For most of my life, I have thought of RVs as a kind of joke, without really knowing why. It was likely because I watched the Robin Williams movie roughly 30 times (don't ask why that's a whole other story.)

The whole trip stemmed out of helping my cousin move. We were going to go to DC anyway, so when she needed to move across the country, we wanted to help out. So, we rented an RV, which was really an interesting process, because fun fact there are people that try to scam you behind the facade of renting their RV.

Ultimately we went with a professional rental company because it was easily understood. It was a really positive experience actually, they answered all of our questions (and we had like 50.)

So the trip was to Memphis to Chattanooga to DC to the Delaware beaches to Dover and then back to Chicago. It was more than we probably should've done, but it was also more than we could've done otherwise.

On the way to Chattanooga, we stopped at this old water mill that powered looms. We never would've found this little place, or met the family who has worked there for the past 100 years or so.

We drove our RV to the Delaware beaches and parked like 50 feet away from the beach. When we drove to Dover, we found this air mobility museum at the Dover Air Force base, which was so cool.

It wasn't all sunshine and roses, even if we found all of these places. Being in such close quarters with the same three people for so long was hard. Especially when we were tired after a long day of walking around DC, or when my mental health isn't top notch.

But honestly, it was really fun. It was such a new experience, and that made it all the more important. And we got my cousin where she needed to go, so that worked out.

Suzanne Quinn