Family time outside - Sunrises, sunsets, photography, hikes, making memories. We estimated that we had more memorable family outings in the 2024 trip (on average 1 per day looking back through our itinerary) than we would have in over 6 years at home, and those outings at home would be a lot of repeats even, and probably even less than the generous estimate we used in that calculation compared with how much we do at home in reality.
Home-cooked meals - This is especially true for Bruce. He loves cooking and he loves eating even more. It also saves a lot of money to be able to have and cook your own food from the grocery store, and save restaurants for specific occasions or locations. The snack situation is also a lot easier with your own pantry, rather than trying to find stuff on the go to shove in a backpack. With the refrigerator, you can stash and pull out leftovers whenever needed and keep fresh fruits and vegetables on hand.
Sleeping - Being able to sleep in the same bed every night with your own pillow and blankets makes longer term travel much more sustainable, especially with a toddler. We couldn't imagine trying to set up a hotel for safe sleeping for an active sleeping toddler every few nights for months on end.
Clothes, toiletries - Not having to live out of a suitcase is as nice as you would imagine. Being able to open your closet and easily grab whatever you want and not worry about packing it all back up in a few days is very nice. We love having a stable place to put our toothbrushes when we are done and not worrying about travel size shampoo, conditioner, and soap.
Driving - Especially with a small child, it's great having our own truck to drive in with her carseat in place. We can keep certain items in there for her to use in the car and she knows what to expect. She loves the truck so much that we can barely ever convince her to go in the SUV at home anymore.
Flexibility - RV parks are much more forgiving with cancellation policies compared with airlines. When something comes up and plans need to change, it isn't a disaster when you are traveling in an RV. That is, unless your truck/RV breaks down. Then it can disrupt things quite a bit, but still not disaster level. Oh, Waterloo...
Adventuring Gear - We can bring our own bikes, kayaks, hiking backpacks and poles, and other adventuring gear easily rather than trying to rent them. It's much more convenient and flexible.
In Between Locations - Traveling in an RV allows you to see more of the country/continent rather than flying over places and only stopping at the big destinations. We stop in more towns and explore playgrounds and restaurants/ice cream than we would with other forms of travel. We also get to see more of the sites since we can travel longer (while maintaining sanity).
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