Exploring America Archives

10 Favorite Harvest Hosts Experiences (East U.S. Edition)

September 17, 2020 by BrittanyHighland Leave a Comment

Favorite Harvest Hosts Locations in Eastern United States

Our travel life hasn’t been the same since we became Harvest Hosts members in early 2019. Until you’ve slept at an alpaca farm or a gator ranch in your RV, a certain sparkle is missing! Just admit it.

If you’re new to the program and not sure what’s involved, then take a quick break to read our previous article, Is Harvest Hosts Worth It? It will help you determine whether a Harvest Hosts membership suits your style of RV travel and is worth the investment.

Harvest Hosts is constantly adding locations, with the count at nearly 1,300 now. Here are 10 of our favorite options in the eastern United States.

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What to Expect at National Parks During the COVID-19 Era

September 8, 2020 by BrittanyHighland Leave a Comment

After six months of sheltering in place, we had no idea what to expect back on the road as RVers. We used to be a well-oiled machine after more than six years full-time on the road, but COVID-19 upended so much of what we once considered normal. Visiting national parks and other National Park Service (NPS) units was always a priority for us, but closures and new procedures left us with uncertainty. Should we wait to visit national parks? Would campgrounds have more openings than they used to? Could we find junior ranger booklets and passport stamps?

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7 Favorite Harvest Hosts Experiences (West U.S. Edition)

June 12, 2020 by BrittanyHighland Leave a Comment

Favorite Harvest Hosts Experiences in Western U.S.

Over six years of full-time travel, we’ve made several changes to enrich the RV lifestyle for our family. One was eschewing the concrete playgrounds we used to call private RV parks. Another was perfecting our dry camping game, so we could stay off-grid in beautiful areas and save hundreds of dollars every month. Another was down-sizing from a 40-foot RV to a 25-foot RV, so we could be as nimble as a race car (it feels that way after driving a diesel pusher).

But just as much as any of those big changes, getting a Harvest Hosts membership–and using it–has transformed our traveling lives.

We’ve written extensively about whether a Harvest Hosts membership is worth it (spoiler: we think it is). <– Read that article first, if you haven’t yet.

If you already have a Harvest Hosts membership or know you’re going to get one soon, then you may be wondering where to stay next! It’s a tough choice, considering there are well over 1,000 locations to choose from now.

To get you started, here are seven of our favorite Harvest Hosts experiences so far, western United States edition. We also have a list of 10 highlights in the east, if that’s where you’re headed to next!

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Is Harvest Hosts Worth It?

January 22, 2020 by BrittanyHighland Leave a Comment

Is Harvest Hosts Membership Worth It for RVers

The times, they are a-changin’. As Americans flock to the road in RVs, rejecting consumerism and embracing the value of experiences, RV campgrounds are filling up weeks in advance. And when you do find an open spot, it’s guaranteed to be more expensive than ever.

Enter Harvest Hosts, an experience-based RV camping option opening over a thousand unique locations to its members.

I run across few RVers these days who don’t know about Harvest Hosts. The company’s marketing strategy is stellar. But just because you’ve heard of it, doesn’t mean you’ve signed up.

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2019 in Review: Stats and Camping Costs

December 31, 2019 by BrittanyHighland Leave a Comment

State Map After Six Years of Full-time RVing

On February 21, 2019, we celebrated five years of full-time travel and started our sixth year embracing the nomadic lifestyle.

We lost our minds a bit, while simultaneously finding ourselves. We sold our 40-foot RV and found out its contents fit into a 5×8 U-Haul trailer. We moved into our Jeep Wrangler, crossed the southern border, and spent the next two months driving 2,000 miles through the interior of Mexico.

Though we threw around the idea of living out of our Jeep all year, we ended up buying a 2016 Winnebago View 24J. It was the exact model we had been eyeing, with tons of solar, and we knew it had been cared for by our friends at Famagogo.

