Heather, Author at A Happy Hive

Monte Vista Village RV Resort Encore Property Review {Mesa, Arizona}

Shared April 4, 2016

Monte-Vista-Village-RV-Resort

Travel dates :: March 18 – 23, 2015

After a wonderful time in Tucson we headed north to Mesa, Arizona. As much as we loved our campground in Tucson we were so excited for FULL HOOK-UPS and a five-night stay at Monte Vista Village RV Resort in Mesa.

As soon as pulled in, I knew that staying here was going to be a TREAT. Located just five minutes from my grandma with easy access to freeways and a grocery store – the location was primo for what we needed during our stay. We were greeted by a nice employee at the front gate (which is staffed 24/7) and headed to the main office to check-in.

Monta-Vista-Village-RV-Resort-office

The Monte Vista Village RV Resort property is beautiful. It’s clean, well-maintained, gorgeous landscaping, easy to navigate and it really felt like a vacation resort. After checking in, we were escorted to our campsite on 4th avenue in between two nice mobile homes – it felt like we were on a regular neighborhood street.

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We had a nice, level spot next to a large paved area. Plenty of room for us to move around.

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We quickly made ourselves at home. Our neighbors stopped by as soon as we got settled and greeted us – welcoming us to the neighborhood – how sweet is that!?! And look at those blue skies. . . we love the weather here in the spring!

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Tucson :: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Saguaro National Park {Arizona}

Shared April 3, 2016

Tucson-Arizona-Travel-Airstream

Travel dates :: March 14 – 18, 2016

After a quick couple days in Las Cruces, New Mexico (and White Sands!) we headed west again. Our next stop was Tucson, Arizona.

We stayed at Gilbert Ray campground up in the Tucson Mountains. It’s a county-run park, first-come, first-serve (read: no reservations!) and was only $20 a night with electric hook-ups (not water or sewer). It was a BEAUTIFUL place to stay. Great hiking trails, clean restrooms, fantastic volunteer-led programs and close to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and Saguaro National Park. We’d stay here again in a heartbeat.

Filling-up-water-Gilbert-Ray-Campground

We almost always have water and electric hook-ups, so our first stop at Gilbert Ray campground was to fill up our fresh water tank so we’d have water for the five nights we were here. (Remember we got our fresh water tank repaired in Michigan? It’s still working like a champ!)

Gilbert-Ray-campground-campsite

We got a spot on an inside loop. When we pick our own sites we try to go for outside loops – because they are generally bigger and then you don’t have another trailer behind you. But this one was nice and big, with lots of vegetation.

Gilbert-Ray-Campground-Tucson

Our spot was close to the restrooms – which is great when you don’t have full hook-ups. I loved that the roads are paved – great for walking, biking and you don’t have a bunch of dust from vehicles driving along.

Gilbert-Ray-Campground-Tucson-spot

Here’s another angle of our campsite. Mountains on all sides – we loved it.

Nature-Walk-Tucson-Arizona-kids

Our first morning at the park they had a volunteer-led hike through the desert to identify local plants and birds. We included this as part of our homeschooling for the day (read more about our homeschooling here) and we learned SO MUCH. In the photo above the volunteer is explaining about the Cholla cactus. This cactus looks all fuzzy and friendly but it has nasty barbs on it’s spikes making it latch on to any sort of clothing or skin that might brush up against it! You do not want to come into contact with a cholla!

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Here a county park volunteer points out the flowers on the Ocotillo plant. Not a true cactus, the flowers on this plant are beautiful and appear in the spring, summer and sometimes the fall.

ocotillo-Flower-Tucson-blue-skies

A close-up of the Ocotillo flower. Apparently the hummingbirds LOVE these flowers because their shape makes them perfect for their thin, pointy beaks. Isn’t it beautiful against that blue sky!?!

Nature-walk-Gilbert-Ray-Campground

Along the hike one of the volunteers showed us the hard bird nest (also called a Saguaro boot) that is created inside the Saguaro cactus! It’s a hard shell of callus tissue inside the cactus as a way for the cactus to protect itself from the birds nesting inside. These holes are generally started by the Gila woodpecker and the Gilded Flicker which have beaks strong enough to break apart the rib tissue. A variety of local birds use the Saguaro cacti for nests – living inside these hardened shells. Native Americans of the Seri group used these saguaro boots to carry water! How interesting is that!?

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White Sands National Monument, Las Cruces {New Mexico}

Shared March 31, 2016

White-Sands-National-Monument-Visit

Travel dates :: March 12 – 14, 2016

After a wonderful four nights in Carlsbad, New Mexico it was time to keep moving west. Our next planned stop was Las Cruces, New Mexico.

There were two routes to choose from going from Carlsbad to Las Cruces and we opted for the route that went right through the White Sands National Monument because that was on our list of things to see.

