The REALITY of RV LIFE During the HOLIDAYS

Seeing how two o'clock is close, I don't think we're going to make it on time. It's travel day and we're headed to Hilton Head, South Carolina, where we'll show you how to pull off an amazing holiday on the road. When we decided to travel full time as a family 10 years ago, we knew we would be away from home for most of the holidays. And that was one of the biggest things we were worried about. This year, we'll be in Hilton Head for Thanksgiving. And instead of feeling like we're missing out on something, we're leaning into all of the things we get to do. So join us as we settle into one of our favorite campgrounds in the country, prepare our favorite holiday foods in the bus, and show you what holidays look like on wheels and how we make it work. But first, if we haven't met before, we're the Shinpaws. We're a family of four who travels full time so we can make memories now. Make sure to stick around to the end, because this video is a true peek into the full time RV life. We're about an hour from Hilton Head, so let's cover a few more topics before we get into the campground. So you might say, Linda, you and your family have left the community. You left your hometown and your family and you live this vagabond lifestyle. Do you even really care about traditions? We do. We care about traditions a lot. But the reality is, growing up, we always got together for meals with our family at the holidays. But we didn't have those kind of traditions where, you know, so-and-so brings this and so-and-so brings that. And so we really wanted to create some deep, meaningful traditions with our kids. First of all, we're always going to be together for the holidays, right? Absolutely. We have our favorite foods. And what makes these traditions extra special is we get to do them all over the country, oftentimes with some of our very best friends on the planet. It's true. So having said all that, there are still some things that we get concerned about, especially at the holidays, right? There's a bunch of extra traffic on the roads, and sometimes the weather doesn't go as planned. And that can affect us and the people that we're meeting. Also, there's the space constraints. We're going to cook Thanksgiving food in this bus, in these appliances, and we're going to do our very, very best. And we will bring you along for all of it. I will show you how we pull it off. But, you know, you only have so much counter space. There's only so much room in the bus anyhow. And, you know, it's not going to be just me and their cooking. We're going to have a few of us. So we'll be dancing a little bit in the kitchen. So would you say that we work really hard to protect our family connection, even though we're in constant movement? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it takes a lot of effort, but it is top, top, top level importance for us. We're getting close to Hilton Head, and I can't wait to get there. We've got so many fun things to share with you. I'm really glad you're here. Sarah Bear. So here's the plan for Thanksgiving. Okay. Instead of having a full feast here, we're going to join everybody at the clubhouse. Okay. It's 10 bucks a person, and they're going to provide turkey, mashed potatoes gravy, and a green bean casserole. Yum. So, all right. So we're going to pull the easy button, and we're going to go down there with the other families. Okay. But we still need to take a large dish to share, because there could be 50, 60, 70 people there. There's a lot. Wow, okay. Now we don't have to feed all of them, because everybody's bringing something, but they don't want you just to bring like a little thing of, you know, potato salad. They want like a thing of potato salad. So, I know what I'm making. Okay. I'm making corn casserole with the little jiffy mix. That's my favorite. Yeah, that's your favorite. So that's why I'm doing that. It's like a staple. And I'm going to make it in the 9x13, and I'm going to double the recipe. Okay, sounds good. So I need to make the list of things I need for that. Okay. So since you're making that, what if I made a dessert? Because for those who don't know, I love to bake. So what if I made... I've been dying to make some caramel cheesecakes. What if I just made mini caramel cheesecakes? Because I don't want my cheesecake pan with us, but I could just make a mini one. And Grammy Pam just gave you those little... Yeah. Cupcake Thanksgiving things. Yeah. So that might work. Yeah, I'll make those. Norman, what do you want to eat for Thanksgiving? I'm actually going to go ahead and put the ingredients right on our grocery list. For those of you who have never done this before, on your cell phone is a note app. And what we do is we share one of those notes amongst all four of us, and it's called grocery list. Then when we run out of something, we just put it on the list. And if I go to the store or Jason's out and about, if it's on the list and he's at the store where he can buy it, he just does. So it is a great, great, great tip, especially when you're mobile and you don't have a lot of space for notepads and stuff on the fridge and