Year in the Life of Full-Time RVers: 2025 Recap

December 30, 2025

It’s the end of the year as we know it, and we’re ok.

2025 was our second full year as full-time RVers and we covered a lot of ground this year! We made it to both coasts (and both oceans if you count the Chesapeake Bay) and a lot of places in between. In this recap I’ll share travel stats, our full timeline for the year (it’s long), our favorite experiences and biggest challenges, upgrades we’ve made to our rig, and our plans for 2026.

*Bryce Canyon, International Motorsports Hall of Fame, Memorial Day in DC, Hamilton Gardens, John Logan Museum, Henry Ford Museum, Hawkeye Point, Deadwood Brothel, Walatowa Slot Canyon*

2025 Travel Stats

Towing miles: 9,610 (last year we towed 3,701 miles- so that’s quite a big difference!)
Foreign countries visited: 1
States visited: 29 (32 for Josh)
States slept in: 25 (26 for Josh)

In 2025, we stayed the night in Oregon (a fly out trip), Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. We also did short visits to Virginia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Indiana- plus a day trip to Canada!

Josh had a work trip that got him the bonus states of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut too.

Where We Slept in 2025

Campgrounds: 32
Harvest Hosts: 6 (one we stayed at twice!)
Truck stops: 1
Family member’s houses: 2
Hotels: 1 (+an airbnb for Josh)

Of the 32 campgrounds we stayed in, 13 were privately owned, 10 were state parks, 5 were county parks, 3 were city parks, and 1 was an US Army Corps park. This is definitely the most private campgrounds we’ve stayed in! Some of them were splurges because of locations we wanted to visit (like the Grand Canyon), and others we just found good deals on.

What we Did in 2025

We did a lot of activities this year! I kept a spreadsheet of everything, so these numbers should be pretty accurate and it’s amazing to look back and see how much we did! This is just a sampling of the more common activities we did.

National Park Service units: 22 (7 National Parks, 7 National Monuments, 2 National Historic Sites, 1 National Scenic Riverways, 1 Parkway, 1 National Battlefield, 1 National Military Park, 1 Park, 1 National Memorial)
US Forest Service sites: 25
Museums/history sites: 47
State high points: 6
Restaurants: 62
Antique stores: 12
Events/programs: 23
Misc. attractions: 16
Libraries: 3
Gardens: 8
Lighthouses: 3
Disc golf courses: 8
Aquariums: 3
Zoos: 4
Nature centers: 8
Mini golf: 4

*Sunset at Grand Canyon, National Air & Space Museum, Henry Ford Museum, NatureFest, Oregon Tidepooling, Tillamook Creamery, Newport Aquarium, Roswell UFO Spacewalk, Pinball Museum*

Our Favorite Experiences of 2025

Jen

My favorite experience this year was definitely our first time camphosting. We only did a month and a half in Utah, but I loved it. Since Josh works a regular job, I was the one doing most of the host duties and I loved having the routine and taking my golf cart to the office in the morning, cleaning sites and bathrooms, and then chatting in the office with staff and other hosts. It was so nice to build a community there and make new friends. I would definitely like to camphost more in the future, but right now it doesn’t really work with our pace of travel.

Josh

Josh’s favorite experience of the year was our visit to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. He’s always been a racing fan, so he’s always wanted to get out there. We didn’t really expect a lot from the visit other than to walk around a little and ooh and aah over the landscape. But it turned out to be perfect conditions for driving on the flats- the week before there was racing, so the track was still in good shape. Not only did we have fun driving around, Josh did a couple runs where he hit 100mph. I wasn’t in the truck for those, but he said especially that first time was one of the most exhilarating things. He’s gone 100mph on the highway before, but doing it in our older heavy duty pick-up on the salt was a wild experience.

