I remember crossing the Arkansas state line and crying.
We were driving over the Mississippi River and I heard the navigation voice say “Welcome to Arkansas” and I replied back as if she could hear me saying “You have no idea.”
I look over to the passenger seat and see Anthony, who was holding Butters, while our Tiskies sat on the center console; as if she knew this was a special day.
Anthony says to me “You did it babe.”
I had first learned of the nomadic lifestyle in college. My professor was an author of a Moon guide book and I got this wild idea while sitting in his class, “I want to travel full-time and see all 50 states”.
Years would go by. I’d graduate college. I’d move. I’d settle back into a career. But I couldn’t shake this idea.
I had a dream of traveling the U.S solo with Butters for a few months in between jobs, but life had other plans. I’d meet Anthony, tell him all about my crazy dreams, thinking it’d scare him off because I didn’t have time for a relationship, I was going on this trip no matter what. But again, life had other plans.
The new dream: The four of us would see as many states as we could in our budget-friendly trailer together, with the lofty goal being all lower 48 states.
We left Idaho on November 14, 2020 and by August 6, 2021 we were popping champagne in Arkansas, our 48th state together in just over 8 months.
How We Planned our Route
It was winter when we left Idaho, so we naturally headed south through Utah and Nevada to spend the holidays in Southern California with our families.
I used to work in customer service, and on a particularly rough day in the office, I picked up a scratch piece of paper, and began to write down places I wanted to see when I got out of there. New York City, Key West, Acadia National Park, Route 66. That list lived in my purse for years, and when it came time to plan our 48 state route, I used that list as my starting point. These places are what I had to see.
I opened up my laptop, unfolded a giant map of the U.S. on my parents table, grabbed a pencil and a calendar and began to plan. We planned only a couple of months at a time since we had to be back in California for a wedding in a few months. We set the initial goals of making it to the Florida Keys, visiting our best friends in New Jersey, and then taking Route 66 back to California. We weren’t sure how our untraveled cat would do on the road, so we told ourselves, if she can’t handle it, we’d be happy with this adventure.
I quit my desk job with my copywriting business, and Anthony’s personal training business making enough to support us on this adventure.
We’d traverse Highway 10 from California to Florida, and in a month’s time we were sipping cocktails in Key West. Our travels took us north to New Jersey where we enjoyed a couple week break in our friends’ driveway.
It was then time to head back west towards Chicago where we began our two and a half week journey along the original roads that are still drivable of the Mother Road back to Southern California with 27 states visited.
Back in my parents driveway, I was sitting on the porch enjoying a cold one with my dad, looking at my incomplete sticker map on the back of our home on wheels. He reminded me that I don’t have to see everything now, I have done more in 5 months then most people do in a lifetime. It turns out our cat and dog loved life on the road, and I wasn’t done.
So back to the map and pencil I went. Drawing a route north, then east, south, east again, then northeast, south, west, with the last state to fill in being Arkansas.
In April, we headed north from California along the entirety of the PCH to Washington and then east, to eventually end with me crying on a bridge in Arkansas less than 4 months later.
What we loved the most
Made Our Relationship Stronger
Traveling hundreds of miles a day, driving through storms and city traffic, navigating narrow roads, and having no personal space could either make a break a couple. But this chapter of our lives made us stronger than ever.
When we’d meet other RVers, they’d ask us if we were on our honeymoon. I’d reply with “No, this is to see if we make it that far!” We got engaged a few months prior to hitting the road and we figured if we could survive this journey in a 17 foot trailer, we could survive anything. We know that no matter what our lives look like 5 or 10 years from now, we can utilize the communication skills and patience we’ve learned from RV life to make it through whatever obstacles may lie ahead.
Meeting People All Over the Country
Traveling in the states in an RV means you’ll meet people from all walks of life. You’re hanging out in campgrounds, national parks, & spending time at gas station pumps. RVs with stickers from every corner of the country are great icebreakers for people, and some of the best conversations I’ve ever had have been with other RV owners on a cross-country journey.
I feel like I could have an enjoyable conversation with just about anybody in this country. I could bond with a good ol’ boy from Alabama talking about my first crawfish eating experience, while also being able to share my favorite hiking trail with a granola girl from Denver.
Inspiring Others to Travel
We celebrated my birthday in Maine, and my parents flew in from California to spend a week adventuring with us. I remember kayaking with them in the Atlantic Ocean, watching them laughing while trying to figure out how to paddle in unison. My mom is terrified of drowning, but here she was facing her fears for a bucket list adventure. An adventure she was getting to experience because of my decision to travel the states.