all of that. So I know that I need jiffy mix. Whoops. I probably should have spelled that right. Jiffy mix. And I know that I need cream corn and I need two cans of it. And I need sour cream. Everything else I have. And sour cream is actually bogo at Publix right now. So I'll do that. Okay, what do you need? Perfect. I need graham crackers, which I think we have. We do. I need butter. So we should probably get some of that because I'm also making homemade caramel and I need butter for that. So we need butter. I need 24 ounces of cream cheese. So 8, 16. I need three packs of cream cheese. Okay. We need more sugar because I've used that all up. Okay. We have eggs. We have vanilla. And then for my caramel recipe, I also need heavy whipping cream. Got it. Stick that up here by the dairy stuff. That should be all for me. Cool. That's a great start to the grocery list. We'll get with the boys and see what else we need to make the weekend a success. And then we'll head out to the grocery tomorrow the next day. Works for me. Well, something that you do have to be cautious about when you come here is see all these trees above me? Guess what? Starlink doesn't like all those trees. So we have our Starlink flush mounted on the top of our bus. And because there's so much tree cover above, I've been getting very, very bad Wi-Fi speeds. So as you can see, I pulled everything out because we actually, we have a solution. Some people actually mount their Starlink onto the roof of their rigs permanently. And it's not that that's a bad idea, but the reason you might not want to do that is for this circumstance right here. So I got the ladder off. I climbed up there. Starlink's sitting over there. I think, here's what I think I'm going to have to do. There's a gap in the trees right there. So what I'm going to try to do, take the Starlink, angle it that way. But what we have here, which is really cool, this is the door that immigrants used to go in and out of the bus because there were two jail cells in the back. But behind here, we built this into our closet, but I can take this off right back here. We have our Starlink set up because we have, I believe it's the three. And so we still have to have the router and everything, which if you guys don't know, get the mini. It has like the router and everything built into it, which is game changer. And if you look, this is how we decided to do our Starlink. You can see that it has like a harness and it's got four magnets and up on the roof, there are four more magnets. So it just sticks onto there. Never once had a problem with it. Never been worried about it coming off. So now this actually just pops out underneath up here on the bottom. Now here's how this works. You'll see this power cord right here. This is a power cord that runs up to the roof that connects right to it when it's flush mounted on the roof. So this is actually a second coil of Starlink cable cord, whatever you'd call it. And that end right there, I can plug into our router. So we have like a hundred feet of cord. So that way we can take the Starlink off and put it wherever we want. Plug that in, just go like this. So now just pick up the wifi. Now it'll start powering up. And so we're aiming for that. Well, pretty much anything's going to be better than that. So I will keep you guys updated. This is one of the best RV lots we've ever rented. So I'm going to take you for a tour and show you what we're calling home as we kick off the holiday season. Most of the lots here at Hilton Head Motor Coach Resort have furniture on them from the owners and they tend to leave them for you to use. We only set our stuff up here because Jason was working. So we had the table and we had two families over. And so the kids came over here and ate at their own little table. There are actually big umbrellas there, but we're not messing with those right now. The weather's so nice. The sunshine feels great. But there's even a huge fan tucked behind this. We did set our grill up because we like the Blackstone with the flat cooktop, but there is a grill here and they told us we were welcome to use it. We use the dining room table and one of the first days we were here, I brought my lunch out and had it right here in the swing. In this resort, all of the lots are privately owned. So no two are alike, but most of them are super private, very secluded with the foliage and have really nice patio furniture. Let's go take a look around the resort. It is a little chilly today. It's only going to be like just over 50. But the sun's shining. It's like that beautiful, crisp, cold weather. So it's definitely starting to feel like Christmas. Outside amenities are really important to our family. We spend so much time outside, especially when the weather is beautiful. So this central area here has about everything you could ask for. Over here, great playground. You can shoot some hoops at the basketball net and you can also play shuffleboard. And then over here, maybe not today, but in the summer when it's warmer, the pool is great to swim in. They do keep it heated. So we've actually been in it on this trip, but tucked back over there behind