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However this route ended up taking us up through Lincoln National Forest – and we reached an elevation of 8,300 feet! The drive up to the summit was a gradual uphill grade with BEAUTIFUL views and we even saw SNOW along the roadside! The climb down the other side of the mountain had a fairly steep grade – something we hadn’t driven for months and I was a little bit nervous. But we just took our sweet time, shifted into a lower gear and let our truck’s tow/haul mechanism do most of the work.

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There were a lot of curves which meant other traffic wasn’t going fast either and we even went through a tunnel at one point!

RV-Parking-White-Sands

It wasn’t long after we descended that we reached White Sands National Monument and we pulled into the Visitor’s Center parking lot. Thankfully they have 3-4 RV parking spots, we had plenty of room to park. But imagine when it’s busy that it could be difficult to find parking.

White-Sands-Visitors-Center-outside

We started inside the Visitor’s Center and picked up the Junior Ranger booklets for the kids (read more about the Jr. Ranger Program here).

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Carlsbad KOA Campground Review {New Mexico}

Shared March 27, 2016

Carlsbad-KOA-review-Airstream

Travel Dates :: March 9 – 12, 2016

We went to Carlsbad, New Mexico with specific plans to visit the Carlsbad Caverns and explore the nearby area. When researching places to stay nearby we found the local Carlsbad KOA had great reviews and it looked like the perfect home base while we were in town.

North of the city of Carlsbad, New Mexico the Carlsbad KOA is nestled in a quiet spot off Highway 285 making it easy to access and away from the hustle and bustle of downtown Carlsbad. Because of it’s nice remote location the Carlsbad KOA is about a 38 mile drive to the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. For some this might be a deal breaker but honestly we didn’t see much for camping options closer to the caverns and we liked the park so much that the drive wasn’t an issue for us. Plus as I mentioned in an earlier post, we LOVED visiting Artesia which was just a short drive from where we were located.

You can always tell a lot about a campground when you check-in at the front desk. The Carlsbad KOA had lots of staff on hand at the front desk and they were super helpful when we arrived.

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Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, Artesia {New Mexico}

Shared March 26, 2016

Carlsbad-Caverns-National-Park-Explore

Travel Dates :: March 9 – 12, 2016

After a fun few weeks in San Antonio, Austin and Lake Conroe it was about time to jet west and wrap up our time in Texas. We had planned to stop in Fredericksburg for a couple days but were watching a series of storms headed for Texas and decided to skip it and head west early. We had plans to get into Phoenix by at least March 23 to meet up with family, so we were on a bit of a deadline.

Fort-Stockton-Campground

The drive from San Antonio to New Mexico is looooong and uneventful. We stopped in Fort Stockton for a couple days to break up the drive and didn’t do much there besides catch up on school and work but it was a good stopover spot. We had beautiful views from the Hilltop RV park we stayed at.

Goodbye-Texas

It was our last stop in Texas before heading to New Mexico. . .

Carlsbad-KOA-spot

We headed north to Carlsbad, New Mexico for a four night stay at the Carlsbad KOA so that we could explore Carlsbad Caverns National Park and other local attractions. I’ll share more about that the Carlsbad KOA in a later post (we LOVED it).

Mural-Artesia-Library

We got into Carlsbad early in the afternoon and decided to head to the nearby town of Artesia to explore. I love small towns. The first place we went was the Artesia public library. . .small town libraries are one of our FAVORITE things.

And this is one of the most beautiful public libraries we’ve ever seen. This amazing Peter Hurd mural (pictured above) in the Artesia Public Library was rescued from a downtown Houston building slated for demolition. The mural was moved as one piece after removing the entire back wall and exposing the 3/4 inch plaster it was painted on. It was then stored for a couple years while the library in Artesia was being built. It’s 46 feet long and 15 feet tall and weighs 50,000 pounds. In 1951, Hurd wrote about his design, “sweeps of landscape, timeless in their forms and yet alive with the activities of man at work improving and developing its natural resources for the present and the future.”

Isn’t it beautiful?

Artesia-Library-kids-reading

We spent a couple hours at theArtesia public library reading books, playing chess . . .

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Homeschool on the Road – Update on curriculum, our progress

Shared March 22, 2016

Traveling-Family-Homeschool-curriculum

Traveling Family Homeschool Update

Since we started traveling full time we haven’t shared much about homeschooling. Before we hit the road we had never homeschooled before and didn’t fancy ourselves much of an expert on the topic. But after being on the road nine months we thought it’s about time to share a homeschool update!