*Walmart Museum, International Motorsports Hall of Fame, Alpine Helen, Museum of the American Indian cafe, Rosa Park bus, Corn Palace, botanizing, Scottsbluff NM, Badlands*

Challenges of 2025

Campground Windshield Replacement

The drive from Bryce Canyon to the Grand Canyon was absolutely beautiful. That part of southern Utah and northern Arizona has a lot of really cool geology and we really enjoyed the scenery… except for the part right after we left our campground near Bryce when a rock hit our windshield. It left a good sized crack and we had to get our windshield replaced. Because Grand Canyon was planned more like a vacation with Josh’s dad visiting us there, we didn’t get the windshield replaced until we were in New Mexico. Luckily Safelite was willing to send someone out to our campground and he was able to replace the windshield there, and even more fortunate is that our insurance fully covered it. So even though it ended up not being a huge deal, it was definitely stressful watching to make sure it didn’t get worse and an adventure to have a repair like this done in the campground.

Stuck in Wyoming

Between our extended time in South Dakota and camphosting in Utah we spent a few days checking off extra states (CO, WY, NE). While we had fun with this adventure, it did lead to two of the most stressful nights on the road so far. After our Harvest Hosts stay in Colorado, we stopped for gas in Laramie, Wyoming on our way to a one night campground stay. But then just as we were about to get back on the I-80, we saw that it was now closed to RVs and other high clearance vehicles because of wind gusts. We ended up pulling into a parking lot at the Wyoming Territorial Prison Museum to try to wait it out. We explored the museum, Josh took a meeting from the parking lot, and the wind still hadn’t let up. We were only a couple hours from our already booked campsite, but just weren’t willing to risk it. We ended up getting a walk-in spot at the local fairgrounds’ campground for the night.

The next morning the winds had stopped and we were on our way. We stopped at the Little America truck stop so Josh could take a parking lot meeting… and by the time he was off the meeting the winds were back and I-80 was closed again. We waited for a while before giving up and just sleeping in the truck stop. After that we finally made it to Utah (a day late), but we were not happy campers.

WiFi Campground Scramble

One of our other challenging situations this year was right at the start of the year. After some time at home base, in February our first trip back on the road was to Missouri. We were booked at Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park and we were some of the only people there since it was off-season. We got set up and then realized there was no cell signal- which meant no internet since we use both Verizon and T-Mobile home internet. Josh had to jump on a work call right away while I got the slightest WiFi signal from the closed office if we sat right outside it. I was able to find us another state park, Echo Bluff, that was supposed to have WiFi in the actual campground.

Josh had a board meeting in about an hour, so we hustled to un-setup and drive over. Luckily, the reviews were right and we had decent WiFi there! It was definitely a lesson learned to check internet strength before setting up camp.

*Arkansas pizza, Pistachioland, ABQ BioPark, Murphsboro St. Pat’s, Belle Isle Aquarium, Jug Bay, Arlington Cemetery, Dinosaur Park, Oregon Rainforst*

Best RV Upgrades/Purchases of 2025

Josh/we got quite a few RV-related Christmas gifts this year, so these are very new additions to our rig. The most needed item was a new hitch jack, since the motor on ours was pretty much completely out and we had been having to hand crank it. The other items are upgrades that so far seem worth it, but we’ll update you again once we’ve had them a while.

BAL Stabilizer bars
A new hitch jack motor because ours was shot
RVLock Keyless Entry Lock
TrailScrubber RV Step Cover
Motion Sensor Outdoor Light
Lemoistar 10inch. Wall Mount Fan

WiFi Antenna

One of the best upgrades we did this year was adding an antenna to our WiFi setup. We use both Verizon and T-Mobile home internets and right now have an antenna just on the T-Mobile. We’ve noticed a big difference in some places, but in others it’s strong enough on its own.