the chairs is the hot tub. And that's where all the magic happens. Let's go through inside and then we'll end up at the pickleball courts. So this is a really great common area. Kids came down here and played cards last night with some of their friends. Upstairs is where they're having the Thanksgiving pitch in. And then back here is the gym, which we are making really good use of. They have the usual bathhouses with showers in there. And there's a laundry room tucked in over here that you can use if you don't have a washer and dryer in your rig. This is our family's favorite part, the pickleball courts. Although we haven't got to play much this year with being in Alaska all summer. So I'm excited to get down here and hit some balls with the kids. Jason is not quite cleared to play pickleball. He's got about two more weeks. But yeah, this is a beautiful place to play pickleball. And check this out. I love that they did this. When we first started coming here, it wasn't like this. This was fence all the way to the top, but they cut it down halfway and put these great tables, these high top tables and chairs. So it just creates community. If you're waiting for your turn, because believe it or not, these courts can fill up, especially when the weather's really nice. So, you know, this is what it's all about. Just coming down, meeting people, being active, enjoying the beautiful weather. And if you're still in the tennis camp, it's okay. They've got courts here for you too. But you should try pickleball. You'll probably smoke us at it. Worth noting here is that you have to have a motor coach to come here. So it has to be a class A, B or C. And they do have a minimum length requirement. I think I read 26 feet, but somewhere around that. So you can't bring a toe behind. You can't bring a fifth wheel. You're just not going to be able to come here. And we had a fifth wheel for the first several years on the road. So once we did get to come here, oh my gosh, we were so happy. It is so beautiful. My favorite part though, of the entire campground are the trees. I love how they canopy over the top. Now I will tell you when you're sitting outside, just hanging out, if the wind blows or squirrels starts climbing through the trees, you got to take cover sometimes. The acorns and anything loose will fall down on you. You feel like you're totally tucked away somewhere and you're right in the middle of all the action. For me, that is the best of all the worlds. Well, we probably should have stayed home and cleaned out the back of the truck. Because we just arrived in Hilton Head yesterday. It's Saturday and Sarah and I are going to go have some Mother Dotto time. Yes, we are. And in preparation for the holidays, we're going to go shopping, but not just anywhere. There are a couple thrift shops right around the corner from Hilton Head Motor Coach that we're going to check out. One's called the Church Mouse. Yes. And what's the other one? My Sister's Closet or the, yeah, something about sisters and closets. Sister's Closet. So we're going to check them out. We've had good luck there before. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It'll be fun. It's time to venture out of the resort. Tonight is the Lantern Parade and we are so excited that we're here for it. We actually have friends that live in town, not far from the beach. So we're going to go to their house early and then we're going to have dinner with a bunch of other people. But then we can just walk over to the beach and not get stuck in all the traffic tonight. So we got to grab some crackers, a little more cheese, and then we'll be well on our way. All right. Bogo for the win. We are bobbing and weaving on all the streets to get to our friend's house because it is so busy in town. But what I can tell you guys is that I'm really excited to go to this Lantern Parade. One of our friends sent us a link to the website so we could see what it's all about. And it's kind of like the Macy's Day Parade but made out of lanterns. It's along the beach at dark. It's going to be gorgeous. So can't wait to get there. We're going to settle in for a few minutes, get ourselves set up at our friend's house, and then we'll take you on the walk to the beach and for the parade. We're very fortunate that we have friends that are from this area. And actually our friends that are just from the area don't live here. That's who I reached out to when we were coming to Hilton Head. And I said, their names are Lisa and George. I said, guys, what are your favorite restaurants? What should we do that we don't know about? Like if you were going home for Thanksgiving, what would you do? And that's how we found out about the Lantern Parade. But you know, a Google search, a Pinterest search, ChatGPT, love ChatGPT. All of those places you could just type in best things to do in Hilton Head in wherever you're going. And so reach out to the people that you know or go to some of those websites and don't have any excuses for missing out on the really cool things in the areas that you're traveling to. Hilton Head is a barrier island defined by miles of protected shorelines, winding