Author: tinakschmidt

Now I Understand The Magical Redemption of Baseball

Baseball is a lot more than a sport – and now I understand that more fully.

For a couple of weeks in February 2021, my DH and I are exploring Sarasota, Florida and attending five Orioles Spring Training baseball games.  It is a leg on our FT RVing journey, long ago planned.  We also had plans for a return visit to Orioles Dream Week as well, but Covid cancelled the program this year, much like a lot of the world’s big plans.  

Spring Training 2021 at Ed Smith Stadium was a walk down memory lane to Orioles Dream Week 2017

Orioles Dream Week is a weeklong program whereby Orioles fans become players for a week, immersed in professional baseball facilities, alongside former MLB players, and two baseball games a day, as players in the game they love.

Andrew has enough baseball knowledge in his head to fill an encyclopedia.  He KNOWS the game, its history and it is a part of his soul!  I, on the other hand, know just about nothing about ALL sports!  Instead, I enjoy the human side of sports – I love the stories, the traditions and the atmosphere.  So a few visits to Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota this month have been a series of terrific date nights for us, that is also a “coming home” of sorts, where we get to reflect and remember our first trip to the area in 2017.  Below is a little story I wrote about our experiences at Orioles Dream Week, that are still so darn true for our life!  Enjoy.

The activities for Orioles Dream Week were held at the Orioles Minor League facilities at Buck O’Neil Complex at Twin Lakes Park and their Major League facilities at Ed Smith Stadium.

Baseball is more than a sport.  I finally understand that.  It transcends from sport and moves into being something about life.  But in 50 years, I never understood that until now.

As newlyweds, my husband, Andrew, and I went to an Orioles game last summer celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1966 World Series-winning team, there were a dozen aging former professional players that visited the park and were introduced to the fans.  The announcer rattled off each player’s most important baseball statistics and achievements in their career.  And before their names were ever spoken, just hearing the introductions, my baseball-almanac-sweetheart named the player and proudly told me how that player impacted his life by sharing some special memory of the era.  “I played baseball with Billy Hunter at his camp when I was a kid”, he said.  Or “Wow, my dad and I watched him play”, or “That guy helped teach me how to hit a ball”.  

The history of baseball lives inside Andrew’s head and heart, and is on display everywhere at the beautiful Ed Smith Stadium.

All these decades later, Andrew’s youth was reflected back to me in the memories of his direct and indirect baseball experiences with the Baltimore Orioles.  So I had a feeling that his participation in Orioles Dream Week would be important to him, but I didn’t fully understand how or why exactly, until we went there.    Despite knowing Andrew since childhood, dating and loving him in high school, despite our lives each taking left turns when we parted ways at my graduation, and despite reconnecting 30 years later and finally marrying, it wasn’t until Orioles Dream Week that it finally all made sense to me.  It took me 50 years and a trip to Sarasota, Florida to understand it.  That is the magic that baseball can have on a person.

Orioles Dream Week, for us, connected some missing links in our lives…the connection between baseball and love; between choices and life.  It certainly doesn’t take on this meaning for all players and fans, perhaps not even for a lot of them, but for us, Orioles Dream Week helped us better understand the mistakes we made and the regrets we have because of them.  We must all accept the results of our actions, but Orioles Dream Week helped us face them – and conquer them.

At our hotel on the beach in Sarasota during Dream Week (which was not as nice as it could have been, as we learned first hand what it was like to experience Red Tide durig our stay.

Dream Week began on a flight with a large group of fellow passengers, all conspicuously dressed in orange fan shirts, O’s baseball caps and smiles that made you forget it was 6:00 am on a Sunday.  With whispers that Tippy Martinez was on board with us, and chatter with new-found friends, we arrived at the Buck O’Neil Baseball Complex at Twin Lakes Park, the minor league spring training fields of the Baltimore Orioles.  The players, ages 30 – 84, were immediately led to the locker room to suit up and get ready for warm-ups and drills, while family members traveling along (aka fans) were shown their way to the cafeteria, a place that would be our home base for the next week.  

The cafeteria was our “home base” all week, enjoying breakfast and lunch each day, the hilarious morning meeting, and was a cool and quiet place to relax during a break from the games. Here, the MLB players line up in front before a raucus crowd of baseball lovers.

That moment when my husband walked out of the locker room on that first day of camp was a tremendous rush of emotion.  He was wearing the uniform that he always wanted to wear – the Orioles, and his name and “our number” were emblazoned on the back.  That proud boyish smile in my wonderful 49 year old husband’s face was what I had hoped for and dreaded for all these many months of preparation.  It was the first of countless moments he and I would experience in the next week while in Sarasota, Florida.  

The moment when he stepped out of the locker in his official Orioles uniform was priceless and wonderful. The smaile says it all.

Orioles Dream Week was absolutely magical for him, for me, and I believe for the other players and coaches on his team.  He and I would get a taste of what baseball might have been for us, had we communicated better and tried a little harder to hold onto our passions; had we stuck with baseball and each other. 

