We camped at a truck stop! (a REAL look at RV Life)

I hope you slept good last night, because I didn't. Oh, man. We spent the last four months in sunny Albuquerque, New Mexico, and now we're gearing up for an epic 1,000-mile road trip all the way to Yosemite National Park in California. It's time to shake off the rust and get this home on wheels back on the road. It is travel day. It is almost 9 a.m. And where are both of our boys? Up in their rooms, fast asleep. They are always amazing, amazing sleepers. However, they do always seem to pick those extra special days to always just sleep in super late. We would love if they did this on, you know, just like a regular morning, but no, on travel day. They are still just fast asleep. Our two little sleepers. Oh, my boys. They'll be up in like another hour. It's fine. Let's keep getting ready for travel day. Time to bust some music. Bust some music? Blast some music. So we have all of our snacks and water packed for travel day here. We are ready for a full day on the road with good nutrition. We've got some almond butter, apples, RX bars, fruit leathers, banana chips, kids' protein drinks, bananas, applesauce, veggie chips, whole water, and some other dried fruit snacks. About to leave this site that we've been at for almost January, February, March, April. Four and a half months, a whole winter coming to an end. Spring is here. We're changing along with the seasons. Oh, yeah. New states, new sites, new experiences, new adventures. We got a bug. Got his little setup here. Boris, best road dog ever. Nope. You ready to go, bug? Are you excited for travel day? Yeah. All I want you to do is shut the door. I'm really freezing. It's cold. Yeah, let's go. All hooked up and everywhere to go. We're all hooked up and got everywhere to go. All hooked up, got everywhere to go. A penny picking up. And one day you'll have good luck. Guys. Yes. How are you feeling about travel day? Good. Good, good, good, good, good, good. Babe, what are you most excited for about travel day? Getting there in one piece. Getting there safely. Mom and dad's wish. All right, Casey, what are you most looking forward to for travel day? When we are stopping at a truck stop and sleeping there. Yeah. Sleepover at a truck stop tonight. Are we going to sleep in our car or are we just going to stop at a truck stop? No, we're going to sleep in our home. Just at a truck stop. Let's hit the road right now. See you later. You were a great home for winter time. And now it's time for the next chapter. We're crossing time zones. We're going to gain an hour back. So we're supposed to be arriving at 2 p.m., which would be 3 p.m. our time. Another 2 hours and like 50-ish minutes to that pilot gas station right outside of it. If we feel like it, we can drive more if we wanted to. Or we could just like stick ourselves a foot. Option is to keep driving all the way to Lake Havasu. And then we wouldn't necessarily have to like... We could break up that 7-hour drive to Merced over 2 days. If we kept on driving, it would be 5 o'clock by the time we hit Lake Havasu. Southwest, baby. First stop of the day. Gotta use the bathroom. Let the little legs stretch out. We did it. Everybody go pee? Everybody go pee. So far, so good. Let's keep moving. Arizona, guys. We are? Yep. Arizona. We crossed our first state line. We're practically there. Taking a break. Driving, Bram? It's not on me anymore. It's on Dougie Doug. Is there another way to get there? I'll figure it out. Great, Dougie Doug. Next stop, Arizona. It's nice. Welcome. I think that's good enough for today. Me too. We've got 6 hours of travel time under us. We... How many miles do you think we covered? Over 300. Over 300 miles were covered today. Our total trip is 1,043 miles. So we put a good little dent in it. And I think we're ready for some food. Always ready for some food. But let's just go with it. Just go with it. Yeah, it says check in after 4, check out at 3, and then there's a phone number to call in reserve. So, I don't know if we want to call that phone number. Welcome to Pilot Flying J Guest Services. Which of these can I help you with? Say, mobile app, loyalty rewards, prime parking, or help me with something else. Find parking. Bad coffee on the interstate is at Pilot Flying J. Our beans are globally sourced and globally roasted. Hi, I was calling to see about reserving a parking spot for the night at a pilot location that I'm currently at right now. Okay, what location? It is the pilot in Flagstaff, California, Arizona. It's hard to remember what state you're in, isn't it? It is. Time to get some more coffee. Sounds about right. Just needed that for tonight, correct? That's correct. Okay, is this an RV, ma'am? It is. It's a fifth wheel. You should be all set. Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. You're welcome. You have a great night and call us if you need anything. We will. Thank you so much. Have a good one. Thank you. Okay, so she said to go ahead and park in a reserved parking spot and then I'm going to go inside and check us in. Just like a hotel, kind of. So we made it to the pilot station that we're going to be staying at tonight. And you do have to pay. They do have reserved spots and it was $20. But we get to stay here all night. It's our spot, which is kind of cool. And we're just going to be hanging out at a truck stop for the next rest of the day. I don't know if they're going to let us bring our slides out at all. Probably not. We'll have to be really discreet with that. But hey, first time for everything, right? I feel like this is kind of a rite of passage. Staying the night at a truck stop. There's a McDonald's and a subway. Yeah. We brought our one slide out just that far enough. Just so we can get to the fridge if we really have to. And we had to bring this slide here out a little more. Hopefully nobody says anything about that. I'm really flat so I can literally go in there. Can you go through there? No, I can't. What do you guys want to do? Get McDonald's. Of course, yeah! We're going to eat fast food and watch movies. What else is there to do? Oh, yeah. We're going to eat fast food. Na, na, na, na. It's so awesome. Come on, raise your hand if you're hungry. Raise your hand if you're hungry. Because we are. And we're ready to get some grub. Let's get some grub. Let's get subway. Subway. No, McDonald's. You can get a toy. Chicken nuggets. Pilot station coffee. I'm going to carry him there. Hopefully. Are you choosing McDonald's or subway? Subway. I like subway. We all have to stay together and order together because we've only got one wallet. This is our home now. We had a great first run, first travel day. Everyone did super. Six hours it took to get here. Waiting to get our bellies filled. McDonald's. Subway. We are doing it. Beef jerky. Yeah. Everybody say hey. Hey. Just chilling at home. Are you a good boy? Are you just going to be in the road? Are you going to be a little road dog? This is why we live in an RV right here. I choked on a county shark. What I'm trying to say is, travel day or not, this is how we end up most of the time. Who needs space? We just got a neighbor. Oh yeah. So I was hoping the time that we were going to be here, nobody was going to want to take the spot directly next to us. Well, two seconds later, this guy is barely getting my steps down. The more the merrier. This place is for him. It's not really for us, so I'm not too mad at him. Well, we made it through our first day back on the road. Feels pretty good. I feel like we're back into the swing of things. And we're sleeping at a truck stop tonight. So mark that off the old bucket list. We're going to go play some card games. You can hear the gentle hum of like four dozen trucks in the distance. Yeah. It's kind of relaxing. It is. Good white noise. Yeah. Just brushing your teeth at a truck stop. Uh huh. Oh, what a day. What a life. What are we doing? Hey everybody. I hope you slept good last night, because I didn't. Oh man. So, yeah, we slept in a truck stop on purpose. This was our plan. And it's definitely on the list of options. But I would probably put it on the bottom of that list. If you're trying to actually rest and get some sleep, which is kind of the point. It's a parking lot, obviously. I mean, our neighbors are really close to us. And I don't know why I thought after dark, the trucks that are here are probably here for the night. So it'll quiet down eventually. And I was worried that we were going to be too loud. I was going to have to tell the boys to be more quiet, you know. The parking spot next to us is not a reserved spot. So I think like two or three different trucks came. All in the middle of the night. Since we're sleeping in the back of our RV, you don't hear the trucks pull up at all. You just, they back up nice and slow. But right when they are about to stop, they hit their air brakes. And there's this loud... Right outside our bedroom. Happened three times. The third time it woke up Cade. And then he ended up getting in our bed. And he sleeps like he's fighting off ninjas all night. So as far as rest goes, I'd give the truck stop like a two. I don't know how these guys do it every day. But I'm awake. I think it's six in the morning right now. We're still hooked up from yesterday, which is cool. So all we have to do is put in our slides a little bit. Hop in the truck. Oh, there goes that generator again. And we can hit the road again. But hey, we checked out off the bucket list. We spent the night at a truck stop. And here we are. So let's go see if it's possible to wake up everybody. I think everybody else slept great. But not dad. Never dad. Alright, let's go. Morning everybody. It's early. It's like 6.30 right now. 6.30? We just threw the kids in the car. Gotta get gas since we're at a gas station. We're at a gas station. On our first truck stop sleep last night. It was eventful. Loud. But exactly what we needed. Fueled up. Gas wise. Energy wise. Not so much. But I think we're going to be fine. But we will. Back on the road. Ready boys? Yeah. Do we have Forrest with us? Yes. There he is. Onward to California. California.