Life on the Road

Here’s what a typical day is like for us while we’re on tour…

Although he’s been getting better about sleeping in lately, Beck is usually the first to wake up. If we’re lucky, we can get him back to sleep in our bed until 7:30. Then he starts jumping all over us until we wake up. That commotion will usually wake Quinne up, who’ll join us in bed to cuddle for a few minutes before the kids force us out of bed.

Next, we make the beds so that we have somewhere to sit. After breakfast and showering, we start getting ready to hit the road. Showering in the caravan isn’t too bad; especially if we’re hooked up to a tap and we stagger our showers so that we don’t run out of hot water. If we’re not hooked up to a tap, we have to make sure there’s enough water to make it through the shower. It’s not fun to fetching water wearing a towel and shampoo in your hair.

Getting the caravan ready takes quite a while. Everything must be put in the right place and strapped down properly. If we forget something like putting the pin in the fridge door, we’ll have a mess in the caravan. The order of tasks is important also. For example, if you put the water container away before connecting the caravan, you can’t wash your hands.

Simple things like throwing the trash out can be challenging when you’re on the road. Amy usually has the shameful task of casually waltzing our bags of trash to the nearest park rubbish bin while I wait in the escape car. The rubbish bin must have a large enough opening to squeeze our bags of smelly nappies and food scraps in. Most cities are onto us, and they make the bins very small with narrow openings. We have to keep our eyes peeled for rubbish disposal opportunities. It always feels good to complete a successful rubbish disposal mission. Amy is an expert with a keen eye and a casual but effective stroll-and-drop technique. Most law-abiding citizens don’t suspect a thing.

We usually hit the road around 10:30. If all goes well, Beck is asleep by 11:00 and stays asleep until we stop for lunch. Actually, lunch is triggered by Beck waking up. When he does, we have about half an hour to find somewhere to stop for lunch before the wheels fall off the bus (i.e. major tantrum). We make lunch in the caravan and take a break from driving for an hour or so depending on where we find ourselves. Then it’s back on the road until no later than 5:00. Amy expertly researches our stopover options. Once we find where we want to be for the night, we need to setup the caravan and start making supper. We have a stove, oven, fridge and sink. We don’t have counter space. That’s one of the things (other than family) that we miss the most in the caravan. No counter space leads to ‘caravan moments’, especially when we’re all in the caravan trying to cook and mind the kids.

By the time the kids are in bed, we’re exhausted and ready for bed ourselves.

If we have the luxury of staying in one place for more than one night, we can go for a run or walk in the morning before checking out the local sights. These are usually our laundry, shopping and email days. We've thoroughly enjoyed seeing the country and I'm sure we'll enjoy settling down in a house soon.