Summer to Remember

A Summer to Remember in 2025

Nicole Anderson

23 Sep 2025 • 21 min read

Since 2021, we've partaken in Summer to Remember. Started by the Leach family (Keep Your Daydream), it's a customizable summer goals list to help us remember what we want to prioritize during a season that can get very busy. We've used our list for adventures and challenges, but also as little reminders to slow down once in a while. We try to cater them to the geographical region we're traveling through each summer, and we try to imagine what we might want from our summer season. This usually gives us a nice balance of different activities and experiences. We set 20 goals and aim to complete them between the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend and Labor Day.

We've written blog posts about our 3 "summers to remember" as full-time RVers. You can catch up on all of them here:

You may notice that some items are absent this year. In 2023, we challenged ourselves to hike 100 miles in the span of the summer. We thought it would be relatively easy, averaging just over a mile a day, but we were humbled by the experience. On Labor Day Weekend, we rushed to finish our final miles, and though our sense of accomplishment was strong, we vowed to never do this challenge again. We think summer will grant us beautiful days outdoors, but it was so hot! It didn't help that we decided to boondock across Wyoming in July.

Then last year, we thought that maybe our struggle to complete the challenge was a fluke. We decided to try it again, but we didn't want to feel tied to hiking constantly. We felt we'd be missing out on other recreational opportunities. So, in what can only be described as a totally logical choice, we also added a 100 miles of ebiking challenge. Did we accomplish both of them? Yes. Did we once again vow to never do them again? Also yes. Those challenges were the bane of our existence all summer long, and we had had enough.

What happened this year? Well, there was some talk. It mostly involved me telling Anthony "Come on! It won't be as bad this year!" But Anthony quickly smacked me back into reality. We left the challenges off the table. As a consolation, we created a more doable challenge, which was to design a cross country Bingo board and try to get blackout Bingo during our drive east. Other than that and a couple hefty hikes, we kept our list pretty chill. We had some outdoor recreation, including our yearly "Rock an alpine slide." We had milestones like checking off a new state RVed and a new national park. We also added some New England flair, knowing part of our summer would be spent there. This year's list should have been fairly easy to accomplish. We'll let you know if we think such an easy list was the right choice for us looking back, but let's first show how we did. Did we check everything off?

Drumroll please...

Yeah, it's a little disappointing, but given how this summer turned out, we're actually really proud of what we did accomplish. So what happened? Mostly a series of unfortunate events that kept us in Massachusetts longer than expected, which shortened our time in New Hampshire, where many of our goals would take place. We were supposed to land in NH on August 6, but instead didn't arrive until the 27th, leaving very little time to complete everything.

It might seem ironic that we failed to accomplish our easiest list in the past 3 years, but our failure to complete it had nothing to do with how easy or challenging our list was. Life simply got in the way and we had other priorities. If this hadn't happened, we think the list would have been perfectly enjoyable. Not every "challenge" needs to be hard. Which brings us to the important question: did we miss our 100-mile challenges? Absolutely not! We had several moments this summer where we said to each other, "Thank God we're not doing the challenges!" We would have most certainly not enjoyed them, and we also most certainly would have failed. We put just enough on our list to keep us busy and entertained, which is exactly how we want our summers to go. We wanted stress-free, and we...didn't get that, but that had nothing to do with the list.

We also think it's important to note that we don't create our Summer to Remember list with pressure to succeed. Items have gone unchecked in previous years, too. We like to throw out the word "fail" because it's succinct and blog-level dramatic, but we don't see the incomplete list as a failure. We made memories this summer and we incorporated fun into our travels that maybe we wouldn't have otherwise. This is always a success.

This summer was one we'll remember whether we have the list or not. As we approached Labor Day Weekend, we kept remarking how this summer felt like 3 years, not 3 months. We couldn't believe the number of giant, life-altering transitions that happened in such a short span of time, all on or after the marked pivot point, which was picking up the cats and returning to MA. Because of this, many of our check marks before that pivot point are a blur. We're glad we're able to recap them here, so we can remind ourselves that Summer 2025 wasn't just the big things, but a series of little things that, when added together, still hold strength in the memories they create. So let's travel back in time and back thousands of miles, filling in the gaps of our summer memories.

The Route

We started our summer in California and ended it in New Hampshire, and in that amount of distance, we all know things can get pretty bonkers. This was our first summer that included a cross-country road trip, but the most surprising part of all of it was, this wasn't our plan when we set out for Season 4. Hitting CA this year fell under the category of, "We'll see when we get out west," and we almost didn't go. Then we felt the urgency of our last official year as full-timers, and we packed in a bunch of adventures that we honestly probably should have pushed to a later date. We started summer feeling the need to slow down, but we had a 3,000 mile jaunt ahead of us to get back home for the latter part of summer. This was in the plan, as we had business to take care of in New England. Namely, we wanted to return to NH to start getting our ducks in a row as we began planning our cabin build. We also booked some doctor's appointments, which we always try to squeeze in during our times home in MA.

