Living in Vacaville, California

Our decision to live in Vacaville, California

When Justin and I originally came to California we did not plan to stay as long as we had. We originally came to California for Christmas to spend the holidays with my family during this time we celebrated Christmas as a family and Justin was able to pick out a real Christmas tree which he had never done before. It was a real treat to have the opportunity to spend the holidays with my parents and sister, when just the year before we were on opposite sides of the country.

Justin and I ended up being very tight on money while in California and thought the best idea was for us to stay put and try to get back on our feet again. We also thought of it as a blessing since it had given us more time with my parents and sister who we had not seen for more than a week at a time the last year and a half. With that being said it was a no brainier on staying in Vacaville where we could live around family for a while.

During our time living in Vacaville I was working at Starbucks and doing some freelance videos as a business videographer. Justin was working on improving Business Optimizer and providing his services for local businesses in the area at the time. We made many friends and went to many events in Vacaville, and became apart of chamber of commerce in Vacaville and in the neighboring town called American Canyon. Side note American Canyon was a beautiful place and I recommend you visit there as well if you are ever in California.

One of my favorite memories in California is visiting many different cities in California such as, San Francisco, San Rafael, Chico,  and Lake Tahoe. We were in California for about 8 months and took as many trips as we could with the budget we had. I only wish we were able to see more of the beautiful state.

Staying at Vineyard RV Park

With us having to stay in California for a while we went and found Vineyard RV park in Vacaville, California. Everyone know California a pretty expensive and RV parks are no exception. Don’t get me wrong we loved Vineyard RV Park, it was just very interesting since this was the first time we had no choice in where we stayed and the price was what it was there.

The amenities at Vineyard RV park were really accommodating, they are as follows.

• They have spacious lots, where you can request a standard pull through/ back-in lot, or a Premium pull through/ back-in lot. ( We decided to go with a premium lot and it came with a bit more space and more of a side yard which we enjoyed since we have Teddy our little pooch.)
• There is a pool. It gets too cold in the winter to swim in but it’s still a great place to lounge.
• Propane refill. We used electric heating but It was very nice to have that conveniently there.
• There were single his and hers showers or if you like to have a bit more space, or have that time with your significant other they have large showers with two shower heads where you can have more than one person in the bathroom. I honestly liked how big and comfortable the bathrooms were.
• They had a large laundry facility.
• Something neat is if you stay there long term which we did, is that they offer mail boxes where we received our mail and any notifications the RV Park had for us.
• We enjoyed having a fairly large dog park there and Teddy enjoyed it too.
• They have a playground.  
• They were very close to stores and some restaurants.

Overall we enjoyed staying at Vineyard RV Park. We stayed there for about 3 months, during the coldest time of year in California  Since we still at the time were not going in the direction we wanted to go with money, we had a friend of ours offer to let us stay on there land where they had an acre and a half they never used and would allow us to stay there basically for free.

Boondocking on an acre and a half of land

When we decided to boondock I don’t think we new what we were really getting ourselves into. There were a lot of things we learned about RV living and not relying on an RV park’s amenities.

I’ll break it down with pros and cons.

Cons:

• No place to dump our water tanks. We had to buy a smart tote to carry our water and dump it at an RV park. We didn’t want to bring our whole RV every time to dump it. Now it wasn’t really a big deal but i highly doubt anyone loves to pick up a big jug filled with waste.
• We didn’t have the best RV as many of you know by now. It had its problems and one of them was the water damage. We didn’t really feel comfortable taking showers in the RV since the water damage was right where we had our shower. Our solution when we stayed at RV park’s was to use their showers they had available, but with boondocking we needed to figure something else out. Our solution while boondocking was to get gym memberships to take showers and get in better shape.
• The last con that I can really remember was when it rained, the ground was very muddy. It was terrible to let the dog out and when I had to go to work it was a pain since mud would get everywhere in the RV. We came up with a solution in which we placed a stone pathway from where we parked our truck and the door of our RV.

On to Pros ending on a good note.

• I enjoyed being able to wake up and the first thing I would see in the morning would be the sun rising with an open field in front of me. I had never lived in such a quiet space with such serenity.
• I am someone who easily stresses over things and the things around me and to have nothing but nature around us was bliss. I would come home from a long day of work and know that nothing around us would distract us from relaxing and enjoying the simple things we as people tend to forget sometimes.
• There was so much room for Teddy to run around. Since we had a whole acer to ourselves we usually let Teddy run around and make friends with the horses our neighbors had. He loved it and we loved having that space for him.

Overall we learned a lot in the short time we boondocked, we plan to do it again once we hit the road next year in 2018, and this time we will know more now than we did before.

Leaving Vacaville, California and Heading to Oregon

We stayed in Vacaville for about 8 months and enjoyed it and the time we had with family while also making memories with new friends. The one thing I have to say we look back on the most is when we moved out of the RV and into an apartment and then, shortly after, moved away to Oregon. We chose to get an apartment and live the traveling life jumping from one apartment to another, rather than live in the RV and travel. It was a good decision though since our RV wouldn’t have made it with the cold snowy winter in Hillsboro.

This brings us to the decision to pack up and move to Oregon the state known for being green in every direction. Justin and I wanted a fresh start with getting up and traveling again, and we thought, why not just jump on over to the next state and start from there. The time we spent in Vacaville is always looked back on and we still talk to many friends we have there. It was a bittersweet moment leaving a place we called home but once you start to travel it is pretty hard to stop and stay in one place. With that a new adventure began.

You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart will always be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.

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