The honeymoon that almost wasn't...

We got engaged and married during a global pandemic. Never in a million years did I think that would be said but here we are.

2020 has been one heck of a year to say the least. While many argue that nothing good came from this year my new husband and I will have to beg to differ.

For our honeymoon we had originally planned to fly to Seattle, Washington rent a car and drive down Highway 101 through Oregon to California, stopping at gorgeous AirBnBs along the way. However the closer we got to our honeymoon the more we realized that might not be possible. Oregon and Washington were scheduled to shut down the day we flew in for our trip. So we did the true 2020 thing and pivoted to keep ourselves and others safe (and guarantee we had places to sleep).

I started researching RVs assuming they would be too outrageously expensive to fit into our budget. However Cruise America was having a special on one way trips from Seattle to California. One way rentals are usually more expensive because of exorbitant "drop fees" for putting the vehicle in another state causing them to bus it back to it's original place. It was our luck that RVs were in Washington and needed to get to the Cali sunshine. Our entire rental was half price (including the miles) and the drop fee was waived. The RV was going to be cheaper than our rental car.

Needless to say, we immediately booked the RV and started making plans. The RVs do come bare - aka no sheets, towels, cookware or anything. But you can rent them from Cruise America, buy them cheaply when you get there or get lucky and borrow them from family of family that lives in the area (the route we took).

Our RV was their standard size RV housing 5 people maximum. It was a self-contained motorhome on an F350 with a queen size bed, bathroom/shower, kitchen, table and overhead bed.

Here's a video tour of our honeymoon home away from home.

We drove over 1,900 miles for our honeymoon only interacting with other people as necessary. We drove through countless state parks/forests and visited Olympic National Park, Redwood National Park, Yosemite National Park and Joshua Tree National Park on top of multiple National Forests. I am planning future blogs about those visits so be sure to visit again!

We saw mountains, snow, trees, elk, a bear, coyotes, a big horn sheep, beaches, seals, sea lions and too many gorgeous views to count. The RV gave us the freedom to drive for as long as we felt like and then stop for the night.

We would search for a campground along our route in the morning and either book it online or call once they opened. My favorite apps for researching campgrounds were Park Advisor, RV Life and KOA. I liked that the apps provided reviews, ratings and amenities easily. Campgrounds usually provided much better views than a hotel or an AirBnB.

We never struggled to find a place to park the RV for the night, finding an open shower was a different story. Hooking up the RV was simple - when we rented it they sent instructional videos and also showed us how to hook up when we picked it up. Plus there are YouTube videos on how to do everything.

It was not difficult to drive even though it was large. Just required that you remembered it was much longer than a regular vehicle. We did however have to pay a bit more when filling up than a regular car, but the large gas tank took us further than we expected each time.

Cruise America has 24 hour customer service available in case something goes wrong. Like two flat tires in the middle of nowhere California. But they had us up and running in a few hours at no cost to us. We even found a cute brewery to grab a drink and sit outside.

All in all the trip wasn't exactly what we planned but it could not have turned out any better. It was the perfect honeymoon for two people that love each other and love adventure. I'm excited to share more about our trip in future blogs but in the meantime I would love to answer any questions you may have about RVing.