Our 2025 adventure took us halfway around the world. Well, not quite halfway around the globe, but we went farther in one year than we ever have before. Overall, our 2025 adventure was at least 19,000 miles and may have been more than 20,000 miles. At the end of 2024, I predicted we would put fewer miles on our RV during our 2025 adventure, and that was true.
Christmas Greetings
Sending out a Christmas letter isn’t new for me; I have been doing this for many years. My blog has taken the place of my Christmas letter. Above all, I hope you are warm, well, and living in joy, especially during the Christmas season.
During the spring of our 2025 adventure, we traded our RV for a train. Actually, we stored our RV and got a Eurail pass for a four-month visit to Europe. Instead of taking our one-bedroom apartment (RV) and everything we owned, we packed everything we needed into one carry-on suitcase and a small backpack.
Getting ready for our 2025 adventure
During the fall and winter of 2024, we worked our way southbound through California with two goals. We wanted warmer weather, and we needed time to get ready for our trip. The first goal was to find a place to store our RV for four months. The second goal was to get our RV ready for our absence. This was all new territory for us. One of the things accomplished was ensuring our chassis batteries were charged daily without using our inverter. Here is a link to the story about how we accomplished that small but necessary task. Solar charging RV chassis batteries.
Unlike most RVers, we had never stored our RV. I didn’t want to leave the inverter on for four months unattended during our 2025 adventure. The only important thing the inverter would be operating was the refrigerator. I wanted it empty just in case something might fail while we were gone. I didn’t want to deal with a moldy refrigerator when we returned. So we ate all the food and emptied the fridge. We didn’t have to winterize the RV because we chose a warm place to store it.
We emptied the RV refrigerator because I wanted the doors open while we were gone. I was sure we could have let the refrigerator run and that our solar array would have kept the batteries charged, but there was no reason to leave it on while we were gone on our 2025 adventure.
The only other thing that would have needed the inverter was my cell phone-based router. So I converted it to operate from direct current. I wanted the router on because we installed two security cameras to monitor the RV while we were gone.
Final preparation for our 2025 adventure
When I stored the RV to prepare for our 2025 adventure, the fuel tank and fresh water tanks were full. The black and grey tanks were empty save for a bit of water to keep things wet. I left the solar and 12-volt DC electrical system on but turned the inverter off. The last step was to scatter sticky mouse traps throughout the RV to stop intruders before they could cause any damage.
Final score: we didn’t catch any mice on sticky pads or in mouse traps, and there was no damage. This was great news on our return. On our return, I stepped into a sticky trap, and that made a mess, but it wasn’t too hard to clean up.
Failure in our RV while we were in Europe
We had a problem with our security cameras. They worked for the first two months of our 2025 adventure, but while we were still in Europe, they went dark so that we couldn’t view them. We knew our RV was still parked in storage where we left it, but since our cameras were off, we couldn’t see them.
Was it the solar, the battery, the router, or the cameras that failed?
I couldn’t investigate much in Europe while on our 2025 adventure, so to rule out possibilities, I had a friend ping my router. It didn’t respond. This means that the batteries (charged by solar power) or the router failed on our 2025 adventure through Europe.
I was convinced that our solar power or batteries, or both, failed at the two-month point during the European part of our 2025 adventure. Why else would the security cameras fail? The most straightforward answer was that we exhausted the batteries. This means we were not charging the batteries from the solar while we were away. To me, this was inconceivable. My solar and batteries have worked for five years without failing. Perhaps it was a lightning strike that would take them out. There is not much you can do to prevent a direct lightning strike.
I was amazed when we got back to the RV, and I found all the batteries fully charged from the solar. I also checked the chassis battery, and it was fully charged. My solar worked (as I hoped) and kept the batteries fully charged. For the last two months of our 2025 adventure in Europe, I was incorrectly congratulating myself on the decision to empty the refrigerator before we departed. Had the solar or batteries failed, it would have had two months to grow mold. Since it was empty with the doors open, I wasn’t worried about that.
So why did our security cameras fail? It was due to the router. The router was working, but needed a reboot. All we needed to do was reboot the router, but since we were in Europe, we couldn’t. Once the reboot was finished, the cameras came right back on.
For our car, I installed a small solar panel to charge the starter battery while we were gone. Overall, all our preparations for a four-month absence for our 2025 adventure through Europe worked great.
Finishing RV projects before our 2025 adventure
Over the 2024-25 winter, I also tied up the loose ends of some longer-term projects. These projects didn’t need to be done before our 2025 adventure to Europe, but they have taken so long, and I wanted to get them to a point where I could live with them in the long term.