bike paths and low country marshland. It's known for its quiet beaches, world-class golf and a town built around easy coastal living. It's one of our family's favorite places in the country for all the reasons you can imagine. Willis, look what I get to carry. Our friends, Julie and Bernie had this made last year and saved it because when you don't live in a motor home, you have a really big garage. It's like a cool kitty cat lantern with all the lights. Like we are so official now. Well, we've got to walk about a block to the beach and then we're going to walk a third of a mile so we can get our steps in and that's where the parade starts. So that's perfect. So right when it gets, yeah, bring a jacket. I got my sweater around my waist because we are going to the beach. We're going to be at the beginning of the parade, which is great because it'll get dark. We'll see the parade and then we can come back and eat dinner. We have quite a feast in the house waiting for everybody. But this is so fun. This is even more fun. I'm like a hundred times more excited now. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of people here. This is some of the more than thousands. This is like the most fun I have had and I don't even know how long. Everybody's got little lanterns with them. The band's warming up right now. Guys, if you're in Hilton Head, this is a Saturday before Thanksgiving. If you're anywhere near here, you got to check out the lantern parade. I think it's getting ready to start. So babe, we started the video out talking about holiday traditions and how we honor them. And do you miss being with family in a brick and mortar setting? I mean, look what we're doing for Thanksgiving. This is amazing. It's so cool. And we had no idea what to expect. And it is way better than anything we could have expected. It sure is. So guys, listen, if you can't be with family or if you choose not to because you're on the road, it's okay. Like go find these really fun things to do. Every town you go to, they have so many unique things for holidays. And I don't know, like I am having so much fun. It's awesome. I feel like we should be on like the Macy's Day parade in that little box, like commentating. This is way more our parade though. It's on the beach at sunset. This is amazing, guys. We had so much fun out on the town. The whole place had their Christmas lights up and they were absolutely beautiful. We also got to hear some live music and that made the entire night feel even better. But before we wrap up the day, I think we need to see that sunset one more time. Good morning. It's Thanksgiving day on this end of the camera. And I'm up a little bit earlier than everyone. And I'm going to make them biscuits. A lot of you ask us to show you more cooking because we cook a lot in the motorhome. And today, not only am I going to do that, but we're going to make homemade biscuits in the motorhome, in the convection oven. A lot of you are scared of the convection oven. So this is going to be really fun. And I'll show you as we go along and kind of give you a few little tips too. But I need to get my bowl out. And as you know, in RV life, it's important that everything is compactable and easy to store. And so these stacking bowls are amazing. One really important trick to my biscuits is to take the butter and stick it in the freezer for 15 or 20 minutes until I'm ready for it. And I'll show you why I'm not going to tell you yet. So let's get started. We need to get the oven going so it can be preheating while we're making everything. So I'm using the convection bake mode on my convection oven. So to me, it's just convection bake. And then you say, okay, and then you type in the temperature and you say, okay, and then you just hit start. And so now it is preheating, just like your oven at home. A lot of people freak out about the convection oven. And guys, it literally, it's just an electric oven disguised in the form of a microwave. It really goes both ways. Okay. And then we're going to get some baking powder. It calls for one tablespoon. So there you go. Just stir the baking powder and flour around and set it to the side. Sarah is my gadget girl. She loves all kinds of fun gadgets. And one of the things that we now are the proud owner of is this cheese grater. I'm going to grab that butter and see if it's hard enough. We're actually going to grate the butter into tiny little pieces and then it will perfectly distribute through the flour. One of the things about cooking in such a small space is really just to clean up as you go. Definitely, if you're going to take on some holiday baking or cooking in your rig, you're going to want to make sure you clean up as you go. Oh, that's amazing. Okay. So look at that. You think cooking in a small space is tricky? Cook in a small space and try to make a video about it. And all my helpers are sleeping. Oh my gosh. Okay. So here's what we're going to do. And the last step here before we start working with the dough is to incorporate the buttermilk that we made. Now I use almost all of it and stir it and then decide if I need to use the last little bit. So it looks like we are