthony's birthday. What we were doing on his actual birthday was enduring a travel day where we discovered our truck's gas gauge wasn't working properly, was giving us oil change alerts, and forcing us to find a GMC dealer as soon as we got back to civilization. It included our first truck wash at a Blue Beacon. It included Prada Marfa, which granted is a destination in its own right.

But sometimes it's the little things that make a birthday special. We arrived to our next campground, the Las Cruces KOA Journey, and this KOA ended up ranking #1 of all the KOAs we had stayed at in our first 3 years of travel. One of the reasons for that was the amazing staff. When they found out it was Anthony's birthday, they gave us both a free ice cream! Ice cream with this view? Not a bad way to end a birthday.

Birthday #3: Glacier National Park

My mid-year birthday meant plenty of time to get out west and camp in a killer destination. By the end of May, we had planted ourselves in Glacier National Park, and similar to the Smokies, we had a prolonged celebration. In the days leading up to my birthday, we went hiking in the national park and on mountain adventures at Whitefish Mountain Resort.

On my actual birthday, we went into the national park for a boat tour of Lake McDonald, and then opted to spend the afternoon in less-crowded Hungry Horse. The boat tour wasn't our favorite excursion in Glacier, but it got us into the park without needing a timed reservation, which was one of the reasons we booked it. Can't deny the views though! In Hungry Horse, we took Tanner for a dessert picnic with a view. It was wonderfully peaceful.

Also wonderfully peaceful? A short hike we snuck in at dusk, back in the national park. We hiked Trail of the Cedars, typically an insanely popular trail due to its ease of access, but at this time of evening, we only shared it with the wild animals.

Birthday #4: Fulton, MS

Funny how the biggest non-destination of all our celebrations can be the one that makes us smile the most. The national parks and gorgeous locations are great, of course, but local excursions can be a pleasant surprise. Knowing that, once again, we'd be early in our travel route for Anthony's Season 3 birthday, I wanted to do something special for him. I booked us a waterfront campsite with its own pier! Technically, it was shared with 2 other campsites, but in the off-season, it was barely used. Even the larger, communal fishing pier was mostly empty for our stay. This site was wonderfully wonky and perfect for a special occasion.

Once again, we celebrated Anthony's birthday on his "birthday eve." We went to one of the only restaurants in town, Guy's Place, located at the marina. Water views and southern hospitality? Yes, please! We had a great dinner. Everything was delicious and we felt like part of the community. The sunset was the icing on the birthday cake.

As for Anthony's actual birthday? Clearly we're not actual sticklers for celebrating the day on the day. We just stayed at the campground and took it easy. Sometimes that's just our preference.

Birthday #5: South Haven, MI Airbnb

Surprise! We had a birthday on the road, not in our RV! We had a repair appointment at ATC and made the most of our displacement by renting an adorable bungalow in South Haven, MI. Funny to think it was my first travel-birthday not at a national park, but honestly? It held its own. This turned out to be one of my favorite birthdays on the road. We once again found scrumptious cupcakes right in town, and we had a beautiful outdoor patio to eat them on.

Then we capped off the night with a walk to the lake, where we saw the sunset from the lighthouse.

What made this a standout birthday was that there were no bells and whistles, no grand adventures. Just a beautiful town, friendly community, and a sense of home in a place we had never been before.

Fun fact: This was my only non-national park birthday celebration on the road. Funner fact: We were originally supposed to be in a national park this year for my birthday! We had campground reservations in Indiana Dunes but canceled them so we could get our repairs. We did stop by the park on our way up to South Haven, 10 days before my birthday, but it was just a pit stop, not a celebration.

Birthday #6: Alamogordo, NM

Somehow, we found ourselves in NM on Anthony's birthday for the second time. This time, we were in Alamogordo, home of White Sands National Park. See? Anthony had some good destinations, too. Big Bend and White Sands are pretty darn special. But like Big Bend, we didn't go into the national park on Anthony's actual birthday. We went the two days before.

On Anthony's actual birthday, we opted for quirky fun at the World's Largest Pistachio. At first, we thought there was no way a giant pistachio would be birthday-worthy, considering it's advertised on billboards and exudes pit stop energy, but we were pleasantly surprised. Beyond the pistachio itself is the farm and vineyard, a beautiful shop, and homemade pistachio ice cream. The highlight for us, though, was the tour of the pistachio tree groves. The whole experience was unique, educational, and entertaining. It made for a delightfully memorable birthday.

Birthday #7: Great Basin National Park

Lastly, we have my Season 4 birthday. We had just finished impromptu-traveling America's Loneliest Road and ended on the border of NV and UT. Soon, we'd be headed to get more repairs, but not before a visit to a national park that had been on our list for years. We went on my actual birthday, too! We booked a tour of Lehman Caves and did a couple of hikes and a scenic drive. Even this late in the year, the park was still on cusp season, and in the higher elevations, snow was still on the ground. For us, it was a beautiful time to go. The weather was cool but not cold, and we had many places to ourselves. Last year, we took a lot of cave tours and had some strong opinions about some of them, but we have only positive things to say about Lehman Caves. We had a great day, and Great Basin was the perfect home for our pre-displacement adventures.

This year, we aren't celebrating birthdays on the road. We were still at our home-base in MA when Anthony's birthday rolled around, and so we were back to local adventures – only this time, they felt comforting. We even had a bit of novelty thrown in, opting to have breakfast at a restaurant we had never tried, that my family frequents. Then we took a walk at one of our local parks, where we reminisced about our birthdays on the road. I asked Anthony what his favorite was, and he couldn't say. That's the best part about these celebrations. We had some at amazing national parks, some surrounded by spectacular landscapes, some at kitschy roadside stops, and some in local towns we'd never even know about if not for RV life. We celebrated a birthday outside the country. We celebrated a birthday from an Airbnb. Each birthday was special in its own way. And as for whether or not we missed our home celebrations? We always get a little homesick once in a while, whether it's a special occasion or not. But now when we return to New England, our homecoming is all the reason we need to celebrate with family and friends.

At the time of writing this post, my birthday is on the horizon, and we find ourselves in uncharted territory. We're not in the RV, but we're not home in New England. We're in a whole new home, in a whole new place. We get to celebrate somewhere new, but not totally unfamiliar. We get to celebrate in a town we've made ours, even though we still enjoy being tourists here. But right now, there is so much more to celebrate than just a birthday. We'll share more about that in the next post.