All week I would cheer him on in a series of games while he was managed and coached by former major league players that had successfully taken baseball to the next level.  It was a thrill to watch him play again and see the joy it brought everyone on the field and in the stands.  Through challenges and successes on the field, Andy would be able to test his mettle and learn just how much of what he had was the natural talent that God gave him, how much of it was practice and hard work, and how much of it still remained after decades of baseball as only a spectator.  We would also forge new relationships with other baseball fans, each with their own unique story that brought them to Orioles Dream Week.

There was the player that fought back from both a heart attack and a severe bone break to be a return player.  He brought along his wife, who consistently rooted him on with his own cheer that became so popular among the team that they too would spell out the chant “R-U-S-S, Russ, Russ, Russ” every time he came up to bat.  There was the player that found Dream Week to be such an inspiration that he has returned many times and maintains a blog about his trips to help others understand how it can be a life experience not to be missed. 

There was the wife, who not only surprised her 73 year old husband with the trip, but then further surprised him by bringing their two sons to play baseball right alongside their father all week in Florida.  There was the retired fellow that had been a lifelong fan of baseball and the Orioles, but had never once played the game before arriving at camp.  And there was the quiet team member whom we learned very little about until late in the week at the team dinner.  It was then that he shared the importance of Dream Week to him, as a challenge to further himself, battling Parkinson’s disease following a varied, interesting and successful career in two branches of the military, in business and as a newlywed starting off a new chapter in his life.

“Sammy’s Studs”, as it were, following their game at Ed Smith Stadium.

Perhaps the most inspirational impact of all was that of the retired professional players that acted as our team’s coach and manager.  Glenn Gulliver and Sammy Stewart worked together so smoothly and made the week so much fun, while at the same time sharing their amazing talents with team members looking to play the best baseball they could play.  They filled the team with kindness, humor, comradery and stories of their experiences that gave every player a personal inside historical tour of baseball. 

Glenn was the calming voice of reason between the two.  He pitched all fourteen innings (seven innings each for our team and our opponents) of the traditional “coach pitch” Wednesday game (and then played a round of golf that evening).  He quietly talked to Sammy about which player might be best placed in what position on the field and chatted comfortably with the team members. 

Coach and Manager, Glen Gulliver and Sammy Stewart olayed to win, but to also make it a memorable and fun week. They were the special ingredients that made this a very special ife moment.

While at the same time, Sammy shouted out hilarious and colorful advice from the dugout in his gravelly voice, teasing anyone in his path, becoming the glue that brought the team together.  Having already faced tremendous heartache and difficulty in his life, it seems that baseball has been a rudder to help steer Sammy through all the trials and thrills of his life.  Sharing that passion and honesty with this newly formed “band of baseball brothers” was invaluable to us all. 

The first night began with the team draft, where our fates for the week were decided with a good meal and lots of laughter.

Sammy Stewart, Andrew Schmidt, Glen Gulliver

The genuine and heartfelt natures of our coach and manager allowed the team to be amazed by the players they were, while at the same time become friends with the wonderful men those ballplayers have become.  Somewhere right in the middle of those games, between the wrapped hamstrings and ice-packs on pitching arms, the banquets and bull sessions, the meals and long days in the warm January sunshine, baseball began to heal us.  The naturally occurring wounds of living life as a flawed human being faded a bit each inning that week.  Baseball became redemptive as Andy and I realized that there were no guarantees of what life would have been like had he – and I – and baseball all stayed together all these years.   

We will always regret that we didn’t face all of life’s challenges together.  We will always regret that we didn’t try “one more time” to get what we both wanted.  But because of Dream Week, he once again played the game he has always loved and I was there to love it with him.  It was both exciting and bittersweet.  Life may not be exactly what we wanted it to be, but is still better than we thought it could ever be.  Love and baseball go hand in hand.  In fact, Orioles Dream Week has reminded us just how blessed we are to be at this place and this time.

Living the dream at Orioles Dream Week, 2017

Safe travels – and keep trying to get life right, because God doesn’t count you out after three strikes!

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Walt Disney World Loses Some Of Its Sparkle – Why Some Might Want To Wait For Covid To Pass

The surprising (to us) reasons we will PAUSE on our return to WDW.

In summary:  We went to Walt Disney World in January 2021, while our world was entrenched in the Covid pandemic.  Despite all our fun (and we did have lots of fun), we felt the impact that Covid has had on the Happiest Place On Earth more than we expected.

Ta Da! This is how we roll in EPCOT – sans kids!

Our original Disney blueprint had been to set up camp for two weeks in January at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground, an early leg on our full-time RVing adventure.  We wanted to give our six newly adulting children a really fun reason to visit us!  When Covid crushed upon the earth, Disney World closed and we decided that even when it reopened, we would postpone any unnecessary plane travel for our loved ones until we had more answers, safety protocols or even a vaccine.  If we were going to visit WDW, this trip would have to be without our long-distance loved ones.

