Road Life Adventure

Road Life Adventure Hi! We're James and Donetta. Not retired. Not rich. The open road is calling you. The open road is waiting for you. Will you take it?

Just two mid-50s travelers living our RoadLifeAdventure - exploring National Parks, chasing sunsets, & working from the road ๐Ÿ’ป๐ŸŒ„ It longs to show you an incredible adventure and lead you to new places that will forever enrich your soul. It desires to give you the freedom to explore and discover new experiences you never thought were possible. It seeks to provide you with a renewed sense of purpose and help you live a life with absolutely no regrets.

If you're going to be hanging out in the great outdoors - camping, hiking, exploring.... do you prefer the forest and be...
10/07/2026

If you're going to be hanging out in the great outdoors - camping, hiking, exploring.... do you prefer the forest and being in all the trees? Or do you prefer the wide open feel of the desert?

Amos, this is for you! ๐Ÿ’€ I saw this house and thought of you and your Halloween decorations! ;) So fun! ๐Ÿ‘ป
10/07/2026

Amos, this is for you! ๐Ÿ’€ I saw this house and thought of you and your Halloween decorations! ;) So fun! ๐Ÿ‘ป

There are certain questions that lots of people ask us - things that people have a curiosity about when it comes to van ...
10/07/2026

There are certain questions that lots of people ask us - things that people have a curiosity about when it comes to van life. I wanted to answer some of those questions. Last week I talked about showering, this week we'll talk about food!

๐˜๐˜ฐ๐˜ธ ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฐ ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ ๐˜ด๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฑ, ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฅ, ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฌ? ๐˜Š๐˜ข๐˜ฏ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ฌ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ข ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ฅ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ญ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ณ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ด ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ๐˜บ ๐˜ซ๐˜ถ๐˜ด๐˜ต ๐˜ฒ๐˜ถ๐˜ช๐˜ค๐˜ฌ ๐˜ง๐˜ช๐˜น๐˜ฆ๐˜ด? ๐˜‹๐˜ฐ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ ๐˜จ๐˜ฐ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ต ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ต?

Those are some questions we get about food. So let's answer those!

We shop small and frequently. It's pretty easy to shop frequently since we're typically driving a little bit each day. And if we are going to stay put for a few days at a campground or something, we'll plan ahead and grab a little more than usual.

We have a Bodega fridge plus a BougeRV cooler that we can store food in so we've got a decent amount of space for a van. Our cooler has two compartments and you can choose the temperatures for those so we have the larger one as a fridge and the smaller one as a freezer. So, yes, we can even get some ice cream sometimes. ;) The fridge actually has a freezer compartment too but I found out the hard way it doesn't really work well to freeze food. But it is great for ice trays so I use it for that and always have ice. :)

Typically we shop at Aldi or Walmart though occasionally we'll go into regional grocery stores to see what kinds of goodies we can find. Some of those types of stores will sometimes have a great deli area with lots of great food options.

Speaking of deli - every once in awhile we do like to get things from the deli that are already prepared. It's cheaper than going out to eat, saves having to cook and heat up the van if it's hot outside, and also saves water if we're not washing dishes.

But most of the time we buy groceries for meals we want to make. We have an induction cook top, a microwave, and an air fryer that we can cook with. You can make a surprising number of meals with just those items so we're not limited too much. I've also had our Instant Pot with us before too but found I wasn't using it quite as much so rather than take up the space with that, I left that at our daughter's house this last time we were in town.

We choose not to go out to eat too much. The value just isn't there most of the time and it just gets way too expensive. Groceries are already expensive enough so eating out just isn't good for the bottom line. We do splurge every once in awhile though. ;)

So that's how we handle food/cooking/shopping. Is that what you'd expect or did something surprise you?

If you're traveling, we'd love to hear how you handle meals! :)

It's time to share our month in review! We like to give you a breakdown of our travel expenses based on the region we'r...
10/07/2026

It's time to share our month in review! We like to give you a breakdown of our travel expenses based on the region we're in, how far we're traveling, and what we did for the month. So let's get to it!

September Month in Review | Road Life Adventure Edition โœจ๐Ÿš
๐Ÿ›ฃ๏ธ Miles driven: 1686
๐Ÿ“ States visited: North Carolina โžก๏ธ Virginia โžก๏ธ Maryland โžก๏ธ New Jersey โžก๏ธ Pennsylvania โžก๏ธ Ohio

โžก๏ธ Where weโ€™re headed on our next leg: we just spent some time with friends in Ohio and now we're headed back through southwest Pennsylvania and down to Virginia to start the skyline drive through Shenandoah National Park and then the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way south. So excited!

Stays
๐Ÿ  Visiting friends: 6 nights
๐Ÿก Airbnb stay: 4 nights (family vacation/wedding)
๐Ÿ•๏ธ Nights in the van: 20
Of those 20 nights...
๐ŸŒฒ Campgrounds: 8 nights
๐Ÿก Harvest Hosts: 8 nights
๐Ÿ…ฟ๏ธ Parking lot (rest area/big box store/travel station, etc): 4 nights
๐Ÿž๏ธ Dispersed camping: 0 nights (not as much of this out east)
Still had to do more campgrounds than usual because of the heat. That way we could get power to run our a/c all night long.

Costs related to van life:
๐Ÿ†“ Free nights: 17
๐ŸŒฒ Campground costs: $349.67
๐Ÿก Airbnb expense: $335
๐Ÿ’ต Harvest Hosts expenditures: $63.77 (electricity, food, and drinks)
๐Ÿ’ต Cost per night average for the month: $11.65 ($24.95 with airbnb & HH hosts costs included)
๐Ÿ›’ Groceries ~$554
๐Ÿฝ๏ธ Restaurants ~$318
โ›ฝ๏ธ Gas ~$488.70
๐Ÿงบ Laundry $4.50
๐Ÿ’ต Entertainment/special attractions $7

That totals about $2120.64. Of course we do have normal expenses that we'd have whether we're traveling or in a traditional home so those aren't included here. ๐Ÿ™‚

Hope this helps you figure out if van life could work for you!

Saw another beautiful mural!! ๐Ÿ˜
10/06/2026

Saw another beautiful mural!! ๐Ÿ˜

YES! ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ
10/06/2026

YES! ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ

10/06/2026

A great view of Pittsburgh from Grand View Overlook

This was interesting...they've built this big viewing platform to look over the city and the river but it's blocked by t...
10/06/2026

This was interesting...they've built this big viewing platform to look over the city and the river but it's blocked by trees. ๐Ÿคฃ

We stopped in at the Grandview Overlook in Pittsburgh to check out the amazing view of the city and the rivers. It did n...
10/06/2026

We stopped in at the Grandview Overlook in Pittsburgh to check out the amazing view of the city and the rivers. It did not disappoint! ๐Ÿ˜

We said "see ya later" to our friends this morning - including the furry friends that live inside. ;) We had the best ti...
10/05/2026

We said "see ya later" to our friends this morning - including the furry friends that live inside. ;) We had the best time with them this week and we're so thankful for the time we had. It's always fun to change things up and spend time hanging out with people that we love and enjoy spending time with!

I didn't take a ton of pics during the week - mostly just the wildlife outside! haha! But did get a few to remember the week.

Thanks for all the hospitality, Brent & Michelle! โค๏ธ

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Bethany, OK

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