Roughing it

Hello everybody! Hope you had a lovely weekend! We just got home from a little family excursion up north. We took off late last Tuesday for a four day RV trip through Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. This is our second RV trip -- we took our first one a couple summers ago and it’s safe to say we’re hooked. :)

RVing is SO fun – this time we rented a smaller one (the first time we got a huge class A and this time it was a smaller class C). The smaller one was still plenty big and we all loved it. (And I could drive it no problem – bonus.)

This trip was all fun for the kiddo and me, but some work for the hubs since we were traveling around with the drum corp he works with. Back in our old days when he and I were dating we would take off on these kinds of trips often in the summer. I love doing the same with our boy. :)

We love RVing because we can travel at our own pace, stop when we want and still have plenty of space to stretch out as we go. We saw some pretty countryside in Illinois on the first day:

While my husband worked with the corp the kiddo and I explored the cute little town of Metamora, IL – and ended up spending most of the afternoon at their awesome public pool:

It took a few hours, but right before we left the Bub got up the courage to go down that slide and LOVED. IT. :)

When we RV (or when we drive anywhere really), we like to hit up local restaurants, shops…and apparently pools. It was just by accident we happened on that and it was a perfect way to spend a summer afternoon.

The next day we headed to our stop for a couple days – La Crosse, Wisconsin. The Bub and I did some shopping at some local antique stores:

I didn’t find anything I had to have, but I did come across a huge selection of these glasses that totally took me back:

Man, I was so close to getting a few of them. I still kinda wish I had. They had all of the ones I remembered from my childhood – Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Muppets, E.T. It was such a fun blast from the past. :)

And of course, when Mama saw the HomeGoods sign I pulled that RV over faster than you can say, well…HomeGoods:

We actually came across an awesome find there – I’ve dreamed of one of these for our basement for years:

  

We both freaked when we saw it – the bonus was that it was $70 cheaper than what I’ve found online. (It was missing a couple measuring cups, no biggie.) Just another reason I love traveling in an RV – plenty of room to take the treasures home. (And I’m sure it was a sight seeing me loading this thing into the big rig.)

I was so tempted to use it one night on the RV, but we didn’t have the popcorn or oil, so we waited till we got home. I have to say, I think it made better popcorn than my WhirleyPop! That’s saying a lot cause I adore my WhirleyPop people. (The popcorn from the machine was much crisper, if that makes any sense.)

Anyhoo – that was our best find on the trip. :) We saw a good share of drum corp rehearsals while there, with the backdrop of the beautiful Wisconsin hills:

And one of the highlights for me at least was the cauuute cabin we stayed in:

This was at an RV park that had cabins, so we were able took hook up the RV and still camp out inside that night.

It was so totally precious:

A few of you on Instagram wanted to see the inside so I made sure to take a few pics before we left. It was very rustic, but had all of the modern conveniences you could need (including air!).

It had a cute little bunk room that would sleep at least four and a bathroom with all the basics:

 

The main part of the cabin was one big room with a kitchenette:

And another bed with trundle:

And a TV!! Glorious TV! We didn’t have it at all on the trip otherwise, and I actually really didn’t miss it. But it was nice to have while we were there. We only ended up turning it on a couple times though – it was nice to disconnect for the most part.

They had everything you could need while there – toiletries, dishes, cookware. It was great! I drank my wine out of a coffee cup:

Ha!! Told you…rough.

My favorite parts of the cabin were the ceiling:

The view:

We were perched right at the edge of a cliff in the woods– I thought we had the best cabin there. :)  

And the AWESOME screened in porch:

Usually when we travel to Wisconsin or Minnesota the mosquitoes are horrible this time of year – but this time the temps and bugs were both great! Low temps and very few bugs.

Then it was time to head on, this time to beautiful Minnesota:

We stayed in the RV that night and heard the Kenny Chesney concert nearby. :) The weather was PERFECT…at least till later when a crazy long storm came through. Pouring down rain hitting a metal roof for three hours straight doesn’t really make for a great night’s sleep. :)

The next day we spent a few hours at the Mall of America:

The hubby and I had been briefly years ago, and this time we were excited to take the Bub to see it. All he cared about was the Lego store, of course. And they were having a huge Lego event throughout the mall all weekend – perfect timing!

We ended up heading home early so didn’t get to do all the rides and stuff – we definitely want to go back!

What a fun, relaxing trip! I loved having all of my boys to myself for all that time:

It was just lovely all around.

I love that we’re doing these trips with the Bub – growing up I spent every weekend in the summer camping with my parents. We were out on the lake ALL the time. I wish my boy could experience that, but at the same time I’m not sure I want to rough it quite as much as we did back then. :)

RVing is the perfect compromise – you have a safe, comfortable home on wheels, but you also enjoy the best parts of camping – making your meals, sitting by a fire, enjoying the outdoors. We love it!

We looked into buying an RV earlier this year but held off – it may be something we look into next year. I am dreaming of a long trip out west to see all the sites I saw on a girl scout trip as a kid – Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, Old Faithful in Yellowstone Park, Snake River, Jackson Hole. It was an amazing trip that I still remember so well and I want the Bub to see all of those sights as well.

And as much as we love to travel, it is always SO good to come home. When we travel I find I’m so much more appreciative of everything – how lucky we are to take trips like that, how much I love exploring our country, how wonderful it is to come back to our sweet house. We are lucky indeed.

So have you ever been RVing? Did you like it? Did you camp a lot as a kid or do you do it now? I keep hearing the term “glamping” lately – I guess you could call an RV trip that? :) Air conditioning and no bugs – two of my favorite things.

**Here’s the campsite we stayed at in La Crosse for those who asked! :)