The 5 resources we use when planning a trip.

If you are like us, you want to travel all the time. Each location comes with new experiences, new people, new foods, new…you get the point. While we are at one place, we start thinking of the next place to go. Someone may have mentioned a new city to see, a trail to hike, or a waterfall to see.

Sometimes each of these things get scribbled onto a post-it note that may or may not get looked at again. This is NOT the most efficient way to go about planning a trip. But please do tell of any places we should see in the comments.

Lets take a look at the 5 resources we use to make planning a trip easier.

  1. Internet
  2. Google Maps
  3. Phone
  4. Road Atlas
  5. Our Travel Planner

Internet: Once we have figured out where we want to be at next, we start looking at the area. This starts with an internet search of the area. Yes, some of the search is “What to do in ________” and this almost always gets a good starting point of things to do. If the list is short, it may keeps us to a shorter stay. If the list is long, we may stay longer in the area.

We check on the FCC website to make sure we will have cell coverage for work, or at least find out where there is bad coverage in the area we are looking at. This starts narrowing down where we will want to stay at what park or camp ground.

Google Maps: Plotting out the Points Of Interest (POI) we found on the internet search gives a visual layout of the area. Different pins show the stuff we want to do from hiking to eating, maybe even brewery and coffee.

Here we decide about the distance we would be willing to drive to see the POI’s on our things to do list. Normally we like to stay within 30 minutes of driving, but up to an hour is acceptable depending on availability, price, and amenities.

Also in Maps, we start looking for locations to stay. If it is a short amount of time, and cool weather, we don’t need full hook-ups and 50 amp electric. During times like today when I am writing this, we NEED 50 amp electric, along with Sewer hookup. 100° and higher weather means both AC’s and daily showers.

Most places have online booking and a website. Website shows how the campground looks, the lay-out and the amenities there. Booking websites are great, as long as they give you a conformations.

Phone: When the booking site is down, or they don’t have online booking, we use the phone. Yes you can still book a campsite on the phone with the campground directly. This also gets a chan/ce to ask questions like: “Is the pool open?” “How is the water pressure?” “How good is my cell service there?”

Road Atlas: This gets a quicker view of the major roads in and out of the areas we want to be in. Major roads are usually RV safe with a 13’6″ height, we need to be sure we fit. This combined with looking in Google Maps, we have a good idea of the route to take.

Our Travel Planner: This is a hard copy of a book. In this book we put each of the places we want to go. This has a layout per month, along with reservation information. Check in times and reservation information is now in a location to grab and go as soon as we hit the gates. Some places we go intentionally does not have cell service, or is spotty, so we do not have to rely on our internet to see our information. This book has been one of the best additions to our planning. It also helped reduce the amount of resources we use when planning.

Title Page for Our Travel Planner 18 month 2024
Our Travel Planner 18 Month 2024

Here is a link to Our Travel Planner for a description, and a direct link for sale.

We do try to plan more than one trip at a time because we are mobile. Our Travel Planner helps keep us organized and on track not over lapping or skipping days.

What resources do you use for your travels? Let me know in the comments.

Barnes On Move: Our Story

The whole family was participating in the rat race. But we were a multi-generational home. To accommodate everyone, we up-sized our house. Enlarged our footprint, and had to live bigger. This included more time for maintenance, cleaning, repairs, cleaning, and just taking care of the time sucks.
We thought the pool would be a great addition. But that took money to upkeep, it was only usable part of the year. We used more time keeping it up than actually using it.
The yard was great, but that required mowing, or paying someone else to mow. So this took time and money.

All these little things that are “normal” just seemed to take away from the time in the day to see the world, travel, learn, explore, and quality family time.

We finally decided to do what we though right for our immediate family system. Parents were all healthy and had moved out on their own. The oldest child had moved out. So now was the time for us.

Sonya and I had traveled significantly throughout childhood.

When Sonya was a child, she road tripped with her family all over the US, to include out west, and up to Alaska. She has checked off all 50 states, and 9 different countries to this day.

When BJ was a child, he hiked/camped with his dad. Along with road trips in the South East. I have 30+ states, and 3 countries.

When we got together, we day tripped a lot to different Florida cities, from Tampa, to Daytona, St Augustine, to Key West.

One year-2016, we packed up our youngest, only 5 at the time, loaded up a tent, a cooler, and some clothing and headed north. This road trip took us up the eastern seaboard all the way to Quebec Canada.

The trip was a huge success! We saw many of the “not destination” things that were interesting and historical, along with food. On that trip there were only a couple hotels, but a few friends to couch surf with. All in all we consider this a “trip of a lifetime.”

That trip reignited the want to travel.

Here’s the timeline. We tent camped for a while. Found an easier way to do it, a Wolf Pup tow behind camper. A glorified tent (with bathroom) on wheels. This was small enough to be pulled by a Jeep Cherokee, and big enough to sleep, cook, and entertain.