We follow a structured, predetermined curriculum. We have found that we seem to be an anomaly when it comes to full time traveling families and homeschooling. Many full time traveling families believe in “un-schooling” and opt to not follow a strict or predetermined curriculum. While this works for a lot of folks, we weren’t comfortable with this personally. Eventually we will enroll our kids back into “regular” public school and we want them to be in a semi-structured school system while we travel, so they can easily transition back into school when the time comes. Although we don’t necessarily agree with all the standardized testing that happens in our schools – we also wanted our homeschool curriculum to prepare them for this when they re-enroll back in public school. And with all the adjusting we would be doing in moving into the trailer, learning how to tow and care for our home on the wheels and navigating new places, we didn’t want Jeremy to have to do a bunch of planning/prep/creating lessons – so we wanted a curriculum that was pre-planned and vetted first with other families.

Photo credit: Book Shark

The primarily curriculum we use is Book Shark, a literary-based curriculum, it focuses on the kids reading aloud and listening to others reading aloud. At times we thought we were crazy to buy a curriculum that required 50 pounds of books. Seriously, it’s not the most mobile-friendly curriculum – but we really liked the literary focus and we know reading is one of the most important skills for future success in school. We purchased the complete second grade Book Shark curriculum for Liam (age 8, Second Grade) and the Kindergarten math and writing portions for Hadley (age 5, Kindergarten).

When we started our travels we had two full large bins of books in the back of the truck. As we read the books we give them to other traveling families or donate them to local charities. There are some books that Liam read that we are holding onto for Hadley – but really because space is limited, we cycle through a lot of books. We are down to one bin now thanks to better organizing supplies in the trailer and because we’ve used and gotten rid of some materials.

Book Shark comes with 36 weeks of lesson plans. Each week of curriculum has four (4) days worth of instruction, with the fifth (5) day reserved for art and/or field trips – which works splendidly for our traveling lifestyle! We just completed our 25th full week of official homeschool curriculum. We generally do school four (4) days a week for about 3 hours at a time, with minimal breaks. Jeremy does ALL the homeschooling while Heather usually works. This makes the most sense for our family since Jeremy was a public school teacher for 13 years before we started to travel and Heather needs time daily to work on the road. We purposely choose do school on mornings Saturday thru Tuesday so that we can get out and explore on weekdays – helping us avoid the crowds! We occasionally take weeks off from school for things like DisneyWorld or when we flew home to Washington State for a visit. But we find our kids are happier when we just do a little bit, consistently.

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11 Kid-Friendly Things to Do in San Antonio {Texas}

Shared March 21, 2016

San-Antonio-Texas-Things-to-do-with-kids

Travel dates :: February 26 – March 7

We were originally only going to stay in San Antonio, Texas five days but after we started exploring, we kept extending our stay. I was especially impressed at how kid-friendly the city was, so I thought I’d do a post specifically on 11 kid-friendly things to do in San Antonio!

Of course this list isn’t complete, but these are 11 attractions we personally did during the week that I thought were especially family-friendly, especially for young kids!

Magik Children’s Theater
We got into town Friday afternoon and I was thrilled to find the local Magik Children’s Theater had two remaining shows of it’s production of James and the Giant Peach. We are huge Roald Dahl fans AND our kids – especially Liam – love live theater. So we attended the 1 p.m. performance of James and the Giant Peach at the Magik Children’s Theater. Right down the street from the Alamo, the Magik Children’s Theater is easily accessible and not far from the bus line. The production was AMAZING – lots of singing, great costumes and talented performers. After the show the performers lined up in the lobby and personally greeted anyone who wanted to meet them. Hadley got all their autographs and got her photo taken with the crazy aunts. I definitely recommend the Magik Children’s Theater for families visiting San Antonio!

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The Alamo
You can’t go to San Antonio and NOT see the Alamo. Really. It’s incredible. And it’s right downtown, very accessible and right off many bus routes. We were there during the day and it was crowded but we were able to walk through and see the detailed exhibits. I also recommend going at night – without the crowds and the way they light up the building is beautiful. We visited the Alamo with our friends the Bareneckers who also travel full-time, the picture above was taken with all our kids outside the Alamo at night. Right across the street from the Alamo is a local Gelato shop, Francesco’s Gelato – it was delicious and I bet it would be especially refreshing on a hot Texas summer day!

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Earning a living on the road – How we (and others) are making money while we travel full-time

Shared March 20, 2016

Earning-A-living-Income-Travel-money

Making a living on the road – how we earn an income (plus ask others to share how they do!)

One of the most common questions we get is “How can you afford to travel full-time?” I wrote about affording travel full-time here – we did a lot of saving and living frugally to build ourselves a strong financial foundation before hitting the road.

But even with all that we did to save, and being debt free when we started, we probably wouldn’t travel full-time if we didn’t have a source of income on the road. I think this is the biggest obstacle for people wanting to travel full-time – how are you going to make money when you aren’t going to an office or a job in the same location everyday?

I thought I’d write about how we make money on the road and go into a bit more detail about how we are making it work.

