Cross country in a LUXURY RV | Life on the road UNFILTERED

We have a 2,500 mile road trip. We're going to be driving for six days straight. Well, this is definitely not looking good. We are going to hit severe thunderstorm. Fingers crossed we don't run into any tornadoes, but it's going to be a nasty day. You can tell we're out of practice, baby. Chris has had to run back and forth like four times this morning. We're not usually this bad about it. Axel, we cannot stage a protest. This is going to be an expensive trip. One of the downsides of driving in such a big class A motorhome like ours. Uh-oh, we're already in the $300 mark. We still got, what, 40 gallons to go? It got us checked in is the good news. The bad news is that there's no water. That's a lesson learned that we probably should have a little bit more water in the tank. We're getting ready to hit the road for a cross-country road trip in our motorhome, going from Southern California on our RV lot where we've been spending the winter, all the way up to Northern Michigan to our other RV lot where we're going to spend most of the summer. This is a 2,500 mile road trip. We're going to be going through a lot of different states. The whole journey is going to take us about six days to get there. A lot of long days, a lot of driving. A lot of people think that traveling in a class A motorhome like this is all fun and games, and it's like a big vacation, which is semi-true. It is a lot of fun to travel in, but it's also a lot of work. So we're going to take you along for the whole journey, show you all the ins and outs of what it's really like, and fingers crossed we don't have any issues. That's going to be the biggest thing. No breakdowns this time. On our RV lot here in California, we've gotten everything packed up and ready to go. You can see on our patio here, we have all of our furniture stacked up. Security shutters are down, so everything inside is all packed up and ready to go. The nice thing about these RV lots is that they don't require a lot of maintenance while we're gone, so we can kind of button it all up and not really have to worry about it. Plus they have 24-hour security here, so we know that things are going to be safe and secure. The worst part about it though is that we're not going to have our own private pool anymore. This has been so amazing to have this winter. We've absolutely loved our stay here in the Palm Springs area, and Axel loves it more than anybody else. Axel, come here! Do you want to go for one last swim? I'm kidding, you don't get to go for another swim, do you? He absolutely loves it and is going to be so bummed about having to leave. I think we are ready to go. We've got everything packed up, the RV's ready, the slides are in. All we got to do is back it out, hook up the Lincoln, and hit the road. Does everything look okay? Yeah, it's all coming up. Just got to warm up. All right, I gave you the walkie-talkie, so I'm gonna stand outside and just help you back up. Breaker, breaker. Why is that always your favorite thing to say? Because we need to come up with something new. Because I'm a little boy at heart. Come on all the way out. Yep, come on all the way out. I'm watching behind you. Now that we got the RV backed out, I'm gonna get in the Lincoln and drive it up to the front where we're gonna hook up the Lincoln for flat towing. This car has actually been pretty good since we got it, and Chris just installed the new braking system on it. So we got the Air Force One braking system, we got remote lights, so we're all safe and ready to go now. Lincoln's been pretty good as a tow vehicle so far. Fingers crossed it continues to be good on this long trip. It has been good. I guess this will be the first real test. And you got the Air Force One brake installed, you got the remote lights, and what else did you do? Battery disconnect, Air Force One brake, and then the remote lights. So we're good to go. All right, tap the brakes for me so I can see if the lights are working. Yeah, there they go. They're working. Blinker. Try the blinkers to make sure. The blinkers are backwards. First of all, we forgot to turn the power to the lights. Now he's got them turned the wrong way. You can tell we're out of practice, baby. It probably says left and right on here. Oh, sure enough, it does. It's tighter on the windshield wiper there. That's on purpose. Oh, okay. So that way if one of these falls off, they'll just hang from the wires and I won't lose them. And they're tight on there? They're not gonna fall off? Yeah, they're tight on here. All right, let's try that test one more time. Chris has had to run back and forth like four times this morning. We're not usually this bad about it. Looks good. Right blinker's going, left blinker's going. Brakes look good. There's our other friends this morning, Matt and Dean. Hey guys, that convertible looks good on you. We're like 15 minutes late, but at least we're not too bad this morning. So thank you. Have fun cruising around. All right, go ahead. I'm watching it to make sure she rolls. She's rolling. Only 20 minutes. Not 20, we're 18. 18. Don't overdo it. It took a little longer than normal. It took a little longer. Hey buddy, are you ready? Now that you're gone from the site, you're okay with being in the RV? Good job, buddy. Can I sit there with you, man? Good boy. I can't believe after six months it's time to leave for good. I can't either, it's weird. I don't think it's actually registered in my brain. It has not sunk in. You see the tires turning on the Lincoln? I can see all the tires turning. I can see the brakes working. I can see the air pressure on the tire in the Lincoln. Nice. Oh we know if there's a problem with the tires on the Lincoln, problem with the brakes on the Lincoln, which is weird because typically we can't even see the Lincoln. Yeah, and Axel's already snuggled up in his bed all cozy. So we are going I-10 East. We're going to go towards Phoenix basically, which just so happens to be like the most boring drive on the planet from here to Phoenix. There is nothing. It's like driving through Mars. It's kind of cool for a little bit, but then it just gets really mundane. Yeah, after you've seen a hundred cactus and a hundred sagebrush, it's kind of all the same. All the same. There is some cool like people watching with all the RVs they got parked out in the middle of nowhere in like blithes and stuff. Yeah, true. What's it called? 