Food and drink was a perpetual, delicious theme of this visit to WDW.

Months later, when we had fully launched our FT RV life, I kept an eye on information coming out of newly reopened Disney.  I held off on cancelling the Fort Wilderness Campground reservations.  What I read and saw was really positive.  It appeared that in addition to establishing strong policies to assure guest and cast member safety, they were also taking that important step and HOLDING THE LINE with enforcement of their safety policies!  In true Disney fashion, we found that they were doing what we wished that many other big businesses would do (are you listening Walmart and Sheetz?).

I was convinced.  We purchased a four-day park pass and kept our entire two week campground reservations in place for January 2021.  At the end of our fourth day in the parks, we felt absolutely comfortable and safe with our experience, and extended our park fun for four more days with another four day park pass that was now even more deeply discounted (FL residents, $199 per person!).  From a safety perspective, they have this thing pretty darn well figured out.  That safety comes at a price, however.

At the end of this blog post is the detailed break-down of our experiences, but here is the BOTTOM LINE: 

If you are “Disney-experienced” and simply looking to fill your Disney-love tank, a trip to Walt Disney World during Covid precautions may be a great option that is more affordable than ever.  Go for it!  However, if you are a Disney Novice or Disney Virgin, I would advise that patience is important – wait a while for our post-Covid world to emerge before visiting (sorry, Disney) to fully experience the magical world of Walt Disney World.

The magic of PhotoPass was fun, but the masks put a damper on the final product.

To be clear, we are not “Disney Super Fans”, but we are both fairly Disney-experienced.  My DH, Andrew, had previously been to WDW on three occasions – a trip for each child in his growing family – the late 90s, and twice in the early 2000s.  Each time they stayed in a different hotel on Disney property, and each trip was in the busy summer season.

Walt Disney World in 2002 with Andrew and his familyl – with a character that I am not even sure still “lives” in Disney.
A classic pose that probably every dad and kid has experienced in large WDW crowds…this method of “kid-viewing” is really not needed in “Pandemic Disney”.
Breakfast with the characters, including my DHs fav, Winnie-the-Pooh, does happen in 2021, but it is distant and different – no Pooh hugs, for sure!

I have been blessed to have the opportunity to travel to Disney nine times in my life, spanning a variety of “life phases” – as a child, a teenager, as a young adult, as a parent and now as an empty-nester!

We missed the up close and personal character visits of days gone by.
Christmas morning, 2007 in Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground – by our little tree and stockings hung with care on the RV awning!
We also imssed being able to see the shows in 2021; Here, Lorne starred in the Hoop De Doo Review at Christmas dinner, 2007.

When my husband, Andrew (married five years in August 2020!) and I ventured to the Happiest Place on Earth in Jan 2021, this was going to be a very different trip in several ways.  We knew Covid would have an impact on our experience, but we were very excited (perhaps me a bit more than him!) to “do Disney” as empty-nesters – sans ANY kid’s influences or interests!  YIPPEE (Sorry kids, it was also great when we took you as little ones to the land of Mickey Mouse, but being in our nearly-mid-fifties now, we were ready to explore it all as just a couple, making all decisions just for our own enjoyment!)!

The coolest character we met this year was Chewbacca, by far! He hung out in Star Wars Land and drew a crowd of fans. We laughed at ourselves as we “nerded out” and waved and called out his name.

There are many things at Disney that are blissfully the same in a Covid world.  First among them is that cast members continue to amaze us with their courtesy, kindness and expert guest services.  So if you go, know that we observed cast members that checked off all the stellar service boxes that we have come to expect from WDW.  We chatted with young and not-so-young, including some that had previously been “separated” from the company (aka laid off) in 2020, and even others that were still separated and hoped to return (we met them off property, of course).  They were all pleased to be a part of the organization and focused on doing a good job.

The only difference that we noticed as it relates to cast members, was in EPCOT.  The international flair, complete with cast members from around the world and working in their native “EPCOT country” was missing a bit.  Missing were the foreign accents and opportunities to chat with cast members from Norway or Italy (we did meet a gentleman in EPCOT Japan that was a native of Japan, and we had one server in EPCOT UK that also must have emigrated to the US, because we noticed her beautiful lilting English accent.  Overall, however, the park felt much less international.  The reasons are obvious (folks just cannot travel internationally and get work visas like they used to), but we had not anticipated how that would make our visit to EPCOT feel noticeably different.

In EPCOT UK, we sat outdoors on a heated patio with flights of beer and whiskey to enjoy with dinner.
A delicious British feast at Rose and Crown Pub in EPCOT’s World Showcase!

Similarly, the complement of guests in the park was missing so many international guests, that on the rare occasion we overheard another language being spoken, it stood out more than in previous trips.  I don’t know the current statistics, but I would imagine that a much larger percentage of guests today are actually residents of central Florida (not a bad thing, just different!).

