This post is sponsored by Kodiak Cakes, but all opinions are my own.
We are slow travelers in so many ways. On Instagram, I mentioned that fast travel wasn’t serving us well. Those days where we sped from location to location wore us down fast. When we started this journey, I thought we would wake up early every day and hit the road. I imagined sunrise drives and arriving at our next location with time to explore and then doing it all again the next day. While we have experienced a couple morning drives (and discovered they are the best when you are in rural areas), I’ll be honest when I say we rarely leave our campsite or parking spot before 11 AM.
This truth has required me to grow and adjust my expectations. I get antsy. I want to move on to the next thing. I grew up in a home where we said we were leaving for vacation at 8 AM and we were out the door by 6 AM. While I admit that it has taken me a while to accept the fact that we aren’t winning any races to get on the road each morning, I have grown to appreciate the gentle start to the day. It’s ok to take it slow.
I wake up at 5 AM most days and the boys are almost always up by 8 AM. So, why does it take so long for us to hit the road each day? Why do we linger so long before setting off to seek our next adventure? The biggest factor is simply the fact that we don’t have anywhere to be. We don’t NEED to arrive at the next location by a certain time. We don’t NEED to get there before the local attractions close, because we aren’t on a schedule. Instead, we take things as they come as much as possible and try to go with the flow that the morning brings.
Here is a look at what a morning looks like in our school bus on travel days and a few ways that we have learned to speed up the process of moving on…even when we don’t really need to.
Coffee + Breakfast {Kodiak Cakes for the Win!}
Food preparation is a slower process in the bus. We don’t have a microwave to quickly reheat items and if someone is in the kitchen cooking, it holds up the flow of traffic in the bus. (I have admitted before that we really messed up with our decision to place our stove top where we did!) We almost always have oatmeal on travel days. It is quick, easy, filling, and makes less of a mess for us to clean up than some of the other breakfast options. We have been a big fan of Kodiak Cakes waffle mix for a while, but we recently discovered their oatmeal options. The key to maintaining our love of oatmeal is variety and the options Kodiak Cakes offers can’t be beat! Depending on how much time we want to invest in breakfast before we leave, we have 3 different ways of eating it.
Fast
We start with Kodiak Cakes Protein Oatmeal as the foundation and top it with apples cooked in cinnamon, sugar, and butter. Add almond milk, chia seeds, and any nuts of your choice. I would share a recipe, but this is one of those meals that just gets made with love. Add all the good stuff until your heart is happy and your belly will be too.
By the time our water is finished heating in the kettle, our apples have been chopped and cooked. It takes very little time out of our schedule.
This is maybe not the most efficient way to deliver a steaming hot bowl of oatmeal if we really need to get out the door a little faster, but this version is perfect when we want to take in the view for just a little longer.
Faster
Overnight oats! We can make these in the evening and throw everything in the fridge. Spending a little bit of time the night before frees up our morning routine. I love this recipe from Kodiak Cakes, but we top ours with frozen raspberries. We always make sure our freezer is stocked with raspberries for those times when we are spending 3 weeks boondocking and frequenting grocery stores less often. Bonus that Kodiak Cakes oatmeal is easy to store and doesn’t take up any precious fridge space for longer than one night.
Fastest
Pre-packaged oatmeal. These literally just require us to heat water while we are packing up the rest of the bus. We don’t go with this option often, but sometimes we just want an excuse to dive into all of the flavors Kodiak Cakes offers in their individual packages and everyone is happy to get their favorite before we head out to the next destination.
But no matter the speed, there is ALWAYS time for coffee.
Packing Up
Most of the time, we pack up a lot of items the night before. My houseplants are the biggest hassle when it comes to packing up to travel. So many house plants. We have to think strategically when packing up to make sure we won’t spend the morning unpacking to find items that we need. Also, we use both our sink and shower to store items while we are moving to the next location. If we are in a hurry, dishes don’t get washed before we leave. We toss them all in a plastic tub and they ride in the shower.
The Travel Day Check List
After breakfast, the boys and I finish packing up inside and securing everything so we don’t find ourselves chasing down items as they fly across the bus on the first turn out of the parking lot. While we are doing that, Chris has his own checklist.
Skoolie Travel Day Checklist
- Check the oil and coolant levels in the bus
- Look under the bus for leaks
- Turn off the propane
- Put up all power cords, water hoses, and gray tank line
- Load generator in the Jeep
- Put up wheel chocks
- Lock all storage bays
- Start the bus to warm up
- Hook up Jeep to the back of the bus
- Ensure the turn signals/brake lights work correctly on the Jeep
- Perform brake check
Life + Work
Even if we get all of these checklists done, it doesn’t mean we are going to hit the road. Some days, travel is determined by how much work I have to do for clients. If we are in a spot with great internet, we might stick around longer than originally planned. Especially if we know we are venturing into an area that might not have the most reliable internet. While we rarely have issues with our internet since we have so many options (see our post Skoolie Internet Solutions), I’m still haunted by a 2 hour stretch down Hwy 20 in Oregon. No internet for 2 hours. None. How is that even possible in 2020?
The Engine
On cold days, Judy’s engine needs to heat up a little before we take off. If we are in a campground with electricity, we simply plug in the block heater before we go to bed and we don’t have to worry about the engine in the morning. Most of the time, we aren’t in a campground and we don’t have electricity. On those days, we start our morning by dragging out the generator, plug in the block heater, and wait. Since our generator does not have a fixed location on the bus, we then have to wait for the generator to cool down before we can leave. It is a time consuming process and always adds time, but it’s a good excuse to have our favorite version of Kodiak Cakes oatmeal.
Often, the expectations of bus life don’t align with the reality. We may not win any races, but we have fallen into a routine that works for us. What does your morning routine entail?
