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airstream full time

A Year in Review – Airstream Style

Holy moly! What an amazingly awesome ride 2016 has been. When we rang in the new year (I was asleep by 10PM) I had NO IDEA we’d be packing up all of our things, buying a (newer) Airstream and hitting the road. It’s stuff dreams are made of, y’all. Lets take a little trip down memory lane, shall we?

At the beginning of April is when this great journey began. We spent one of our last nights in our sticks and bricks house scrambling to get everything in storage (including the old Airstream) and out of the house. Our tenants were moving in to the house in just eight short hours.

We spent a few nights parked in a friends driveway where we learned that we would need an alternate transportation option for the generator. Thankfully we had time to grab a Thule rack while we were still in our hometown.

Once we left Austin for our maiden voyage, we spent a few nights parked in Dad’s driveway. Little did he know this was about to become a trend. We’ve spent many nights parked in that very comfortable driveway, utilizing his fancy washer and dryer, and even washing our house on wheels in his driveway. Thanks, Dad!

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Junction, TX

White Sands National Monument

May is when we really started to learn the ropes. We had replaced all four of the tires on the Airstream at this point, changed the (broken but not really broken) converter, and realized that this GIANT TIN TUBE gets really really hot when the temperature rises.

We experienced our first national park in May. It was overwhelming, awesome, and fueled a fire we didn’t know existed. We hit our first milestone of tiny living for 30 full days, without any accidental deaths. All in all, May was a great month!

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Yosemite National Park

June is when we were introduced to Bend, “real” boondocking, and when we determined we really did need a more powerful tow vehicle. What an expensive discovery that turned out to be, but we do love the power behind the diesel.

We also visited our second National Park which turned out to be absolutely gorgeous and not busy, at all. Crater Lake National Park was partially closed in certain areas due to snow still on the ground, in June, so we were only able to explore on foot and bike.

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Crater Lake National Park

Come July we were needing to move on from Bend, so we ventured to the Oregon coast. While it was lovely, we weren’t a huge fan of the dreary weather so we turned our rig back around to make our way back to Bend for the fourth of July weekend.

At this point I wasn’t real sure we were going to make it any further in our journey and I was completely fine with it. However, we insisted we move on, so we did and boy am I glad we did! Our next stop was Seattle to visit friends and family.

We spent our evenings taking the ferry from Bainbridge Island into Seattle to dine in great company. Our first ferry experience was, um, not our brightest moment. We just got on a random ferry that was leaving the port in Bainbridge Island, and I quickly realized we might not have gotten on the right ferry. Thankfully, after asking a couple, we were informed that we were in fact on the right ferry. We loved spending time with Aunt Leta and seeing the sites of a big ol’ city.

Bandon, OR

Bandon, OR

Smith Rock State Park

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Ferry from Bainbridge Island to Seattle

August was when things really started to get interesting, as if they weren’t already. At this point, I was adamant that Bend, OR was going to be our favorite place but here comes Montana and Glacier National Park. Wow. What an amazingly gorgeous, friendly state.

Glacier National Park is where we encountered our first Grizzly bear, mountain goat, and weird giant beaver looking animal. It’s where we fell even more in love with the life we were leading. It’s where we acquired our first National Parks Pass. It’s where we dusted off our passports and headed into another country, aka, Canada.

As we made our way south, we spent some time on the outskirts of an adorable little town on the border of Montana and Wyoming. We were able to boondock right on the Yellowstone River all while being just fifteen miles from Yellowstone National Park. At this point, we are just knocking National Parks off of our list. After work, we’d venture into Yellowstone National Park and partake in some mini hikes. We saved a good ol’ mountain biking trip for a weekend and it nearly killed me. Fortunately, I survived and we headed onto Grand Teton National Park.

There is this awesome little boondocking spot right outside of the park that over looks the Tetons. And holy moly, it was hands down the most gorgeous spot we had yet to stay. Needless to say, we were starting to love Wyoming as much as we loved Montana.

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Yellowstone River

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Grand Teton National Park

September is when we started to really head back south. After leaving Wyoming, our next big stop was Colorado. This is where I really started to feel the affects of the altitude. You’d think I would be used to it at this point, but for some reason it became even harder for me to breathe.

Anyway, we spent some time in various towns throughout Colorado with our favorite being Pagosa Springs. We had visited a few years ago to ski and loved the fun, vibrant little town so we were excited to be back in the summer.