So what else was missing and different?  Here is the quick list:  no fireworks, no laser/night shows, no parades, no street performances, no “single rider” lines, no Fastpass, limited Park Hopper hours, no new Annual Passholder sales, no Extra Magic Hours, many closed stores, many closed food options, limited transportation options, no dining plans, no pop-up street performances or entertainment, shorter park hours, no character visits, and many closed live shows (Mermaid, Nemo, Lion King, etc).

Disney has made some good attempts to keep some of the feel of these missing components alive in our visits.  They have surprise “cavalcades” that pop up in each park every hour or so, with several characters, music and waving from a distance.  They are gone again before any crowds can gather dangerously.  Also, there are secret corners where some characters are strategically placed at a distance, while guests stand perhaps 15 feet in the foreground to have their photo taken “with” the Disney princess or character of their dreams.

Mickey Mouse staying safely distant at Hollywood Studios in January 2021.

The challenge that is created with all of these missing magical Disney pieces is that the remaining attractions have much longer lines than might be expected for a park that isn’t even 35% filled (Disney’s current park capacity limit during Covid).  We were in the parks on weekdays in the middle of January, for a total of eight days.  On some of those days, the most popular attractions had 65-95 minute waits!  Even some of the less popular attractions on those days also had what seemed longer than they might normally be in January, at 20-30 minutes.  We also had some good luck – there was one day in Animal Kingdom where we could walk on to nearly every attraction with hardly any wait at all!  We couldn’t figure out the Covid trick to make sure we were in the right park on the right day (I used one of the Disney Crowd Calculators available online to pick “historically least crowded” days and parks, but clearly, those tools are less useful during a pandemic).

“Tinkerbell, how about sprinkling a little good luck Pixie Dust on those Ravens this weekend?” (Well, they lonst, so I think she didn’t)

Disney has started to pivot somewhat on their various requirements, and are getting push-back in every direction.  Some reports indicate that they have started loading every row on a ride, something that we saw very little of on our visit (but I did see it on Expedition Everest).  These changes are surely to try to reduce wait times for attractions, but may come at the cost of people no longer feeling safe (or worse yet, not ACTUALLY being as safe).  It is all part of the delicate balance Disney is trying to find to remain open and mitigate their massive financial losses.

Here is a another quick list of things you may want to note if you decide to visit Mickey during Covid:

  1. Mickey doesn’t wear a mask.  It seems that Disney will make sure you will never get within six feet (probably not even within 15 feet) of any Disney star, so don’t worry about any unintended virus sharing with the characters, lol.
  2. Mobile food ordering is the way to go when your stomach starts to growl.  If there isn’t a crowd, it seems that at least some of the take-out food kiosks would also take your order in person, but be prepared to order on your mobile phone if you want to have a shorter wait (you can order food for a future time and then just update your order online when you have “arrived” to pick up your food.
  3. You really are not permitted to be moving while eating or drinking (no standing in line for an attraction while eating or drinking either).  Don’t bother to try – we saw active enforcement of some of the sneakier guests.  Late in our visit, we discovered a little trick – use eating and drinking time as an opportunity to snap a couple of photos without a mask on.  Find a pretty place to sit/stand and eat/drink, then also snap some photos while there! Update: In February 2021, WDW further updated their mask requirements to state that while at your table, waiting to order, or waiting for food, you must still wear your mask.
  4. You may not remove your mask for photos (or for any other reason other than while standing still while actively eating or drinking.  Not on rides, not for a Disney Photopass photographer, not in front of the castle or anywhere else!  We also saw active enforcement of this rule and have also been told that any ride photos without masks will NOT be made available to guests!  Each day is a long day with a mask on ALL. DAY.  LONG. (I have renewed appreciation for anyone that works every day in a job that requires them to wear a mask).  Disney is surely receiving some push-back on this rule, but after living through 14 days on property, I cannot see how this rule could be relaxed any time soon, especially as the parks start to hit their 35% capacity in spring and summer.  It is a slippery slope, and there just isn’t enough physical space to assure enough distance between people, be they guests or cast members.  As much as I want better photos, masks are unfortunately going to be needed in our everyday lives for quite some time.  
  5. If you are part of a group, you may very well be split up for attractions.  Many of the theatre seats are set up for parties of four, so if you are a family of five or more, you will need to decide quickly how you want to be split when entering the attraction.
  6. I am not sure if this is accurate, or simply my perception, but it seems that there are more attractions closed for “refurbishment” than I recall from past visits.  When we were there, the entire train station at the front of Magic Kingdom was covered in a giant tarp (which was beautifully decorated like the train station it covered).  The trains were obviously not running also.  Additionally, Tom Sawyer Island and all the surrounding water was under refurbishment.  It was jarring to see the previously giant body of water turned into a pit of dirt and construction vehicles.  Tom Sawyer Island, the giant paddleboat and the rafts that ferried guests to the island were all missing.  Most of the front of EPCOT was covered by construction-hiding walls.  This is a huge project and will be gorgeous when complete, but certainly made the first half of EPCOT fairly unimpressive.  Refurbishment is a necessary part of life, but it certainly seemed to be easy to spot and had a large visual impact on the luster of Walt Disney World.
  7. The pre-show of many rides was eliminated.  Because the queues need to make sure guests do not come within six feet of each other, they need to wind in, out, around and through some unusual places.  While waiting in line for Peter Pan’s flight, part of our line weaved through the closed quick-serve restaurant next door.  This need for space and distance means that the pre-show of the Haunted Mansion is eliminated.  No stopping in the room where the ceiling stretches higher in front of your eyes before getting in your ghostmobile.  The line just walks you straight through the room…it’s a bummer.  Similarly with the Tower of Terror, Test Track, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and many more – no pre-show.  These are some of the details that make WDW stand out as the best amusement park out there.  Each attraction has a story to tell and creates a mood and anticipation as you wait in line.  We weren’t expecting it, and we really missed it.
  8. The shorter hours and lack of Extra Magic Hours made each day a much longer day.  Strategy for a good day at the park for me pre-Covid included an early start to the day in a park, followed by a midday break back at our campsite or hotel for lunch and a rest, and then a 2nd visit to a park (the same one or a hopper to a 2nd location), to enjoy the park as many guests were leaving.  With much shorter hours (even for January), and longer lines (for January), our park visits turned into one long trip, more eating out (without a dining plan option to save a bit), and no break in between.  We headed home each day, greatly missing the evening “big show” – no fireworks, no laser show, no big finale to give you those magical Disney goosebumps.

