The travel day that reminded us why we love RV life

We've heard the phrase a million times: "It's about the journey, not the destination." I think anyone who road trips truly understands the meaning of this phrase. Long drives can be taxing, but we often see and experience things we wouldn't if we just flew right over them. We can have our best surprise adventures at a pit stop or quick overnight in the middle of nowhere. We can much more easily immerse ourselves in local cultures.

If we interpret the phrase more figuratively, our "journey" is this entire chapter of our lives, where we've utilized a minimalistic, nomadic way of living as a means to achieve our dream of building a home in the mountains of New Hampshire. However, as we linger in this chapter, we're noticing more than ever just how amazing it is in its own right. Becoming RVers was never on our radar, but now we can't imagine a life without these kinds of trips. Soon we will have a home in NH, but that simply means we will have two homes, one built on a foundation, and one on wheels.

We've been honest about our reluctance to hit the road again after finding our dream land and then losing our beloved travel companion. However, as our stationary time wore on and winter felt like it was pushing us to make a decision, we could hear the road calling us back. Granted, it was just a whisper at the time, but sure enough, as our wheels hit the pavement once again, we felt that familiar sense of freedom and anticipation of the unknown. It's the very feeling that proves that fear and excitement aren't actually opposites, but rather two different manifestations on the same spectrum.

Already, we've been able to pinpoint several moments where we think, "Wow, and this never would have happened if we didn't launch back out." Each moment like this further solidifies our decision. They've been small, like spotting an eagle in a tree next to our campsite, or having goats visit our RV. However, the small moments add up, and the excitement for the travel life bubbles more and more.

Then, we had a defining moment when we least expected it. We wrote that we hoped the epic adventures would boost our excitement for travel again, but this boost came while we were on our way to the epic. A "journey" moment and not a "destination" moment, if you will.

We had made I-20 our home for a few hundred miles, venturing through the Deep South and across the Mississippi River. After spending a few days in Louisiana, we decided to change routes. We had no desire to RV through Dallas and we had greater reasons to head back north. First, we wanted to RV Oklahoma. We had technically checked the state off our list in 2023 because we had an adventure that was part of our RV travels, but we wanted to make the check "official" by actually bringing the rig across the state border. Second, if we routed ourselves back toward I-40, we might have enough time to stop in a couple of places we've wanted to visit and hadn't yet, like Amarillo, TX.

We both work from the road, so we try to take advantage of weekends when we're trying to cover long distances. We needed to cram lots of miles into our two weekend days, February 1 and 2. Because of this, we couldn't venture too far into Oklahoma, but we found a lovely farm stay on Harvest Hosts just over the TX-OK border. Our route would take us to OK for our overnight and then immediately back to TX for the remainder of our drive to Amarillo.

What sounds like a pure "check mark" turned into one of our favorite Harvest Host stays. The hosts and their animals were the absolute best. The property was lovely and had beautiful sunsets. A few of the dogs served as our tour guides as we explored the farm, and we spent the evening watching the animals' feeding and milking time.

While our visit so far was great, we had no big expectations when we woke up the next morning. We had a long drive to Amarillo and planned to head out early. Instead, a quick remark from one of the hosts led me to discover that she was a musician, recently bought a Celtic harp and hoped to start lessons so she could eventually make her foray into harp therapy. We can all guess the events that unfolded: Me ending up in the hosts' kitchen, playing her harp and talking about our mutual calling to heal through music. The men stopping by soon afterwards and all of us convening in the kitchen, holding hands in prayer and thanking the Lord for the circumstances that brought us all together, while a baby lamb in a hot pink diaper wandered at our feet. Alright, so maybe you didn't guess the lamb part, but it was clear to all of us that our last-minute decision to "check off Oklahoma" was of much greater design.

We left our Harvest Hosts with promises to keep in touch and come back as soon as we can. A morning like that is enough to keep us in good spirits no matter what happens, and maybe that's the whole point of this story. How much does perspective play a part? We can either drive 330 miles through TX, looking at endless wind farms and train tracks and think "This is so boring!" or we can think "This is so cool!" We can get flustered by all the fast speed limits or we can just not worry about them and travel at our comfortable pace. We can find it unnerving to not see civilization for miles upon miles, or we can marvel at how much space there is for our rig when we do come across a gas station!

Even though we left later than we planned, we released any pressure to move at a quick pace. In a 330-mile drive, we typically stop twice. This time, we stopped 3 times. We hadn't gotten gas before going to the farm, so we needed to fill up right away. While we were there, we figured, why not grab an early lunch? The second time we stopped was also for gas, and we could have just filled up and bounced on out of there, but we figured, why not pull off to the side and take a break? I even took extra time to find us a nice, level spot.

The third time, we couldn't help ourselves. We hadn't passed a Buc-ee's in years, and our first and only visit to one left a lot to be desired. We needed to give it another shot, and this one didn't disappoint. We stopped just outside Amarillo, only about a half-hour from our destination. We'd be losing sunlight soon, but we knew with these West Texas clear skies, we'd have a substantial twilight. And so we topped off on gas and pulled over at one of the far ends of the parking lot, also in a remarkably level spot. Tanner enjoyed sniffing around the doggy area, and then we went inside to do some shopping, and by "shopping," we mean "impulse buying of unhealthy treats."

Then came the final stretch, where we passed through Amarillo (we'll see it later) and made our way to our non-destination destination just outside the city. This is kind of where "journey" and "destination" meet. We had no plans to come here, but thanks to RV life's flexibility, we found a way to get us here. It wasn't high enough on our list to prioritize it in the grand scheme of all our Season 4 travels, but certainly high enough to warrant a weekend of rerouting ourselves toward I-40. We covered over 730 miles in 2 days and finally bought ourselves some time to slow down. We could think of no better place to spend our time than Palo Duro Canyon State Park.

We arrived to the entrance at the canyon's rim just as the sun began to set, which meant we spent the remaining daylight descending the 800ft into the canyon. The road is certainly not for the faint of heart, but like I said, perspective is everything. Did we freak out towing down the 10% grade and around all the switchbacks? Nope. We marveled at the gorgeous landscape and couldn't believe our great timing, that the first time seeing the canyon, we got to witness it aglow in the pastel pink of sunset.

Then, as we finished setting up camp, dusk arrived and the night sky lit up with stars. We said hello to Lily up above and settled in for 6 nights in the canyon – our longest stay anywhere so far in Season 4!

Our feelings of contentment, fulfillment, and excitement for our Palo Duro adventures overshadowed any exhaustion we had from our drives. We were reminded in a big way that RV life is so much more than the "big dots" on our itinerary. We suppose that's why when people ask, "What's been your favorite place so far?" that we can't really answer. Sure, we've loved the big destinations like Glacier, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon. We will surely love our time at the "Grand Canyon of TX," too! But the love we have for the small destinations, the local stops, or even the drives along the way, hold special places in our hearts and memories. That's the beauty of road tripping. We train ourselves to see the awesome in what others might find mundane. We navigate life with arms open to let in new experiences. We can wake up on a farm one morning, end that same day at the bottom of a starlit canyon, and think, "Wow, and this never would have happened if we didn't launch back out." We opened our arms to RV life, and on this day, it embraced us back.