Out of Boundaries - Pursuing the new American Dream.

WHY WE STOPPED OUR FULL-TIME TRAVELS

December 18, 2018

In case you missed it on Instagram, we have decided to stop our full-time travels earlier than anticipated.

The reasons for this are numerous, and all are (mostly) good. We realized, as time passed, that it will be easier for us to promote our business while stationary than it would be if we are traveling, not only for marketing purposes (having our boots on the ground locally, where we want to focus our initial market, makes more sense to us as we continue down this path) but because now, instead of taking up so much time to set up and take down camp and travel on the road, we can use that time and energy to get our business off the ground.

This also plays into my job: I’ve worked entirely remotely for five months now, and while it’s been so great and I’m thankful for it, there is a lot I can’t do for my blog while on the road. I’ll be honest: the oven in our RV was crappy. It took forever to heat up and the heat circulation in there was so uneven, it would often burn the bottom of our foods (even with a pizza stone and stacked baking sheets). Plus, it was TINY. And while I’d come up with a decent schedule of batch-working on recipes in my parents’ kitchen whenever we were there, working in bulk like that just isn’t my style (I made several recipes that never saw the light of day on my blog because I lost my excitement for them over time). I also had difficulty taking on sponsored work for my blog, as oftentimes sponsored posts come up unexpectedly and to get them done in the RV was a tricky task. In short, I felt limited in my abilities to work and just to bake for funsies living in an RV. This is not to say it was impossible; it was just cumbersome.

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TWO WEEKS IN HAWAII

November 21, 2018

Before we even set out on our travels, we had a vacation planned for two weeks in Hawaii in October set in place. For us, it was going to be a respite from all the labor that comes with full-time RVing, but with all the wanderlust fulfillment. Plus, we were going to relax on sunny, sandy beaches in our swimsuits in October and November. Sign. Us. Up.

We went with my (Steph’s) family, so the whole brood totaled eight people – me, Elliott, our two girls, my parents and my two brothers. We set off for Kauai on October 20, and spent the next two weeks in paradise.

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VISITING GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK

October 16, 2018

great smoky mountain national park out of boundaries

Greetings, eager blog readers! We’ve been a little tardy on keeping you up to date. But fear not — here is our recap of visiting Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The first thing that surprised us about this national park is it’s the most visited national park in the system (!!). We wouldn’t have guessed it, but more than 11 million people visit this national park every year. We thought this was a little stunning considering the wide range of amazing places we can think of in the national park system. Alas, we came to understand why this national park draws such a huge crowd.

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OUR TOP 7 TIPS FOR TRAVELING FULL-TIME WITH YOUNG KIDS

October 1, 2018

One of the most common questions we received when we told family and friends about our decision to travel full-time was, “What about the kids?”

Some would ask this exact question, leaving us to reply with the same question with varied emphasis, “What ABOUT the kids?” Others would ask: “Where are they going to sleep?”; “How will Avery get her schooling?”; “How are they going to stay social?”; “What about doctor appointments?”; “Will they have any toys?”; etc. etc.

We had answers to all of these questions prior to even leaving for our adventures, but now that we’ve been on the road for three months, we are even better equipped to respond. We’d traveled with the kids before going full-time — both kids had been on airplanes several times, and we often took road trips to my parents’ house, which was a four and a half-hour drive away from us — so we were all (mostly) used to traveling together. Obviously, when one decides to travel ALL THE TIME, and do so with young kids, the stakes are much higher and everything must be thought through even more thoroughly. But we’re still here, and we’re all alive, and dare I say we’re having fun. So much fun.

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WHY I QUIT MY JOB

September 17, 2018

Hi, Elliott here.

Before we embarked on our full-time RV life, I quit my job. I didn’t “quit” in the sense of “gave up.” Rather, I deliberately chose to resign my position because it wasn’t good for me or my family.

I worked for nearly six years as a physician assistant in the emergency room, primarily in the suburbs of the Twin Cities. I’m sure you can imagine it’s a rather stressful job. It is. There were some times where everything was clicking and the job was truly enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed diagnosing appendicitis. It can be a bit tricky, but when you diagnose you get them to a surgeon and save their life.

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Visiting Wind Cave National Park

August 27, 2018

out of boundaries wind cave national park

Have you ever heard of Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota? I hadn’t until recently, despite having visited the Black Hills area extensively in the past. It’s easy to overlook this park with Mount Rushmore, Black Hills National Forest, Custer State Park and Badlands National Park hogging a lot of the attention in the area.

