Eighteen Short Years: Travel. Adventure. Joy.
Welcome!
Hi, I'm Rachel.
Welcome to Eighteen Short Years! A blog where I share our family's stories of traveling around the United States in our RV and the adventures we find on the road and at home. We're so happy you're here to join us!
Our drive to Moran, Wyoming from Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho brought us to Flagg Ranch Campground from the south. That meant the last ninety minutes of our drive was North US 191...
Back-to-school can be a pricey time of year. Purchasing new school clothes, shoes, and supplies amounts in a big chunk of change for our family every August. Our decision for me to stay home with our...
Public school, homeschool, forest school, (no) cyber charter school, oh my. One would think that with only two children, our back to school routine would be fairly simple. It’s not that our year...
According to our trusty Google maps, fourteen and a half hours of driving lay between Eugene Premier RV Resort and our next stop at Flagg Ranch Campground in Moran, Wyoming. No small feat. Oof. With...
Our 48 hours enjoying Tracktown USA and the Oregon Country Fair Knowing that our next stop was in Eugene, Oregon, softened the heartache of driving away from the Pacific Coast after a beautiful and...
How we spent 40 GLORIOUS truck-free hours in a place that holds a piece of my heart. Mike and I honeymooned on Cannon Beach in 2010, so adding a stop there before heading back east made perfect sense...
This might just be a new favorite National Park for me. It was magical…sigh. Where We Stayed: Port Angeles/Olympic KOA Seven nights after leaving the campground of our dreams in West Glacier...
The road to Sunrise in Mount Rainier National Park opened on July 4th, 2024 for the summer season. And early in the morning of July 5th, our family was making the trek up the mountain for the second...
Like Glacier, Mount Rainer requires a reservation to enter the park, so we were back to our 7 pm alarm setting ways while staying in Packwood, Washington. We were successful in getting a pass for the...
The trip from our Glacier Peak Resort Campground in Rockport, Washington to our Packwood RV Park site in Packwood, Washington was less than 4 hours. With an easy drive day to get from one place to the...
We got married on Martha’s Vineyard in February, 2010, hours before running one of our favorite races, the Martha’s Vineyard 20 miler. Mike has family on Cape Cod and we try to visit at...
Driving to the Glacier Peak Resort Campground that was situated on the western side of North Cascades National Park required pulling our 30′ travel trailer over the North Cascades Highway...
With our bellies full from a delicious breakfast at the Bear Paw Cafe, we pulled out of the West Glacier KOA Resort at noon on Saturday to head west for two days of driving and one night of...
The weather forecast for our third and final day in West Glacier was similar to our second full day – cold and rainy. While it didn’t make a lot of sense to pack up all of our (now pretty...
Visions of the packed parking area at the Avalanche trailhead in our minds, we pulled out of the campground at 6:45am for our second day of adventure at Glacier National Park. We hoped that the...
Refreshed from our first glorious night’s sleep in the campground of our dreams, West Glacier KOA Resort, we were up and at ’em at the crack of dawn Tuesday morning, ready to take on Going...
We bid farewell to the Medora Campground and Theodore Roosevelt National Park at noon on Monday, and started West toward Glacier National Park in Montana. We had two choices of routes to drive across...
“It is an incalculable added pleasure to anyone’s sum of happiness if he or she grows to know, even slightly and imperfectly, how to read and enjoy the wonder-book of nature.”...
There’s some contention in our camper about how to count the days of this trip. I thought that leaving Maryland in our camper on Tuesday, June 18th, marked Day 1 of our cross-country road trip...
Our live music camping date to Saratoga Springs last summer celebrated the end of the Dead and Company era. For their farewell tour, Mike and I decided to see the band both nights and take our...
I know it’s cheesy, but truly….our crew is having SO MUCH SNOWY FUN this winter. We love to ski. We love to sled ride. We love to ice skate. We love snow. And good for us, because living...
I am so thrilled to be able to report epic progress since my post (many moons ago) that offered a skeletal sketch of our 2024 road trip plans. As a result of Mike’s monumental time and effort...
I’ve taken a couple of weeks off from posting a weekly adventure rundown, but picking up where I left off this Friday morning, I would say that this last week was as filled with reflection and...
Traveling by RV has allowed our family to travel big on a smaller budget than the same trips would demand if flights, rental cars, and accommodations were necessary. Though the expense may be less...
After a long (albeit relaxing and fun) week away from home vacationing with family in the Outer Banks last week, this week largely revolved around catching up for our family of four. Our adventures...
We went to the beach! After years of hearing friends and family rave about the Outer Banks of North Carolina, our family finally had a chance to see what the hype was all about. My mom rented a house...
Our last seven days were pretty quiet (well, with the exception of the fireworks!), but full of fun. The 4th of July holiday falling on Tuesday offered us some extra excitement this week! We Had...
We have taken two extended cross-country RV trips and a two-week New England tour since 2020. We’ve driven from Pennsylvania to South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah, and made...
We love live music. We love camping. We combined the two loves for the first time this summer AND scored a two-night date getaway. Mike and I are quick to admit that we’re late to the game...
My husband has family on Cape Cod, so we travel to Massachusetts at least once a year to visit. While the narrow roads and premium land value of Cape Cod don’t add up to it being a sought-after...
How our family enjoyed RV camping – the kids enjoyed summer camp, and the adults enjoyed a little alone time – in one fun-filled week in Ithaca, NY. How We Chose to RV Camp at Summer Camp...
A new BMX track and a new campground made this one a relaxing weekend of firsts for our family. Bouncing on a hayride, under a full moon. Your arm around my shoulder, don’t you still make me...
Back in March, we bought annual 2023-2024 ski passes to Greek Peak in Marathon, New York, for our family of four. Celebrating their 65th season, the local(ish) to us ski resort offered season passes...
Our family could easily list many reasons we love BMX racing. But these 7 are reasons we think EVERY family should consider trying out this Olympic sport. We started BMX racing four years ago. Our...
The title of this post made me gag a little as I typed it. But here I am, writing on – owning that gross title. Because Mother’s Day 2023 could really only have been improved in a...
I’m sure I’ve failed terribly in many aspects of parenting and family life over the last 9 and a half years, but one area I often feel the worst about is the lack of an annual family photo...
Our family has hauled our 30′ travel trailer from Pennsylvania to South Dakota – Wyoming – Colorado – Utah – Arizona – Tennesse – and all over New England...
All I ever want for Mother’s Day is to go camping. We bought our travel trailer in early March of 2020, so our first Mother’s Day weekend as RVers was spent in Covid-19 quarantine...
Our extended summer of 2021 RV road trip was one breathtaking, jaw-dropping experience after another. But as opportunities for outdoor adventure goes: Moah, Utah won our hearts. With a total of 23...
Our family took our first major RV road trip just three months after purchasing our travel trailer. While shopping for, and eventually buying, our RV, we talked about traveling around the country to...
Spring break! Until this last week, the last spring break I enjoyed was April, 2003 – my senior year at West Virginia University. Then I started teaching up here in northeastern...
This year our family opened up our camping season with a spring break trip to the Great Smoky Mountains. Stopping by New River Gorge, West Virginia on the way, this trip checked off National Park...
As we prep the RV for our first trip of the season to Gatlinburg, Tennesse, and the Great Smokey Mountains (yay!), I’ve found a newfound appreciation for so many of the little things in our...
We are excited to leave for our first RV trip of the 2023 season in less than a week as we head to Gatlinburg, Tennesse to visit The Great Smokey Mountains National Park, explore Gatlinburg and Pigeon...