59 palms? Nine palms? 29. 29. 29. We should count them today and make sure there's still 29. All right, we're getting on I-10 here going eastbound. Now you get to sing your favorite song. Eastbound and down, roll it up and truck it home. We are finally well on our way. Our goal was to get out at about 9 a.m. this morning. We got out right at about 9 20, so it wasn't too bad. We were only 20 minutes late, especially since we were filming. It always takes longer anytime we film YouTube videos, so not too bad honestly. Like we mentioned earlier, we have a 2,500 mile road trip. We're going to be driving for six days straight. We're going to be going from California, where we are currently, into Arizona. Our first night stay will be just east of Flagstaff, so we're going towards Phoenix and up to Flagstaff and east. After that, we'll be going through Albuquerque and then the next night staying in Amarillo, Texas. Then we kind of start heading a little bit more diagonally up. We'll be going through Oklahoma City, Tulsa, then the St. Louis area, and then going up and around through Chicago to eventually get back up to Michigan. So quite the long journey. We're going to be cutting through a lot of states. These are mostly states that we've been to before we've explored them, so we decided not to really make too much of a trip and like stay other places and just get back up to Michigan. Since we've got a lot of travel coming up this summer, we kind of just want to get there and enjoy our spot for as much time as we possibly can. All right babes, are you ready for this? Six straight days of being stuck in the RV with me. I can't wait. It's what I live for. I'm gonna have to find some good dateline podcast or something to keep you There you go. We usually don't listen to the radio or music or anything like that, but we do try to listen to some podcasts every now and then just to kind of break up the mundane-ness of the drive and usually just trying to find something that's semi-interesting to watch. Kind of a boring drive already. It's long. A long six days. So once we get back to Michigan, we'll be there for a couple weeks and then we're gonna head down to Tennessee. We'll be in Lebanon, Tennessee for the National Indoor RV Center's second annual Music City Motorhome Expo. We're really excited. This is the first year that we're attending and it is going to be an awesome event. If you're not familiar with this event, it is a VIP shopping experience unlike any other RV show. It's a capped event so there's only a certain amount of people allowed at the show. It's not your typical RV show with, you know, kind of a fair style atmosphere with lots of people everywhere and strollers and, you know, funnel cake vendors and all those types of things. It's a really exclusive shopping experience. So if you're in the market for an RV, we would highly recommend attending. They're going to have all the latest 2026 motorhomes from the top RV manufacturers. So you're going to be the first ones that are actually going to get to see the new models. You'll also get to test drive any of the RVs that you want. You can meet with the manufacturers, meet with the engineers, talk to them about the new models. They're also going to have camping if you want to come in your RV, nightly live entertainment, gourmet meals, snacks, all that. They also have educational seminars. It's going to be a really, really cool event. We've got something very, very exciting happening at the show that we cannot wait to share. So if you are looking for an RV, we would highly recommend attending this event. We'd absolutely love to meet up. We'd love to share this surprise with you. And the best part is that we have teamed up with NIRVC to offer our followers a 50% off discount for the registration fee. So if you use the link in the description below, you're going to get half off the registration fee. And if you purchase an RV through NIRVC within a year of attending the expo, you're going to get your registration fee refunded. And you're also going to get up to $2,000 reimbursed from any of your travel expenses. So if you buy an RV, there's really no additional costs associated to you. And also, if you have any RV service needs, you can use our exclusive friends and family discount to get some really good deals through NIRVC. So be sure to check those out as well. We hope to see you at the event in Tennessee. Let us know if you'll be joining us. Our very first stop of the trip, two and a half hours in, we're going to stop at a rest area and make some lunch. Let Axel out, walk around a bit. It's always nice to stop at rest areas. They have a lot more room. Yeah, they are fun. Although I don't have high hopes on this one. No, this one just looks like it's in the middle of nowhere. It really does. We're going to have like tumbleweeds blowing past us. This makes me excited to get back to Michigan where there's trees and greenery again. Totally. We always get to park back with all the big trucks. At least it's nice, big and clean. Right. Axel, what do you think, buddy? Are you ready to stop? Do you want to get out? Got a pet exercise area. Axel's always so excited. This is not going to be a place that you're going to