Exploring Tomorrows Blog
We just finished our second month of this summer’s visit to Pittsburgh, our hometown. It is great to be home and spend time with our family and friends. We are keeping very busy this summer and have been able to catch up with many more people than we did last year. I thought I would share a few of the activities we have been up too.
Read MoreThis guy surprised me this morning when I headed out with the dog. He was just hanging out on our front door and was still there after our morning walk. Believe it or not, this has been our most exciting happening since being back in the Pittsburgh area. Perhaps a bit boring, but we are enjoying being back home.
Read MoreWhen we joined Thousand Trails, included was a 2 year membership to RPI (Resort Parks International). We can stay at their parks for $10 a night. I found one not too far off of our route so booked it for 5 nights. Well that didn’t work out so well for us. Our drive was mostly interstate except the last 40 minutes or so. It was the longest 40 minutes along country roads covered with low hanging trees. I drove in front to guide Tim and block the road as needed for him to drive in the center or even the wrong side of the road to avoid hitting the trees. Low hanging tree branches can seriously damage the rubber roof on our fifth wheel. Then we pull into a campground filled with trees. If you have a smaller camper or even one that doesn’t sit too high, this campground could work for you. For us it would have been a challenge.
Read MoreMaking waves: not us, but you should see the huge freighters coming down the river. They create a wake that resembles waves rolling into the shore at a beach. The water here makes us feel like we are in the Caribbean. I never expected to see such crystal clear vibrant blue water on an inand lake and river. Lake Huron and St. Clair River are absolutely beautiful and are a great place to visit.
Read MoreFrom reading other RVers travel blogs, I knew that Michigan was a pretty state but I had no idea how beautiful until we visited. I am so glad that we decided to spend a month touring through this state. Since we are eventually heading back to Pennsylvania, we decided that we didn’t have time to visit the Upper Peninsula so we will have to come back at some point to see that area. For this trip, we planned a week in Empire, MI near Sleeping Bear Dunes and then 3 weeks in St. Clair, MI at a Thousand Trails park. With those two stops, we are able to visit both Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.
Read MoreWhile our RV was at Amish Family RV Service, we had to find a place to stay for a few days. I did some research and discovered that far west corner of Indiana is on Lake Michigan and there is a National Park there. Since we want to eventually visit all of the National Parks, we couldn’t pass up this opportunity. I found a small inn, Bridge Inn, in Michigan City that sits on an inlet from the lake and was really close to Indiana Dunes National Park. Seemed like the perfect place to spend a few days.
Read MoreWe arrived in Shipshewana, IN on Tuesday afternoon. We planned to stop here for a week prior to taking our RV to Amish Family RV Service for repairs and maintenance work. I am on a Cedar Creek Facebook group and heard so many great things about Orvan and the work he and his team do. Many people buy brand new Cedar Creek Fifth Wheels and take them immediately to Orvan for service. He has developed “extra’s” that he does to improve and stabilize the slide outs and the suspension. Every comment and review I saw were extremely positive so we planned to come this way to get some of the work done.
Read MoreExciting News - we adopted a dog! Our niece, Jenny, is involved with the Leader Dog program helping to raise and train puppies for the program. If the dog doesn’t make it to become a leader dog for the blind, she gets an opportunity to adopt. If she doesn’t want to keep the dog, a family member or friend can apply to adopt. She knew that we were interested so asked us if we wanted to adopt her latest dog, Trent, if he didn’t pass the program. Having a dog would be a big change for us and could impact our travels, so we thought seriously about it. Our last dog, Chance, came from the same program and he was such a wonderful dog. It was so hard when we lost him that we weren’t sure if we wanted to get another dog. Even though it was a difficult decision, we focused on the joy and happiness a dog can bring and decided to adopt Trent if he didn’t succeed.
Read MoreTim and I left Florida a few days earlier than planned on Saturday, April 17. The weather forecast was showing stormy weather heading our way and all day rain with more wind than we wanted to drive through. Even though it would be rainy in Alabama where we were heading, the weather maps indicated less rain and winds a little north of Florida. It started to rain just a little after we got into Alabama but not enough to impact our driving. The first day was a little longer for us but overall an easy travel day.
