Day 6 // Cape May & Atlantic City, NJ

We saw the beach and I couldn’t be happier!! I am a beach girl at heart and nothing makes me happier than sun, sand and the ocean. It was only a short 45 minute drive from our Philly RV Park to where we are staying in Southern New Jersey for a few nights! Luckily they let us check in early to our spot and we headed right down to Cape May, NJ. We stopped first at the light house. Only 199 steps to the top and what a view it was!

Cape May lighthouse

Cape May lighthouse

View from the top of Cape May lighthouse

View from the top of Cape May lighthouse

us at the top of the lighthouse!

us at the top of the lighthouse!

We walked over to the beach and took a little stroll around. Gosh I love the beach!

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The Beach <3

The Beach ❤

Now that we finally hit the coast, we needed some good old fashioned seafood to satisfy our bellies! We stopped at “The Lobster House” for lunch. It was overly busy and the food was so-so. We weren’t overly impressed with our first east coast seafood experience but it was fresh seafood nonetheless! Yum! We went from cheesesteak to fresh seafood, can’t complain!

lunch spot!

lunch spot!

Next we walked around the the little city center. It was such a quaint little town. So perfect. There were plenty of old fashioned houses with fantastic front porches that were just begging for someone to sit on them and read a good book. Maybe one day on this #RVhoneymoon we will indulge ourselves and do just that.

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love love love these houses

Then we headed up to Atlantic City and walked on the boardwalk. I’ve never been to Atlantic City but it is basically a mini Vegas on the beach. Pretty cool! As soon as we walked into a casino, I really left like I was in Vegas. Neither one of us like to gamble but we did put $1 in a penny machine just for fun. We lost it all. We spent most of our time on the boardwalk, walking around.

Atlantic City Boardwalk!

Atlantic City Boardwalk!

The Boardwalk

The Boardwalk

It just so happened that the World Cup of Sandcastle building was happening/happened at the beach! It was currently happening as in the sculptures were still there but all the activity and judging and stuff had already happened. We ate some dinner and then headed home.

Sand Sculptures!

Sand Sculptures!

The best part about this day was… spotting the Breaking Bad RV!!!!! We started watching Breaking Bad on day 1 of #RVhoneymoon because it just seemed so fitting. We can’t decided if we are super into the show yet, but we made it to season 2 so there is no turning back  now.

Breaking Bad RV

Breaking Bad RV

Tomorrow Hurricane Arthur is supposed to hit Atlantic City so we have planned a pretty low key day of catching up on work, sleep and probably some Breaking Bad. Can’t believe it has only been a week of #RVhoneymoon. We’ve done sooo much and can’t wait to see what the rest of our trip has in store for us!

xoxo,
Rachel

Update on “Delays, Delays, Delays”

We unfortunately did not leave this morning as scheduled. We don’t even have the RV back from the dealership yet and as of about 10 am they still hadn’t even started the work!!! UGH! Trying to keep a positive mind but all we want to do is get on the road!! We are more or less all packed up… well actually we just have files of stuff around the house ready to be loaded into the RV when we get it back!

Channeling my inner positive spirit: When we get our RV back before the shop closes at 5, we will get everything loaded up tonight and hit the road first thing Friday morning!!!

xoxo,
Rachel

Delays, Delays, Delays

Hi all! Sorry it has been awhile! Back when we planned this trip, we said we were going to leave for our RVhoneymoon the day after our wedding. We reconsidered that soon thereafter and decided that we didn’t need the added stress of planning & packing for an RV trip in addition to us (me) planning our wedding. This was probably the best decision we’ve ever made as I.WOULD.HAVE.SNAPPED. In fact, my inner bridezilla did appear a few times, which I’m not proud of per say. But hey, you only get married once right?!

We took our PreHoneymoon trip to Turks & Caicos (read about it here & here & here) the day after our wedding and decompressed for 8 days. It was so incredibly perfect. We came home refreshed and ready to plan for the RV honeymoon! We had tentatively planned to leave May 30th after getting back from the PreHoneymoon. The RV was not finished upon our arrival back from Turks & Caicos. Delay #1. This delay wasn’t too disappointing because Mark was in the process of buying our 3rd rental property in Scottsdale, AZ so we flew out to AZ to do some planning, negotiating and buying! More on this new rental later!

