For many Americans the call of the road is a strong one indeed. With the vast expanse of the Midwest, the Rockies and the Appalachia as well as the numerous national parks and gorgeous locations present here its only natural to feel the need to travel. Traveling via RV is one of the best ways to experience this vastness as it allows you the flexibility you need, removing the need to reserve spots on accommodation apart from visiting an RV park. There is a sense of awe and amazement as you travel to a new location, your breath held as you experience something new. One life will simply never be enough to experience the entirety of North America and its splendor. Much of what is out there is worth the long hours driving and the time you will spend on the highways and interstates. Here is our small list of places you should really visit if you want to undertake such a trip:

• Madison Arm Resort, Montana

Very close to the Yellowstone National Park and located in West Yellowstone, this wonderful resort is a perfect destination for those who wish to visit the park. You don’t have to stay within the boarders of the park which get easily crowded during peak season times. You can go down to Lake Hegben for some fun fishing, swimming or just taking a walk before going off to Yellowstone itself.

• Rocky Knob Campground, Virginia

Located along the Blue Ridge Parkway not too far from Christiansburg, close to mile marker 167. The campground offers one of the most amazing views of the mountains on the east coast. You can enjoy historical attractions, local music, crafts and more. Take some time to stop by the Mabry Mill for some great photos or a quiet picnic.

• Squaw Flat Campground, Utah

Hidden in the Canyonlands National Park in Moab, Utah and more accurately in the Needles section you will find Squaw Flat Campground. It has impressive and beautiful rock formations, Native American rock paintings and stone pillars among the inspirational natural sights. Driving on US 191 will allow you to enjoy the landscape as you travel to the park itself. If you love hiking than the time spent on the trail to Chesler Park will be well-spent.

• Yosemite Pines RV Park, California

You can find this park in Groveland, CA. It offers opportunities for hiking, chartered plane tours over the park and a chance to enjoy the views. You’ll have a chance to explore much of the park in your time here as the location of the RV park is very convenient for travel within its boundaries.

• Boyd’s Key West Campground, Florida

Visitors to Key West will have a chance to enjoy many attractions while staying on the campgrounds. Saltwater fishing, a Tiki Hut and a boat dock are available for those staying within its boundaries. You can enjoy a chance to unwind walking on the beach or visiting the sunset celebration each evening on Duval Street in Mallory Square. This is a nice piece of Florida at its best.

Bio: Amber Collins is a professional content writer, blogger and specializes in everything related to living on the go and moving house in Clerkenwell. Home improvement and management are her specialties due to her constant relocation to EC2 and changing of homes, but maintaining her family RV and constantly searching for new locations to be explored is what drives her. The perfect vacation for her is jumping in the family RV and driving away. She is giving an account of her dream destinations yet to be discovered throughout USA.

When my family first started our full timing adventure in 2010 we had not been to that many unusual places, we had only been full timing for a couple of months and had either been in AZ with family or visiting more mainstream attractions. Of course we soon learned to travel off the beaten path and explore more hidden places, and one of the first unique places we visited was Salvation Mountain.

Salvation Mountain is -shockingly- a mountain, but it is not a normal mountain. Located in CA not far from Slab City, Salvation Mountain is actually a project that was created by a man named Leonard Knight. Leonard is a man who loved God and wanted to spread his message that God is Love. Leonard came to Slab City with the intention of building a small concrete monument in honor of God; however one thing led to another until over the years Leonard built a mountain for God. The mountain was built over many years with concrete and numerous buckets of paint; seriously I doubt you could count how many buckets of paint were used on this mountain. Every surface of the mountain is painted a bright color, bible verses leap out at you from almost every wall, and pictures are painted on the smallest things. No detail is over looked when it comes to the paintings done by Leonard! When the paint job may not be the most skilled, the overall color and experience adds up to a beautiful place.

The mountain is fairly large, 50 feet tall and 150 feet wide, and there is no limit to where you can and can not go on it. You can climb to the very top to pose with the giant cross, explore all of the manmade caves and nooks around and in the mountain and climb over the entire surface! Most of the fun here can be had trying to climb to the top of the mountain. Just make sure you do not fall- although the mountain looks colorful and fluffy it is still made of concrete and can really hurt if you fall down it!

