It was almost like coming back to the scene of a crime as we recently rolled our motorhome back to where it all began… College Station, Texas. About five years ago we were living in this town wondering what the future held for us. We were set to retire in March of 2011 and both really craved a new chapter of life. We came up with the RVing plan but we still hadn’t bought an RV until about two weeks before leaving!. What the hell were we thinking? Yet four years and a month ago that on March 3rd of 2011 we had our motorhome, cleaned and packed up with our remaining possessions we hadn’t either sold or given away. On that sunny morning we pulled out from in front our home of over 17 years and headed off for the unknown…
Here we are today back to where it all began. We have done a lot over the past four years and have seen most of the United States by now but we still haven’t seen much of our country in detail so we still have some driving to do. Looking at the map of our travels it is noticable that there is a big void in the middle of the USA. It appears as if we are avoiding that part of our country and well, actually that might be partially true. In our working life we had traveled most of those states before we started RV’ing and so we haven’t gone back to revisit as we were drawn to go places we had never been..
Interestingly after a little over four years of traveling our motorhome has logged just under 33,000 miles and our Honda CRV has logged around 60,000 miles. So between the two vehicles we are traveling around 22,500 miles per year. That’s a lot of miles!!! I figure we put more miles than that on our previously owned cars (her Toyota Camry and my Ford Ranger) but we are sure enjoying putting on the miles this way that the way rather than how we used to put them on by mostly going back and forth to work!
It really is nice to be back in College Station, Texas, our former home. After four years we are still excited to come back to our old stomping grounds to revisit friends, some of our favorite places and restaurants. The question that arises is – Is this still our home? I have to admit that I no longer feel as if this is my home but it will always be a place I like to return to for an extended visit especially this time of year. Spring is the best season to visit most of Texas and despite an occasional severe thunderstorm rolling through we plan to enjoy ourselves while here for a month....unless the urge to get back on the road hits us sooner...
Hope you guys have good weather! I know what you mean about not feeling quite the "this is home" feeling any more...I feel that way about my hometown in IN, but I still miss friends back there and the four seasons. :-) Cool map of your travels! We also avoided visiting the plains states...we never thought of that area as having much to see or experience. Bet we were wrong! :-)
ReplyDeleteP.S. South Dakota is incredibly beautiful.... :-) And Montana, and North Dakota...etc. etc.
ReplyDeleteWe like what we're doing too and still hope to be doing just this for a few more years.
ReplyDeleteWe're in Brenham tonight. Might make it up to College Station tomorrow for part of the day. Depends on how long we spend exploring Washington-on-the-Brazos and Brenham. We plan to have lunch at the 50s diner at the Brenham Airport. Tried to go to the diner for lunch today but a car club was there and we would have had to wait 1-1/2 hours for a table!! We were too hungry for that.
ReplyDeletedrop by our spot for a visit at Holiday RV site 85 if our CRV is parked out front...
DeleteThe best thing you could do would be to cross over into Louisiana and then start going north, alternating between both sides of the Mississippi. We did this last year, and among my favorite memories are: ghost walk in Shreveport, Hot Springs AK, Lake of the Ozarks, the Truman Library, Oklahoma Joe's in KC Kansas, amazing thunderstorms in Pender NE, fireworks and the falls themselves in Sioux Falls, Byerly's supermarkets in Minneapolis, and the National Eagle Center in MN. We gave ourselves credit for KS, Iowa, and ND but didn't really deserve it.
ReplyDeleteWe remember that day you left College Station, just missed you, we were in Willis TX.
ReplyDeleteLike you we have to hang out near our former home village home mostly for all the family still here, and still feels like home.
Enjoy your time there. Even with all our travelling we too, spend much less money on fuel than when we both drove to work everyday
You two are missing some beautiful country by not hitting those middle states. Maybe in the future. Enjoy your time in College Station. We really enjoyed our visit there a few years back.
ReplyDeleteAs we have visited friends and relatives this Spring, hitch itch has been growing strong. I am looking forward to feeling the wheels rolling into the unknown again real soon!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing how fast time goes! We are coming up on the completion of our fifth year. Boy, did those five years go fast! Enjoy your time in familiar territory:)
ReplyDeleteOK, John. I'll bite. What do the yellow rectangles with numbers represent? Have a fab stay in CS. As time goes on, it will feel less and less like home. Even jusy one year later, Novi is not the same. Any idea where you'll be May 7-11?
ReplyDeleteThose were mostly places we stayed at but on occasion are points where we rerouted. The end result is a pretty close approximation of our route in the RV to date. Of course it doesn't show any of the path we took in our CRV...
DeleteThat is quite an accomplishment! Congrats on a memorable trip. We had considered an RV last year when I made the decision to retire one year earlier than planned. In the end we decided to re-invest in a house and travel out of the country for the first five years. Your descriptions make me wish for the road!! I will be interested to hear what your next adventure will be!
ReplyDeleteThank you for publishing your adventures. We do enjoy reading them.
ReplyDeleteRoy and Belinda