After leaving Pagosa Springs, we headed to Taos, NM to visit some friends from college. They were kind enough to let us moochdock in their driveway and then take us downhill mountain biking. We had just acquired some new sweet mountain bikes so we were excited to put them to the test. And wow. They aren’t the type of mountain bikes made for downhill mountain biking, but they got the job done and we had a blast. Taos is an adorable little town and we hope to visit during ski season!

At this point we were wrapping up our journey and hadn’t been swimming ALL summer. Which is unheard of for a couple of Texans so I begged to turn our rig southbound straight for the beach. Given a love for the white sandy beaches of Florida, we didn’t object. We spent a few days driving a ridiculous distance to get to our favorite little campground in the Southern United States, Grayton Beach State Park.

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Pagosa Spring, CO

Angel Fire, NM

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Grayton Beach, FL

October was the month that we were expected to arrive back in Austin, TX so we tried to make the most of our final days on the road. We made our way to Tennessee because I really wanted to visit Nashville. We found a great campground right outside of Nashville to spend the week. The spots were GIANT and the leaves were starting to change which was gorgeous.

After leaving Nashville, we made our way to Arkansas which is such a beautiful state that I believe is underrated. One of my favorite little towns in Arkansas sits right in the Ozark Mountains with a fun little downtown area and great hiking all around.

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Eureka Springs, AR

We are incredibly grateful for the time we spent exploring the beautiful western United States and cannot wait to see what the eastern portion has to offer. It’s fun to think up all of the places we can (and will) go. One major adventure I have in mind, includes turning this adventure south and heading through Mexico into South America.

One of my favorite things about our journey is sharing adventures with our family and friends. Our parents have been nothing but supportive and I’d have to say my Dad is our number one promoter. I mean, he is the reason we have so many subscribers.

December 21, 2016

Honky Tonkin’ in Nashville, TN

written by Mrs TinCanPlan

After two glorious weeks of beachin’ in Grayton Beach, FL we finally decided it was time to move on in our journey. Our next stop was Nashville, TN. I’ve only ever flown through Nashville so I thought it would be fun to see the sites and maybe run into a famous singer OR Bobby Bones! None of which happened.

Our first night in Nashville was spent staying in an overpriced RV park because the campground we were aiming for was completely full. We’d made some plans to head into downtown Nashville so we decided we’d put on our finest jeans and out head! In my mind, I had imagined downtown Nashville to be cute and quaint with a lot of cozy bars and fun boutiques. I was WAY off. It’s similar to any crazy downtown area, such as 6th street in Austin.

After wandering around downtown for a short amount of time, we stumbled upon this back alley bar that looked like it might be a little divey on the inside so we ventured in. It was anything but divey, we were definitely under dressed for this swanky restaurant and the host let us know with their disapproving glare. Once we realized we were not welcome at this establishment, we made our way to Hattie B’s to eat some fried chicken, or as other people refer to it as “Hot Chicken” .

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On Sunday we were able to grab a spot at Seven Points Campground right outside of Nashville and let me tell you, this campground was amazing! The spots were GIGANTIC, level, and just plain awesome. It sits right on Percy Priest Lake and some spots back right up to it. They even have their own little stair set down into the lake. There is even onsite laundry which makes life a little easier.

french bulldog hammock

seven points campground

Since we were in a bigger town with shops available to us that aren’t usually, I thought I would pick up a few outfits for when I have to make myself presentable for work relations. We spent about 15 minutes looking at jeans before I had a meltdown and we promptly left. We then made our way to Trader Joe’s to grab our weekly groceries and that place was an absolute madhouse.

Monday we made our way to the Bluebird Cafe in hopes of grabbing a seat in the tiny little cafe to catch open mic night. The open mic night starts at 6PM which is a completely reasonable time for us to catch a show, especially on a school night. I was pretty excited. But apparently, this is quite the to-do. The line was about 100 people long by the time we got there and the venue only houses about 40 people. We quickly learned that people had been lined up since 3PM, well since we have jobs (and not on vacation which I assume these people were), we couldn’t get there until 5PM. As the story goes, we didn’t get in. Bummer. We then decided to eat more fried chicken.

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Nashville was a great little (BIG) town but I’d have to say I enjoyed the campground a bit more than I did venturing into the city. I’ve come to realize that peace and quiet is what I value most. Moving back to Austin should be interesting.