I should say that maybe obviously the message of the mountain is religion. Bible verses are painted everywhere, the main message is Jesus Loves you and crosses cover the mountain. I personally think this is nice, I felt the religious part of the mountain was the main part, and many of the visitors who came here were very religious. Now if you are not very religious you may feel you would not want to come here. But I still think you should! When I was here I did not feel like I was having religion shoved down my throat, no one asked any personal questions about my religion and everyone here was very nice. If you do not want to come here for the religion you can at least come to see this wonderful piece of artwork. It will be worth your trip.

When we came here we were very lucky and got to meet the creator of Salvation Mountain Leonard Knight. He gave us a personal tour of the mountain, showed us around everything and told us some interesting stories of different parts of the mountain. When he finished with our tour he happily moved on to the next group of people who had arrived ands proceeded to give them a tour. Sadly Leonard no longer lives on Salvation Mountain as he did for around 27 years in a renovated bus; in December 2011 he was moved to a nursing home in CA due to dementia. He is still there now and I doubt that he will ever be able to see Salvation Mountain again. However you still can, after Leonard was moved a group of volunteers stepped up and offered to care for and continue Leonard’s project and dream. Because of this it is not likely the mountain will be closed down anytime soon, and it will continue to be cleaned and cared for.

Salvation is really out of the way, and it is not by any other large landmarks or tourist destinations. If you come here you will have to drive out of the way of your route, and it is not likely you will be able to spend more then an hour here at the most. But the time you do spend here will be fun, and it is free. Oh didn’t I mention that yet? Yes, Salvation Mountain is 100 percent free. Although a donation box is open for any money you might want to give, you do not have to pay any money to visit this site. Though you do not have to pay, you can choose to bring a donation of paint. It doesn’t have to be new paint, and no specific color is asked for. We brought a couple cans of paint that we had partially used, and it was gratefully accepted.

Salvation Mountain is a great place! Kids will love it because it is brightly colored, you can climb all over it, and you can explore the different parts of it. Adults will love it for pretty much the same reasons as the kids, but I think they will appreciate the art of the mountain, and if you are religious you will appreciate the message. I recommend visiting Salvation Mountain; it is a fun place to stop for an hour or so.

Grumpy said, “How would you like to explore Christmas Valley?”

I get all excited thinking maybe we are finally making that much dreamed of trip to Alaska! Surely Christmas Valley must be located close to the North Pole?

His next words dashed those hopes as he said, “We should have a couple hours to stop there on our way to Lakeview.” I quickly learn that Christmas Valley is in Oregon. I, however, love exploring so we are off to explore Christmas Valley.

We traveled down US 97 to just south of La Pine. My sense of humor was tickled when I saw in the directions that 2/10ths of a mile past Chipmunk Lane is where we would take a left onto OR 31. A little over 29 miles later we were turning onto Fort Rock Road (which is just 9/10ths of a mile past Dry Creek Rd.) In another 22.3 miles of desert driving, we found ourselves turning onto Christmas Valley Highway. Just 11 short miles from our destination.

Christmas Valley, Oregon is one of Oregon’s fastest growing communities. It is also one of Oregon’s newest communities. Learning that you will be traveling to Christmas Valley may lead you to visions of Sugar Plums, Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and Christmas Trees. Driving down US 97 and OR 31 will give you a view of a lot of pines for potential Christmas trees. Upon arriving at Christmas Valley you might slowly drive down Tinsel road, or walk and sing down Jingle Bell road, of course you would be singing -”Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells jingle all the way …” or perhaps ”Dashing through the snow, bells on …”.

However unless you are visit when it is snowing, you will find that apart from the Christmas names on the roads and stores like “Santa’s Hardware”, “Tinsel Tailor” and “Forever Christmas Gifts and more”, there is little to find in Christmas Valley that reminds you of Christmas. We visited in the summer time. If you choose to explore then be sure and bring a fishing pole!

I asked a local what they do in and around Christmas Valley and got some surprising answers. Explore – The Crack in the Ground, Fort Rock Cave, Fort Rock State Park, Christmas Valley Sand Dunes, Fossil Lake and the Lost Forrest. These suggestions were followed with go fishing, and explore the new Basin and Range Birding Trail.

When I asked for an interesting fact about Christmas Valley I was told:
Electrical power didn’t reached North Lake county until October 28, 1955 and Froggy’s Pizza and Deli uses real black beer in their dough.

Things to do in and around Christmas Valley?

Go Golfing on Christmas Valley’s championship course.