Our Full 2025 Timeline

Buckle up, this is long…

January 1-3: home base in Illinois
January 3-12: fly out trip to visit my dad in Oregon
January 12-16: home base in Illinois
January 26: Harvest Hosts stay at Pink Elephant Antique Mall in Livingston, IL
January 27-Febrauary 9: Echo Bluff State Park, Missouri
February 9: Harvest Hosts stay at Slaughterhouse Brewing in Auburn, IL
February 10-28: home base in Illinois
February 28-March 2: hotel in Rosemont, IL for conference
March 2-March 9: home base in Illinois
March 9-March 23: Giant City State Park, southern Illinois
March 23-April 1: Tishomingo State Park, Mississippi
April 1-April 11: Talladega Pit Stop RV Park, Alabama
April 11-April 18: Trackrock Campground, Georgia
April 18-April 26: Marion County Park, Tennessee
April 26-May 4: Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park, Kentucky
May 4-5: Cabin Run Creek Campground, Kentucky
May 5-May 18: Bear Mountain Cabins and Campground, West Virginia
May 18-June 1: Cedarville State Forest, Maryland
June 1: Harvest Hosts stay at The Vineyards at Pine Lake, Ohio
June 2-June 8: Sterling State Park, Michigan
June 8-July 8: home base in Illinois
July 8: Harvest Hosts stay at Tumbled Rock Brewery, Wisconsin
July 9: Chester Woods Park, Minnesota
July 10: Hawkeye Point, Iowa
July 11-July 13: Lake Mitchell Campground, South Dakota
July 13-July 21: Badlands Hotel and Campground, South Dakota
July 21-July 28: Three Flags RV Park, South Dakota
July 28-August 4: Angostura Recreation Area, South Dakota
August 4: Cabin Run Creek Campground, Nebraska
August 5: Harvest Hosts stay at Pine Bluffs Distilling, Wyoming
August 6: Harvest Hosts stay at Red Granite Ranch, Colorado
August 7: Albion County Fairgrounds Campground, Wyoming
August 8: Little America Truck Stop, Wyoming
August 9-September 19: Wasatch Mountain State Park, Utah (camphosting)
September 19-September 21: Red Canyon Village RV Park, Utah
September 21-September 27: Grand Canyon Camper Village, Arizona
September 27-September 29: Petrified/Holbrook KOA, Arizona
September 29-October 3: Bar S RV Park, New Mexico
October 3-October 17: Cochiti Lake Recreation Area, New Mexico
October 17-October 19: Escondida Lake Campground, New Mexico
October 19-October 26: Mountain Meadows RV Park, New Mexico
October 26-November 1: Bottomless Lakes State Park, New Mexico
November 1-November 8: Route 66 RV Ranch, Texas
November 8-November 15: Central State Park, Oklahoma
November 15-November 22: Route 62 Motor Resort, Arkansas
November 22-November 27: Table Rock State Park, Missouri
November 27: Harvest Hosts stay at Pink Elephant Antique Mall (again)
November 28-December 31: home base in Illinois

*Crystal Bridges Museum, the top of Georgia, Cairo tour, Scary Strokes, Kentucky Dam, Ethyl the Whale, top of South Dakota, ABQ BioPark, Cascade Head*

Looking Ahead to 2026

We’ll be staying at home base through the end of February, and during that time have a fly out trip to visit my dad in Oregon scheduled, as well as two weekend trips for Josh’s work that I’ll also be tagging along to. Then once March hits we’ll be back on the road! Our spring plan is to to drive all of Route 66 to Santa Monica and back (our home base is near Chicago where the route begins, so it works out perfect for us). 2026 is the 100th anniversary of Route 66, so it’s the perfect time to do this trip since there should be lots of extra events.

Then we’ll be home June and part of July. Josh will going sailing in the Bahamas with his scout troop, we’re going to try to do a small trip with some friends, and we’ll probably be going to Cleveland for a weekend with our Croatian cultural club.

Our fall plan is to visit New England- a new region for both of us! We want to explore this area when we can catch fall colors and spooky vibes. Then we’ll probably fill time with some southeastern states before heading back to Illinois again for winter holidays.

But, of course, life on the road can be unpredictable and all of this could change! We didn’t plan on revisiting Maryland/DC area this year, but an exciting work even came up for Josh so we pivoted plans- so we try to keep things flexible when planning.

2025 Blog Posts

These are the blog posts about places we visited in 2025 that are up on the website now. It can take me a while to write about everything (I’m still working on blog posts about 2024 activities too), so keep checking back for more!

2025 Trip Recaps

2025 Campground Reviews

2025 Activity Guides & Reviews

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