Propane issue
It took a year to drain our propane tank so I could replace the shutoff valve. For the last two years, we couldn’t shut off our propane. We knew the valve failed because we could still use our propane cooktop even when the valve was turned off. The problem with replacing the valve is that if you remove the shutoff valve before all the propane is gone, any remaining propane will leak and be very dangerous while doing the work. Instead of working on a partially full propane tank, we used it all before replacing the valve. Replacing the valve took 10 minutes, plus one year to prepare.
Black tank leak
It seems like we have been recovering from a leak in our RV black tank forever, and I took the time to “finish” cleaning up this mess before our 2025 adventure to Europe. If you didn’t know, we fixed a leak in our RV black tank, or want to scroll to the end and see our “finished” project, here is a link to that article. Remodeling our RV wet bay.
Backup camera
Another project I put the finishing touches on was my backup camera. I can’t believe how much better it works compared to our old camera.
Going to Europe on our 2025 adventure
After parking the RV in storage, we spent a night at a friend’s house before flying to Los Angeles and then to Rome. This plane ride was challenging for me. I can sit for hours and hours in front of a computer, but doing the same thing on an airplane seems to hurt every bone.
The plane to Europe was difficult. Even harder was the trip back to California, where we parked the RV. Not only did my elbow hurt, but the seats were not first class in any way. We paid a lot of extra money for lay-flat seats, and the compartments were not long enough. When did they change first-class seats from the La-Z-Boy style to cubicles? This was a huge step backwards.
On our flight to Europe, we only used carry-on luggage. The weight limit was eighteen pounds in the main bag plus the weight of our backpacks. In theory, I could have carried on a separate bag for my CPAP machine and my medical supplies. The problem with this is that you have to lug three bags instead of two. Coats are also exempt from the weight limit, but mine were packed in my luggage. We carried on our luggage because I couldn’t imagine starting a multi-stop trip through Europe without our luggage.
Once we got to Europe on our 2025 adventure, I needed two things and was lucky to find them. The first thing I got was an AeroPress coffee maker. I should have brought it with me. I found one in Naples. This became a priority after we spent $50 on coffee (and pastries) in one day. I want coffee right after I get up in the morning, not after I go out for the day. The other thing I wanted was a tiny pocket knife. I found a small Swiss Army knife. Usually, I carry a small knife, but I couldn’t bring it in our carry-on luggage.
On our way back from our 2025 adventure in Europe, we checked our bags. I didn’t care if they didn’t arrive, plus I didn’t want to fight with a suitcase with only one arm. For the new readers, you might wonder why I only had one arm to work with. While in London, I broke my elbow.
Blog changes in Europe
While on our 2025 adventure in Europe, I made 34 blog posts, mostly with photos of the fantastic art. I had intended to write more, but my broken elbow put a stop to the blog posts. When you have a crushed elbow, it changes everything down to the smallest detail. I had to learn to eat and drink with one hand (my left hand). My right arm and hand were useless. I couldn’t even move a mouse, let alone type. Here is a link to my blog posts about our 2025 adventure in Europe. You might want to scroll through it for no other reason than to look at the pictures. FoxRVTravel Europe
Traveling across Europe without our RV
Full-time RVing is easy compared to our train trip across Europe. That said, getting a Eurail pass was a great decision. Train travel isn’t as easy as our relaxed RV travel style. We had to be ready when the train departed. Trains in Europe don’t spend much time stopped at a station. We had to be prepared to fight our way on and off the trains with our luggage. It always worked, and it was always a challenge, even in the first-class cars. Taking our RV to a new campsite is much easier than fighting our way onto trains.
Then there was the inconvenience of being in a new place with an unknown bed at every stop. It took us about two weeks before we quit unpacking our suitcases. Then there was always the challenge of food. It might have seemed fantastic in theory to eat nearly every meal at a restaurant. It didn’t take long before we started packing a few grocery items with us for breakfast and snacks. I have always loved Italian cookies, and they became an excellent substitute for tasteless pastries. This, however, changed in Denmark. I loved the pastries.
Expenses on our 2025 adventure to Europe
Western Europe was about as expensive as staying in hotels and eating out for every meal in the United States. Western Europe is not a bargain-basement trip. This is more than twice as expensive as our everyday life in our RV. Southern Europe was only slightly more costly than our daily RV life. In many places, they have different prices for locals and us tourists. Even European tourists get charged the tourist prices, so it wasn’t just for us gringos.
The least expensive places in Europe are the former Soviet Union countries, but prices there are not the bargain they once were. Rumor has it that the Eastern European countries (Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania) are still a bargain, but we didn’t go there. The most expensive stay was in London, even though the British medical system covered all my elbow-related medical expenses. I couldn’t imagine breaking my elbow in Hungary, where I couldn’t even pretend to understand the language.
