Tag: utah

From Louisiana to Utah

Published on by Ashley TaylorLeave a comment

We’ve driven from Louisiana to Utah three times now, two with a camper and one without. I can’t say it’s an easy drive, but it’s definitely not the hardest one I’ve been on with the camper. Although driving through Dallas did give me a run for my money. Starting in the east, it’s fairly flat until you hit New Mexico where the altitude jumps significantly. Then you can enjoy the hills, rocks, mountains, and canyons as you drive over and up to Utah.

I took this trip to work on my goal to document our travels more throughout the year. Not only did I vlog about our travels and impromptu changing plans, but my husband set up our GoPro in the truck! Ever since he bought the GoPro last year I had wanted to use it for travel days, but we either kept forgetting to grab it from its resting place before travel day or we didn’t have any blank sd cards. Well, we bought some sd cards in Texas on our first stop – the overnight in the Walmart – and he set it up the next morning.

I thoroughly enjoyed editing the video with vlog elements and travel footage, and I can’t wait to do it again on our next trip planned in March! If you’d like to see how the trip from LA to UT went, how we survived the Walmart parking lot, learn out our off grid battery setup, or just to judge my editing skills, check it out below!

RV Life and Changing Plans

Published on by Ashley TaylorLeave a comment

Hey y’all! The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of weather-related travel plan changes. Originally, we were to leave Louisiana after visiting both of our families for the holidays, take about a week to head to Moab, UT, then hang out there a few nights to test our dry camping system before heading back to Provo, UT.

Well that certainly didn’t happen as planned. The snow coming from the west said “nope!”

Changing plans has been a touchy subject for me and other type A’s. However, this didn’t create too much extra anxiety for me as I thought it would. When we were just staying one extra day in New Mexico, it was nice. We were taking a break from driving and had already budgeted a flex day before we got to Moab in case we had an unplanned stop. When we got to Gallup, NM though, our Moab plans went out the window. First we were waiting for snow to clear in NM then heading to Moab, but the weather was freezing and cloudy in Moab. Then we were waiting for it to get a little sunnier in Moab, but it started snowing again in NM. It felt like a lose lose scenario. If we waited a few more days we’d be able to make it to Moab, but there was a high chance the mountain pass we had to take to Provo would be under 12 inches of snow and icy. And I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not be towing a camper over ice through a mountain pass.

So our plans morphed again, but this time we’d take the southern route into Utah through Arizona. Which is the way we went when we moved out here in 2021. That route stuck, and miraculously we made it to Provo on the day we planned to arrive at the campground originally. So no days lost!

Although it worked out in the end, it’s hard to make plans and see them change so quickly. Surprisingly though, I wasn’t too upset. Instead I was focusing on how hard I fought to leave the south and how miserable I was during the summer and how I’d happily accept being stuck in New Mexico. At least there was snow and rocks.

A lot of things didn’t go right last year compared to our original travel plans, and I want this year to be better. But if it’s going to be better, I also have to accept that plans can change. And that’s ok. We have tentative plans for where we want to be in a given month, but it’s not the end of the world if those plans change. Am I allowed to be disappointed? Yes. But I’m working towards finding the silver linings.