Now that Disney is gearing up for their busier and warmer time of the year, I cannot imagine how much more crowded the parks are going to feel, even with their continued limited capacity.  It will be tougher to be “safely distant” from others, and it will be really tough wearing a mask for eight or more hours, from hotel door – to hotel door in the humidity and heat of central Florida.  

This little package of adorableness might even entice me to start watching the Mandelorian.

Disney is doing it all the right way.  They are doing it all very well, in really difficult circumstances.  What had been my biggest concern when visiting, SAFETY, was barely a concern at all (although it did get uncomfortably jammed in the Magic Kingdom with the many families with strollers and little ones zigging and zagging all around)! 

However, with the aforementioned changes they needed to implement to assure our safety (and be allowed to even open), there was enough missing Pixie Dust for us to say “We REALLY look forward to returning. We hope that our world will bounce back to our next “new normal” quickly…and we will be thrilled to return after Covid no longer has quite as strong of a stronghold on their operations”.

Walt Disney himself was right about what they do – then, now – in a pandemic, and in the future: “We create happiness”.  Thanks, Walt!

Whether you find your happiness in a trip to WDW during Covid, or decide to be patient and instead find happiness in the PLANNING of a future trip when some of these limitations can be lifted, we hope you enjoy it all!

Safe travels, to infinity and beyond!

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Please bring back Annual Passes so that we can visit sooner (making the cost more in-line with the value we see in a Covid-impacted WDW).

How Covid and FT RVing Showed Us New Ways To Share The Love

In my family of origin, there were a lot of little details that were “traditions” we cherished during holidays throughout the year.  At Easter, we Holmstrom’s took the obligatory photos dressed in our Sunday finest and with our baskets at our feet.  At Thanksgiving, the dressing and sauerkraut played just as important a role as the turkey.  Finally, Christmas morning gift opening always began with all four of us kids piled in our parent’s king-sized bed, digging through the stockings that Santa left before we explored what he left under the tree.  Much of the rest – the bigger components that fill in a holiday experience, would be altered a bit each year to meet changing family member’s needs – varying locations, attendees and menus.  We treasured it all, but we weren’t very prone to consistency.

My brother, Steve and me, visiting Granny and Pop-pop (maternal grandparents) in Baltimore, MD in 1970.
Granny (Albertina Heming) and my mom (Diane) in 1968. That mid-century modern silver tree is a holiday detail that has survived and was used for many years through my own parent’s retirement.

My husband’s experience was a bit different.  Many aspects of the holidays were a re-creation of the year prior – decorations, menu, guests and celebratory details were a great annual tradition.  Change was eschewed, conceding to it only when absolutely necessary.  The Schmidt family traditions run deep and long and are equally treasured.

Every big holiday in the Schmidt family included a visit to Grammy’s house (and many times for my family as well, but that is a blog post for another day). Here is Andrew at Grammy’s house for Christmas in 1967.
When Andrew and his brother started their own families, the tradition continued. Here is Abby (Andrew’s youngest), Grammy (his paternal grandmother), his neice Elia, and MomMom (his maternal grandmother), all dressed up for a Christmas visit.