enjoy, buddy. You're going to have to go pee in the rocks, man. I'm sorry. Come on, Axel. You want to go out and go potty, take a little break? Look at how nice this rest area is, buddy. Look at those nice rocks. At least there's spot to park the RV. That's true. Thankfully, we had some leftovers. We got some Thai food. So this will make a really good, quick and easy lunch that I can just microwave really fast. I'm always amazed at how much food you get with Thai. Really pack it in. Especially with Thai hot. It was a good idea I had getting this for the trip. This is a pretty good meal to have on the road, buddy. It's like our version of fast food, but healthier and much better. I think today we've got close to four hours left. A little under four hours, probably. Yeah. Stop one more time for fuel and then we'll be there. Time to get moving. That was a good lunch. Okay, buddy. You excited? I know that rest area wasn't very nice. Get back to taking a nap. Yeah, he gets to sleep all day. Everything with the car looked okay? Everything's good. Lincoln's still back there. So we go east to Phoenix and then we're gonna go north on I-17 to get to Flagstaff. We have to go right past our favorite place, Sedona. We don't get to stop. Feels good to be going north. At least I feel like we're making some progress. Right. We gotta go east and north all week long. How many miles have we driven? Couple hundred? Three hundred? No, we have what, 2,300 to go? Yes, insane. We haven't really made a dent, have we? We will have over 30,000 miles on the coach when we get there. Now we're starting to get into saguaro country. The big cacti. It's amazing how we go from totally barren Phoenix to the drive to Flagstaff. It's starting to get green. You're starting to see a lot of the saguaros. More trees. I think this is actually one of the coolest parts about traveling the country in a motorhome is that you get to see all the places along a route that you normally wouldn't get to if you were flying in an airplane or something. Like this road between Phoenix to Flagstaff might not seem all that exciting and interesting but it's actually a really cool drive and it's one of those things like you would totally miss out on it if you were just flying somewhere. So I really think that that's one of the benefits of RV travel is you get to just see all along the path that you're going and what's your favorite phrase? It's not about the destination, it's the journey. It's the journey. The journey that counts. So there's so many places that you would miss out on if you weren't in an RV. Yeah all these cacti are really cool. They are really cool. This road leads to one of my favorite places Sedona which we'll be going back to next year in the winter. This next exit has a pie store. We should stop. That would probably be the messiest snack while driving ever. That'd be good. This is where the X-15 really comes in handy. We're going straight uphill. She can handle anything. No it does. It does really well. Chris loves having the extra power. We can be in the left lane passing people. Who doesn't like more power? Our very first gas fill-up of the trip. What do you think it's going to cost? Three quarters of a tank we used. So diesel's like three bucks a gallon I think. Is that all it is? So what's the math? 100 gallons to 120 gallons. All right buddy you're ready to get out? We'll take a quick walk around. You hear all the big trucks? Dad's gonna fill up. We're gonna get our diesel fill. Yeah. The first of many right? Yeah that's very true. This is gonna be an expensive trip. One of the downsides of driving in such a big class a motorhome like ours. All right I'm gonna go let Axel for a walk and then I'll be back. Okay. The guy in front of us moved so you can get deaf. I gotta get deaf and everything. It's cold out here. It is. I can't believe it. What was the damage? $373. That's not the worst we've ever had. Almost 100 gallons. You called it perfectly though. 98.49. You were pretty close there. Pretty close. You're getting good at guessing the cost of this thing. On the road again. 100 gallons of diesel later we're ready to keep going. That's right. That's a lot of diesel when you think about it. I have to say one of the perks to RV travel you can make yourself some healthy snacks. I just went in the back and got some pretzel chips and a honey crisp apple which is one of my favorite afternoon snacks and this way we don't have to eat any junk food or fast food on the whole journey. Which is probably Chris's least favorite part about traveling. Our favorite thing is that I don't let him eat junk food. I like the junk food. Is that true? I do. I love to stop and get junk food. What kind of junk food is your favorite? I don't have a favorite. Sometimes sweet, sometimes salty, sometimes chocolate, sometimes not chocolate. We got an hour and a half to go to our RV stay for the night. Not too bad of a drive. So now after being in the desert for about the last six months we are almost to Flagstaff and we are seeing trees and decent sized trees for the first time in a long time and I have to say I'm really remembering how pretty green trees and forests are so it's becoming a fun drive like just within one day today we've already driven through three different types of landscapes. It's kind of amazing. Look at how dusty it is. Here's our exit. Exit 233 Meteor Crater Road. Staying at some RV park right off the highway which I think we can see right there. Unfortunately I don't think we're gonna have time to actually go check out the Meteor Crater. That would be cool. Axel is gonna be so excited to get out of the RV. Come on buddy. He's got his face in the corner he won't even look at us he's so mad. It's so weird how we were just passing through Flagstaff like 30 minutes ago and we were in a forest with mountains and green trees