Recap of some of our adventures! Watson Lake | Turks & Caicos | Miami

Recap of some of our adventures! Watson Lake | Turks & Caicos | Miami

When we returned from AZ, the RV remodel was done! It looks soooo good! If you haven’t seen the remodel, check it out here! Delay #2 comes in the form of busy schedules and too many moving parts. I’m kind of stretching here with this being a delay as our lives are always a hot mess (in the best possible way, I would never change it) but it does feel like a lot of things have happend in the last few weeks. We’re in the process of selling our house in Ohio to prep for a probable move to Arizona in the future, Mark is going through some major business changes, I’m about an entire year behind in the book-keeping (accounting) for a few of our side projects including the vacation rentals and really need to get caught up, I needed to hit my 100th class in Pure Barre so that I could wear my tutu in class and sign the barre, etc etc etc. All of these things compiled together and there was little time to take the RV back into Camping World for them to fix a few things and for us to learn how to use the thing! We pushed our tentative departure date to June 13ish. We spent an entire day getting lessons on how to work the RV & took videos of all the stuff! I think we are good to go with that!! We also turned our learning day into a shopping day at Camping World! Everything there seems so necessary for an RVhoneymoon road trip. It is a dangerous place I’ve decided. We then did the next most logical thing, went to Target. Because Target is the least “dangerous” store on the planet.

Some of our new kitchen things!

We did get some shopping done for the RV in the meantime! Some of our new kitchen things!

Delay #3 is all about towing a car. We had gone back and forth between towing a car or not. We ultimately decided that because we want to see as much of the country as possible, including cities, we needed to tow a car so we could be more mobile when we needed. By the time we figured out that we couldn’t tow Mark’s car (as was our original plan) and made appointments to get my car tuned up and get it some tires – we were another week behind. But this was much needed as a mechanic probably hasn’t looked at my car since 2006 when it was built and it was approx 15,000 miles overdue for an oil change. I take such good care of my belongings. June 20th estimated departure date.

Some goodies we bought from Camping World

Some goodies we bought from Camping World

Delay #4 Still about towing the car. We assumed that towing a car was a simple process. Well, we knew we would have to get a hitch but we thought that was simple. Wrong. We went to Camping World where we bought our RV first to ask about how to tow a car. The guy told us there were 3 choices. (Have I mentioned that I’m still recovering from all the wedding decisions and lightweight freeze when anyone asks me to make a decision almost 2 months later). We were not prepared for 3 choices. Basically we could, flat tow (all 4 car wheels down), 2 wheels down tow, or get a trailer and put the entire car on the trailer. Well shit, with option 3 we could have towed Mark’s car after all. research people, research. Flat tow is the easiest and doesn’t involve strapping wheels down to a trailer (dirty) every time we need to drive the car. Flat tow is also the most expensive and involves adding parts and pieces (official terms) to my car. Guess what, Camping World told is it would be August before they could get us in. Estimated departure date August?! Well that ain’t gonna work. We spent a day or two going to a few RV/trailer places learning more about all the types of towing and the soonest we could get any of it done. We decided to flat tow my car after all the running around. We found a place that could have all the parts and pieces ordered and delivered and do the work on Wednesday the 25th. Departure date June 26th.

Trying out my new chair while sitting in the driveway.

Trying out my new chair while sitting in the driveway. I’m sure the neighbors appreciated this masterpiece.

Possible Delay #5.  As we were taking the RV to FastSigns to get some RVhoneymoon.com decals put on today, we found out that the AC doesn’t work. There is a fuse that is permanently tripped or something. Neither Mark or I are handy (we didn’t even own a tool box until May 3rd – Thanks for the wedding gift Bankovich, Bankovich and Frank families) and clearly fuses are beyond a screwdriver and hammer fix. So we will keep our fingers crossed and hope the RV people can fix “it” on Wednesday. Otherwise, Delay #5 it is!

How cute are our new decals!! Love!

How cute are our new decals!! Love!

But the good news is, we are so close to leaving for the RVhoneymoon! We are more or less all packed up and all our goodies are purchased and in their new home! Hopefully it is just a matter of a few days before we are on the road! I’ll keep you posted!

xoxo,
Rachel

Our Packing List

Forget what we need to have in our RV, I’m talking what we want to have in our RV. RVescape covered the boring, albeit 100% necessary list of things we need to pack here, but now that we are safe and fully operational – I want to start buying & packing the FUN stuff!

I should mention, however; that neither one of us can still figure out how to properly close and lock our new “front door” so “safe and fully operational” might be a slight exaggeration. I’ve still mentally checked that box off and am ready for the fun stuff! Mark will figure the door out, I’m confident.