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Nearly seven (7) years ago I created a free website, QueenBeeCoupons.com, to help folks save money through coupons, online sales, easy recipes, store discounts and more.

The website was created out of both necessity and passion after I quit my job as a Communications Manager with the Washington State Department of Transportation to stay home with my newborn son. After Liam was born I no longer had the desire to work in an office anymore and I wanted to stay home with him. But quitting my job meant our family income would drop 60% – so I started couponing to make ends meet. Times were tough everywhere – and friends and family would ask me how I was saving so much money. So I started QueenBeeCoupons.com to help others save like I was.

QueenBeeCoupons.com started with just a few page views a day (mostly friends and family) but fast forward six years later and it was bringing in nearly a million page views a month, helping people all across the country save money! I had no idea when I started it that it would become such a blessing in our lives. I count myself lucky that I get to help others save money (at no cost to them) while also earning money to support my family.

For years I managed the site entirely by myself but I was putting in 60-80 hours a week and it wasn’t healthy or sustainable. So now I currently have seven contractors who help and provide content for QueenBeeCoupons.com and although I still work on the site daily, I’m able to live a more balanced life as a mom, wife and full-time traveler.

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Earn Junior Ranger badges at state, national parks

Shared March 16, 2016

Liam earning his Junior Ranger badge at Mt. Rushmore

Junior Ranger Badge 101

Before we starting traveling full-time I had never even heard of a Junior Ranger Badge or the Junior Ranger Program. But after months of visiting state and national parks and earning dozens of Junior Ranger badges along the way, we feel a little bit like experts on the topic. And we love the program so much we thought we’d put a post together to help other families get involved in the Junior Ranger program!

What is the Junior Ranger program?
Where can you earn Junior Ranger badges?
Who can earn Junior Ranger badges?
How do you earn Junior Ranger badges?
Why should you earn Junior Ranger badges?

Junior-Ranger-books-San-Antonio

What is the Junior Ranger program? The Junior Ranger Program is an activity-based educational program in most national and state parks. By completing workbooks and/or activities at a particular park you can earn a Junior Ranger badge. The Junior Ranger Program motto is “Explore, Learn and Protect” so the activities are geared toward reinforcing these values in the parks system.

Hadley working on her booklet at Glacier National Park, Montana

Where can you earn Junior Ranger badges? Most national and state parks have a Junior Ranger Program – just ask a park ranger. We have also earned Junior Ranger badges at wildlife refuges and national monuments – we always ask, you’d be surprised which places have them!

Who can earn Junior Ranger badges? Although anyone can complete the Junior Ranger Program the program is designed for younger school age children (under 12). Some parks have different workbooks or activities based on age while others have only one program for all ages.

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Travelers World RV Resort Review {San Antonio, Texas}

Shared March 16, 2016

Travelers-World-San-Antonio-Texas

Travel dates :: February 26 – March 7, 2016

After eating our weight in tacos in Austin, we headed 80 miles southwest to San Antonio, Texas. While in San Antonio we had the great pleasure of staying at Travelers World RV Resort. We had heard great things about this San Antonio campground being the perfect home base for going into the city, and it certainly was – let me tell you why we liked it so much!

Our site at Travelers World RV Resort had full hook-ups. This means water, electricity (30/50 amp) and sewer. We also had cable with dozens of channels and FREE wifi for up to two devices during our stay. The wifi worked GREAT – which is always a perk that is often hit or miss depending on the campground.

Swimming-Pool-Travelers-World

In terms of amenities at Travelers World RV Resort we LOVED the pool. Seriously. The pool was heated and was kept at an extremely comfortable temperature for swimming. Truly heated, like a nice warm bath – it was located in the middle of the park, a short walking distance from our site. The pool was well maintained, well lit (at night) and had lots of lawn chairs nearby. The kids went swimming daily, which we love because it wears them out – they have so much energy!

Travelers-World-Pool-Happy-Kid I’m in hot tub, he’s in pool, we’re both happy.

And right next to the pool you’ll find the hot tub. I loved that the hot tub was actually HOT and right next to the pool so I could soak and kept a close eye on my kids while they swam in the pool. Kids aren’t allowed in the hot tub but the pool was so warm, they didn’t care!

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Monte Vista Village RV Resort Encore Property Review {Mesa, Arizona}

Tucson :: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Saguaro National Park {Arizona}

White Sands National Monument, Las Cruces {New Mexico}

Carlsbad KOA Campground Review {New Mexico}

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, Artesia {New Mexico}

Homeschool on the Road – Update on curriculum, our progress

11 Kid-Friendly Things to Do in San Antonio {Texas}

Earning a living on the road – How we (and others) are making money while we travel full-time

Making a living on the road – how we earn an income (plus ask others to share how they do!)

Earn Junior Ranger badges at state, national parks

Travelers World RV Resort Review {San Antonio, Texas}

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