RV Junkie - the one stop portal for camping clubs, campgrounds, RV manufacturers, cool products, RV insurance, RV forums, books, articles, things to do, tips / tricks and other stuff.

John and Sissy Fulltiming Across America

Full Timing on the road?

Our rig - 2004 Monaco Cayman - 2007 Jeep Wrangler 4dr Toad

It's Now Official - We've been on our adventure for over 3 years living & traveling in our motor home, visiting wonderful places in this great country and meeting many, many very nice people. We wouldn't trade our experiences for anything.

Our experiences include: countless varieties of scenery, food, customs, roads and weather conditions; most good and some bad, but most have been enjoyable in their own way. And ... we've tried to document them all in our narratives and pictures on our web site and web albums.

Some family members and friends thought we were crazy embarking on this trip while others wished they were going with us, but all have been very supportive. We've tried to stay in touch by cell phone, email, Facebook, sending cards and letters, mailing packages, with our web site and also our newsletters. Hopefully, these efforts haven't left anyone thinking "I wonder where John and Sissy are now?"

We've yet to find the "perfect" place to settle down, and we're actually not quite ready to do that just yet. So ... we'll simply have to keep looking ... ha ha.

You can keep up with us using the drop down list to the right. The locations are places we've actually camped in except for those marked Side Trip (ST). And ... we only create (ST) entries for places we determine warrant their own entry!

Choose a location to view and then click the "Take me there!" button. The locations are in descending order with the most recent at the top.

What is rvjunkie.com?

RVjunkie.com is the personal web site of John & Sissy VanderHeiden. It is also a one stop portal for people who love RVing. Here, you can find a wealth of RV related information; camping clubs, campgrounds, cool products, manufacturers, insurance, forums, books, movies, maps, articles, things to do, tips & tricks and other stuff. Whether your interests are in small camping trailers (bachelor pads as we call them) or large motor homes, whether you are a weekend camper or a full timer, there is something of interest for you here. So ... sit back, browse at your leisure and enjoy our site!

The menu (to the right) is there to assist you in navigating our site. Items in [Our site] will remain in the RVJunkie window. Items in [Hobbies] or [Online Shops] will open in another window. In any event, you will still be able to remain in our site.

Take a moment and Contact Us, view our Web Albums or even sign up for our Newsletter. We would love to hear from you.

Ok, so just what is an RV?

John and Sissy's Adventures Across America

Camping Trailer

When I retired, my wife Sissy and I had never been camping together before and decided to take a 4 month vacation across country. We wanted to take a trip across America and couldn't decide whether to ride our motorcycle or bring it along inside a trailer, sleep in motels or pull a camper, eat fast food or cook our own meals. These questions were but a few puzzling us before heading out on our Adventure Across America . . .

Ultimately, we decided it would be a good idea to buy a small camping trailer that was capable of hauling our Harley Davidson motorcycle inside and out of the weather. Small and relatively inexpensive was the plan! With a new truck, a brand new Terry 21C Sport Utility Trailer and a fairly new HD Fat Boy, we headed out from Virginia Beach, Virginia on our journey.

Planning our adventure took six months and was primarily accomplished using many resources on the Internet. The Planning / Useful Links section of our web site includes several hyperlinks you can use to gather information for yourself. The Internet was also used to gather information about necessary equipment. Our Equipment / Checklists section includes several items purchased for our Adventure as well as the checklists we used during our trip.

Expenses are an important concern for anyone taking a vacation or embarking on an extended adventure. Sissy and I recorded our daily expenses and share these in the Expenses section (spreadsheet format) you can use as a guide. An Average Per Day for each expense item is included, and these figures are more important than the Total.

Finally, the Journal section includes a link to each place we visited. The locations are sorted by State using the Index. You can also view the locations in chronological order by selecting Emporia, Virginia first and then clicking the next page in chronological order link at the bottom of each page.

I love my computers and Sissy loves her digital camera so we decided to document our trip. Seventy-two (72) different locations and over 8,000 pictures later, we finished our Adventure Across America. We caught the RV-Junkie bug and have since sold our camping trailer and purchased a 36' Monaco Cayman motor home.

Motor home

Since purchasing our motor home, we traveled up and down the east coast by ourselves, with others and with our granddaughter Jessica. Below, you will find links to some places we visited prior to going full time.