I should also probably mention that aside from driving the RV from point A to B (a total of 10 miles), we’ve spent zero minutes learning how to use our RV. I don’t know how any of it works. Electricity? nope. How to take a shower? nah. How to empty the toilet? Certainly not. What runs off the generator? Um, what. How to use the kitchen appliances? Isn’t that what restaurants are for? How to connect _____ (I don’t even know “what” connects) when we are at an RV park? Seriously, I can’t even complete the entire sentence because that is how little I know. So “safe and fully operational” is a giant exaggeration. Still, fun stuff people!

Here is what is on our  packing list!

The 9 things we simply need to have for our RV trip!

The 9 things we simply need to have for our RV trip!

1. solar charger. I’m under the impression (and common sense leads me to believe) that electricity isn’t necessarily easy to come by while driving down the road. I believe it comes from our generator which I believe runs off gas or propane. (We really need a crash course in RVing). Either way, I like to be on my phone 24/7 and it dies in about .8 minutes so charging it is a big deal for me. Why not save some energy and use the sun to charge for me! Lets just assume that we are places where there is sun…
2. propane grill. I’ve been known to grill in the middle of winter in my UGG boots and winter coat because I simply love grilled food. A grill is a no brainer for this trip.
3. bonfire tools. You can’t have a bonfire without hotdogs, s’mores and other goodies right?! My mother had the genius idea a few years back to make little pizza pockets and sandwiches using crescent rolls and sandwich irons over the bonfire! If you haven’t done this, highly recommend as it is a fun twist on traditional bonfire food!
4. RV GPS. They make a specific GPS for RVs. I’m going to assume it will help us SUPER NEWBIES out quite a bit. Don’t worry Google Maps, I won’t forget about you!
5. travel steam buddy. I will start this off by saying I Hate (capital H) ironing. I have never ironed successfully without burning myself, I always iron more wrinkles in than out, and it takes forever. The travel steam buddy seems like the perfect solution because I know Mark will pack 700 button ups that will need some attention after being packed away in a tiny RV closet!
6. lounge chairs w/ detachable tray. As Mark and I will be working from the road during our trip and we’ve never “shared” an office, let alone one as tiny as an RV, I’m picturing my workspace to be OUTSIDE and IN THE SUN! The tray is perfect for my computer. Let’s be honest tho, I really want the chair so that I can lay out in the sun and the tray for my fruity cocktail.
7. fold-up bikes. I just think these will be super fun to have in the RV and the perfect toy to have to explore fun places we find along the way!
8. Pure Barre DVDs and equipment. This is just for me! I’ve recently found a deep & true love for Pure Barre. Read more about it here. I am going to try to take classes at as many studios throughout the USA as possible, but I know there will be states that don’t have a single PB studio – I’m talking to you Maine, New Hampshire & Vermont (PS, we’ve decided to head to New England first on our RV Honeymoon) and I will need to have my Pure Barre fix in the RV. The at home equipment is perfect for this! Just pop a DVD in I’m all set!
9. bluetooth speaker. The perfect way to have some good tunes while on the road!

 

Things We Are Leaving Behind:

1. TV. We think our RV Honeymoon is the perfect time to leave the TV out and just enjoy the experience. (and enjoy our iphones, tablets, kindles..) baby steps.
2. kayaks. A lot of blogs talked about bringing kayaks. We’re going to pass.
3. random kitchen gadgets. They make a ton of RV specific gadgets like a microwave pressure cooker. In theory it sounds great, but I made it through 2 years of college dorm life with just a microwave while adamantly avoiding the dining halls and I lived. I might have gained some weight, but I lived. I’m confident that we’ll be able to make do with our oven/stove and microwave without needing 1,000 RV kitchen gadgets.

That is all for now. What have you packed for your RV trips? Have I forgotten anything major? Let me know!

xoxo,
Rachel

The Grand RV Remodel

Let’s flash back real quick to the day we bought our RV. We love her (still accepting names for her) but decided she needed a little facelift.

The day we bought our RV <3

The day we bought our RV ❤

I put Mark in charge of the remodel as I was doing last minute wedding things and just didn’t have the time to help pick between shades of paint or to stay on our contractor who would be doing the work. Mark did the only logical thing in this situation.. he hired someone else to make design decisions and to coordinate with the contractor. Works for me. Whatever. Turns out the designer he hired, Anne, is/was amazing. She totally took our vision and made it come to life. AND all the work was done on time. A++ for Anne!

Here was our inspiration! If you haven’t used or heard of Houzz, go to the site immediately. It will get all your creative home remodeling & decorating juices flowing, even more so than Pinterest!

