January 23, 2015

As we write this (January 23, 2015), we have now spent 347 nights in our RV, changed our location 44 times, have stayed in 29 different RV Resorts, and towed our rig around 12,000 miles! So far, we have only been traveling around Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. We became official full-timers on July 16, 2014 after we sold our home. We have been asked what is it really like living in an RV full-time. First of all, we must love it as we sold our home after nearly a year of extended stay RVing (we’d stay in some places for a month or two). But most important, we are now about to start on a 10 year plan, hoping to do this at least 10 more years. We’re discovering with this type of commitment, a Class A Motorhome is in our near future for multiple reasons.

We digress, let’s look at our perfect travel day in our world of adventure. We keep a handwritten journal about each stay with enough notes to remind us of the adventure. So just a page from our journal on one of our nearly perfect travel adventures: ]

On May 3, 2014 we woke up about 6 am, excited about our next adventure, to travel from Front Royal, Virginia to Staunton/Walnut Hills KOA, Staunton, Virginia.  We ate our normal breakfast, fresh fruit, grains and protein. Then we packed up and secured the inside of the RV for the trip.  Debbie generally does all the inside work while Bill goes outside and does the harder things such as cleaning out the black and gray tanks!  We’ll spare you all the details, but Debbie has the better end of the deal! But it is all team work, working closely together to make sure every thing is secured.

The weather was perfect so no glitches and within an hour, we are locked and loaded up! We make an easy lunch to carry, simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some chips and water.  We love only traveling 200-250 miles a day, but for this, it was only about 90 miles. But we drove on the Scenic Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah National Park (cost is $10 but the pass is for a week or so. Next time, we will be eligible to pay the same price but the pass will be for a life time. A benefit of being over 62). This is a 35 mile per hour road with fabulous scenery and many winding turns.  What could have been a quick trip, under two hours, we took our time, driving for over four hours. It was simply amazing as you can see in just a few of our pictures:

We originally had planned to stay on Skyline and then onto the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. But we were going to meet friends to camp near Asheville, NC on May 9. We could have taken a week to make the trip whereas we needed to make better time!

Our arrival at our destination was about as good as they get! We were greeted with enthusiastic KOA Staff. They did everything to make us feel welcome and refreshed us by saying we had a prime spot (for no extra charge). This is the beauty of traveling “off season” and during the week! We have a nice big window that rarely has a great view and they made sure we had that view of the lake!

We each have designated jobs, again Debbie setting up inside and Bill outside. Again, as a team, all jobs were done with Debbie preparing dinner. For those who know us, know Bill is really the cook of the family. But he likes to cook once and eat twice, so Debbie only had to make fresh salads and heat up leftovers!

After dinner, we were ready to take a nice long walk around the park. Debbie was so excited about the trip, she stayed inside and downloaded pictures and journaled while Bill visited with our very interesting neighbors.

We always start our day with prayer and at the end of the day, give thanks to our Lord for another safe travel day! We went to bed around 9 pm, ready for a good night sleep so we could hit the mountains for lots of great hiking!