Good to be back in our RV
Most of the places we stayed had a small kitchenette, so making our morning coffee was easy once I got the AeroPress. If you go to Europe, you don’t want to eat every meal cooped up in a small room. So we made it an adventure to find good places to eat that locals would go to. Mostly, we failed in our restaurant selection, but at least we didn’t eat at the major tourist traps.
Our trip to Europe made me appreciate our RV even more. Unlike smaller RVs, ours is like a one-bedroom apartment. It holds everything we own.
RVing to the Grand Canyon on our 2025 adventure
We got back from Europe in August, retrieved our RV from storage, and waited for the temperature in the Mojave Desert to drop before crossing it. We didn’t wait long enough; our first stop was Yuma and then north along the Colorado River near Parker. Both places were above 100 degrees until well after sunset. We didn’t find cooler temperatures until we got to Williams, Arizona.
Without our tow car
In the previous link, you will see that we made this trip on our 2025 adventure without our tow car. It started giving us problems before our trip to Europe, and the crisis mode hit in September. We left the car behind on our trip across the southwest because we didn’t trust it. Thankfully, we had some friends along who took care of us on the journey. Here is a link to the story about our car problems. Our car quit at the worst possible time.
Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta
Stopping at the Grand Canyon was just a stop along the way on our 2025 adventure. Our real destination was not the Grand Canyon, but instead, we wanted to be at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.
World’s biggest telescope
On the way back from the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, we visited the world’s largest telescope near Socorro, New Mexico.
Back to the desert
Starting in San Diego after our car repair, we made another trip back to the desert, this time to enjoy the sun without the 100-degree temperatures we encountered in September. This stop in the desert was planned for the end of our lap around the southwest, including the Grand Canyon and Albuquerque. Instead of it being the last stop on a more extended trip, we went to San Diego, finished our car repair, and then headed back east to the desert. Our goal of being warmer and more relaxed was achieved, but the days were getting shorter and the nights longer.
Summary
Overall, our 2025 adventure was at least 19,000 miles and may have been more than 20,000 miles. During our 2025 travel adventure, we drove our RV 2,212 miles, all in Arizona, California, and New Mexico. Add that to our train trip through Europe (4,200 miles), and to that add the bus and plane trips while in Europe. We flew from Los Angeles to Rome, from London to Dublin, and from Dublin to Los Angeles (more than 12,000 miles).
We also visited Grand Canyon National Park for the first time. Our time at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta was epic. We also revisited some of the places we love. Overall, we made 43 distinct stops, and most importantly, we visited with some of our fantastic friends and family members.
Final thoughts about our 2025 adventure
Before our 2025 adventure, I anticipated fewer miles on the RV but more far-reaching adventures across the globe. We accomplished this with our 2025 adventure to Europe. Living in our RV and putting it in storage enabled our 2025 adventure. The cost of storage was minor compared to the price of having a fixed home or compared to the money we spent on our trip.
More adventures in 2026
In 2026, I expect an even bigger adventure and an RV trip that will take us back to Canada. For our spring 2026 adventure, like our trip to Europe, the RV is going back into storage, and, like our 2025 adventure through Europe, we will be visiting far-off destinations. Next spring, I don’t think we will be taking a train even once.
Unlike our 2025 adventure, in 2026 we are not going to Europe, and I don’t expect any train travel. The train part might happen, but it isn’t part of the plan. In the spring, we are going to take a trip to even more remote areas again without our RV. The bigger trip is a tease about what we will be doing in the spring. It will be another multi-thousand-mile journey. No, we are not going back to Europe or Alaska.
As always, I am indebted to all the readers and hope to entertain and inspire you to live each day to the fullest. Most importantly, I am so thankful that Tami still loves me, and I am the luckiest man alive.
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About our links
Our blog income is zero, allowing us to be independent and tell the truth. We do not get income or commissions. No, we don’t make paid endorsements. We don’t make recommendations; instead, we will tell you what we like (or dislike). The links are only provided as a quick reference to help our readers.
Links
Mather Campground, Grand Canyon National Park
Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta home page
About our photos
These photos were taken during our 2025 adventure. Our photos are often “enhanced” to represent what we saw in person and to correct lighting and other issues. Sometimes, this editing makes the images look better than they did in person.
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Merry Christmas to my vagabond Fox family.
Wow. Just wow. This is really inspiring, Scott! Glad to see you making the most of your retirement years!
What a great trip. To bad about the elbow. Have a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.
Another year on the road again–sounds like a C & W song….soon a New Year
Sorry to hear about the elbow mishap 😥. You sure did have a fantastic travel adventure in 2025 & thanks for sharing your story with all of us. On a side note: the Balkan countries are not only beautiful but very affordable too. Safe travels.
Love your trips. So glad your arm is getting better.