and now it's like we're in the middle of nowhere again. All right I got us checked in is the good news. The bad news is that there's no water so we had a full hookup site with sewer electric and water but their water is currently out so they offered to give us a $10 refund back or they said you can just keep driving and see if you can find another place to stay which I don't feel like driving anymore so we have what almost a half tank? Yeah almost half tank. We're gonna have to conserve water a little bit. That's a lesson learned that we probably should have a little bit more water in the tank. I told you this morning we didn't need that much water because we had full hookups but I guess you can never really be too sure. We just got pulled into the spot we're going to get set up put the slides out do the hookups and stuff since we don't have water we don't have to worry about doing that but we'll at least get the electric and sewer set up. It's pretty windy here so hopefully it's not going to be a problem with the slide out toppers flapping in the wind keeping us up all night. We're kind of like right off the highway here you can see probably see the highway behind me which is probably going to make for a little bit of a noisy night but you know hey at least it's safe. We've got electric and some hookups so we can at least just kind of hang out and relax and enjoy a little bit of a peaceful night before our next drive tomorrow which is going to be like a 12-hour day. So we are parked and set up finally it's night one here we're in Winslow, Arizona. We've got what five more days to go? Five more days. This was the short day. That's right this was one of our shorter days so tomorrow we've got to get up really early we'll probably be up at about five hitting the road by 6 a.m. We're driving all the way from Winslow, Arizona to Amarillo, Texas which is like an eight-hour just straight drive and in the RV it always takes us a little bit longer because stops are longer we drive a little bit slower. Can't always do the speed limit. Yeah so it's probably gonna be more like a 10-11 hours of driving and plus we have two time zone changes so we're going through mountain time and central time. Yep. So we're gonna get there even later so you're gonna have to wake me up early. You're the morning one of the two of us. I'll get up we'll be on the road before six. But at least now we can relax I'll make Chris some dinner and he can kick up his feet finally after a long day of driving. I feel really tired. I do too. Yeah. Let's get some rest. We gotta get in the habit of this again. Yeah we do. Good morning. It is 5 a.m. currently and we are up way too early. Well it's too early for me anyway. Chris is always up early and always happy that he can have some quiet time with his coffee. Do I look happy this morning? Do I sound happy? I'm tired. I didn't sleep too good because it was cold last night. It got down into like almost freezing. It was 33 degrees last night. No the cold was fine. It's the noise. It's the highway noise that keeps me up. We're not used to being in an RV park right off the highway so. We're kind of spoiling. Let's just admit it. All right I'm gonna take a shower and then let's get packed up and go. Sounds good. Okay we just finished getting ready and getting the inside prepped and everything. We were hoping to get going a little bit earlier this morning. It's about 6 20 now but we wanted to sleep in a little bit because it's kind of cold outside. So now we're just going to put the slides in, lift up the jacks and then we should be ready to hit the road again. Unfortunately I didn't get to take a nice long hot shower this morning because since we didn't have water we had to preserve it. But at least I got a quick shower and woke up feeling a bit more refreshed. At least that was an easy spot to get out of. All right let's get on the highway. All right let's go. Let's see where's Axel. Oh Axel's on his little blankie since it's cold. Are you gonna come up sit by here? I'll turn the heat on for you man. Come here. Good boy. I know it's cold. You're not used to the cold this morning are you? We've been driving about 320 miles already from our RV spot this morning and we've got about another 250 miles to go to get to Amarillo. So we're about to stop at a TA truck stop and get some lunch. Unfortunately there's not really many rest areas along this highway today. It's kind of odd but we've been having to stop at truck stops more often which isn't as great as a rest area in our opinion. But we're gonna stop there, make some lunch, let Chris take a break. He's been driving since six in the morning so we're a little bit tired but everything's going pretty well so far. No issues which that's all we can hope for at this point. Says we're about 10 minutes to the TA to do a quick check-in with you babe. How are you feeling? Do I look as tired as I feel? No you look like a million bucks. You never know you've been driving. Green and wrinkly. Like four hours already? No more than four hours. You've been driving since 6 30 in it. Oh wait no we went through a time zone. Five hours. Do a quick check-in of Axel. Hey little buddy how you doing? He usually likes to sit up front with us in his bed but I think he got cold and he wanted to go lay in the back on the blanky. I don't blame him. He got up early too. He's staging a full-on protest back there. Not super happy with us. It'll be nice to make some lunch. Lunch sounds good. To make you something healthy too. Axel we're getting ready to stop. Are you excited bud? Come see. There you go man. You're ready to get out and take a little break. It's been a long driving day for you. We're gonna get some gas first buddy. Just finishing up our second fuel stop of the trip. So how many gallons did it take? 76. 