The Camper: A Guide to RV Living

Where We Went: Over Five Years of Camping

Welcome to our master RV Living Travel Map & Tales hub!

Track our 5-year journey through full-time travel, snowbirding, and stationary RV living!

For five incredible years, our RV was the backdrop to a massive life adventure. Every single pin on this map represents a place we called home, a scenic view that took our breath away, or an unexpected detour along the way.

Our five-year journey evolved through a few different chapters—from wide-open full-time travel to chasing the sun as snowbirds, and finally settling down into stationary RV living. Right now, this page serves as a visual index of our basecamps, roadside stops, and campgrounds. Below our RV Living Travel Map, you will find our route broken down chronologically. I am currently working on linking these locations to the adventures I’ve been sharing.

Behind every pin on this map is a real story—and let’s be honest, usually a funny one. From navigation mishaps to campground chaos, I’ve documented the hilarious realities of tiny living on the road. Stay tuned as I link each stop to its matching misadventure!

RV Living Travel Map

🗺️ Year 1: The Full-Time RV Living Travel Map & Tales Chapter

We kicked off our journey by jumping straight into the deep end: 365 days of full-time, non-stop travel. This first year was all about exploration, adapting to the tiny living lifestyle, and covering as much ground as possible. From the coastlines of the West to the landmarks of the Midwest, this phase taught us everything we needed to know about life on wheels.

Moving to a new camp every few days meant constant planning, navigation teamwork, and learning how to fix things on the fly. It was an exhausting but exhilarating crash course in nomadic living.

☀️ Years 2 & 3: Chasing the Sun as Snowbirds

Our initial plans for non-stop, rapid exploration shifted completely when I got pregnant with “the stowaway”. To ensure she had a smoother, more stable environment, we officially became snowbirds. Instead of moving the rig every few days, weeks, or months, we learned to slow our pace down and follow the good weather seasonal migration patterns.

We spent our winters parked in Florida and our summers in Illinois. This balance gave us the best of both worlds: the freedom to keep traveling without the burnout of constant packing and hitching. Slowing down allowed us to truly immerse ourselves in local communities, discover favorite neighborhood spots, and appreciate the changing seasons without the constant rush of the highway.without the constant rush of the highway.

• Campground List (COMING SOON)

🎓 Years 4 & 5: Stationary RV Living & School

As our daughter grew and needed a consistent space to crawl, play, and explore without a changing backyard every week, we transitioned into our final chapter: stationary RV living in Jacksonville, Illinois.

This phase allowed us to keep the unique charm of tiny living while providing the structural root system our family needed. It was during this stationary chapter that I officially started school at Illinois College, balancing the logistics of life in the rig with walking onto campus to attend my classes in person. What began as a classroom project for an IC writing course ultimately became the foundation for this very platform, giving me a dedicated space to anchor our stories before transitioning into advanced remote technology studies.