Five Years on the Road

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Five Years on the Road

It is hard to believe that it has been a little over 5 years since we started full time RVing. To be honest, I am not sure what date to use for this anniversary. We officially moved into the RV on Labor Day, 9/2/19 but I worked remotely for a couple more weeks and didn’t officially retire until 9/20/19. We stayed at the campground for another couple of weeks finalizing work on the RV before we started traveling on 10/8/19. So, am I a month late in celebrating or do I use the October date? Either way, in a way it seems like yesterday and in another way, it feels like we have always lived this way.

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Celebrating National Park Week and Our Trip Eastward

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Celebrating National Park Week and Our Trip Eastward

Usually we aren’t anywhere close to a National Park during National Park week but this year we really hit the bonanza. I got to visit Zion and Bryce the week before and then as we left Utah, we headed back to Arizona to visit two more parks during National Park Week. After a quick overnight stop in Vegas, we headed south and east to Williams, AZ for a 3 night stay.

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A Few More Stops in Arizona, Then Onto Nevada

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A Few More Stops in Arizona, Then Onto Nevada

While in Verde Valley, we considered a visit to the Grand Canyon by taking the train from Williams, AZ. I realized that it would be a very long day to do that from where we were staying, so we discussed leaving a couple days early and staying in Williams for the train ride. I kept watching the weather since it had been cold and snowing at times up in that area. As we approached our last week in Verde Valley, the weather forecast looked great. Sunny and low 60s for Williams for a couple days in a row. We quickly booked a park in Williams for 2 nights.

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From Sea to Shining Sea

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From Sea to Shining Sea

We did it! We have completed a full cross country trip. In the past year, we saw the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico while staying in Florida and now we saw the Pacific Ocean in California. I love that our lifestyle is able to take us to so many beautiful places. When we initially planned our winter travels, we were going to spend the winter in Arizona, with 3 months in Tucson and we didn’t think we would make it to California on this trip.

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Visiting Alamogordo and White Sands National Park, New Mexico Part 4

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Visiting Alamogordo and White Sands National Park, New Mexico Part 4

Since we were touring New Mexico, I had to book where we could visit White Sands National Park. I remember the very first time I came west many years ago, I expected to see a sandy desert. I was very surprised to see how much vegetation there is and never saw the big sand dunes that I expected. Needless to say White Sands was a bucket list spot to see a true sand desert.

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Relics Along Old Rt 66, 2023 Westward Journey part 3

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Relics Along Old Rt 66, 2023 Westward Journey part 3

Our westward journey has taken us near Rt 66 for a good bit of our travels from Missouri, through Oklahoma, Texas and into New Mexico. For the most part, we stayed on the interstate driving the motorhome and ventured along Rt. 66 when we stopped for the night. Much of the old stops along Rt. 66 seem to be gone or if they are there, they are pretty run down. It is a shame to see this historic travel route disappearing.

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Our 2023 Westward Journey, Part 1

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Our 2023 Westward Journey, Part 1

Over the past 1.5 weeks, we traveled from Batesville, IN to Tucumcari, NM. That is pretty fast traveling for us. We normally stay in each stop for a few days to a week with sometimes a one night stop in between our longer stops. Since we got a later start that we originally planned, we decided to move quickly through a few states so we could spend the time we had planned for New Mexico. We ended up with 5 days in a row of travel, with 4 one night stops before we had a 3 night stop.

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Summer Updates and Fall Travels

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Summer Updates and Fall Travels

I can’t believe that I haven’t written a blog post in months and I am sorry for not keeping everyone updated. Life got in the way this past summer with medical issues and work camping taking up all of my time. Thankfully, my arm is finally on the mend although it is going much more slowly than I would like.

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A Little Fun Along the Way

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A Little Fun Along the Way

Since the last blog post was a bit depressing with all of our medical issues, I thought I needed to write one about having fun. Following Tim’s surgery, we headed back to the RV in Gettysburg. We had lost the couple of weeks that we wanted to spend touring the area so we were left with one full day before we had to leave. In the morning, we headed off to check out the battlefield with the national park visitor’s center as our first stop. There was so much to see and do in the visitor’s center that we could have spent the entire day there.

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Chapter Two

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Chapter Two

Well chapter two, the second half whatever you want to call it, Deb and I have finished the 24 states east of the Mississippi and are now about to start the remaining 24; those being west of the Mississippi (I know you knew that).  Yes, only 48 states instead of 50. Our goal when we started was to visit the lower 48 states. We do not plan to drive this rig to Alaska; that is just too far for us.

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Beautiful New Hampshire, From the Sea to the Mountains - New England part 4

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Beautiful New Hampshire, From the Sea to the Mountains - New England part 4

We spent 5 days touring New Hampshire and I wish we had more time there. What a beautiful state! Tim and I both love the mountains and New Hampshire definitely delivered. What surprised me was the sea coast there. It isn’t a long coastline but it was stunning! I didn’t expect to see rocky beaches until Maine so this was a wonderful surprise.

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Visiting the Poconos

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Visiting the Poconos

The last two years, we spent most of the summer in the Pittsburgh, PA area to see our family and friends as well as get in all of our annual doctor’s visits. This year, we planned a 2 1/2 month trip through New England during the summer. As the cost of fuel increased, we debated on changing our plans and staying in Pittsburgh. Our travel plans have been interrupted in past 2 years due to Covid and other obligations so we were torn about changing plans again. Even though it is costing us more for fuel, we decided to go ahead with our trip. We chose this lifestyle to travel and see the USA so we had to keep traveling. The one change we made was to leave the Mustang behind at Tim’s mom’s house. At least we only have to buy fuel for one vehicle.

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Much about Nothing Pt. 2 (thoughts from the cheap seats)

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Much about Nothing Pt. 2 (thoughts from the cheap seats)

Deb on occasion requests that I write a blog. She knows that I choose to stay away from Facebook and Instagripe, but in an effort to keep that lovely smile on her face, I will take another swing at this social media thing. Star Trek had a five year mission to explore strange new worlds. While they only made it three before the show was canceled, they did give you a new episode every week. I will try to remind the Captain of this vessel that we need to get more episodes out there.

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Bicycle woes

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Bicycle woes

One thing that you learn fairly quickly when living and traveling in an RV is that things will definitely go wrong at times. If you have been following the blog, you know that we bought some used bicycles last winter when we were in Florida. Mine was fairly cheap, an older folding bike that actually fits easily in the trunk of my car. For Tim, we bought a recumbent trike and although it was used, it wasn’t cheap. We also paid to have it altered so that both the gear shift and the brake control were on the left side for Tim’s use. Tim spent time making a bike rack to carry it on the back of the fifth wheel using a metal tray that we already had. Initially it seemed like it worked well. Unfortunately, our good luck did not last.

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Visiting Indiana and Experiencing Thousand Trails

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Visiting Indiana and Experiencing Thousand Trails

Tim and I decided to join Thousand Trails in January, 2020 mainly for a discount on a seasonal site for January through March, 2021. The annual camping pass membership cost us $499 plus tax and with it we got a $500 discount on our 2021 seasonal reservation. If you aren’t familiar with Thousand Trails, it is a membership organization for campgrounds where you can camp for specific periods of time with your membership with no additional cost. There are levels of memberships with different purchase prices and rules. It is almost like buying into a time share.

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