Week 24 – Advice for the road

We’re hitting pause on our journey for a bit. Jonathan left for Guatemala to spend two months learning Spanish and I’ve stayed behind to make some money. But, this brings me to a little list of things we’ve found helpful during our first 5 months on the road (perhaps specific to America)
 

• Planet Fitness has been our best decision, being able to work out has been great, but more importantly being able to shower more than a military shower, and not having to worry out our seemingly tiny grey tank filling up, has been indispensable.
• We bought Gogi a cool mat at a Camping World randomly in Arizona, this has been our second best purchase.  We get a lot of cross wind in Milton, and with our solar panels now we’re able to leave a fan on for him, but having something cool to lay on, even when we’re driving or sleeping, keeps him very happy.  Apparently there are vests to wear while out for walks - we may need to look into that before heading south.
• Everyone talks about parking at Walmarts. Fools I tell you; Lowe’s and Home Depot have free wifi in their parking lots. All of them.
• Why tip a server 20% when you can get your food to go, and eat in your own personal dining area with as many drinks as you’d like, for a fraction of the price?
• Bikes. I cannot say enough how happy we are to have bikes. Because we’re able to park up pretty much everywhere (due to Milton’s small’ish size) we can just pop out and cycle around the city. Much easier than trying to walk or rely on public transport.
• Revamping/remodelling. This was always our plan, and when I look back at Milton as he was when we got him, it’s sort of unbelievable. Our remodel may not be up to professional standards, but Milton feels like a home, our home, and when you’re on the road full time you can’t beat it. Remodels can be as cheap or as expensive as you want, just covering the upholstery makes a massive difference, and that is easy, all you need is some material and a staple gun.
• Cooking. I think this is one of the most commonly asked questions, ‘what do you cook’?  ‘How can you make anything in there’?  I cook whatever I want as we have tons of space in Milton - I have bottles and bottles of vinegars, spices and oils. I do not cook any differently than I would at home. I think the most important thing for your kitchen is buying quality. You don’t have the time or space to scrub and pan or let things soak, so if you buy high quality pots and pans (1 big & 1 small of each) and one hellova good knife you’re set.  People have duplicates of everything in your kitchen at home, wholly unnecessary.
• Make sure everything has a place. I may roll my eyes at Jonathan for making cubby-holes for EVERYTHING, but to be honest it helps. When we get up in the morning it takes no time at all to get going, because we know where everything goes, tuck it away and hit the road.
• Go smaller. We were worried that Milton might be too small. He’s 22 feet long, and very much on the short end of RVs (plus, he’s a unicorn period - there are very few on the road like him). If you don’t include the cab, Milton is about 90 sq feet (8 sq meters), so our living space is small – a tiny house to the extreme really.  But he’s ours, and other than possibly having a permanent bed, I wouldn’t change a thing. Plus we still have loads of unused storage space.
• Solar panels and an inverter. Enough said.
• The internet is actually full of useful information. This may seem obvious, but connecting with people through instagram has been unbelievably helpful. There are a lot more people out there doing the same thing than you would expect!  Also, Atlas Obscura and road trippers are worth looking at - who wants to drive for an entire day seeing nothing, to get to your next location, when you can stop and see something completely weird and random?! If you can think of a question; search for it on youtube - someone will undoubtedly already have answered it, and made a video to show you how to fix it.
• Park wherever you want. As long as you’re reasonably small its unlikely people are going to think twice. Seriously, would you if you were them?  Also if you’re feeling cheeky, your grey tank is really just soapy water and can be emptied over a drain.
• Don’t worry, don’t stress, don’t over-plan, it will all work out. Planning too much simply tends to create problems rather than solve them, and if you keep planning you’ll never get around to the doing.