October 3, 2016

Sweet Summertime in the Mountains – Pagosa Springs, CO

written by Mrs TinCanPlan

We arrived in Pagosa Springs, Colorado by way of Twin Lakes on Monday evening. Our original plan of spending a few days in Twin Lakes was brought to a halt due to a weird rumbling of the ground at our campsite which was discussed in this blog post. Anyway, we left Twin Lakes with a longish drive ahead of us after work on Monday which meant we’d be arriving in Pagosa Springs close to sunset. Mr. TCP prefers to not drive in the dark, ever, and I really don’t like having to direct him into a spot in the dark. The chances of accidentally stepping on a snake are much higher. Anyway, we arrived in Pagosa Springs with about 45 minutes until complete darkness.

The first spot we had scouted out via Campendium was an awesome little place right off of a forest road tucked into the mountains that backed right up to a river. Picture perfect, I tell you. There was even an abundance of great trees to hang the hammock. But as most of these stories go, we didn’t have any service. We’d decided we would head on down the road closer to town to one of the other forest roads we’d past.

At this point, it was getting quite dark and we didn’t want to play the “will we have service” game until midnight so we decided to call it a night and set up shop at an in-town campground. We decided we’d just get up early in the morning to scout some of the places we passed the previous evening. Fortunately, the forest roads closer to to town had great coverage so we packed up at lunch and headed to our new neighborhood.

Once we got settled into the new ‘hood, we quickly realized that we had some adorable, noisy, neighbors who weren’t so sure of us.

We had plans of hitting a variety of trails each day after work, however, the weather had different plans. It rained each day starting around 3PM and didn’t let up until about 6PM. We did make it to the hot springs one afternoon which was a nice surprise.

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Finally, on Friday afternoon we decided we were going to try to hike to a waterfall regardless of rain. Being cooped up in the Airstream can make the dogs (and humans) a little crazy so we decided to bring along our adventure dog. He LOVES to go on hikes so we try to take him whenever we can. It felt good to lace up the hiking shoes and enjoy the great outdoors before another storm rolled in.

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Our plan was to hike to Rainbow Hot Springs Saturday morning but instead we got the truck stuck in the mud as we were pulling out, because well, it rained like crazy all night. Anyway, it took a tow truck a few hours to get to us and by the time we were free of the mud pit it had started to rain again. We didn’t get to go on that planned hike. Instead, we went into town to pick up some mail and decided we’d check out a demo sale a local bike shop was having. At this point in our journey, we have been pedaling around on some pretty beat up bikes so we have been “shopping” around for some new, affordable, mountain bikes. A shop in town had just what we were looking for PLUS they were on sale so we pulled the trigger and picked up two new (to us) Specialized hard tail mountain bikes.

We spent the afternoon exploring some back country roads that led deep into the mountains. We pedaled up the mountain four miles and it felt like a breeze! Having gears that work properly is a game changer. On our descent down the mountain I was surprised to experience “braking” as I picked up some speed. Bikes that work definitely make for a more enjoyable ride through wilderness.
pagosa springs colorado

Sunday, we had grand plans to head up to Wolf Creek to bike up and then downhill all the way back to the bottom. You see, Wolf Creek doesn’t run their ski lifts in the summer so instead of catching a ride to the top of the mountain with your bike in tow, you climb about 8 miles and gain a couple of thousand feet in elevation while you do it. It was going to be a challenge, one we were excited about, but once again, it was storming.

Apparently it’s monsoon season in Colorado which would explain the storms each day we’ve been there. Between the storms and the elevation, I have been dreaming of a hot, humid beach and that is just what we are going to do! Regardless of everyone’s opinion as to why we shouldn’t head to the beach, we are making our way there with hopes of spending a week or so. But don’t worry, we will then burn more diesel to make it back into the mountains once we’ve wrapped up our beach vacation. Keep your rain away from this parade people because I AM SO EXCITED!

See you soon, Seaside!

September 6, 2016

Taggart Lake Trail – Grand Teton National Park

written by Mrs TinCanPlan

We spent the better part of a week dry camping right on the border of the Grand Teton National Park. We had the opportunity to pull right up to the edge of the mountain we were on but decided against it. We played it safe in the back where less people would crowd when they showed up. However, we still had one awesome view.

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Monday afternoon after work, we headed into Jackson Hole to go grocery shopping, and yes, we found one of those fancy pants grocery stores. I’d planned on grabbing dinner in town because well, it’s an adorable little town but we decided against it. We’d just spent a good portion of our retirement at the grocery store so we might as well go home and make something of it.