We initially expected some more adventures before blitzing east, but we needed to accept that more adventures would only fatigue us even more. So we set sail towards Indiana, where we'd stop for repairs. Along the way, we played cat and mouse with severe weather, then looped through Wisconsin for what turned out to be no reason. We left Indiana with a repaired rig, went and picked up a couple of cats in Ohio, and then continued back to New England. The cats also weren't in our 2025 plans, but here we are.

Then we got delayed leaving MA, which seems to be a theme of our RV travels. But finally, we made our way up to NH to start lining up those ducks.

Bonkers indeed.

Scenic Ebike Ride

We're not proud to admit that, without our 100-mile ebiking challenge, we barely got in the saddle. However, we did check off an extremely scenic ebike ride right away, on Memorial Day Weekend. We stopped in Carson City, NV so that we could visit Lake Tahoe, and we rode the East Shore Trail. Everything was absolute perfection, except the swarms of mosquitoes. But who can complain about some bugs when the weather and views were A++ fantastic? We stopped at the overlooks and coves, took a few short walks, and ended our morning with a post-ride hike. We couldn't have had a better first adventure of summer.

This wasn't our only success of Memorial Day Weekend....

Fun Harvest Host or Boondockers Welcome

Harvest Hosts is a membership that allows overnights and short stays at businesses for the cost of the membership fee and patronage at the host location. Boondockers Welcome is under the same membership, only instead of businesses, private property owners are the hosts. We love our membership, so much so that we even challenged ourselves to 4 weeks of staying only at these locations as we traveled through the Midwest last year. We also have an affiliate link if you want to try it for yourself and get 15% off.

"Fun Harvest Host or Boondockers Welcome" has graced our Summer to Remember list 2 previous years, but we'll admit, both times we checked it off as a technicality. "Fun" went by the wayside and we allowed a check mark for any Harvest Host or Boondockers Welcome location. In 2022, we escaped the land of the mosquitoes and found refuge in a driveway. It was more necessary than fun, but the host did invite us in for ice cream. In 2024, we parked at a horse stable to avoid towing through Cleveland, but we didn't do much besides meet the horses.

This year, all that changed. Our travels were more spontaneous and we had more reasons to utilize Harvest Hosts.

Right off the bat, we stayed 2 nights of Memorial Day Weekend at Olde Life Alpacas in Carson City, NV, with tons of RVs and even more alpacas! Plus goats, donkeys, ducks, and chickens. The alpacas free roamed the property, so they would hang out right next to the RVs. We got to feed them as part of our farm tour. We chose to stay here to avoid expensive and crowded RV parks during the long weekend, and it was perfect. A wonderful location, great sense of community, and jumping off point for our adventures in Carson City, Reno, and Lake Tahoe.

We hit 3 more Harvest Hosts this summer during our blitz back to New England. First, we stopped at Big Apple Fun Center in Kearney, NE. "Fun" is in its name, so how could this location not count?! In fact, it was immensely fun. We tried duckpin bowling for the first time, played in the arcade, and virtually rode through a mining tunnel in the 7D theater.

The next night, we stayed at Grand Falls Casino in Larchwood, IA. We didn't spend any actual time inside the casino except to pay our patronage by buying a couple of ice creams, so strictly speaking, this would only be a "technical" check mark. Same with our final Harvest Host, Basics CoOp Grocery Store in Janesville, WI. In their defense, this is a fun Harvest Host. We shopped there last year when staying in the nearby town of Milton, and it has a great variety of high-quality foods, plus an adorable cafe. When we shopped there, a live musician was playing guitar! When we discovered that Basics was on Harvest Hosts, we purposely took a route out of Minnesota that would land us in Janesville. We got there after the store closed, but we had big plans to go shopping the next morning and pick up a couple of smoothies from the cafe.

Unfortunately, we were forced to head out early, before the store opened. We needed to avoid strong winds that were arriving to the Chicago Metro area later that morning. But now that we know we can park overnight at Basics, we will absolutely keep it in mind for the next time we're in the area. There is nothing better than being able to Harvest Host at a place you already know and love!

Relevant Reads:

Check Off a New State RVed

Our long transcontinental trek allowed us the opportunity to check off 2 new states that we hadn't yet RVed: Iowa and Minnesota. These were more than just RV milestones, though. Neither of us had been to Iowa and I hadn't been to Minnesota, either. So, once these states were complete, Anthony and I became tied with our individual states visited: 47. Our only remaining state in the contiguous US is North Dakota, plus we have Alaska and Hawaii. As for our States RVed checklist, Iowa and Minnesota became states 44 and 45, respectively.

When we crossed the border into MN, there wasn't a welcome sign, so instead how about a photo of the gnarly storm that greeted us that day?