Our inspiration via Houzz

Our inspiration via Houzz

 Ta Da!!

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Before & After of the “entire” RV

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Before & After of our kitchen

And some more afters:

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Another shot of the kitchen!

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The bathroom!

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The bedroom!

Can’t wait to call this babygirl (seriously, name suggestions people!!) home in just a few weeks!!

xoxo,
Rachel

RV Honeymoon Planning Meeting

Hi Everyone!

It is getting close! Just a few more weeks (fingers crossed) before our RV remodel is complete and we are on the road! We spent the last few nights planning out some “routes.” I’ll use routes very loosely here because we’re just noting places we want to see/stop and with the intent to drive through that area. My husband found this great tool on Pinterest which seems like it will help us a lot. Now I am a Pinterest Fanatic. Here is my Pinterest, make sure to check out my boards and follow me! It is probably my #4 most used app on my phone but I didn’t connect the dots on Pinterest’s new “map boards” and how awesome it would be for this trip. Shame on me. The map boards link and places we pin to a giant map and you can pull up the map and see quickly where each place is. You can zoom out and get a broad sense of what things are close to each other or you can zoom in to see exactly what road whatever place you want to see is on. It is actually perfect for what we want to do.

Here is the board I am talking about. See how cool?

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planning meeting with our trusty Pinterest and some books!

We’ve also been reading a ton of books to get ready for this trip! The three pictured are:

USA’S Best Trips: 99 Themed Itineraries across America. Get it here.
This book is cool because as the title implies, the road trips are themed. Examples? “60 lighthouses in 60 hours” (New England) “Gunfighters & Gold Miners” (South West) “Historic Battles of the Civil War” (South) and “Here’s the Beef” (Great Plains). Cool right?

1,000 Places to See Before You Die. Get it here.
Once you get ove the fact that you will die one day (morbid) this book is great! It includes 1,000 physical landmarks to see throughout the world before you die. You’ll have to skip over the countries.. hemispheres that don’t apply to you. But once you get to the correct area, the destinations are pretty incredible and must sees. 

500 Things to do Before You Kick the Bucket. Get it here.
Again with the morbid titles. This books has about 495 great suggestions ranging from places to visit to activities to try. There are some weird “things to do” in this book… “compose a song” or “learn to play the bagpipes”  or “go to clown college” but whatever floats your boat right?!

We are always looking for suggestions on places we need to stop on our RV Honeymoon! You can comment on any of our posts or send an email to rvhoneymoon1@gmail.com with your suggestions!

xoxo,
Rachel

A New (To Us) RV For Our RV Honeymoon

Well… we bought a used RV today.

Let me back track a minute. When we planned our honeymoon we wholeheartedly planned on renting an RV from someone and using it to travel the US on our honeymoon. After reaching out to a several RV owners who rent out their RVs, we were forced to take a step back. We were getting a lot of “we don’t let our vehicles travel cross country” or “we don’t rent out for extended periods like that” and “we would charge $XXX” which, as one RV owner pointed out, was more than it would cost to buy a used RV. I kind of put the RV rental into Mark’s hand as I’m pretty swamped with wedding planning itself! Plus, I’m not one to spend hours researching RVs online which is right up Mark’s alley. We went and looked briefly at an RV on Friday evening and Mark came home and spent Friday night and Saturday doing research on this RV and several others. We both went and looked again at the RV today and took it for a test drive. A few negotiations later and it was ours! Well it will be ours contingent on a few things Mark has to check into! But I see a “SOLD” sign in the window so I’m confident she is ours!

P.S.  I think she needs a name. I’ve determined she is a female already but need some good name suggestions!

Say hello to our 2004 Damon Daybreak!

 

Meet Our New (To Us) RV

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Mark Getting Comfortable Behind The Wheel

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RV Selfie

xoxo
-Rachel

Saturday Inspiration

I am a huge fan of quotes. I could post hundres of thousands of quotes, especially those creatively displayed (thanks Pinterest). This one speaks to both my wedding brain & my travel brain! I’m saying yes to new adventures as husband & wife and new adventures traveling the USA in a RV!

Say Yes To New Adventures

Other things I’ve said yes to (in no particular order): the groom, the venue, the cake, the photographer, the dress, the second dress, the shoes, the theme, the colors, the DJ, the videographer, the menu, the signature cocktails, the favors, the invitation style, the linens, the timeline, the rehearsal dinner, the decorations…

But perhaps the most important thing I’ve said yes to… the new adventures.

Happy Saturday!