76. You are getting really good about estimating. Very good guess. What was the total cost? 250. 250. Now we'll get our discount. That's not too bad actually with the discount. No it's not bad. Probably $2.75 maybe. Let's move the RV and we'll go make lunch in the parking lot. Look at Axel up there in the driver's seat. Hey buddy. Making some chipotle chicken salad. We got these salad packs from Costco before we left and also got a pack of rotisserie chicken that had already been like separated from the chicken itself. So just put these two things together and can make a pretty good salad. It's healthy. Axel wants some. Axel just wants the chicken. He doesn't want the lettuce. Bon Appetit. Going pretty fancy here with the paper china. Very nice. At least we have gold forks. Balances it out a bit. Paper china. What do you think? Any good? It reminds me of like a taco salad like with the where they serve it to you in the big taco thing. That's probably the hardest thing about driving. Just sitting in one position for so long. You want me to drive next? No. I'm good. Why don't you ever let me drive? Because I'm good. I don't know what to do if you drive. Our rules are well defined. There's no reason to change them. You're a good navigator. I can drive. Just finished fueling up and having some lunch. Now we're ready to get back on the road again. Axel's going outside to play a little bit. What do we got? 240 miles to Amarillo? It's 239. You could do that with your eyes closed baby. Sure. Let me try. I promise I'll help drive. I wish they would have self-driving RVs. Yeah that would be nice. What do you want for a snack? You look like you're getting tired. Ice water, almonds, gummy bears. Your wish is my command my dear. Thanks sweetie. We have about 11 miles to go till we get to our second RV stay of the trip. Staying at Amarillo RV Resort just outside of Amarillo, Texas. Chris is currently bugging me to stop at a free 72 ounce steak place. Which what? The Big Tex. We're going to the Big Tex. Which is what? If you eat the whole steak you get it for free. It's 72 ounce steak, a baked potato, a salad, and a roll probably. You gotta eat it in one hour. Yeah but you realize we can't share that. That's like per person. Oh no you gotta eat your own. I'm not paying for yours. There's no way you would be able to eat a 72 ounce steak. Well let's go see. Let's go try. I don't want to pay for two 72 ounce steaks to see that you can't do it. You know I'm right. Let's just get to the RV park and then I'll make you dinner. This is our exit. Exit 60 right next to the Loves. Apparently this Loves has RV hookups. See a lot of class A's in there. Yeah there are. Looks sufficiently adequate. It's the best we can hope for for an overnight stay. Adequate. Oh it's bright. Let's go see if they have our welcome packet. Usually they just leave it right outside the office if you get in after it's already closed. Hopefully they left us a packet in here. Okay we got our packet. Okay stop. I think that's good. Well at least at this RV park we have water. Let's get cold here. They got water heater things. Got water pressure. Awesome. The little things in life. After being so out of practice doing this we're going to get really in practice on this trip doing it what five times. And undoing it six times. Yeah undoing and redoing it every day. Thanks Axel for your help buddy. You didn't hook up the sewer yesterday did you? No we never did. We weren't going to use much water. There wasn't much of a point. Perfect. Done. Awesome. Well unless you want to see me empty it. No I'm good. Go wash your hands please. Well can't say this is the best RV park we've ever stayed at but we have large pull through sites. This site is I think they said it was close to 100 feet long. So we fit in it perfectly. Lots of space. The only downside I will say is the smell here. We've definitely got a smell of cows from the big uh feed lot that's right nearby. So definitely the one downside. No opening the doors or windows. But other than that hopefully we can get a good night's sleep and hit the road tomorrow. So we had a bunch of brine somehow that got on the side of the RV. Chris is just rinsing it off real quick. It's not really good for that stuff to be left on the RV. How it got on there? I don't know either because we didn't drive through anywhere that had snow. All right baby that smells good. I'm hungry. I hear my stomach growling. You do all the driving. I do all the cooking. Good morning. It's currently 6 a.m. We're just waking up in Amarillo, Texas. We're gonna be heading out to Joplin, Missouri today. That's our next stop. We got another couple hundred miles to go. It's gonna be about a seven hour drive but the problem is we're gonna be driving through severe thunderstorms all day long with a high risk of tornadoes. We're driving right through Tornado Alley going from Amarillo, Oklahoma City, Tulsa and then Joplin. So today is gonna be anything but a fun drive. Chris has been working on getting the outside ready. I've been working on the inside. We're pretty much ready to go. We got up at 5 a.m. again. Pretty tired from the last couple days already. This will be day three of driving. So we're gonna try to get out of here pretty quickly this morning and see if we can get ahead of these storms. So hopefully we don't run into anything too bad. If we do we might just have to pull over and try to wait it out. All right, everything looks good outside. Job getting out. Just get this set up really quick and then we can get on our way. One of the really annoying things about driving in very windy stormy conditions is the sound of the wind. You can probably hear it howling around us if we're driving straight into the wind and it's so loud. Chris and I can barely even talk to each other because it's so noisy and this is a pretty well insulated coach so it's just