Chasing Adventure

Google Maps indicated that it would take about 10.5 hours to drive from where we stayed in TN to Melbourne, FL. Since we have time now, we took four days to make the drive.

Yes. Four days to make a one day drive. I love this life.

Taking what we learning from boondocking on the way out to TN and everything since then, we felt very comfortable boondocking down to Melbourne. Full-time RVers follow a 3-3-3 rule: 3 hours, 300 miles, and 3 days in a row. I planned out the trip through my RV Life Trip Wizard to follow this unwritten rule, and through Harvest Hosts for convenient places to stay. We arrived with ease and still smiling, so I’m calling this journey a success!

Side note: I recently was able to get the TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitor System) finally working on Maverick. I thought it was complete user-error, but Lippert informed me I had a bad repeater and sent me a new one. So, this trip is our way to experiment if we have the correct tire pressure in the trailer tires. More on that another time. 

The first day, we drove 192 miles and just under 3 hours. It definitely felt like more miles because we came through the mountains and there were numerous hills to ascend/descend. That night, we boondocked at a family farm in South Carolina, Persimmon Hill Farm. We met the Dad, Matt, and his four-year-old son, Paul shortly after we arrived. Matt had set up a five-gallon bucket and gave Paul a rope, so the whole time the adults stood around talking, this little boy practiced his roping. He was pretty good and it was so adorable!! We were able to purchase three dozen fresh eggs (recently gathered), a whole chicken (processed just a few days), and four strip steaks – all extremely fresh. 

The second day, we drove 212 miles over 3.5 hours to just south of Savannah. I was very excited for this stay because that night we boondocked at the Debellation Brewing Company in Georgia. There was a Latino Festival going on that night and even though our hosts communicated to us about it, the party went much later than expected. Since the party-goers were all parked where the rigs would go (there were 5 campers that night!), we parked on the side of the road and went inside to enjoy the festive music, Latino food trucks, and of course the craft beer. I recommend the Candy Apple Ale – it was by far our favorite. The bar was really trendy inside with a heavy Viking theme. It was founded by a couple of military veterans, and I love supporting those businesses.  Definitely staying there if we go back through that area and hope to be able to enjoy the bar without the fun Latino influence. 

The third and fourth nights, we stayed at a couple’s home in north Florida through the Boondockers Welcome program. While most locations will not have any amenities, this couple allowed us the opportunity to have power and water for a small fee. With it being a bit warmer in FL, we appreciated being able to run the AC units! They were such a sweet couple and recommended a few places for us to go eat/sightsee, which we did. 

The first night, we dined at Hidden Treasure (they had a puppy patio!) and enjoyed Fish & Chips (Greg) and Jerk Mahi Tacos (Katie). We then took Tigger on a stroll around the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse and decided we need to come back in the day to see the inside.

The second night we dined at a new place on the Halifax River, Fysh, recommended by our new friends. It was a gorgeous evening so we opted for the upstairs deck and enjoyed the sunset, fun drinks, and incredible food. We enjoyed some sashimi and sushi rolls with our drinks (Greg had a Blue Moon and I chose a fruity Sangria). For dinner, Greg had a delicious blackened mahi salad (that took two additional days to finish) and I had the most interesting dish – brisket ravioli. I didn’t love it, but I couldn’t stop eating it. 

As long as the weather is decent and we don’t need to run any AC units, we got this boondocking thing in the bag! The fridge is staying cool, so the new one is working great. Without shore power, we can still use the oven and stove since they are propane, so I made eggs and toast for breakfast each morning in the cast iron skillet. We filled the fresh water tank before we left TN and for the couple days of boondocking, we barely moved the gauge to being 2/3 full. Not being able to dump the black tank for four days, we found out that we could have gone for almost two weeks before we needed to empty it. It’s a learning process, but we’ve enjoy (almost) every moment!

Best of all – all the pulling in and backing out we had to do with Maverick on this trip, we nailed it. 

Every. Single. Time. 

The farm needed a three-point turn and a skinny driveway curve in and out; we nailed it. 

The brewery had a long pull forward (200 ft), then long back up to get in and out; we nailed it. 

The couple’s house was the trickiest – a gravel driveway off a slightly rural road with a sharp right turn in, then we had to stop traffic to leave when we backed out around the same sharp turn, and then I had to pass a electrical truck who didn’t pull off the sideroad completely with about 4″clearance between Pearl/Maverick and the other truck (I think I gave him a heart attack); we seriously nailed it. 

Getting to the campsite in Melbourne, we had to U-turn (purposefully) at the Ranger station to check in, then a switchback right turn into our area, finished with a textbook perfect back-into the site. While I might be driving the truck, I couldn’t have done these tricky maneuvers without Greg telling me where I’m clear, what way to turn the wheel, how much room I have, guiding me where is best to park, and putting the rig exactly where it needs to go. I was so impressed with how great we are as a team at doing this RV life, that I was jumping up and down when we pulled into Wickham Park. I’m so proud of us and it’s making every part of this journey so enjoyable!!

Until we have more to share!

~Katie