going to need that last little bit. If you've worked with any kind of dough before, you know you need to flour the surface and then you just dump everything out on it. So right now we're just trying to work the dough together so it's not so crumbly. So we're just going to get it flat. And then what you're going to do is you're going to fold it and turn it 90 degrees and then flatten it out again. And what some of you may already be realizing is that we're going to do that about five or six times. And so when you fold it, that's how you're creating all those flaky layers. Really, really important that you line your pan. And then if you have a formal cookie cutter, great. We have lots of round cups that we can cut things with, so I can do that. But what I have learned over time, and especially with being in the bus and just making things easier, is I'm just going to cut my biscuits with a knife into squares. Voila! Might not be the prettiest shaped biscuits, but I'm telling you they are going to be delicious. Oops, I almost forgot. This is the tray that is supposed to go in my oven when I switch from microwave to oven setting. It just elevates the tray a little bit and I think allows air to circulate. I don't know, but that's that. And if I check my recipe really quickly, bake for 12 minutes. I thought that was the case. So my oven lets me reset the time. Yours might not. There we go. While the biscuits are cooking, I'm cleaning up. And you know, I have this flour that I've kind of contaminated by touching it with my fingers. And I told you how much Jason likes biscuits and gravy, sausage gravy with his biscuits. And ironically, I do have some sausage in the fridge that I made a day or two ago. So I am going to just go all in and use this flour instead of throwing it away and grab the sausage and make him gravy. Things have been a little hectic around here lately. As most of you know, Jason and I still work. He's a realtor and I'm a loan officer. And so I haven't really got to fuss over him and the kids a lot with, you know, with this kind of food. So I think they'll really enjoy it. We still help clients every day buy and sell and purchase and refinance. But what we're really passionate about right now is helping real estate professionals understand that their life doesn't have to be completely out of whack. Most people get into real estate for a flexible lifestyle and to help people and to get out of an office in the normal nine to five. And what happens is they end up working so, so many hours and completely destroying their work-life balance. So if you or somebody you know is in real estate and you are on a similar path, reach out to us. There's a link in the description. Get some time on our calendar. We'd love to share with you the systems and the processes that we're using to be able to do real estate and mortgages on the road. So much like my stacking bowls, my pots and pans are stacking too. Most of this stuff came from Amazon and Sarah does a really nice job of keeping our Amazon store up to date. So if you're curious about some of this stuff, just head over to the Amazon store. I know she's got a link in that description too. I was just getting ready to do these dishes and I realized this is a tip that I should tell you. Like this bowl still has a little bit of dough in it. And so I am going to scrape out what I can and put it in the trash can and not run this down the pipes in the RV. I just added a little bit of flour. My sausage is good and hot. I added just a pinch of avocado oil because I need a little more moisture in there. And now I'm going to pour in the milk and check on the biscuits. The moment of truth. These are in for 12 minutes in my convection oven and let's see what they look like. Oh my gosh, those look amazing. Look at the layers. I'm gonna take one of these. Okay, I think they're a pinch soft. So I'm gonna put mine back in for like two minutes maybe. Let's add the milk, which I don't have. So it's gonna be a heavy whipping cream. So these are gonna be like delicious and nutritious. There we go. We're gonna call them good. And while we're cooking, we can't have biscuits gravy without some eggs. We don't have milk. You have to go get you. Jason just realized what I'm doing. I forgot he loves milk with his biscuits and gravy. And that's our Thanksgiving breakfast. It grew as the morning progressed, but I'm so glad that we went all in. We'll see you in just a little bit. Sarah Barrett, you're the first one to have the biscuit. How is it? So good, so good. Probably like top five you've ever made. So good. You'll notice we still have a lot of stuff out for breakfast. While I'm cooking, Jason and mom are gonna put it away. That's how we just kind of have to do it in a small space. We had a fail here this morning. We made the caramel and it must have burned. It is so bad. Sarah and I tasted it like 20 minutes ago and I still have the bad taste on my tongue. So we're gonna try it again. But as you can tell, the trash needs to go out and this caramel sauce needs to be part of that. All right, we're gonna see if the corn casserole is ready. We were 30 minutes late getting it