Read MoreWinter is over so it is time to start migrating north for cooler temperatures as spring and summer heat up. It was definitely getting too warm and humid for us the last couple of weeks and we were ready to head north for spring. We ended up staying a few extra weeks at Three Flags to get our second COVID vaccine. We were excited to get our second shots this past Monday and we both did pretty well after the shots. I had a few mild symptoms for just a day but Tim just had a sore arm. Definitely worth it. In two weeks, we should have immunity and will feel much more comfortable being out and about. I am looking forward to touring more in our upcoming travels.
Read MoreSome people approach the RV lifestyle without making plans and just going with the flow, letting the road take them wherever it leads. There are risks with not planning in advance, especially finding places to stay. For us, that would be too stressful and nerve wracking. I like having a plan and knowing we have RV sites scheduled in areas that we want to visit and Tim wants to know he has a definite place to stop after 3-4 hours of driving. So instead of last minute planning, I tend to plan about six months in advance so most of our nights are booked. I leave a few nights open for travel days for a little flexibility on those days.
Read MoreDeb 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.
Read MoreFor the past month, I have been struggling to find a blog topic. I felt like I didn’t have much to write about. For the most part, we are just hanging out here in Florida, enjoying the weather and not doing much of anything. It is a rainy day today, so I thought it was a good time to go through my pictures to find a topic. I realized that I have quite a few pictures and stories that I haven’t yet shared. Since we spend most of our time at the campground, I will start there.
Read MoreOne 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.
Read MoreOn the news the other day, they mentioned that so far this has been the coldest winter in over 10 years in Florida. I guess that is why many here are complaining. To me, the weather in December and January has been perfect. It feels like Fall which is my favorite season. The evenings are cool and we have had a few cold nights where the temperature got down to 32 degrees. Even with those cold nights, for the most part, the days have been sunny and warmed up to the high 60’s or low 70’s. Even with a few cooler, rainy days, we can’t complain. We don’t have to shovel snow or deal with driving in snow or ice, so I am happy!
Read MoreIt is amazing how fast the Christmas Season is upon us again! It is very true, “The older you get, the faster time flies”. Seems odd to say after the past year when our lives seem to stand still in this age of covid. Living in a smaller world, well our world for sure. We have been keeping our distance, wearing masks and doing what we should during these challenging times. We set out to explore our great country and instead got to know each other a little better.
Read MoreWe are back in Florida for the winter and again staying in one place for almost 5 months. One thing that we learned in our first year of full time living is to compromise. I love traveling and visiting new places continuously but Tim prefers longer stays in one place. So traveling part of the year and staying put part of the year is the best of both worlds. This year we decided to try a different place for the winter. We are in Wildwood, FL at Three Flags RV Park which is a Thousand Trails campground.
Read MoreWe didn’t do much touring in our last two weeks at Nature’s Resort in Homosassa. As November arrived, so did cloudy weather with afternoon rain showers so we hung out at the RV park most of the time. Luckily the showers did not last too long but not knowing when and where it would rain discouraged us from going out for hikes. Watching the election results come in filled some of our time, but I could only watch so much of that so we had to find something else to do.
Read MoreAfter leaving Montgomery, we decided to try another Harvest Host location for a night on our drive to our next location. I chose the Tallahassee Automobile Museum for our overnight stop since it was along the route and pretty much right off of I-10. It was definitely a good choice. They directed us to a large grassy area lined with trees in front of the museum to park for the night. It was easy to find a level spot which made it easy to park and put out our slides. The only drawback was that it was a very warm day and even though we were under trees, it was pretty hot. Definitely a drawback when we didn’t have enough power to run the air conditioner.
Read MoreOur route south this year brought us back through Montgomery, AL so we decided to spend two weeks in the area this time. Montgomery was one of my favorite stops last year because of its historical significance, especially for the Civil Rights Movement in 1965. Both Tim and I are history buffs so we like touring historical sites and museums. Since we are avoiding indoor activities this year, I knew we would not want to visit the museums again but felt we could still find enough to do outside.
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