With 2024 coming to a close, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the year. We’ve now been full-time RVers for over a year, but this was our first full year actively traveling on the road. Our journey started off slowly, sticking to nearby states and spending a fair amount of time back at our home base for a trip to Croatia. However, the second half of the year brought new states and bigger adventures, finally expanding our horizons. Looking back, we’re surprised by how quickly we adjusted to life on the road—it feels like normal life to us now. People often ask what full-time RVing is like, and honestly, it’s hard to describe because it just feels natural at this point. Another common question is how long we plan to keep doing this, and for now, the answer is simple: until we get tired of it—which doesn’t seem likely anytime soon. So, let’s dive into 2024 with some stats, favorites, and highlights!
2024 Travel Stats
- Towing miles: 3,701 (we didn’t track non-towing miles well)
- Countries visited: 2
- States we slept in: 10
- States we visited but didn’t sleep in: 5
- Campgrounds slept at: 14
- Harvest Hosts slept at: 7
- Hotels slept in: 4
- Driveways slept in: 1
- Wild Ones chapters visited: 9
In 2024 we stayed in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, and Croatia. We also did short visits to Missouri, Kentucky, Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Austria (if you count the airport!).
We stayed in 6 county parks, 5 state parks, 2 private parks, and 1 Army COE park. Clearly we like our public parks!
2024 Favorites
Jen’s Top 5 Moments
- Performing in Croatia
- One of my top moments of the year was performing traditional Croatian music in Croatia. I’ve actually done this before, back in 2014, but didn’t think I’d ever get the chance again. Usually our national org. only hosts the junior festival in Croatia, but for the first time this year they combined the adult and junior festivals. It was even more special because my grandma was able to come and perform too.
- Alone time with Ginevra de’ Benci
- There were a lot of really cool moments in Washington DC, but the only that will always stick with me was being alone with Leonardo da Vinci’s Ginevra. This is the only da Vinci painting in the western hemisphere and just by chance I ended up being the only one in the gallery room with her when I visited the National Gallery of Art. I’d take being alone with a less famous da Vinci over being one of hundreds with the Mona Lisa any day.
- Planting at the USGS Bee Lab
- I already mentioned earlier that we met up with a bunch of different Wild Ones chapters, but the coolest thing we did with a chapter was joining a work day at the USGS Bee Lab. We got to help plant a new research plot that will be used to study which native bees visit the different species we planted. Getting to help with planting projects in other states is cool enough on its own, but helping with a federal research project like this was a whole other level.
- 3 Hours of Pinball
- I put the Roanoke Pinball Museum on my Top 5 not just because of what it is, but how unexpectedly fun it was. I never would have thought of myself as a big pinball person, but we spent 3 hours playing pinball and the time just flew by. If it wasn’t getting late, we could have stayed 3 more hours probably. I never would have expected to have that much fun for that long.
- Total solar eclipse
- We were in were totality for the total eclipse this spring and it was definitely worth the hype. Not only was the eclipse itself amazing, but seeing thousands of people gather for it was really special too.
(I did ask Josh about his Top 5 too, but he couldn’t come up with a list)
Favorite Hikes
Jen: Little Grand Canyon
We did some really fun hikes this year, so it was hard to pick a favorite. Little Grand Canyon in the Shawnee National Forest felt really unique- especially for Illinois! Southern Illinois in general is a whole different type of hiking than I’m used to from the northern part of the state. The Little Grand Canyon Trail includes climbing in and out of the canyon itself- down and up the canyon walls and over the cascades.
Josh: Billy Goat Trail
I debated between picking Little Grand Canyon or Billy Goat, so I see why Josh chose this one! This trail is in Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park in Maryland and was incredibly fun. Most of the trail is large boulders and there’s also a vertical traverse halfway.
Favorite Campgrounds
Jen: French Creek State Park
We stayed at some really nice campgrounds, but French Creek definitely stands out to me for scenery and vibes. It’s in southeast PA and we were surrounded by fall colors.
Josh: Ferne Clyffe State Park
Ferne Clyffe in southern IL was another really scenic park. The campground was small and had good vibes, and there was a lot of great hiking within the park.
2024’s Biggest Challenge
Luckily, we didn’t have anything too major go wrong this year. The biggest issue we had with the RV was when the AC went out in the middle of summer in Wisconsin. We were without AC for a couple days and it was HOT. But mostly it was stressful trying to figure out how to fix it or if we would need to replace it- and if we needed to replace it, how were we going to do that in a campground (because getting the unit on the roof would not be easy). In the end, it ended up being an issue with our soft start, so once Josh disconnected that the AC itself started working again.
Best RV Upgrades and Purchases of 2024
Our biggest repairs and renovations were done in 2023, but we did a few upgrades and changes in 2024. Our top 3 upgrades/purchases were:
- Carpet- when we repaired our subfloor in 2023 we originally installed floating vinyl plank flooring on top, but it began cracking pretty soon after. In 2024, we switched to floating carpet tiles and they have been great
- Residential fridge- we didn’t plan on changing out our RV fridge for a residential one, but our fridge went out and residential fridges are significantly cheaper than RV ones. We were worried at first about it surviving move days, but it’s been doing great and we’re so glad we made the change
- Water bladder- we often stay in electric-only campsites and so need to refill our water tank throughout the stay. We were using buckets, but Josh finally bough a large water bladder and it’s making things a lot easier.
Looking Ahead
I’d call us medium planners- we don’t plan everything far in advance, but we also don’t fully wing it either. In 2024 we had a few events throughout the year that worked as anchor points and then we filled in around them based on what we just felt like doing or was nearby. So far for 2025 we only have a couple things, so it’s still pretty wide open. The year will actually start off with a fly-out trip to Oregon to visit my Dad, so we’ll be starting off with a new state. Then we might be heading somewhere in the mid-south for winter. We don’t want to pay Florida or Arizona campground rates, and we’re so used to the cold that places like Tennessee and Arkansas feel warm to us even when it feels cold to the locals. There’s some family stuff going on that might delay hitting the road, though.
Other 2024 Year-End Posts
We have a few other end of year blog posts:
