We Took Our 45ft Motorhome on a FERRY—What Could Go Wrong?

We're getting ready to take our 45-foot, 50,000-pound motorhome on a ferry across the water. Oh, the back of the bus. Holy smokes. Some of you right now are saying, Linda, you're crazy. And maybe we are, but we think it's going to be a lot of fun. So come along with us as we take our home on wheels out of Crystal Beach, Texas into Galveston on a ferry. Babe, when we left Camp Margaritaville today, we could have turned left or right. If we had turned right... We would have gone down the beach, back up through town, and up to the interstate to take us through Houston. But we turned left, so now we're going... To the ferry into Galveston. Right. And then we're going to circle up to Houston that way. So we've been on a ferry several times in full transparency. We've been on a ferry twice in this bus, and then we actually took the Tiffin and our fifth wheel on ferries. So while we're not on them all the time, we have had a fair share of ferry rides. What I can tell you, though, is that every time you cross over the bridge onto the ferry, you're holding your breath. And it just is mind blowing that all of this weight can pull onto that boat and then not just go... Yeah. As you can see, Jason and I are actually driving the truck separately from the bus. And that's because when we get onto the ferry, we want it to be as easy as possible. So the truck not being connected gives the bus more options to do stuff, turning, backing up, pulling forward, all of that. So that's the reason we're driving the truck separately. Not scared the boat's going to sink? No, because we've done it before. You know, we've done it in Ocracoke. We did it leaving Ocracoke to Hatteras, right? So we've done this before at least twice. I'm a little nervous. I mean, you're always nervous taking your home on a boat to cross a channel that you'll never see it again if it were to sink. But I have faith. I have faith. And I have heard that there are dolphins that like to hang out in this area and chase the boats, like follow the boats that come in and out of this channel. So I'm hoping maybe we'll get to see some dolphins. So babe, let's talk logistics. How does this really work? There's multiple ferries going back and forth because this is such a popular route. So I don't think we're going to have to wait a real long time. And it's not a long ferry ride. I think it's about 15 or 20 minutes. It's not very long. Right. That's my understanding. So it's kind of like catching the subway or catching a bus somewhere. I mean, this is how people who need to go from that part of Galveston to this part of the beach get back and forth. So we're kind of excited because like I said, we've done this before. We like ferries, but it's always a little nerve wracking as you really do it. Well, you know, they pack you in like sardines. Oh, that's the thing that I'm a little apprehensive of. The last time they almost blocked us into where we couldn't open our door. So you're probably going to be shocked at how tight they squeeze the cars, the buses, the campers, how they just get us all on that on that ferry. Well, they're built for efficiency. There's no doubt about it. And they do it every day. All day long. Let's hit pause for a second. This is the view from a hike we did recently in Canada on our way to Alaska. Just look at that. Y'all make sure you've subscribed and have notifications on because these videos are about to start rolling out and we can't wait to bring you along. All right. Let's get back to the ferry adventure. Got a few minutes. We're just going to calm down a little bit. I'm always anxious and not anxious. Like I'm not nervous like the ferry is going to sink or anything. Just the getting on, making sure nobody hits us, making sure we don't hit anybody. You know, just all of those moving pieces and parts. I mean, there's a lot of things that can go wrong. You're only as good as the guys directing you and they're normally excellent. But you're putting the entire life of, you know, of the people traveling with you. And then like this is an expensive motorhome. We don't want it to get scratched or dinged or any of that kind of stuff. So I think apprehensive might be the word. Yeah. Because you're such a good planner and Jason really likes to know what's going on. And you drive the bus all the time. It's really you. So the responsibility falls on you to get us, you know, somewhere safely. And this part of the process, we just have to trust other people. So fingers crossed that it's going to go smoothly and we'll know real soon here. Many of you have asked how we're able to afford this lifestyle. Well, Jason and I still work full time. He's a real estate agent and I'm a loan officer. And what we'd like you to know is that if we could help you buy or sell a piece of property or finance it or refinance it, we'd be honored to. We're licensed in almost all of the states and have nearly 30 years of experience in this industry. So if you need any help, there's a link in the description. Click it and get some time on our calendar. The one thing I do want to let you all know is that these ferry schedules can be found online really easily. This particular ferry is called the Houston Transtar and it's the Galveston Boulevard Ferry. It's only 2.7 miles and it typically takes about 18 minutes. And the average loading time is nine minutes. In nine minutes, they're going to let people off. They're going to let people on. And