Wrapping Up 2025 & What’s Next for 2026

What a year 2025 turned out to be for us. We ended up traveling so much more than we expected to, but also got to see so many friends and places on our wish lists,, while meeting many new people and adding new places to our wish list. We also saw several life changes happen that means 2026 will look different for us.

Travel

We traveled so much more than we planned for the year. We had planned to stay along the east coast since we’d gone out west last year, but jobs changed that plan, taking us across Florida, up to Vermont, back down to Georgia, back to Maryland then out to California.

We ended up traveling through 34 states and covering 16,582 miles. We spent $7,897 on diesel fuel and DEF, but thanks to our Open Roads discount, we saved almost $700 for the year–the equivalent of our monthly fuel budget. (find out more about Open Roads diesel fuel program or sign up using our referral code here)

Camping

Since we full-time in our RV, we are in our RV nearly 365 days a year, leaving only for a week this year when we stayed with the kids in Washington, D.C. to see the cherry blossoms peak this year–it was so worth it. Our totals for the year was 61 different overnight stops, costing us $8,252, an average of $23 a night. Those costs include our membership costs for Thousand Trails (19) and Harvest Hosts (7), as well as private campgrounds (24), national and state parks (3), ACE and MWRs (3–Army Corp of Engineers and Military bases), boondocking on public land or moochdocking with friends/family (4), parking lot overnights–with permission (4), and 5 job sites (3 in a campground, 1 at their church, and 1 on their property).

Changes This Year

This year, our teenager started high school and opted to go from all virtual flex courses of middle school, to a hybrid of flex and home school classes. We do unschooling, a private school option here in Florida, so it was an easy pivot, once we found curriculum.

We also decided to slow down our travel pace, staying longer in locations, shorter travel distances when we could, and if we had multiple travel days, try to stay 2 nights to get a down day in between. This slower pace was helpful for both our physical and mental health, and to avoid the burnout that comes with living like you are on vacation–which we still did on occasion.

I got a celiac disease diagnosis early in the year, so that changed a lot about how we eat, shop and travel, but we learned a lot.. It’s also why you’ve seen a lot more food stuff on our socials. I finally got all of my VA stuff finalized after years, and BJ parted ways with the company he was contracting with for solar. We prioritized our blog postings to 2 per week with travel and savings content on our website, completed and published Our Essential Guide to RV Life workbook to guide those looking at RV life and want to be focused and organized (available in both PDF and spiral bound book) and got Our Travel Planner in spiral bound for 2026 (these and more are available in our Barnes On Move Store) We’ve leaned into more consistent social media in an effort to build our community, since we love staying connected to those we meet and hearing their stories and experiences–join us if you haven’t already!

2026 Goals

This year, we are working on slowing down. Since we are home schooling, we have cut our blogs down to once a week, but are continuing to be active on social media to balance that out. We are continuing to promote Our Travel Planner and Our Essential Guide to RV Life to share those with others that love, or dream, of this lifestyle, whether it’s full time or part time.

Since we will no longer be chasing solar installs all over the country, we hope to stay along the east coast this year. We want to visit our oldest in DC again, as well as try and connect with friends that will be sailing the Great Loop, and get more time with other friends along the way. I’m hoping to get to more camping meet ups or just camp with friends more, too. We’ve got 4 New England states missing that we haven’t overnighted in, and a few places we’ve missed and want to see. A lot of that depends on what we figure out for next steps for business, though.

We had originally hoped to get to Alaska this year, but we weren’t able to prepare and save like we’d hoped, and with our teenager wrapping up with braces and eligible for his learner’s permit this year, we figure that can wait another year or two, when we can plan better. While spontaneous travel is our thing, we’ve heard that’s not a great strategy for Alaska!

So that’s where we are as we start into January. Only a few big rocks on our calendar this year, the rest, we will figure out as we go, and share with you, so be sure you are following along on the socials (FB, IG, YT, TT) or subscribed to the blog, which we also share out on Facebook and Instagram when they publish.

If you’re not a Thousand Trails member, but are interested, use our referral sign up, linked here, and we will get your information to Sharon and Warren Lewis, our specialists, to help you find a membership that works for your budget and camping style!

If you aren’t familiar with Harvest Hosts, it’s a camping membership that allows you to overnight at local businesses all over the country for a small fee. We’ve stayed at wineries, breweries, restaurants, museums, farms, drive-in theaters and many more, all as part of our membership. If you are interested, you can sign up and earn us credit towards next year’s membership at no cost to you using our Harvest Host Referral Link (Boondockers Welcome is a part of this and if you like golf, chat with me before signing up)! You can also check out other ways to save on our savings page at https://barnesonmove.com/savings/

Check out our RESOURCES
Our Travel Planner an easy to carry resource for all your RV needs
Free Printables Page helpful tools and resources for travel and organization
Our Savings Page referral links to savings with brands we love (our links get us referral credit)
Our Travel Map links to blogs for places to see and stay
The Essential Guide to RV Life to prepare, live and transition through RV life (digital & printed)
Amazon Store Amazon products we use or have tested for life, RVing, homeschool and travel
Teachers Pay Teachers Store Store with lessons for learning, in or out of a traditional classroom
About Us Our Story, our WHY, and where to find us

Thanks for being here, we’ll see you out there!