the ADVENTURES of Ruby D

...your feet should be dirty, and your eyes should be sparkling. And let me tell you... sweet Ruby has the dirtiest feet and sparkliest eyes when we camp! She's taken to going barefoot while camping (thanks to her tiny BFF Haley's influence!) and as soon as we get to the campsite (any campsite) she asks "Now take my shoes off??" Anyway... my dirty footed toddler, and my extra patient husband and I all packed up for a fun weekend trip last weekend to Cunningham Falls State Par

And it is quite a list, that which includes "everywhere." Part of that list, as I've mentioned in older blog posts, involves 1) seeing all the state capitals/capitols, 2) seeing all the National Parks, and 3) driving in every state. So, after a wet and cold spring, dreary and full of camper maintenance, we FINALLY hit the road to explore a bit more. We are (*hopefully*) down to the last 12 months here on the East Coast and we've still got a lot of places to go! Our trip start

One question we've gotten asked often is "How does Ruby sleep when you're on the road?" Today I'd like to answer that! As you probably know, we have The Toaster, our Four Wheel Pop Up Camper that sits on the back of the truck. The camper has a king size bed that slides out, and underneath that is a couch that doubles as a twin bed. That couch is Ruby's spot! When we started our adventuring with Ruby back in April of 2017, she was only 14 months old or so, and couldn't sleep o

Or not... lets get into our Four Wheel Camper and hit the road! Seriously, for all you tent campers... keep it up. I applaud you. I can count the number of times I tent camped...6 times. Yes. SIX. Once involved an air mattress. 2-3 involved a cot tent. I just have no desire to sleep on the cold, hard, rocky, bumpy, lumpy ground while unable to get comfortable, wide awake, all while my husband lays there, out cold, farting the whole night. Not fun. I was not raised a camper. I

Yay! Another trip! This one was super short, mostly because Brock and I have both been to Delaware and its adorable beaches, and because we don't do well sitting in one spot for long. We also planned the trip when Brock's brother, Casey, and his wife, Sonia, her dad Jim, and Ruby's favorite cousins Kenzie and Cam would be there, but we didn't want to intrude too much on their vacation, ya know? But, it was really a walk down memory lane for both of us, because we often went t

Lexie mentioned on our Four Wheel Camper page that she would like me to make a guest post describing all of the modifications that I have completed on our Four Wheel Camper. When we were looking for a Four Wheel Camper there were a few things that we really wanted as far as options. We were going to buy a used Four Wheel Camper as we could not afford a new one but there were a few things that we weren't willing to compromise on. In roughly 2001 Four Wheel Campers changed the

We now have a 16 month old international traveler in our house...cool! I know adults that have never gotten a passport or traveled out of the country, so I decided to get her passport back in May, in the event that we decided to go somewhere cool. And cool it was! Lets start at the beginning... we were headed from Northern VA to Philly, and our directions estimated just under 3 hours for the ride. All was smooth and we left on Sunday July 9 around 8:30am. DC traffic was actua

OK: lets do a quick summary. We are now on day 4, (slept away from home for 3 nights: one in Morgantown, WV and two in Stowe, OH) and we are headed to Buffalo, NY for some BUFFALO WINGS (!!!) and then north to Niagara Falls. Unfortunately, at the time of this trip, Ruby did NOT have her passport, so we could only do the American side of the falls. More on that later. So it is Friday, June 2, and we start the 4 hour drive to NY. It was actually a pretty drive, and went by fast

Our very first trip with Ruby in our new Four Wheel Camper was to Shenandoah National Park , in April of 2017. We live in NOVA, and drove over a back way, through winding country roads that eventually led to the foothills of the mountains. It was a lovely drive, and Ruby even slept for some of it: a whole 45 minutes of the 2 hour 15 minute drive (eye roll). We stayed in Big Meadow Campground for $17/per night. We don't need much with our camper: no water or electric necessary