As adults, we each continued our “holiday styles” in a similar manner, with my holidays moving with the ebb and flow of family member geography, the growing up of me and my three siblings, the loss of grandparents, the start of marriages and the birth of grandchildren.  Andrew’s experience was a bit more steadfast and certain.  Despite many of the same family changes over time, his family endeavored each year to keep every holiday the same at its’ core.  Each style seemed to work for each of us….and then we got married!  Cue the David Bowie music…”Cha-cha-cha-changes!”

When we married in 2015, holidays became a new conglomeration of step-siblings, new step-cousins, and a mix of guests that varied with each holiday and each year. With my family moving form PA to MD, and the sort-of blending of two households, the holiday table looked a little different each year. This photo shows the “kid table” at Thanksgiving, circa 2017.
We always tried to lasso a few of our kiddos each year to celebrate in different ways – this was the day in 2019 we got a small group of us together to pick our Christmas tree – with Ben (Andrew’s son), and Chris (Christy’s best guy).

So when we declared our full-time RVing plans and as Coronavirus descended upon our world, it quickly became apparent that our big holidays were going to be much different for a while.  And so far, different they have been!  Initially, I had one goal in mind – to make sure our kids all had a place to spend and enjoy each holiday no matter where we were in our RV. 

We also intended to find enticing travel locations that might create a holiday option for any of our six children to visit if they wanted.  Even though all our kids are now young adults, it was important to me that each of our kids had some holiday options.  Despite all the intentions and planning, we realized much of it was beyond our control.

The inability to travel during a pandemic created a quiet heartache as treasured holiday time with our loved ones was relegated to texts, phone, and video calls.  I have learned that Covid had a far greater impact on holidays than full-time RVing ever would.  I expect to miss seeing most of my loved ones when I travel.  But there is an added level of sadness when I know my stationary-living loved ones also cannot see and do most of the things they would like to do to celebrate.

These are the types of holidays that everyone around the world misses – a gathering of generations and households. This was Thanksgiving 2016, the last that we enjoyed celebrating with all of our parents. Fathers and fathers-in-law have since passed, placing another change upon us that we wish we didn’t have to face.

So as we wrap up a year of Covid holidays and six months of living on the road, I am grateful for whatever time I can get with my loved ones.  Brief visits with Ella, my college-student-youngest did happen – masks on and hugs withheld, before she had to return to her new “school home” in Gainesville, FL to work her part-time job at Walmart.  It has become clear that holiday familiarity is suspended for a while as everyone’s adult responsibilities, Coronavirus, and our geographic distance take their toll on our family, like so many others.

It was our thought that our other children and parents, all currently based out of Maryland and Pennsylvania, would have family members nearby to give them a “holiday home”.  Unfortunately, with Covid, that couldn’t always happen.  My two older kids both work every day in high-Covid-risk food service environments, so Covid really prevented them from being able to do much holiday visiting at all, in an effort to keep other more Covid-vulnerable relatives safe.  Instead, my oldest, Adalie, delivered Thanksgiving dinner from her place of employment to her brother, Lorne, since they both worked through the extended Thanksgiving weekend.  Lorne made a pumpkin pie and visited a local friend’s family.  They had recently lost their son/brother and it was important to him to help fill their holiday with some happiness.  

Andrew’s children each varied their own plans slightly, knowing that we could not all be together this year.  Christy was moving into a new apartment and kept busy with her boyfriend and his family.  Ben and Abby, still living at their mother’s home, had a place for a more traditional, albeit, smaller Thanksgiving.  

Our mothers each had perhaps the most challenging Thanksgiving celebrations of all of us.  My mom spent her first Thanksgiving as a widow, having just moved out of her home of 55 years – and into her own adorable in-law suite in my sister and brother-in-law’s home.  My mother-in-law spent her first Thanksgiving ever without anyone else at the table.  Our moms enjoyed meals provided by our siblings, but the holiday differences most certainly were the dominant theme.  We all did our best exchanging calls, texts and special flower deliveries, but watching all these changes unfold was certainly the most difficult part of the holiday to navigate.

Easter 2020 was a Covid-bust – with a full lockdown and stay-at-home order in MD, so we were bound and determined to make Thanksgiving on the road special in whatever way we could. Here, Andrew and I walk the beach with Ella on Thanksgiving Day in Tybee Island, GA.

Our Thanksgiving had some really nice moments despite all the limitations.  Andrew and Ella and I enjoyed a pot-luck meal hosted by the campground where we were staying, so I was able to cook our favorite dishes, without having the full load of a turkey and a dozen side dishes.  We ate at a picnic table at our campsite, with a tablescape of seashells, pine cones and mini pumpkins.  Instead of hosting 15 – 20 guests, our family-of-three walked off our meal on the beach of Tybee Island, GA on a warm afternoon, exchanging “Happy Thanksgiving” greetings with strangers instead of our parents and most of our children, all of whom we missed dearly.