We’d talk to campers who were enjoying a weekend getaway and they would be inspired by our ability to travel so tiny. They thought full-time RVing meant you had to have an RV the size of an apartment and a truck that cost close to a Corvette’s price tag. Nothing made me happier than seeing that spark in someone else’s eye when they realized it was a possibility for them too, the same spark I recognized in me years ago in that college classroom.
Creating Memories with Our Girls.
They say watching your kids see something through their eyes is like experiencing it for the first time all over again. While we don’t have human kids, we got to experience, what I could imagine, would be close to this with Tiskies and Butters.
We had so many “pinch me” moments watching them experience this life with us. From watching the sunset over the Grand Canyon, to seeing fireflies glow for the first time in Nebraska, these are memories that will last long past their time with us.
A Foodie’s Dream Come True
We love food. We jokingly say we didn’t just travel around the country, we ate around the country. We’ve enjoyed delicious BBQ beef brisket in Texas, lobster rolls in Maine, key lime in Key West, and all the hatch chilis we could handle in Albuquerque.
I grew up with “No thank you bites”, as my mom called it, meaning you at least had to try one bite, and if you didn’t like it, then you could say “no thank you”.
Eating in every state really expands your palette, and there are things we enjoy eating now that we probably would’ve never tried if we had stayed in our corner of suburbia.
Just like sightseeing where you have to experience something at least once to say you’ve done it, so goes for food. Try sucking the head out of a crayfish in Louisiana. Try a Philly cheesesteak with Cheese Wiz. Be adventurous with your eyes and your taste buds.
What we’d do differently.
Go Slower
We had a deadline to make: our wedding. The grand finale of our 48 state journey would be to get married in the forest of Big Sur, California.
This means we had to pack as much on my to-do list as we possibly could before we said I do. This resulted in a way too fast of a pace. When you’re traveling 200 – 500 miles, 3 – 4 days a week, you’ll miss things.
Be More Flexible with Our Schedule
The final stretch of our 48 state route took us back along Highway 40 from Oklahoma to California, a familiar route along Route 66. This allowed us to revisit places we enjoyed earlier in our travels, and to see things we missed.
We quickly realized we wished we had been more flexible with our schedule. We wished our route had allowed more rest days for us to soak in this experience.
We learned the importance of spontaneity. A benefit of RVing across the U.S. compared to flying over the states is that you get to see more things, that is unless you don’t have time. There were so many times that we had a long travel day of 6 plus hours and we’d see something cool along our route and we’d have to drive right past it because we didn’t allow time for the unexpected finds and hidden gems that are scattered all over this country.
Have more in Savings
You’re going to experience both good and bad unexpected expenses with this RV lifestyle. Tire blowouts as well as unplanned adventures are bound to happen.
Things will also break a lot faster when you go too fast. When you drive an RV down the road, it goes through the equivalent of 5.0 earthquake, meaning things will break, and very often. This gets amplified when you add in frequent travel days and a budget-friendly i.e. cheap trailer.
The RV lifestyle can be expensive, especially during the peak season of summer months and with gas prices fluctuating just about everyday.
We left Idaho with a good amount of money in our savings, or so we thought. We ended our journey with our savings account on fumes. That’s to be expected when you’re living an 8 month vacation-like lifestyle. You’re going to want to eat “the best chicken fried steak ever” in West Texas, even when your food budget is down to ramen.
We wish we had a bit more in savings to be able to enjoy a splurge or two or to sleep a bit more peacefully at night knowing whatever tomorrow brings, we’d have it covered.
From Once in a Lifetime to a Lifestyle
After the sticker map was filled, the vows were spoken, and the honeymoon tan faded, we were left with the question of “Now what?”
How could we just go back to a life of office fluorescent lights and the grind?
We knew we couldn’t. So we found ways to keep going.
We took the lessons we learned in our 48 state journey and have applied them to the past two years of RV life. We move slower thanks to Anthony workamping at campgrounds seasonally, save more money, and we established a routine that allows for a solid work schedule mixed with the freedom and flexibility that RV life brings.
Tiskies and Butters get to spend their lives on an endless adventure.
What started as the trip of a lifetime has turned into a lifestyle better than any college class day dream I could’ve ever dreamed of.
We hope we inspire you create your own RV story.
Happy and safe travels,
Kerisa Tiongson
Traveling Tiongsons 