in because of the caramel fiasco. We've only known for three days that we needed to be there at two o'clock and it's 1.42 right now. So go ahead and shut that door. Watch your head. Give it a little... Yeah, it's still really wiggly. If you get a... grab a knife real quick, quick. Watch out. I don't think we're gonna make it. Give it a poke in the middle. Yeah, yeah, it's still gooey in the middle. So I'm probably gonna put in for 20 more minutes. Coming in hot. We're gonna go down and visit. We're just gonna come back and get it because it's all we can do. I really hate it. I hate not being... is it 3? Yeah, it's okay. 3.50 is what we're at. But we're gonna head on up there, visit with everybody, come back and check this and we'll figure it out as we go. At least it's a beautiful day out and I'm sure everybody will be understanding, but I just hate showing up to something and not being able to do what I said I would do. But we probably aren't the only ones. Yeah, and next time we know that with caramel, we need to make sure we either make it in advance or give us plenty of time to do it. At least we have the cheesecakes. Those are definitely going to be a staple to every party I bring for at least a month. So they just started calling people up to start eating. So the timer has probably gone off now at the rig and I am almost back to it. But I really hope the casserole is done. The good news is, I don't know, there's probably like 60 or 80 people in that room. So by the time I get back, something will probably be empty and my corn casserole will slide right in. But being flexible on the road or anytime is important. And especially on the holidays, we put so much stress on ourselves to like have the perfect food or the perfect decorations or just whatever. But I'll tell you, today has been really awesome. I remember as a kid watching the Macy's Day Parade and it just worked out today. We were able to put the big screen down, turn it on, make breakfast, eat breakfast, have all the chaos of making the cheesecakes and the corn casserole. And Jason and the kids don't really realize how much it meant to me. But like when I think of Thanksgiving morning, that's what I think about. And it happened and I was so happy about that. So let's hustle on back here, see what this corn casserole looks like. And we can get back and enjoy our Thanksgiving dinner. Hey, Normie, smells good in here. You think the corn casserole is ready? Yeah. All right, let's go check it out, buddy. All right. It's 2.05. Moment of truth. I feel like I've done this before. Please let it be done. Well, it's a beautiful golden brown color. If nothing else, we've got that going for us. Moment of truth. Just a little gooey, but I think that's the butter. And these casseroles are typically a little bit moist. Anyhow, they're not supposed to be dry like cornbread. Nothing's shaking. There's no wiggle. So I'm going to put a little foil over the top of this, walk it down. And I think we're going to be in good shape. There we go. It worked out. It did work out. Hallelujah. Right there, baby. You know, what a fun holiday we had here. Totally unexpected, but we had the most amazing time. And we got to meet some new people who follow us on our channel. Thank you guys for following us. You guys, if you ever see us out and about, please come up and say hello. You're not bothering us. We would love to meet you in person. And we want to hear your story, too. We had to have a great dinner. We pulled the easy button, a pan of cheese, and we had a great time. Yeah, but you still made turkey breads when we got home. So I'm still figuring out why we did that, but it's OK. Because they were on sale and they were really good. It was just kind of cool. We don't typically do this where we go to pitch ins, but it was really fun and we met just some incredible people. But I tell you, it's cool because we've said it in other videos and I'll say it again. You're never alone on the road. You're never alone. So just get to know your neighbors. Say hello. Your one hello from a new best friend, as you would say. And you know, another benefit of traveling, even around the holidays, is we get to chase the weather we want. And it doesn't matter where we go or who we spend the holidays with. We've always got Jason and Sarah with us. And our family unit of four has a lot of traditions. And we honor those no matter where we are. Yeah, and it doesn't I mean, it doesn't really matter where we are. We have our home with us everywhere we go. So whatever we want to cook, we can cook. Whatever we want to do to entertain, we can entertain. And we have had some amazing memories of holidays on the road. So anyhow, I don't know. It's awesome. But so many surprises this trip and in a good way. So as promised, we're going to share all of the recipes that we made in this video with you guys. All you have to do is click the link in the description for that. And we'll even throw in some of our favorite restaurants and anything else that we just love about Hilton Head as a little bonus. Until next time, go grab someone you love. Make a memory now. And we'll see you on the next adventure.