Explore the Basin and Range Birding Trail with its 19 hotspots for birders.
Oregon ranks fifth in the country for bird diversity with nearly 500 species. Lake County boasts of 328 of those. Maps are available at local businesses, Lakeview BLM Office and US Forest Service offices in Silver Lake, Paisley, and Lakeview.

Fishing – North Lake County offers a variety of fishing opportunities for the novice and expert fisher person. Pick from your choice of redband and brook trout found in the many small streams that flow from the East Slope of the Yamsey Mountain. Fishing the Silver, Buck, Coyote, Long and Bridge Creeks will land you pan sized mouth watering fish. Thompson Valley, Duncan, and Ana Reservoirs will provide you with fishing tales for many a campfire story whether you angle from the bank or from your boat.

We look forward to exploring the Fort Rock State Park, Fort Rock Cave, Christmas Valley Sand Dunes, Crack in the ground, Fossil Lake and Lost Forrest. Our fishing equipment will be readily available when we return!

We only spent two hours in Christmas Valley which was just enough to know that though it has little that resembles Christmas – there is still a lot of things left to explore in Christmas Valley. It maybe in our rearview mirror now, but we look forward to returning again to explore the magic of Christmas Valley.

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The day I was booking our stay at a mountain cabin for my birthday getaway, Marina pointed out the irony that as a fulltime RVing family, our definition of a “vacation” is to go rent a house!

And in this case, it was actually a charming, quaint cottage adorned with fabulous rustic decor and a deluxe hot tub on the deck calling my name – but as we all came to find out, it was still a 3 story house, no matter how you slice it.

Now, we take a lot of trips leaving our motorhome parked, so staying in hotels is pretty common for our family; but until this recent stay at the cabin, it didn’t occur to me how long it’s been since we were in an actual house. Until that is, we all started exhibiting some unique behavior as we explored our temporary “digs.”

Throughout our stay, I made note of some hilarious adventures we had that really drove home the differences that we’ve grown accustomed to, and thought  I’d share them with you today. Keep in mind, we’ve been on the road for 3-1/2 years and our former home was also 3 levels – so we were no stranger to the layout… or so we all thought!

Getting Lost: “Morgaaaaaaaan, where are you?” Reply: “I’m right here” – yes, but where is “here?” Every time we turned around, we were losing one another and no one was ever on the same floor with the person they were speaking with. Which caused a lot of confusion when being used to a family of four that is perpetually in ‘line of site’ inside our RV.

Doors: Yes, those round things are called door knobs. They don’t move up and down though – you turn them and subsequently must remember whether they push in or pull out, otherwise, you bang into the door if you are moving too fast.

Windows: Not all of them open to let in fresh air, and by the time you scale the stairs multiple times to find all the ones that actually open, you are so overheated you are ready to crank up the air. But wait, that would require backtracking to find everything you just opened, so you just go sit out on the deck and hope you can remember where they all are by nightfall.

Fridge/Freezer: Ok – this one I thought through and specifically took advantage of! On our trip into town to get some provisions, I headed straight for the frozen appetizer section and bought every huge, oversized box I could find that normally wouldn’t fit in our RV freezer. Despite the fact that our fridge is a large double-door style, there are still just some boxes that simply won’t fit – and they are normally all those gourmet little goodies and appetizers that take up so much space but taste so yummy! So I delighted in finding the biggest boxes I could locate in the frozen food section and bringing them back to the cabin just for a special treat!

Relaxing: As we all kicked back in the living room after a fun day, I looked at Greg and the girls and busted out laughing. Picture a huge, open air living room with a recliner, love seat, two couches and multiple cushy throw rugs. Then picture the four of us sitting all on one love seat and recliner directly opposite one another with about 2 feet between us. We had a football field of room, and yet we all “assumed the position” of linear lounging. It was so funny, but even after we realize it, no one retreated to finding their own space – we were actually all quite content to be cuddled up in tandem.

Decor: The owner of the vacation rental went to meticulous extremes to outfit the cabin with a rustic decor – from the gorgeous mounted elk, bear, deer and pheasant on the walls to the carved statues and figurines adorning every table and counter top. What he probably didn’t envision though was the amusement that our family would get with lifting up the memorabilia and getting a kick out of things that weren’t nailed down, velcro’d in place or otherwise permanently attached. Once the girls realized that the house didn’t sway in the breeze, they started experimenting with placement and probably left the owner wondering if an interior design team had stopped by and what was wrong with the original locations of the stuff that was moved.