The main attraction of Wind Cave National Park is the cave, obviously. It’s the sixth-longest cave in the world and is known as the densest cave system on Earth. It’s a three-dimensional maze cave that extends over 600 feet deep, and 140+ miles have been mapped so far. Rangers told us that the above-ground surface area of the cave, though, is only about one square mile.

We heard the cave tours fill up fast so we made sure to get an early start (as early as you can with little children in tow). Interestingly enough, Tuesday and Wednesdays are their busiest times in the summer season. Of course, we went on a Tuesday. But we had no problem getting tickets on the Natural Entrance Tour. This is kind of the middle ground in the non-specialty tours in terms of length and how much of the cave you get to see. There’s no entrance fee for the park; that was a bit shocking, after seeing how much it costs to get into other national parks. Rather, they charge for the cave tours only, which is why 99% of people come to Wind Cave National Park (my statistic).

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5 DAYS IN THE BADLANDS

August 20, 2018

out of boundaries badlands national park

We started our trip toward the Badlands on a national park “high” – having just visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park and knowing we also had future plans to visit Wind Cave National Park, we were right in the thick of our park-hopping experience when we descended on Badlands National Park.

We stayed at the nearby KOA which, unlike our stay at Teddy Roosevelt, allowed us to enter the park after only a 15-minute drive. This was obviously very convenient and, while the KOA had literally the worst cell signal we’ve had on this trip to date, it was otherwise very quiet and charming and we would certainly consider staying there again should we find ourselves back at the Badlands. And likely, we will.

We tried to plan our trip to the Badlands outside of the annual Sturgis Rally – not because we have anything against motorcyclists, but simply because we wanted to avoid the traffic – but long story short, we ended up staying there midway through the weeklong rally. Turns out, it was fine – we were far enough away from Sturgis to avoid the heavy crowds, but still close enough that we often found ourselves dining with leather vest-clad bikers (many of whom were very friendly). Sometimes, we had to pull over on the side of the road at the park to let a biker or few pass us by as they joyrode through, but no matter – it gave us more time to take in the expansive views of this mysterious, wild landscape.

Being on that aforementioned high, we had lofty expectations for this park. And we were not disappointed.

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OUR RV RENOVATION & TOUR

August 17, 2018

Here it is, friends! Our home sweet home on wheels.

First, the backstory: We spent several months researching for hours on end, attending RV conventions and watching RV tours on YouTube after the kids went to bed, instead of Netflix (not even kidding, we are very cool), before we decided on a Winnebago Minnie Winnie 26A. Here were our big requirements:

1. A sleeping space for everyone.
2. A separate space for Mom and Dad for privacy (and sanity).
3. I really wanted an oven and a gas range.
4. A shorter length, preferably less than 28 feet, so we could easily stay at national parks should we choose to do so.
5. Decent cargo carrying capacity (aka, the total weight our rig can carry).
6. Decent tank capacities (aka how much fresh water we can hold, and how much our black and grey water tanks can hold before we have to dump them).
7. Good storage space.
8. Adequate seatbelt options for the kids.

There was a whole host of other reasons why we decided on a Class C motorhome, as well, but I’ll save that for another post. In short, we came across the Minnie Winnie sort of by accident, and decided within 48 hours, after being SO SURE we were going to buy a Winnebago View, to purchase a Minnie Winnie instead. So far, we love it. We have appreciated having all the above capabilities, but also being nimble in the way of having a shorter rig with a tow vehicle. All in all, we’re happy with our setup from a technical standpoint (though I’ll be honest: my heart still beats for an Airstream. Maybe someday!).

My biggest setback on the Minnie Winnie, as vain as this sounds, is that… well, it was pretty ugly on the inside coming right out of the factory (you can see some “before” pics in this post on my food blog!). Many RV owners share the lament that RV design is way outdated – for whatever reason, most models still haven’t joined the 21st century. Until they do, we are left to our own devices in terms of updating the space to feel more like home.

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VISITING THEODORE ROOSEVELT NATIONAL PARK

August 10, 2018

Our visit to Theodore Roosevelt National Park was our first trip to a U.S. national park as a family of four. Elliott visited the park previously, so when we planned our route for this summer, he insisted we make a stop there. Never having really explored North Dakota before, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I trusted his zeal for our trip.

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WHAT WE’VE LEARNED IN ONE MONTH OF FULL-TIME RV LIFE

August 2, 2018

Today marks one month since we moved out of a house and into an RV full-time. In some ways, it’s been the hardest month of our lives – and that’s saying something, considering we spent the previous five months preparing for this lifestyle transition. That being said? It’s also been one of the best months we’ve ever had as a family.

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