A New Year and Why Some People Give Up the RV Lifestyle…

Another year has gone by the wayside and they sure seem to be getting shorter… As we let 2018 fade into the past we look forward to having a better year in 2019. Last year wasn’t our best year financially as we had a rash of RV repairs and we aren’t done yet. I still need to replace the front shocks and one tire on the RV. Hopefully I can get it all done before we leave Bonita Springs, Florida.

The year 2018 wasn’t all bad though as we stayed in a lot of new places we thoroughly enjoyed and spent several months with our daughter leading up to her beautiful wedding. However we often wonder if we had encountered the large expenses of replacing our turbo and exhaust manifold early on in our travels whether we would have given up on traveling. It is fairly common for folks that want to RV and tour the USA to become disenchanted their first year on the road if they were unfortunate enough to encounter high repair costs during their very first year’s travels. Often times these same folks toss back their RV keys, sell it all and move back into a sticks and bricks.

Upon reading these accounts I always felt as if these people might not be giving the RV lifestyle a long enough chance but after encountering a year such as theirs I can now fully appreciate why some choose to give up the lifestyle. This lifestyle isn’t all a vacation every day as life on the road has its unique ways of reminding you that it isn’t going to be all fun and games.

In addition we know we are fortunate in that we haven’t encountered any major health issues during our nearly eight years on the road as that is another reason folks must give up the RV lifestyle as well. While we do have our own health concerns we aren’t tied to having to stay in one spot because of them nor do we have any debilitating issues which make performing the day to day tasks of RV’ing limited.

We have also noticed that other RV’ers leave the lifestyle due to family member’s health declining (usually parents as they are aging). We don’t have to worry about parents aging as both of our parents are deceased. Only my mother was still alive when we started on the road and I was fortunate in that my sister was with Mom to watch over her before and after she entered a care facility in Texas.

While we may have taken a financial hit in 2018 we are very thankful we still have our health and our children are healthy as well so there is nothing stopping us (but ourselves) from continuing to travel around the USA in Abbey, our RV. In that spirit we celebrated the new year with our traditional good luck meal (black eyed peas and tamales) in the hope it will ensure the upcoming year will be a happy one. Here is hoping that all our readers also have a healthy and rewarding 2019 while traveling and may there be no issues limiting your planned activities. Our 2019 plans will take us out west  and we also look forward to seeing you all on our Road of Retirement.

NOTE: We are now at our winter site for the season in Bonita Springs, Florida…

Christmas on the Road…

As we neared our eighth Christmas on the road it had me thinking about how Christmas has changed for us. No longer is it a holiday that we long for and very much look forward to. We use to deck the house in Texas with lights and decorations. The Christmas tree would be ceremoniously erected and adorned with all the ornaments we had gathered over the years.Multiple presents were wrapped and placed under the tree in the days leading up to the big day. It is quite different now…

Yes we still put up lights and yes we have a little “tree” we adorn with memories but we now only buy gifts for the grandchildren as I believe Christmas is more for children than the adults. Obviously not everyone feels the same as I, but it works for us. However one thing we look forward to on Christmas is the annual visit by our daughter Katie. She has visited every year on Christmas making the holiday a little more special to us that I think it would otherwise be.

This year she brought Brooks (her new husband) with her for his first visit to southern Florida. Brooks spent his first Christmas away from his family to spend time with us. His family is the polar opposite of us as they go all out for Christmas. Gift giving is a big event and celebrated by all. I wondered how Brooks would handle how much less celebrated Christmas is in our new lifestyle.

Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with most of the plans we had for Katie and Brooks visit. The first thing we did was change the day we were going to have Christmas Dinner. While we may not celebrate Christmas like we used to, we have not changed in the way we like to have a big Christmas Dinner, So instead of December 25th we opted to have Christmas Dinner the day after they arrived five days before Christmas because of rainy and chilly weather.

With the weather being crappy it was a perfect day to spend indoors preparing the feast. An added benefit was that Katie and Brooks would be here to help us feast on all the leftovers which such a huge meal creates. A friend loaned us a turkey roaster so we could cook a 16 pound turkey (the smallest I could find). We made all the appropriate side dishes such as our southern cornbread dressing, deviled eggs, candied yams, green bean casserole and of course mashed potatoes with giblet gravy.

We had a grand meal and by having it on a different day we were free to spend the day at the beach on Christmas Day when the weather much, much nicer. Besides spending the day on the beach we filled Katie and Brook’s time attending parties, playing cornhole, shuffleboard and billiards.  Brooks met all our friends and they all decided he passed the test and is indeed a good match for Katie. He was such a good sport during their stay and we so appreciated having them visit.

The week sped by and we took them to the airport on the 26th. We notched yet another Christmas on our Road of Retirement and are looking forward to celebrating the New Year with our friends in IBE…

NOTE: We are now at our winter site for the season in Bonita Springs, Florida…

Merry Christmas to All From Sunny Florida…

Wow another Christmas Day is upon us and boy do we have so much to be thankful for this year. We have been on the road nearly 7 years now and our finances have held up enough that we haven't had to supplement our income and for that we are very thankful. Better yet are heath continues to be good allowing us (unlike so many) to continue are journeys into the foreseeable future. When will we stop… we certainly don’t know yet ourselves.

