Every good road trip needs a good soundtrack. Not to mention when you’re deep in the woods and cut off from WiFi and cell — you can always get a radio signal (or pull up a downloaded playlist).
Some RV Life people stay in one spot for awhile, and others (like us) use it as an opportunity to wake up in a new city each week. In our 10 and a half month trip, we put 18,000 miles on our Jeep Gladiator — and we estimate a good 14,000 of those miles were pulling our R-Pod 192. So, we were in transit… A lot. And that means we listened to music while driving… A lot.
We found ourselves making playlists galore, discovering news songs (be it from friends we met, random radio stations across the country, or searching Spotify). We narrowed it down to the top five songs that make you want to sell your sticks and bricks house, buy a van or RV, and hit the road.
1. My House – Kacee Musgraves
I’ll be real with y’all – I can’t get through this song without a tear. “Any KOA is A-OK as long as I’m with you” is something my husband and I would say to one another, a lot. A life on road it’s instagram perfect. There are ups, downs, bumps (figuratively and literally) and can be really isolating. But no matter what challenge we faced — or what seedy campground or parking lot we ended up in — it didn’t matter because we were together.
2. See the World – Caamp
We listened to a whole lot of Caamp on the road, or while sipping a whiskey around the campfire. Every song by Caamp is good, and I mean, even the band’s name just makes sense for camping, right? (Fun fact, it’s an ackronym for Consuming abnormal amounts of Makers and PBR.) But this song just hit home. Something about packing our bags, leaving tonight, and just going off to see the world — or at least the U.S. of A.
3. Only the Wild Ones – Dispatch
I can listen to this song on repeat over and over. The line… “Stars are up now, no place to go… but everywhere” drives me to, well, want to go everywhere. There’s something about being labeled “a wild one” at so many different times in my life (probably because I always went against tradition, moved around a lot, and always felt called to the nomatic life) that pulls me to this song. And Dispatch is another one of those bands that we listen to, a lot.
4. I am California – John Craigie
My husband is a Cali kid. He grew up in the Bay area, then Lake Arrowhead, then spent time in LA, San Diego, went to school at Chico State — and while we live across the country now and sometimes in a trailer, much of his heart is in California. This song instantly soothes him — so if we hit traffic, or have a tiff, I can play this and all is well. And truthfully, there’s something about traveling down the coast of California that changes you, and you’ll always kind of want part of that back.
5. Adventurers – Holly Maher
Tear alert: This is my husband and my wedding song, our first dance. I remember the first time I heard it, I just knew it was our song. It’s just a sweet, uplifting song and helps us remember that there is so much live to be lived, and so many sights to be seen. And being an adventurer is a pretty damn cool person to be.
Our #RVLife Soundtrack Playlist
We have a Sirius XM and a Spotify subscription — and we utilized both of those subscriptions to their max potential. I think I created 50+ different playlists while Chad was driving — all with different moods, feels, energy, etc.
But one playlist we started to really dig was our “RVLife Soundtrack.” If a song felt like it hit home, like it described our situation as we were feeling it in the moment, or we just liked singing along — it went on the list. The list grew as we journeyed across the country, but somewhere in Montana, we noticed we started listening to this soundtrack almost daily (especially while laying in bed, or around the campfire).
A few things to know to set this list up for you… We left our home in June 2020, two weeks after I was let go from my job (which was a good thing!) and Chad was on extended time off from his airline job (meaning, he was a paid employee who did not have to go to work for a year – amazing, right?). Also, this is when the COVID-19 Pandemic started to get really really bad. So, our life was changing in so many ways, and we just kind of packed up the trailer and left. We didn’t really have a plan – we just closed our eyes and jumped.
So, this soundtrack definitely reflects feelings of love, freedom, the unknown, questioning the American Dream and everything we think we know, and, of course, traveling.
I hope you enjoy our favorite play list, and that it inspires you to do something out of the ordinary — whatever that means for you.
We’d love to hear some of your favorite road trip, RV life, or camping songs. Feel free to leave your faves in the comments.