A Thanksgiving 2020 freast for three- safely outdoors, with our feet in the sand, at Rivers End Campground, Tybee Island, GA
Where the Savannah River meets the Atlantic Ocean at sunset. Sometimes different can be great, and at the same time, you miss your people even more.

Christmas was a repeat of a similar scenario.  We met Ella at a campground on the gulf panhandle in Carrabelle Beach, FL for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  It was a treat that included long walks on the pure white sand, collecting seashells and walking the dogs.  I made many of Ella’s favorite meals and put all my “Mom efforts” into her, unable to host or dote on any other kids or parents.  Facetime and Zoom meetings replaced a trip to someone’s house for a day-long visit.  Gifts were mailed, with a hope, but little expectation that the USPS was going to deliver in time. It was quiet.  It was relaxing.  It was still lovely.  But It was very, very different.

Christmas tree hunting was a trip to Goodwill, and decorating took only about an hour in our tiny RV home. But something about the twinkling lights helped give us the warmth of Christmas even when we missed nearly all of our loved ones.
Even a visit by one is better than a visit by none (she still needs to practice her mask-wearing as part of her adulting lessons). What we lacked in wrapping paper for gifts (as shown in photo), we made up for with shipping packages of love to those we missed.
I filled my 2020 “Mom-tank” by cooking special food for Ella and Andrew, and visiting with all of our kids on Facetime or Zoom on Christmas (this was a breakfast casserole).

By the time our second Covid-impacted Easter rolls around and we wrap up a year of traveling-holidays, I am not sure that much will be “back to normal”.  We hope the Covid vaccine will be widely available by then so that flights can be booked and larger gatherings of loved ones from different households are once again safe.  But if it isn’t, I know it will still be okay, despite the differences.  The holidays have to change every year, but the core of every holiday will always be the same.  These important days of the year are about sharing love, and we will all find new and different ways to share that love with those we love and miss.

Safe travels – and happy holidays all year-round, wherever you are planted!

The gallery of photos shared below is a walk down memory lane from the 1950s thru the present, showing how our families and our family traditions have evolved over the years. It is a digital family photo album of resilience and love.

This is actually a socially distant “bon voyage” crab feast we hosted in summer, 2020; I included it here because we were actually having an Easter Egg toss that had been Covid-cancelled in the spring! It was a day that marked the beginning of life on the road, as well as the continued crossover of generations of the Schmidt and Heming familes that began in the 1950s and continues four generations later

South Carolina Upcountry Fun – And Even MORE FUN With Friends!

Recognizing that we are big planners by nature, Andy (Andrew to most everyone except perhaps me and his late paternal grandmother) and I made a decision before the launch of our nomadic life to do our best to PLAN AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE.  We wanted to loosen up the constraints we sometimes put on ourselves and be sure to push ourselves to spontaneous or new-found adventures and fun.  But there was one place, or in particular, one family we wanted to visit.  So off to the Upcountry Region of South Carolina we went in October 2020 for a two-and-a-half week stay.

Little did we know just how awesome this area is!  The Upcountry Region of South Carolina (and a bit of NC as well) is nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and is made up of six counties in the northwest corner of the state.  If you like waterfalls (more than 120 of them!), hiking, golfing, truly great urban centers, lakes, watersports, and hidden roadside natural gems, then this is an area to put on your travel bucket list.  

We arrived in Pickens to visit our friend and his family.  Steve was the best man in our wedding.  He has been my husband’s brother-from-another-mother for decades.  Months can go between calls or texts, but these two fellas have remained friends because of what I think is a kinship and likeness (both their appearance and their personalities).  Quiet, smart and unceasingly polite and thoughtful, Steve made sure we didn’t have to do any heavy lifting when it came to planning our stay in the area.

Steve and Andy on our big day in 2015. This brother-from-another-mother is much like him

The guys went golfing, the girls went to a cookie decorating class, we took long scenic drives, stopped at roadside rock formations, hiked to some gorgeous waterfalls, ate at some local restaurants (open air, outdoor and/or masks on), and even camped together at my new favorite campsite (see this post all about it https://timetravelsandtribulations.com/this-is-the-best-campsite-of-my-camping-life/ ).  Steve provided daily suggestions for sightseeing and fun – whether it be just the two of us, or visiting as a group.  They were the consummate hosts – helping us tour the sights, visit their home, meet their friends and feed us well all along the way!  No planning needed – only fun to be had!

Below are some photographic highlights from our visit.  If you would like to read more about the region, take a look at this site (https://upcountrysc.com/) and PLAN to have a great visit!  Very special thanks to our friends Steve, Kenda and Katie.  We will be back – not just because the area is wonderful, but because we love to visit our friends in the Palmetto State!

Safe travels – especially when visiting your far-flung friends!

There Is A Garden Full Of Roses and Thorns In “Empty Nest Full-Time RVing”

Take the good with the bad – and you will be rewarded with grand adventures to remember always!