Our RV continues to impress us by not having any major issues (knock on wood) and the issues we have been having are primarily due to wear and tear. We are in the slow process of “pimping our ride” as we were able to replace some of our flooring (all our tile) this year and have plans to find and replace the remaining carpeted are soon.

Also in the coming year we plan to replace many of our day/night shades to something more modern. Ours have continued to fail and I have replaced the strings on multiple occasions but some of the hardware is beginning to fail on some of them and really we can’t seem to ever get them  to look clean again so it is time for them to go. There are several options we are looking at and none of them are very inexpensive. Also, most of them require some type of modification of our existing valances so we have much research to do before we replace them.

We are thankful we had no major mishaps on our travels this past year and hope to continue that fortune well into the foreseeable future. We traveled through 20 states this year covering many miles all fraught with immediate peril to which we did not succumb. What a fantastic year of travels.

And while we won’t be spending Christmas with family this year as we have in years past we are thankful that we got to spend some extended time with each of our children in North Carolina and Texas, as well as our grandchildren in Texas. We know that if we weren’t traveling we would have surely not been able to spend as much time last year with them as we did. It is our travels that allow us that opportunity and it also allows us the opportunity to reconnect with many of our friends (new and old). It is our friends and family along with our travels that enrich our lives so very, very much.

And since we have had a good year we decided to reward ourselves with a vacation from our nearly seven year vacation as we have booked a cruise on the Holland American Eurodam that sails the Caribbean on January 7th 2018 for seven nights. We have not been on a cruise in a long time and look forward to relaxing those seven days. This was one heck of deal at $399 per person plus port fees and taxes. It also included pre-paid gratuities and on-board credit. And although this is a large expense for us we have taken the plunge and look forward to enjoying our time at sea…

NOTE: We are now in our winter home for the next several months in Bonita Springs Florida at Imperial Bonita Estates RV park and Coop.

Our Veteran’s Day Activities in Melbourne Florida…

Our next stop in Melbourne, Florida was only about 40 miles away so we waited until 11 in the morning to depart so we wouldn’t arrive too early and find someone in our site who hadn’t left yet. We pulled into Wickham Park about noon and came in following our GPS which turned out to be a back way causing us not to see the main office.

We found our site and thankfully it was empty so we pulled in and set up. Sites at Wickham are large and as a result they allow campers to situate within the site in any way they want Therefore we decided to set up with our nose in allowing us a better window view and better patio setup. We will be here for four nights. After setting up we drove over to the office to check in.

Our only issue on the way over to Wickham was my taped hose patch must have shifted a bit more so it started whistling at a higher pitch as we drove under load. This was not going to work for us so the first thing on my list was to redo the patch. It sure was easier this time around as I knew how to contort my arms inside the dog house to wrap the new patch. Hopefully this will get us to Bonita Springs without any further annoyance. I plan to replace the hose while we are there.

With Veteran’s Day approaching and blustery, rainy weather forecasted we decided to take advantage of all the free offerings to Veterans over the weekend. Our first stop was for a late lunch/early dinner at B.J.’s Brewhouse where they offered a free entrée to any Vet. This combined with their happy hour on beer made for a fun and very inexpensive visit.Their hamburgers were great along with their nice craft beer.

The next day between intermittent showers we visited the Native American festival being held in our park. There was a lot of flute music, Indian dancing and drumbeats filling the air in our park for this three day weekend. Showers chased us away so we headed to lunch at Red Robin (a place we have never been to before). They were also offering a free hamburger and fries to any Vet. We always thought this was a fast food place but it wasn’t and their burger was also pretty darn good although not as tasty as B.J.’s. Sharon liked that she could protein swap grilled chicken in her sandwich and could also substitute endless broccoli instead of endless fries.

That evening we took advantage of World of Beer’s offer of a free beer to Vets and stayed a while to watch some football on TV. We met a nice couple there and had a great happy hour before moving over to Tijuana Flats another place we have never been before but wanted to try out. Their offer to Vets was any entrée so I tried their steak burrito. It was just okay as both Chipotle and Freebirds (from back in Texas) are both in my opinion much better. They do have a great salsa bar with some very hot sauces that I did like though.

We have one day left and it will be sunny so we are planning for some outdoor activity much needed after our gluttonous weekend! I also plan to do an oil change on the CRV as well as a few other chores around the place..Then it's off to Vero Beach for a fun visit with Sharon's cousin John and his wife Penny!

NOTE: We left Wickham Park in Melbourne Florida yesterday and move south to Vero Beach for two nights to visit Sharon’s cousin and his wife…

July 4th at White Lake North Carolina…

People who have RV'd fulltime for a few years know it is very important to secure a camping site for the major summer holidays. None is bigger than the July 4th holiday especially when it falls midweek like this year!. We solved that challenge by reserving a week at a campground no where near water.That being said we still make it a point to celebrate the July 4th holiday.