amazing how noisy it is driving one of these big flat days when it's this windy out. What's your favorite? A cross wind or a front wind? Either. Rear wind. Not gonna be a very fun day of driving. Well this is definitely not looking good. Around the Oklahoma City area we are going to hit severe thunderstorms. They're calling for a risk of tornadoes, hail, and very strong wind gusts. This looks like it's going to be all along the route today so fingers crossed we don't run into any tornadoes but it's going to be a nasty day. Looks like we're about to get hit with the storm. We're driving into it right now. We can see that the clouds are starting to get really dark and really nasty in front of us. Got our last tiny little bit of sunshine and then it looks like it's all black skies from here. Well we made it through the tornado warning thankfully. We just got on the other side of Oklahoma City. We stopped off at a Walmart for a bit to kind of sit and wait through some of the rain and bad weather. Got soaking wet going into Walmart. Had to put on a change of clothes because we just got drenched but otherwise I think we're pretty good. We're clear of most of the storms. They're kind of going south of Oklahoma City now so now we're on our way towards Tulsa and then Joplin, Missouri which is where we're staying for the night. So fingers crossed we don't run into any more bad weather but hopefully that should be the worst of it. Not exactly fun driving the RV through a monsoon but Carly did good. How does it feel seeing grass and green trees for the first time in what six months? It's pretty nice. I was thinking about that about the rain too. Like we were talking the other day it'd be nice to see some rain so now that we've seen some rain I'm ready to go back to the desert. But the green is nice. I'm remembering how nice the green is. This kind of reminds me of Michigan. It is very green and pretty. Yeah. How are you feeling after day three of driving? Well almost after day three. You still got a couple hours to go. Perfect. Couldn't be better. We just stopped to get fuel. This is our third fuel stop of the trip. We are just outside of Tulsa. I think we're in between Tulsa and Joplin actually. So we've only got about 45 more minutes to go to get to our RV spot for the night but we got a pretty big fill up. This is actually going to be our biggest fill up since we've been on the trip. I think we've got close to 120 gallons plus we got to get depth so it's going to take a little bit of time. So I'm going to make us something to eat real quick and then we can get back on the road and get to our spot in Joplin. So your guess is 120 gallons. Uh probably only like 105, 110. Only? It's going to be expensive no matter what. How much depth do we need? We need about half a depth so is that five gallons ish. Okay we'll see where we end up. Uh-oh we're already in the $300 mark. We still got what 40 gallons to go? I don't think it'll go over 110. All right we'll see if you're right. So I guess you were wrong because it just stopped at 96. Well there might be room for another couple gallons. It should take at least 100. I'd be really surprised if it doesn't take 100. You're at 99. 100. 0.059. I said 105 the first time. All right 345. We'll get a discount with our Open Roads fuel card so it won't be too bad. Getting pretty close. We only have a few more miles to go to the exit. Hopefully we'll get there before it gets too dark. Sun's setting fast so it's probably going to be kind of dark when we pull in but trying to get there quick. Okay we're pulling into the KOA right here. This is the Joplin KOA journey right off the side of the highway. Just about to lose all sunlight. We got a little bit, little sliver of light left so we're gonna try to hurry up get parked and get the hookups done before it's too dark. It is day four here in Joplin, Missouri. We just got the RV all packed up and ready to go this morning. It's about 8 45 right now so we're gonna get on the road. We're a little later this morning because we wanted to sleep in for once on this trip. We're and get on to our next stop. We're going to Springfield, Ohio next which is about a five hour 45 minute drive. So it'll probably take us maybe seven hours total so it shouldn't be too bad of a day. Axel decided to ride shotgun with me this morning huh bud? He always loves to ride up front with me when we first get going. You're such a good puppy. Can I have a kiss? Thank you buddy. You're the bestest puppy. You're such a good travel dog. Okay we're about to stop at what might be the most exciting stop of the entire trip. Drum roll please. Where are we going babe? Buc-ee's. Buc-ee's. When was the last time we heard of Buc-ee's? It's been what at least a year I think since we've been at a Buc-ee's. So hopefully they have space for the RV. They don't really have official RV parking but they usually have a big enough parking lot that we can find a spot to park. So let's hope we can actually find something so that way Chris can go inside and get a brisket sandwich. What are you gonna get? Brisket sandwich and roasted almonds. No, pecans. Get your nuts right Kirk. Somebody's a little bit excited for Buc-ee's. Yeah I am always excited about Buc-ee's. It always takes us like half an hour inside because there's so many fun things to look at and so much food that we don't need but we end up buying. Good news on the back side of the Buc-ee's they have plenty of parking here so we're gonna go park down here. Look at that custom. That's a custom super seat isn't it? It's pretty cool looking. Bus and RV. They do a lot of RVs here. Perfect. Look at you. This is the first time we've ever seen an RV spot at a Buc-ee's. It is and it's handy. Nice. Is this your excited face because we got a Buc-ee's? Yeah my excited face yes. I love the RV parking here