We outgrew this when our son reached about 4′ tall. He could no longer sleep on the dinette table sleeping area. It got sold, I wonder how that lil trailer is doing?

We then got back in a tent, but not nearly enough thanks to the heat and bugs in Florida.

We got a boat, loads of fun! How does this fit? Well, we camped ON the boat in Hontoon Island near Blue Springs, Fl.

Come 2019, before the great lock down of COVID, we discussed going full-time in a Camper. Many hours researching, looking, shopping, we settled on a 5th wheel bunk house.

2021: Purchased the camper, sold the house…It was go time.

From then, we have moved around Florida into areas we had visited, but never had enough time in. We have lived in the Keys. We have lived on a river. We have lived near the springs. We have lived near the beach a few times. In horse country, in the country, near the retirement areas, and we have yet to get to all the places we want to see in our home state.

Outside of Florida, we have RV’d into Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Texas. We will adventure farther out every time we get a chance.

This adventure is for us to see this state, and country we live in, along with looking at places we may want to settle down at in the future.

Follow, like, and share and follow along with our adventure. We may not be doing everything correctly, but we are doing it…

Putting a 5er on a Diet

Part of living full time in an RV, means making choices. Sometimes that with locations, other times, that has to do with what you can or can not take with you to your next location.

We have gone through processes of eliminating some of our favorite dishes. You know that one coffee cup you cant live without with the cute cats on it. Or getting rid of the 4th pair of running shoes when you only have one pair of feet.

But how do you shave weight from a trailer when you want to carry an extra bag of chocolate chips?

We have seen some things that are attached to the 5th wheel that do not serve a purpose for us. Two of the obvious ones for us where doors and valances.

This new Keystone Arcadia 3550mb only has 2 doors on hinges dividing sleeping rooms. We took them down and put up curtains. This shaved about 5 pounds per door. They opened in a manor that was intrusive to moving around the house.

The valances on the windows. These were brown boxes placed on top of the blinds to give it a more homely feel. Counting around our 5er, we have 13 different windows with these little brown boxes attached.

With a short discussion with the family, we decided they were not needed. The valances where visual clutter and a dust catcher.

Each was held on by 4 screws, and took only a couple minutes each to get off the walls. About an hour later, I weighed the whole stack and found that we cut 31 pounds of valances off the RV. 31 pounds!! that is almost 4 gallons of water. Or could be 30 bags of coffee. That is the weight of a big box store bicycle.

So putting our 5er on a diet let it lose over 40 pounds in a matter of a couple hours. I wish I could lose weight that efficiently.

Roos and Coos Farm & Harvest Hosts – Our First Experience With Both

May 24, 2022

Last month, we had our first Harvest Hosts experience at a local farm called Roos and Coos Farm. First of all, if you don’t know what Harvest Host is, it is an RV membership that allows you to stay overnight for free and locations all over the US. They can be farms, wineries, breweries, museums and much more. They won’t have hookups so you will have to boondock (camp unplugged with what your RV can provide or a generator, if allowed) but it is a great chance to experience some neat places.

Roos and Coos Farm is in Plant City, Florida and is a rescue. Marlene, our host, is very friendly and kind, to both people and the animals she cares for. She told us they had all sorts of animals when her kids were growing up and took in pets of friends, as well. They have turned it into a non-profit rescue and provide homes to all kinds. We saw a variety of animals including Watusi cattle, Coos cow, sheep, kangaroo, raccoons and many others. They were just finishing up a new aviary when we visited and we hope to return to see the finished product.

There was a nice size area for our 36 foot 5th wheel, however, the road is narrow with no turn around and the gate access isn’t large, so be sure you are a confident driver since there is no turn around and it is a one way street.

It was quiet and peaceful. We enjoyed it, as did our pups since it is pet friendly!

There are places to eat and visit nearby. We ventured over to Keel and Kurley Winery, another Harvest Host location, for a drink then hung out at the farm.

Whether you want to camp or just want to visit while passing through, tours are available by appointment, so reach out and schedule, it is worth the stop. There is no cost, but they do accept donations to support the animals, and they have an amazon wish list, if you want to support them.

We look forward to so many other Harvest Host locations in our travels!

http://roosandcoosfarm.com/

https://harvesthosts.com/

Like or comment below and share with others to support the blog. I post weekly on a variety of topics about travel, family, and education. Until next time, you can find me on Twitter @AddictedtoTeac1 or on Tiktok: @sonya.BOMSquadleader. You can find more about our adventures on our our website at BarnesOnMove.com, Facebook, TikTok & Twitter: @BarnesOnMove . Support us and get more in depth and personal interactions at Patreon: Barnes On Move

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