Cool Wildlife Sighting

We created our Summer to Remember goals in late April/early May, which meant we had some basic idea of where the road would take us in the upcoming months. We designed our list to incorporate goals as we traveled across the country and once we settled back in New England. Even though this structure remained, many of the plans within that structure did not. We thought we would visit Yellowstone and the Black Hills, but we did not. This posed an issue with our cross-country Bingo, which we'll tell you about in a future post. It also made us wonder about cool wildlife sightings. Of course, "cool" can mean whatever we want, but we didn't want to just see a deer and call it mission complete. (We also have a cross-country Bingo story about this that we're saving for later).

Thankfully, our wonderment didn't last long. As we traveled the Loneliest Road in America, US50 through Nevada, we made a stop at Spencer Hot Springs to scout out both the springs and the nearby boondocking. On our way in, we spotted a group of pronghorns in the field. This was our only true sighting of a western species, but they were beautiful, made even more so by their backdrop. Pronghorns were some of our favorite wildlife to see our last time out west in 2023. We were excited to give them a well-deserved check mark on our Summer to Remember list.

We may see the western species as a more worthy check mark because we aren't as used to them, but one sighting back east brought us big smiles. We spotted this insanely well-fed groundhog outside our window at the KOA in Mercer, PA. Perhaps he's a relative of Punxsatawney Phil. We named him Philliam in honor of his famous PA neighbor.

Relevant Read:

(And part 1 if you need order like I do).

Collect a New National Park Pin:

Our Loneliest Road journey led us to Great Basin National Park, where we added our 38th pin to our pin board. It's astonishing to think that, when we set out on our RV travels, we only had 4 pins! We spent my birthday exploring some of the trails and taking a tour of Lehman Caves.

Relevant Read:

Site With a View:

We had two contenders for our most scenic campsite of summer. The first was Sacramento Pass, a BLM campground with designated sites, located close to the Nevada-Utah border along US50. This was our final stop along America's Loneliest Road and our basecamp for our visit to Great Basin. We parked on the upper level of sites and had gorgeous mountain views.

Less than a week later, we camped at Deer Creek State Park in Utah. We perched ourselves at the top of the Fox Den Loop and had mountain views in one direction and the reservoir view in the other.

After that, we had some very nice sites, but no other views compared. Which view do you like better?

Rock an Alpine Slide and Try Something New

Our site at Deer Creek State Park didn't just bring the views. It served as a jumping off point for more summer activities, and therefore, more check marks. We went to Utah Olympic Park, where we rocked a fantastic alpine slide. It was metal, which was a new one for us, but it banked like a boss. "Rock an alpine slide" has become one of the recurring items on our Summer to Remember list, and it also was the only goal left incomplete in 2022, not for lack of trying. The goal has taken on a life of its own, and we have quite an affection for it. Will we be rocking alpine slides every summer from here on out, or will we eventually retire this activity? Only time will tell.

Whenever we add "Try something new" to our list, we seldom have a clue of what it will be. This makes it one of our favorite summer goals. We often try new things during our travels, but sometimes we forget to see these things as a celebration or accomplishment. RV life expands our comfort zones in wonderful ways.

This year, we gave our check mark to swimming in a geothermal crater, for the very reason I mentioned above. Otherwise, we wouldn't have seen it as something truly new. We've swam before, we gone into springs before, and we've even been to Devils Den and swam in the subterranean sinkhole, which by look and essence is very similar to this. However, swimming in the Homestead crater is an absolutely unique experience. The geology, temperature, and even our reactions to it were all distinct from the comparable adventures.

Relevant Reads:

RV Upgrades and Enhancements

Axle camber adjustment, lots of fixes at ATC, and a catification of our interior sum up our RV upgrades and enhancements of summer. But of course, more repairs await, and more things have broken. This is par for the course in the RV life.

Relevant Reads:

At-Home Spa Day:

Recapping summer with a list of RV repairs would be boring, but what isn't boring is what we did during one of our displacements. While our trailer was in the shop at ATC, we rented an Airbnb in Michigan. So far, we're 3 for 3 on Michigan Airbnbs being the perfect getaway during repair appointments. This one had the right vibe for relaxation, and amenities like a hot tub and sauna were added bonuses. We knew this would be the perfect place to have an at-home spa day, where we could slow down after our quick trek from out west. We were well aware of our burnout at this point, and so instead of just luxuriating, we created a little wellness day for ourselves. We did morning yoga, some meditations, journaling, and made some summer mocktails. I brought along hand and foot masks specifically for the occasion. Then we ended our day in the hot tub. We skipped the sauna because it was too hot. We didn't want our wellness day turning into a heat-related illness day. But we never have those. No, seriously, we don't.

This was our last moment of relaxation before the momentum picked back up in big ways. We left the Airbnb, picked up our trailer, and the following day, got our kitties. We thought the adjustment period with our cats would be a possible reason for not completing our Summer to Remember goals, but it turns out, they adjusted wonderfully. We drove back to New England with high hopes, ready to tackle the rest of our Summer to Remember list. Little did we know that our return to MA would serve as a pivot point, and checking off our goals was going to get tough.

To be continued.