When you think of living in a home on wheels, you naturally assume you will be able to travel the country, see everything that you want and go on a whim. And to some degree, that can be true. However, travelling in a motorhome takes more time than a car and a lot more thought. The good news is wherever you go, all your belongings are with you!
People have asked us when they learned that we were doing this, where we planned to go first. We said north towards Yellowstone and Grand Tetons which we really want to see. Well, we did go north – just not that far.
Once we started our travels, necessity seemed to be dictating our travels more than desire. Our sons went back to school right around the same time as we left Dallas, and both were moving into new places. We headed to Fort Collins for two weeks to move our CSU Sophomore into his first apartment, then spent two weeks near Denver to help the DU Junior. This turned out to be a blessing for many reasons. One, we were still settling into the RV and trying to organize all our belongings. When we found items that just didn’t really fit, the boys got some additional household items. And for items we needed, we had places to ship items from Amazon as well as plenty of stores nearby like Ikea. It was also wonderful to have more than the usual two day move in time with the boys. We were able to be nearby as they started school to take them to dinner or enjoy time with them.
Our niece was getting married in Mississippi in late September so we headed east next. With Barry often gone during the week for work, we only drive long distances on the weekends so getting to the small town where the wedding was held took a couple of weeks. Totally worth it to spend time with family as we don’t get to see the Benton side of family very often.
Barry had some jobs outside of New Orleans so we headed south and stayed in a wonderfully wooded Louisiana state park, where I learned that stink bugs like RVs and was reminded that October in Louisiana is still summer.
When that job wrapped up, we drove up to Atlanta (see last week’s blog on our time there). We had a vacation to Spain and Italy planned (yes, a vacation – life in a RV is a lifestyle, so you still go on vacations) and needed a place to store the RV. The dealer where we bought it agreed to store it while also doing some repair work.
Upon returning from the trip, we made our way to Arkansas for a workshop that Barry had planned (more on that time in next post). Knowing we wanted to be home for Thanksgiving, this positioned us well for our trip back to Texas. Plus it was fall and the color in the Ozarks was beautiful!
So this first three months has been more about where we have obligations, rather than pure exploration. Not that it has stopped us from having fun. It has been nice to explore and live in multiple areas, watch the seasons change, and get to know our rig better. Honestly, it worked out to be a great way to start!
For 2019, we are planning though to set a course based on where some things we want to see. January will be spent in Breckenridge to enjoy skiing (and see the boys). Then we will head east again, but go all the way to the coast. Our goal is to follow up the east coast and make it to New England for fall.
So to all our friends on the East Coast, we are headed your way! Let us know if you have space for a 37 foot motorhome or at least time on your calendar for dinner.