for once. This is really nice. Yeah this is a nice one. It's a nice big parking spot and also easy to get into. Not be rushed. We could actually get gas here if we don't need it. We could. Brisket and a taco. Maybe some candy. Maybe. We gotta get those gummy berries here. And some pecans. Chris is going straight to the barbecue section. No first to the pecans. Oh the glazed pecans. That's what they are. Those are your favorite. Oh yeah I just heard it. Brisket. Oh yeah brisket on the board. I feel like all these guys are waiting for brisket. All right we got breakfast tacos. We got breakfast sandwiches. Beaver tots. I love beaver tots. Oh I gotta get some tater tots. Their breakfast sandwiches are always really good. I really like their biscuits. Might be all they have today is breakfast sandwiches. Yeah they usually have these tacos that are really good. Oh they might be over here. Not sure what to get now. This might be my favorite section. The wall of gummies. These are the best gummy bears on the planet though. They have so much flavor. You think two bags? Let's not get crazy. Maybe three. Maybe three. So we have some to last us. There'll be a year till we come back. Right. Just finished getting our haul from Bucky's. Two bags worth. Axel do you want to see some beaver tots? Come see what we got you. We got you your favorite. The Bucky's tots. You love those. Come on. Up and up. Let's go get a treat. Good job. You ready for your first beaver tot man? Are you gonna be a good boy? Can you sit? Gentle. Gentle. Good dog. Good boy. You love those huh? Would you like a beaver tot? Tot for my love? Thanks baby. I love a good Bucky's top. Just had our fourth fuel stop of the trip. Went and stopped at a Road Ranger. Chris just ran inside. Let's see what the total cost of this one was. We didn't need too much but it was the last place to get gas in Missouri. Prices were gonna go up so we only needed 54 gallons which was 188 bucks. So not too bad for this part but now the gas is gonna get more expensive as we get into Illinois so that's why we wanted to make sure we could fill up. Let's go see what Axel's doing inside while we wait for Chris. Of course you're in the driver's seat buddy. Of course you are. Are you ready to go for a drive? Are you gonna play pilot today? You're a good puppy. Just got back on the road after fueling up and we're now driving through St. Louis. You can actually see the arch through there. The gateway to the west right? Isn't that what the arch is known for? Yeah I think so. Have you ever been up in the arch? I have. Really? Yep. I never have. I've never even seen it up close. Really? It's really big. My childhood best friend Tanya lived here and I lived here with her for a summer. Her and I got to go up into the arch. There it is, the big arch. It's a lot bigger than you think especially when you're standing under it. Remember the last time when we drove through here with our first Super C Motorhome? We tried to drive it downtown to go look at the arch. I thought we could find parking. Assumed we could parallel park the Super C somewhere. A 40-foot motorhome in downtown St. Louis. It didn't go well. There's the mighty Mississippi. Chicago, here we come. So we have a slight change of plans. Well actually not a slight change, it's kind of a big change. So we kind of decided while driving that instead of stopping in Springfield, Ohio tonight and then stopping near Grand Rapids, Michigan tomorrow so that way the next day we'd only have three hours left to go to Michigan, we decided to kind of book it and go a little bit further today so that way we can actually just get to our RV lot in Michigan tomorrow night and not have to stay two more nights in a different location. So tonight we are actually driving just south of Chicago staying at some KOA holiday that we found along the route. So it made our drive today like seven and a half hours instead of five and a half hours which is longer and the drive tomorrow now will be a bit longer but it's just going to be a little bit easier so that way we're not having to set up two more times. We only have to set up one more time before we get to Michigan. A little bit better situation but that's one of the nice things about RV travel. It's flexible, we can change our plans, so you know that's the perk. Chris has been doing an excellent job driving all day. How are you feeling? Good. Although as soon as we've had this great travel day, the weather's been nice, there's been no wind and then all of a sudden we make this change and now the wind is just coming at me from the side and I'm all over the road. So now all of a sudden I got to work at it. We are in Illinois currently. We're going to stop at a rest area here in a couple minutes. It's our last stop of the day and we've only got about another hour and a half to go to our spot for the night. So all in all it's been a pretty smooth travel day and just hope it stays that way. It's pretty windy. It's very windy. Good lord we're gonna blow away out here. It's the Illini Prairie. You ready buddy? Our last tent. You got another hour to go and then we'll be there, okay? Come on. Axel, we cannot stage a protest. Come on, let's go. Come on. We'll get you a treat. Come on, let's go inside and get a treat. I know, I'm sorry. Good boy. He's so funny when he lays down like that. We got one mile to go then we're turning right into the KOA. You did good driving today, babe. Thanks, baby. I had a long day today. This is where you say you did good navigating today. You did good navigating today, sweetie. Thank you. Look at this fancy KOA. It's a holiday. Almost as nice as the KOA that was by Three Mile Island. That's true. Okay, we gotta follow her in the golf cart and she's gonna lead us to our site. Okay. We just got set up in our RV spot for the night. We lucked out with