then in less than 20 minutes, we're going to be on shore again. This particular ferry has a great website. It even tells you how long the estimated travel time is and wait time is based upon where you're going. And this one's free, Jason. Yeah. We paid a lot of money to take a ferry. Sometimes ferries are good for saving time. Like when we were in Maine and went to Canada, you could drive all the way around to where you wanted to go or you could take the ferry and literally shave off... Did it shave a day of driving off for you, babe? Oh yeah, when we came back. Oh yeah, that was... Yeah, and it wasn't really cheap, but it wasn't ridiculously expensive either. I mean, it was a couple hundred bucks if I remember right. But so it's really interesting that this one is free. It's almost like you're just crossing a bridge, but you're obviously getting on a boat. Oh, we're here. Hello. We don't have propane. I'm sorry. Was there another question you had, ma'am? Sir? Was there another question you had? I'm sorry. No, that was it. Okay. Make sure you didn't have any gas or propane. No, ma'am. So even though it was easy to pull in line and move forward, I don't really feel really relaxed right now. How are you feeling? No, the lady wasn't overly nice and... She just wasn't helpful. Yeah. It was very... I need you to step outside and turn your gas off. I mean, that's what she said and it was like, how about, hey, do you have propane or if you have propane or I need you to come and turn that off. And so anyhow, we just... It took a minute for her to understand that the kids were in the truck and that they were not attached. That way it would make it easier for us to get on and off the ferry. She did save the spot behind us and let them get behind us. So we do know that they're there. All the other ferries we've been on, it felt more friendly. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Maybe because this is such a commuter type ferry and it's not a bunch of people on vacation and it's just a whole different feel. You know, it'll be fine. All right. We just made a massive play up in the line. We are way more than halfway up now in our row. I'm not sure how many ferries we have to wait till we get on. I'm not sure if it's like a row of ferry kind of thing. But Sarah was actually just saying that they actually have six ferries that run at any given time. Not sure how many they have going today. So hopefully we'll be able to get on soon enough because I'd prefer to not be sitting in line for like two hours, which we have heard stories. The people that work at the campground we were just at, they were telling us about like last night it was like 1030 and they were sitting in line for this ferry for two hours, which is crazy. Another barge just pulled up. Another barge just left. Hopefully we'll be boarding soon. The weather cleared up. So that's a plus. Yeah, it's beautiful down there. It went from gray and windy and I actually even have a sweatshirt in the back because I thought it might get cold. But it is sunny and going to be a beautiful crossing. So I was trying to remember, babe, the kids were telling us earlier what we're crossing. This is actually the ship lane I think that we're crossing, right? And from the resort all week, we have seen the oil rigs out in the ocean. So it's, I don't know, I think it's so interesting when you go different places, you know, what's normal there because this isn't normal in a lot of the country. It looks like a two-story building, just like floating down the road or float. Yeah, just, you know what I mean? It's like a parade. It looks almost like it's a parade float. But when I drove up here the other day, there wasn't one car. Oh yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was not. So it is Sunday afternoon and it's actually Mother's Day. So people have probably come over here to the beach to spend the day or the weekend. And like us, you know, max the day out as long as they could before heading back. Because normally what we were told is that the turnover traffic is more in the morning. So, you know, when you would normally check out of a hotel or a VRBO or something, that's like between 10 and noon every morning. So they said that was when it was really busy. So we thought we were doing really well to stay later and come here in the early evening. But it is a little bit higher volume than a weekday. Yeah, so there's five or six lanes going in. And then maybe two lanes coming out over there. So it says when you get on the ferry, put your car in park and you turn off the engine, which we would have expected that. And it says random screening, no exceptions. Normie, be a good boy. Where can you go? Come on, we're next. Norman is very unsettled by all this. I think mostly because the kids aren't in here with us. All right. Okay, our turn. Here we go. And they're putting them on and taking, they're doing them at the same time. Yeah, they are definitely at the exact same time. As if there's not enough to pay attention to, just getting on yourself. I guess we're going. Okay. Here we go. No one else seems concerned. So I guess we're good. Let's follow the leader. Well, I'm sure most campers choose to go the other direction. But you know, there's other people like us that do this. Please let us go in the front row. Please, please, please. Yay. Yes. That's what we were hoping for. Oh boy. That is quite a... He wants us to... This is what I'm talking about right here. Okay. So it's a really