The Dog Is Driving (Page 2)

How to "Ikea Hack" Your Dog's Crate

Anyone who travels in an RV with a pet crate knows how much valuable floor space they can occupy. In this post we'll cover how we "Ikea hacked" our dog kennel to make it a useful part of our living space. Our dog Lily Goodgirl is named that for a

Day Trips

Dog is Love

We took a day trip to the east side of Salton Sea in California, to Salvation Mountain and Slab City. Salvation Mountain is a 30-year project by a very dedicated man, Leonard Knight, for expressing his thoughts on religion. Slab City is "the last free place on Earth", an area

How-to

Fulltime RV Repairs with Dogs

Since becoming fulltime RVers in 2016, we've had several instances where we've needed to leave our motorhome at a service shop for either a few hours, or a few days. Some of these were for planned maintenance, while others were unexpected repairs. Having dogs doesn't make this scenario any easier,

Retrospective

Full-time RV Recap: Year Two

Our full-time "nomadiversary" was February 1st and marks two years of full-time RV travel! If you missed our year one recaps, you can find months 1-6 here and 6-12 here. We've decided to just do them annually now, so the next one will be in 12 months. Ok,

How-to

How Our Blind Dog Navigated RV Life

This is a story of how our previous dog Stimpy, a runt-of-the-litter chihuahua mix rescue, adjusted to life as a blind dog, how he remained an active adventure dog, moved to an RV, and spent his retirement days traveling with us around the country. How we found out Stimpy was

How-to

Flexible standing desk in an RV

Here’s how I set up a modular standing desk for Ane in our RV. It also doubles as a laptop stand when sitting (for neck relief), and stows in a small space. Before this, Ane was working long days seated at our dinette. The dinette has regular chairs (not

Dogs

Christmas Cookie Taste Test - for Dogs!

Lily Goodgirl & Mushy Fastpants have been wonderful full-time RV pups this year, so I thought I'd bake up some homemade holiday dog treats, do a taste test, and share the results! And what does my husband love more than anything when we're boondocking and trying to conserve energy? Ah

Dogs

Dog-Friendly Adventures at the Alabama Hills

We're spending the fall meandering down California's Highway 395 and have been looking forward to arriving to the Alabama Hills in Lone Pine because we heard it was a "must do" for boondockers. When the cold nights pushed us out of the Mammoth Lakes area, we were happy

How-to

Fulltime RVer healthcare in 2019

The coming new year brings new healthcare legislation with it, the biggest change being that the ACA individual mandate a.k.a. non-insured tax penalty is going away. Because of this, we're making some radical changes in our health insurance for 2019. One of the biggest frustrations for us about

Dogs

A Dog-Friendly Day at Trona Pinnacles

We've spent our fall driving south through California on the 395 and are LOVING it. Both Tommi and I called the Los Angeles area home for many years, but one of the perks we've enjoyed since becoming full-time RVers is that we are now able to explore our former "

Dogs

The Kibble Conundrum

When you have medium to large dogs, keeping your RV stocked with enough — but not too much — pet food can be harder than you think. Not enough, and you're running out to a local store only to find they don't carry your pet's "normal" food. Too much, and

Dogs

Adopting a Dog While Full-time RVing

We can't imagine RVing without dogs. They make life so great, and let's face it, one of the main reasons we wanted to full-time RV was so that our dogs could go on awesome adventures with us! This month, we're celebrating the first adoptiversary of Mushy (formerly Marshmallow), who was

Boondocking locations

Campsite review: Tinkham Road

Tinkham Road is a national forest boondocking area 1 hour east of Seattle, WA that goes through a very lush, densely forested area. There is practically no solar charging here. Young branches reach in on the roads, we couldn't even drive the access road without hanging branches brushing our roof.

Dogs

How-to: Teach your dog to wait at the RV door

Arriving at a new campsite is exciting. It’s likely even more exciting for your dog. But dashing out of the motorhome or tow vehicle door to smell all the new things is not only impolite toward your new neighbors, it can be very dangerous — what if you had to

Dogs

Our Dogs Became NPS Bark Rangers!

Meet the newest Bark Rangers at Olympic National Park, Lily Goodgirl and Mushy Fastpants! Rangers Goofus and Doofus are very proud of themselves. What is a Bark Ranger? Until today, we didn't know it was an official thing. And by luck, we are at the park where it began! In

Hikes

Exploring Cathedral Gorge With Dogs

Eastern Nevada was a new area for us, so we were excited to check out the dog-friendly Cathedral Gorge State Park (PDF map). However, visiting in June meant warm temps, and with sunrise being 5:15am, we knew we had to get an early start if we wanted to explore

Hikes

Red Canyon, Utah: Your Dog-Friendly Alternative to Bryce Canyon National Park

We love Bryce Canyon National Park. Unfortunately for our four-legged friends, they only allow dogs on the paved trail between Sunset Point and Sunrise Point, and on the paved Shared Use Path between the park entrance and Inspiration Point. Sunset to Sunrise is 1.2 miles roundtrip. It's good for

Fun things to do

Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah

The Bonneville Salt Flats have been on my RV wish list since we started traveling. Finally checked it off the list and WOW. They did not disappoint! Even more beautiful and strange than I expected. This post is going to be light on words... I'll let the photos do the

Hikes

Hike: Thunder Mountain Trail

We love Red Canyon, Utah, because of it's dog friendliness. We've done a decent amount of hiking in this area but had originally ruled out Thunder Mountain Trail because it is a multi-use trail for hiking, biking and equestrian use. But after stopping at the Red Canyon Visitor Center, the

Boondocking

Rodents of Usually Small Size

We’ve had more experiences with rodents since becoming fulltime RVers than we ever had in a sticks and bricks home. It’s kind of inevitable. Meet an RVer who boondocks and says they’ve never had a mouse problem and I’ll tell you they’re either lying or

Fun things to do

Kanab or Bust

So what drew us to this small town in Soutwestern Utah? It's home to the largest No-Kill sanctuary for companion animals in the United States, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary! It’s been a dream of mine to come visit this special place and thanks to the flexibility of fulltime RVing,

Hikes

Hike: Honaker Trail

Honaker Trail is a hike near the Goosenecks State Park that descends from the canyon edge to a sandy beach on the San Juan river. The beginning of the trail, just below the rim. The hike there and back is 5.78 miles total, and descends, and on the way

Boondocking locations

Campsite review: Goosenecks State Park

Goosenecks State Park is $10/night dry camping with amazing scenery. The last few miles of the road there are narrow and winding, but it's paved all the way to the park. Inside the park, there is a more maintained day use area, and to the left camping along a

Amazon is not for boondockers

I've seen prominent RVers recommended Amazon Prime, and I used to be an ardent fan too. When we lived in a house, we'd have Amazon packages with single items show up regularly. I loved having the motion-detecting security camera notify me of packages before the Amazon notification came through. (I

Day Trips

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument: Day Trip with Dogs

Up until a few months ago, I had never heard of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. It is perhaps an overlooked member of the National Park system, sitting against the Mexican border between Yuma and Tucson. Since we're nearby, we decided to do a little detour and check it out.