another pull through that was long enough so that way we don't have to unhook the Lincoln which just makes things so much easier. So Chris went ahead and got all the hookups done. I got most of the stuff set up inside just for the night. We're gonna take Axel for a quick walk and then I'm gonna make some dinner and we're probably gonna get to bed kind of early tonight because we've got another long travel day ahead of us tomorrow but at least that is actually our last day so we were able to cut a day off the trip since we drove a lot longer today which will be really nice now tomorrow when we get in. We can just get into our RV lot, get set up and be done with moving for a bit. That'll be a nice change of pace. It's our last morning of our road trip. We cut it a day short so instead of being on day six we're on day five which is really nice. We still have a bit of a trek to go today though so it's gonna be another long travel day. I can't wait for the cinnamon rolls in Michigan. That's true, that's your favorite part. Not today but tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow morning for sure. We got up at 5 a.m. again. It's currently 6. We're all packed up and ready to go. We've got about a six and a half hour drive today which will probably take us more like seven to eight so hopefully we'll get into our RV lot before it gets dark and be able to get set up but let's just hope for one last smooth travel day. Yeah, 5 a.m. it feels like 3 a.m. for us. It does feel really really early. Are you in a good mood this morning? Every morning is a good morning. And you get to be at our place in Michigan today. That's right. I was laughing that you said we had five hours and 59 minutes but not six hours, five hours and 59 minutes. Well that's what Google said. Google never lies. Like the farmland this morning. Axel's all tucked in. Not happy to be back in the RV today but he'll be pretty happy once we get there and he doesn't have to move for a while. Going right here on the I-57 north toward Chicago. Too bad we can't go to Chicago. Yeah, I haven't been there a long time. We're officially at the under two hour mark. Five straight days of driving and come down to the final two hours. 76 miles. I can't believe how cold it is here in Michigan. 46 degrees. When we left Palm Springs it was like 92. What is going to be the first thing you do when we get to our lot in Michigan? Well we got to un-winterize the place. Probably just walk around the place, check it out and hook the hot tub up as soon as possible. Might as well go ahead and start the Home Depot soundtrack as you're just kind of standing dad around. That'll just be nice to actually be able to set up today and then not set up again for a while. Yeah. Looking forward to that. We just got to a Love's truck stop near Grand Rapids. I think just outside of Grand Rapids actually and it is freezing cold. It's in the 40s. We are not used to this. We're used to being in the sun and by the pool in Palm Springs. I had to get my coat on. It's sprinkling just a little bit but it is cold as heck out here. Tristan's getting some fuel. I just let Axle out try to get out of here quick. All right baby, it was our last fill up before we parked. That's right. How much was it? So far $265. Ouch. I think it's done. I just got it. We got to get deaf. I got to get deaf though. We had what about half a tank? A little bit more yeah. Good god it's cold out here. I was not expecting this. It's not that bad but it's much colder than I thought. My hands are freezing. It is. We are t-minus 10 miles away. Oh my gosh there's Lake Michigan. I can see it. Oh man look at that. Look how pretty it is. We're back in uh parts of the town we recognize. Oh this makes me excited to see the lake. I know. It's been a long time. Can't believe we made it here in five days all the way from Southern California. We are just one mile away from our RV lot in Michigan. We are so close I feel like we can actually smell it. So as soon as we pull in we are going to get the Lincoln unhooked and then we're going to go walk over to our lot get everything moved out of the way so that way we can get the RV parked and I just can't believe we made it here. The gate was open buddy. We're through the gate man. Pickleball. You can see quite a bit of damage in the trees. Oh yeah look at that there's a bunch of damage from the ice storm. This area just got hit with the worst ice storm in like 20-50 years something like that. Yeah. All right Axel we're so close. We're just so close. I haven't seen another coach yet. Oh there's a coach. One person's here. At least one. There's Haley. It's your girlfriend Haley. Hey okay okay. I smell Haley dad. Axel just saw his favorite girlfriend a little golden retriever. He's going nuts. Was that Haley? You can't wait. You know exactly where we're at don't you? You're getting so excited. Finally made it. Woohoo. After five days and 2,500 miles we have finally made it to our other RV lot in Michigan. Unfortunately it's kind of a gray dreary day but the next week or two is supposed to be absolutely beautiful so we're enjoying a little bit of the cold weather. We've got a lot of work to do to unpack the spot. There's a whole mess of stuff to set up and take out and clean out things and reverse everything we did in October. Exactly. It feels like we just did this. I know right. But we're excited to be here. Great job driving babe. Good job navigating babe. Well we'll get set up and unpacked and then in a couple weeks we're going to be on to our next adventure. That's where we get some of these trees to bloom. That's right. All right well stay tuned we've got a really exciting update coming in the next couple weeks that we cannot wait to share with you so if you're already following along be sure to hit that subscribe button and we'll see you next time.