steep last couple feet onto the ferry. And we just don't want to bottom out front or back. It's okay. Are we there? Are we in? Oh, wow. Oh, the back of the bus. Holy smokes. You guys. No, it didn't. Oh, so close though. Okay. No scraping. So that was good. Gotta love the Prevo. Well, we didn't quite get front row, but we're pretty close. Pretty close. So we should have a good view for you guys. I don't know, I feel like we're... Yeah, you can feel the vibrations of the boat already. Oh, okay. So we're like four feet, three feet. Oh, gosh. Tell him about our door. Oh, this is our only way out. So if we can have enough room to open it. Thank you. Yeah, he was not coming to me. Okay, we're here. This is our only way out. If we needed to evacuate the bus for some reason and get out, I asked him not to put a car so close that I couldn't open the door. We need to open the windows. So the camera just does not do justice how big that drop was getting onto this thing. So the cage that falls forward to connect this boat to the land, it was huge. So when the bus's front wheels went down the middle of our bus, the underbelly almost scraped. And then when the back wheels went down, the back end almost scraped. That would have been so bad. We could have rubbed the bumper off on that drop. So very thankful. I'm not even kidding you, two inches max. Max. That was crazy. It was crazy. We're on the boat now. It says we cannot get out of the car until we disembark from land. So we're gonna have to wait a couple minutes. So we're gonna reconvene with mom and dad. We're gonna explore the boat a little bit. And I want to hear how mom and dad, if they even noticed how close they were to bottoming out. Yeah, they were so close. It was really scary, honestly. Are the kids behind us? Yeah. Wish we could have a cocktail and like enjoy the sunset. You can. Oh, I can, but you can't. Hi, camera. We got some Scooby snacks. Scooby dooby dooby. We'll just all sit back here. That horn was so loud. Oh, there's dolphins. Go get some dolphins, buddy. Put that up. Put that up all the way, please. Buddy, go out there if you can. Dolphins are always cool. Yeah. That was the one thing I wanted to see. I'm amazed at how you can feel this thing rocking. Can you? Aren't you? Oh, yeah. Okay, let's go see if we can check this boat out. Quick, quick. Yeah, it looks like it's literally just bathrooms and observation deck. Oh. Call dad and see if he needs us to check anything out on the roof. Even the Prevo has duct tape on it. See the duct tape on the back of the AC vent for AC cover for some reason. I don't know. This is really cool. I mean, we could have gone either direction. And I am so glad that we chose to go this way. This is all about making memories now. Right, guys? And would you remember just driving up to I-10 on the main road or crossing the channel on the ferry? I think you'll remember this option way more than you would the other. We are. We're like a family, you two. Hi. Well, that's kind of cool. I don't know if that's a little park over there. I don't. It's the shin paws. It's hard to remember. It's like your shin and like a dog's paw. Is that what that was? The yellows in the motorhome? Yeah, the blue and white boat. Okay, we got to get back up there. So when it's time to... We're going to go record some more for YouTube. You guys have a great day. Bye. They just made the announcement. We have to get back to the vehicle. We literally walked around the boat one time. So that's how short of a trip this is. So if you're not sure about ferry travel, this would be a good one to start with. Put your seat belt on, babe. We are shaking as we drive off. That was a very crazy feeling. You have to be a little bit relieved. I actually feel relieved. I do. Now we need to find a spot to pull over and hook up. We stayed unhooked for the ferry ride because that's so much safer just to manage one thing instead of two attached on the ferry. I'm gonna pull right in here. All right. Will you turn... We did it. We're hooked up and we're settled in. How are you feeling? I am feeling much better. Our GPS just kept trying to reroute us and reroute us and I don't know why because we... I picked the route that included the ferry and we were in that little town. Luckily, it ended up being, you know, with all the shipping stuff so there was no issues. But you know how stressful that is? Like you're just like... You have this plan, you know where you're going and the GPS is like, turn left, turn left, turn left. I'm like, no, we got to go straight. So I had to dig out my phone real quick and get us on the path and I'll plug the GPS back in here in a little bit. But I don't know why it was doing that. Yeah, it's so important to do some level of homework before you head out on a trip or a travel day. So I'm thankful that you did that. We're just going to settle in. We're going to enjoy the rest of the evening and we're really glad you came along with us for the ferry ride. Robert Frost wrote a poem about taking the road less traveled and I've got to tell you, sometimes creating that next memory is as simple as that. Today, we turned left when it would have been a little easier to turn right and we got to ride the ferry and the weather changed and the sun shined on us and we got to take you along for that. And so I'm going to encourage you to go grab someone you love, make a memory now. Maybe it's just as simple as turning left instead of turning right. We'll see you on the next adventure.