I had scouted a few different trails for us to hike, all marked strenuous and around the 15 mile round trip mark, we would have to wait until the weekend for those. We did, however, try to hike a few shorter trails during the week but each time we got beat out by the rain.

grand teton national park

On Friday we were on the verge of going bonkers from having sat in the Airstream for what felt like months. I wrapped up work a little early and we headed out on an 8 mile hike around Taggart Lake and beyond. Initially, we were only going to do the 3 or so mile hike around the lake but it felt so good being in the great outdoors, we continued on. As we were about half way through the hike a lady stopped me to ask, “Did you see the baby cub?” I was confused and asked her what a baby cub was. She looked at me like I was nuts, which I am, but apparently we had strolled right passed a baby bear cub without even knowing it. I will say that we were some of the only people we passed on the trail with bear spray, this lady included, so the joke is on them.

grand teton national park

Saturday morning, I once again, tried to convince Mr. TCP that we should embark on one of the more strenuous hikes, he objected so we settled for a hike to Inspiration Point. About half way in, I was donezo. This altitude business is no joke. I was huffing and puffing and about ready to blow a building down.

Fortunately, I survived. grand teton national park

We definitely counted our lucky stars each day we spent in our awesome, free, camping spot.

August 23, 2016

Grinnell Glacier Trail – Glacier National Park

written by Mrs TinCanPlan

This hike takes the cake for best hike of the year. Not only were the views amazing but what we saw was even more over-the-top exciting (and terrifying)! Our last hike in glacier was the Highline Trail where we only saw one Big Horn Sheep and a couple of marmots. But this time we saw the granddaddy of all creatures!

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A HUGE concern when hiking in Glacier National Park is the Grizzly Bear population. It’s always neat to see them while you are in the comfort of your vehicle but it is a whole different scenario when you come face-to-face with a Grizzly while hiking. It’s pretty much double trouble when it’s a grizzly and her cubs.

We encountered just that, a Grizzly and her two cubs. Fortunately, it was from about 400 yards away and they were distracted by their boisterous wrestling match they had going on. We’ve learned it’s always a good indicator that you’re about to come upon something worth seeing (or dangerous!) when you see a line of people stopped on the trail. That is exactly how we learned about about our big furry friends down at the lake, just having a morning bath. I have to say, it was pretty cute, from a distance.

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As the bears were frolicking in the water, a ranger came behind us and let us know that we either needed to wait until they decide to come up from the water or make a move for it, now. We did just that, we hightailed it across the trail about a mile before we were able to feel our hearts settle.

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During our few hikes in Glacier, we have met some extremely nice people. Everyone says “hello” as you pass them on the trail, and we have even made a few “trail friends”. It’s been an absolute joy. We met one couple who has taken a year off from work to travel. They spent six months in SE Asia and are now traveling around in a VW van seeing all that North America has to offer. It was a delight learning of their adventures. We’ve met a few people on the trail who have learned of our lifestyle – living in an Airstream – and they exclaim, “OH! I would LOVE to do that!”. I give them a few inspirational words (sarcasm for those reading) and we go on our way. Aside from the Grizzly Bears we witnessed this morning, meeting people on the trail has been just as eventful!

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Since our parents are pretty much our number one readers, I feel like I should make a disclaimer about the Grizzly Bears to ease their mind. We are very aware of how dangerous they are. Very aware. Mr. TCP even practices his bear spray techniques. We both carry bear spray and make a lot of noise. I talk A LOT and LOUDLY, well, because I just talk a lot as it is and Mr. TCP is constantly saying “HUH? WHAT DID YOU SAY?” So, I feel the need to already talk at an higher volume. After today’s hike, and reading some extreme Grizzly stories on the world wide web, I think we might hang up our hiking boots for our reminder of stay at GNP.

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We have some really neat footage of the bears so stay tuned for that! We are in an area where the connection isn’t great so uploading those files just isn’t doable at the moment.

August 6, 2016

Video: A Peek Inside the Airstream

written by Mrs TinCanPlan

We’ve had a lot of requests from friends and family to see the inside of the Airstream. Since we can’t give personal tours, we had planned to do a quick video tour. Some of you may or may not know that Mr. TCP is a professional videographer. His work is usually pretty awesome, however, watching this video make you think Uncle Phil used his handy cam.

We had originally planned to clean up the inside, put on real clothes, and give a real tour of the place. That isn’t exactly how it went. I also thought Mr. TCP was going to edit the video to cut out all of the bloopers and ridiculousness, but he didn’t.

It’s long and our parents are probably the only people who watch it all the way through but we had fun so we hope you enjoy it!

May 17, 2016

Catalina State Park Highlight Video

written by Mr TinCanPlan

We loved Arizona, more than we thought we would, especially Catalina State Park. Enjoy this short highlight video of the park and of Seven Falls!

May 14, 2016