This year we drove up to Raleigh to stay a few nights before the fourth with our daughter Katie and her boyfriend Brooks. Katie had taken some time off and the two of them were moving into their new townhouse. Sharon and I went up to help them move in working alongside Caroline and Rick, Brooks' parents. A day later their new place looked like home with most of the boxes unpacked and discarded.

One afternoon Katie, Sharon and I headed out to play some disc golf. Katie enjoys disc golf as much as we do and always looks forward to playing a round. And of course Sharon is always happy to spend time with her baby girl. After disc golf we went over to a local brewery to enjoy a nice craft beer.

As the July 4th holiday approached Brooks' grandparents invited us all to their family getaway lake house at White Lake. Boy what a treat this turned out to be and what a beautiful place the two of them own at White Lake. Brooks' grandfather actually built the house with his Dad more than 40 years ago. Every view from the house, the porch and the pier was stunning. We spent as much time as we could outdoors soaking in these wonderful views. It  was almost like Sharon and I were taking a mini-vacation!

We were also able to meet a lot of Brook’s extended family as there was a full house at the lake. Lots of fun and activities filled our days. We played water volleyball, cornhole, ladderball,  sat and talked on the dock, cooked group dinners, played nighttime board games and took a leisurely boat ride around the lake. We really enjoyed our stay at the very scenic White Lake lake house of the Hester’s and were very grateful for our invite over the busy 4th of July holiday. What a fun, welcoming group and what a fun “mini-vacay” for the two of us!

We hope your holiday was as special as ours was on this Road of Retirement…

Merry Christmas to One and to All!!!

It’s Christmas time once again and time to reflect upon the great year we have had. We started out the new year in Florida and will end it here in Arizona and what fun we have had in between. I will save the details about our story for the year end review of our travels. Until then we simply wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and of course a wonderful Happy New Year! May all your future travels be safe and joyful in the upcoming year…

Reminiscing About Veteran’s Day on the USS Midway in San Diego…

Another year has passed and here we are in San Diego on Veteran’s Day. We have really never done anything special on this holiday before but Veteran’s Day 2016 was going to be different. I was reading about happenings in San Diego and came across a news story about the Midway Aircraft Carrier. It was first commissioned in 1945 and sailed the seas for 46 years before being decommissioned in 1992 after Desert Storm.

On Veteran’s Day, Veterans and their families were invited to tour the Midway free! Having not toured this ship before we decided we should check it out. As I have mentioned before we aren’t museum buffs but this was to be a bit different being on an actual ship. Besides it is always pleasant walking along the San Diego Harbor.

We found some free street parking about a 1/4 mile from the Midway and set out for the short stroll along the waterfront to it. Along the way the a Princess Cruise Ship was docked and readying to take hoards of people across the sea on a fun filled vacation. We often took cruises before retiring and smiled as we thought about the working stiffs boarding the ship for a week or more of forgetting about work and relaxing in ways one can only do on a cruise liner.

We found the line at the USS Midway for veterans and walked up the stairs to the top . It is quite an impressive ship and even with the moderate crowds onboard we never felt crowded due to its massive size. At 958 feet in length this ship would have over 4,000 crew members aboard so I guess it would take quite a crowd to make it feel crowded.

There were lots of planes on display and history unfolded before our eyes. This had me reflecting about Veteran’s Day… What started as Armistice Day commemorating the end of World War I evolved into Veteran’s Day, a day we honor those who serve and have served militarily for our country. Not all Veterans have been held in as high regard as those today…

During the Vietnam Era those individuals who volunteered and those who were drafted to fight in the very unpopular war were frowned upon and often treated with contempt. Today it isn’t uncommon for people to see a person in uniform and shout “Thanks for your service!”  It sure wasn’t always like that. I served in the Air Force during the Vietnam Era and although I never  served in Vietnam the mere fact that I was in the military made me feel like a very unpopular person in that day and age.

That longest and most unpopular war in which Americans ever fought was rife with people protesting in the USA. Young men and women returning from Vietnam were vilified One person wrote: “Sadly, those who served in Vietnam were portrayed as baby killers, psychos, drug addicts and warmongers for many years after.“ Most people during that time opposed the Vietnam war and as a result the returning Veterans were simply scapegoats. I  recall when I was in the Air Force how we tried hard to blend in when we weren’t in uniform so no one would think we were in the military.

Today, however, those same people are honored as they should have been long ago and today we celebrate all Veterans.. even those that fought in wars we thought should never had been started in the first place. It made me happy when I was walking on the flight deck of the Midway and seeing many of the Vietnam Veterans now proudly donning hats displaying they were Vietnam Vets. No more hiding… no more shame… replaced by a sense of pride as they too are being honored for their service performed in the most unpopular war we have had to date.

The celebration continued as BJ’s  Restaurant and Brewery in San Diego honored Vets with Happy Hour Beer Specials and a free meal ($12.75 or less).  Thank you BJ’s for rounding out our most enjoyable Veteran’s  Day ever!

NOTE: We will be here at Mission Bay RV Park until December 4th.