Security: We have to lock how many doors before we go to sleep? And who locked what? Laying there trying to sleep, it got the better of me as I crawled out of bed, scaled the stairs (yet again) to double check five doors – one of which I was convinced that someone probably missed… And what did I find? Marina – coming around another corner with the same thoughts as we busted out laughing (yet again!) Who knew there could be so many exits to occupy our thoughts as we nestled in after a long day!

Shower Time: “Daddy, are you done in the bathroom yet? Oh wait – I’ve got 2 more to choose from…” LOL – Nevermind! Again, with 3 bath/shower choices, did we shower simultaneously? Ooooh nooo, there we were, waiting for each other to finish and worse yet – twice during our stay Marina headed downstairs with all her bath stuff… Of course the devious mommy that I am, I waited until she reached the bottom step to point out that there were no bathrooms on that floor. Which had her racing up the stairs to tackle me for playing yet another stair trick on her!

Stair Tricks: Ok, so I took full advantage of messing with the girls and watching them run up and down to find stuff. But it wasn’t all that difficult, because when we arrived and spread out our stuff, none of us could remember what was on which floor. Fortunately, I have two spry little ladies that did most of my running for me – those stairs were for the birds! Not to mention pack up day, when I made everyone start on the 3rd level and take everything down to the bottom before packing. Who knew in three days things could wind up in cubbys and around corners that we didn’t even use! I think the Morganator was at work in playing hide and seek on that one though!

And at the end of our stay… I have to say it was an amazing, magical birthday – filled with exactly the serenity I’d hoped for in finding a location with no cell signal or Internet connection and becoming one with nature (including a hike through the woods and up a mountain that I would have bet money I couldn’t scale, but alas I conquered on my 47th birthday!) And the mood lighting in the hot tub on the deck was a welcome respite after each day’s activities, as well as a morning dip with my Dutch Bros coffee in hand.

But as we packed it all in and locked it all up, did we feel like we were walking away from the “comforts of home?”

Far from it! We started the engine of our SUV to head back to our REAL COMFORTS OF HOME!

Indeed, I believe we have the better end of the deal…

For as the owner’s mortgage comes due, the taxes need paid, the grass needs cut, the snow flies and needs shoveled, and the maintenance is required… we will be heading on down the road in our “home on wheels” without the trappings of ownership that we’ve delightfully left behind.

It was a great visit, but as the house faded in the distance, we all chimed in with a resounding… “we wouldn’t want to LIVE there!”

As the temperatures have started to rise toward 100 degrees here in Quartzsite, AZ over the past few weeks, we’ve heard the call of summer and started to finalize plans for our trip north and the new adventures that will lie ahead.

It’s amazing how fast the winter has flown by and as the tarps have come down on our tent/playroom/hobby workshop, we are scrambling to finalize all the last minute details as we prepare to hit the road. (Including the whopping 10 new tires that are being put on the motorhome and the Excursion before we leave town. Ugh)

This summer, one of our early targets is Astoria, Oregon for the Fulltime Families rally and the first time in a long time that we’ve had to be somewhere on a specific date.

As part of our free spirited lifestyle, it’s rare that we know where we will be next week, let alone 2 months in the future. So this has thrust mommy into planning overdrive, mapping out the first 6 weeks of our summer and making plans with all the friends we are going to be meeting up with along the way.

Timing our trip to arrive at the KOA in Astoria has now turned into a series of 9 campgrounds that we’ve booked along the way – staying 2 or 3 days in one spot and a week at a time in a few other spots where we know we want to cover more of the local sights and attractions.

This has meant pulling out the atlas, consulting CampClubUSA and Passport America locations for the best deals on camping rates, and heading to rvparkreviews.com to check out what others are saying about our potential picks. And it is also the first time that I’ve actually mapped our travels out on a calendar and sat for a few hours making phone calls to book 9 separate reservations! It’s been a great deal of fun, but definitely not something I’d relish doing all the time.

In addition to planning our stops, I’ve also had to research and compile our “to do” lists in each city we’ll be visiting. And since this trip will involve three brand new states (Idaho, Utah and Washington), we’ve already had a wish list of things to do and see along the way (Bryce & Zion) as well as new spots that others had told us about that we are looking forward to exploring – Lagoon amusement park, Roaring Springs waterpark, the Treehouse Museum and so much more!

So in a few day, the slides will come in, the engine will roar and we’ll be off and running on making memories for the summer of 2011.
Stay tuned for our adventures!