And so began the most insane year of continental U.S. travel we’ve ever put ourselves through: a complete loop of the country through 32 states and Canada, with some unplanned detours along the way.

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19 Favorite Moments of 2019, Our Sixth Year as Full-time RVers

December 31, 2019 by BrittanyHighland Leave a Comment

It’s been an incredible year–our sixth as full-time RVers. We’ve traveled so quickly that between work and family commitments, microblogging on Instagram has been most manageable! I’m excited to finally share these experiences with you here.

This is the companion piece to “2019 in Review: Stats and Camping Costs.” Make sure you read that article for a big picture view of our year.

And now, you’re in for a treat! We’re counting down from #19 to #1, with #1 being our top highlight of 2019. How many of these places have you visited?

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3 Unforgettable 2-Mile Hikes in Yosemite

June 19, 2019 by BrittanyHighland Leave a Comment

Best Two-mile Hikes in Yosemite National Park

We recently spent a week wild camping a few miles outside the border of Yosemite National Park in California. We spent one full Sunday in the park, then visited two other times for more hiking.

Within five days, toddler Caspian hiked six miles unaided. Each of these three two-mile hikes were memorable, with varying scenery and levels of difficulty.

I love the two-mile chunk, when it comes to hiking. Yes, it’s something Caspian can manage on his own now. But it’s also a distance we can usually fit in after work, or during a packed Saturday of sight-seeing.

If two miles sounds good to you, too, then read on. Here’s are the three unforgettable two-mile hikes we did at Yosemite National Park.

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2018 in Review: Stats, Photos, Adventures

June 1, 2019 by BrittanyHighland Leave a Comment

I’m a wee late publishing this one, but the turn of the year was so crazy and the future so uncertain. All our thoughts were consumed by selling Meriwether, moving into our Jeep Wrangler, and overlanding through the interior of Mexico for 2-3 months.

But we bought another RV home sooner than expected and are now straddling the RV and overland lifestyles. And since 2018 was such an epic year (our favorite year of travel yet), it seems a shame to drop the ball on the annual review…even if it is a few months late.

So here goes. In February 2019, we marked five years of full-time travel. The year 2018 started and ended at our home base of Austin. After speaking at RV Entrepreneur Summit, we embarked on our Western Mountain Loop Trip. It was an unbelievable journey through Arizona, all five national parks in Utah, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Glacier, the Dakotas, and more.

In the process, we drastically changed as travelers. We broke out of our comfort zone by dry camping for extended periods of time, driving our RV to a few crazy camping spots, and breaking our travel rhythm a number of times.

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Go South From the Beaten Path to Bisbee, Arizona

May 5, 2019 by BrittanyHighland Leave a Comment

It’s been years since we first heard of Bisbee from our friends and previous full-time RVers at Tales From the Mutiny. But you don’t drive past Bisbee, Arizona. You’ve got to drive to it…a destination on the way to nowhere else.

As we were making our way west once again, this time along the far southern edge of the country from Big Bend National Park, we finally charted our route to Bisbee.

We spent three nights in town and could’ve stayed longer. While the small town’s quirky, substance-altered vibe may not make everyone want to stay forever, there’s definitely something charming about it all.

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Off-road Adventures Through Big Bend National Park

April 29, 2019 by BrittanyHighland Leave a Comment

Even though Texas is our home base, we didn’t visit Big Bend National Park (one of only two national parks in the giant state of Texas) until this year.

Our reason was straight-forward: we need Internet to work; we work full-time; there isn’t Internet at Big Bend; we can’t go.

But times change. While we still need Internet to work, we aren’t currently sticking to our old travel rhythm. Many of our community members will remember our rhythm from before: drive no more than 250 miles and stay for two weeks.

When we were staying everywhere for two weeks, of course we couldn’t stay somewhere with no Internet. But now that we’re breaking our own rules, we can pop in somewhere for a weekend and get out before the work week starts.

That’s exactly what we did in order to visit Big Bend National Park. We just couldn’t put off a visit any longer!

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