We didn’t expect empty-nest full-time RVing to be life in a bed of roses.  We knew to take the good roses with the not-so-good thorns, because this is still “real life”, even if it is less conventional than other ways of living.  While many roses and thorns were anticipated, there are a few interesting, unexpected or less significant roses and thorns we have discovered.  Here is a list of some that come to mind after five months on the road with just me, my Sweetums and our three furry pets.

  1. Murphy was right (again) – the flat tire won’t happen until after you buy $1734 in new RV tires.  But rose-colored kudos to Goodyear who agreed to replace the ruined nearly new tire at half price.  They didn’t need to do that but we appreciate that they did.
  2. You will grow a renewed appreciation for sunrises and sunsets.  You have more opportunities to see them, and fewer distractions (#taketimetosmelltheroses).  Gosh, they are awesome.
Pickens County, SC – ‘nuf said.
A little bit of cheating here, but this is the St. Augustine, FL area taken the summer BEFORE we went FT, as we conducted our College Campus Tour 2019. (she chose Santa Fe College and University of Florida in Gainesville!)

3. You can still be very busy as an empty-nester on the road.  It is a different kind of busy, but there is still a lot to do.  The difference is, the totality of the items are less “mission-critical” and are generally more fun than “before” (e.g. gather and send care packages to loved ones, download and organize photos, work on itinerary details, etc).  Besides, you get to look outside the window at your workspace and see an ever-changing scene.

Not a bad “office with a view” – and a cat! If I MUST work, this is a great place to do so (of course, the next place we go may be even prettier!)
Even in the early morning hours, windows with a view that changes with every campsite are a nice treat as you take care of mundane tasks such as balancing the checkbook.

4. A cold, rainy day by the (electric) campfire in your RV can be cozy and warm and relaxing, but a tropical storm with sideways rain and 50 mph gusts can be a bit too much white knuckling as your rig sways and shakes.

5. You can cook anything in an RV kitchen.  I thought I might not bake cookies or tackle a big batch of Thanksgiving dressing (AKA stuffing if you didn’t grow up in my family) once we moved into our tiny new RV home.  It takes practice and sometimes some creativity (fewer specialty tools, utensils, and appliances), but anything I have tackled has been possible and enjoyable to make as well!  Counterspace is always a challenge, and two people in the kitchen at once can be a tight fit, but it works!

Steak (thanks to my personal grill master!), mashed cauliflower, roasted brussels sprouts and a glass of deep dry red wine- RVing YUM!
If the little RV galley kitchen isn’t enough, remember that bacon cooked outdoors is among the best you can get!

6. You might just miss old-man winter.  We headed from Maryland to Florida at the launch of FT RV living (taking a kiddo to college), and then made our way north again while summer was still in full swing.  We weaved our way south again but seemed to always keep slightly ahead of the fall season to which we are accustomed.  We actually MISSED the full, slow transition from summer to fall and I think we will miss the snow and cold weather as well.  That is not to say that it wasn’t awesome to walk the warm Georgia beaches on Thanksgiving day, or that we will choose to spend January and February in Maryland any time soon.  But I think that we might just plan our future travel so that we can enjoy some seasonal changes a little bit more (and avoid Florida every summer!).

7. If you enjoy a regular bath in your sticks and bricks home, you will really miss it in your RV home.  Now I understand why bath-loving RVers see an occasional hotel stay, spa day or hot tub soak as “essential”.

I really do miss our giant bathtub…but any tub would do – sunken, claw foot, whirlpool, whatever – I miss it!

8. It still feels good to make your bed each day – it is just a little more exhausting.

9. You really can live with only three of each type of clothing (three t-shirts, three shorts, three long pants, three long-sleeved shirts, etc).  You really need fewer items of clothing than you packed in your rig.

10. You might just miss having your old yard.  We miss our backyard for our dogs as much as our dogs miss their backyard.  It was a far easier task to let them outside on their whim, without committing to a leash walk or trip to the dog park.  

Bug and Calvin miss our backyard perhaps more than we do, but we can make a leash walk and dog park work now that we are FT RVers.
There are no dog parks quite as wonderful as this grassy hillside for Calvin to chase…and NOT retrieve tennis balls!

11. A shorter visit by your kids is best once you become an empty nester.  We love to have our kids visit us (six of them, ages 19 – 28), and a couple of them have done so several times since we began living on the road – for a few hours and for overnight stays.  We have discovered (and perhaps they did also), that a short stay is just about right.  One recent 24-hour visit by our youngest resulted in one item left behind and three cups, a plate, silverware, a bag of cookies, a bottle of OJ and cookie wrappers being left lying around.  This was all despite the fact that said adult child slept at least 14 of the 24 hours of her stay!  Conversely, it was a real treat to cook for her and hear her appreciation for Mom’s food!

It was great to have her visit – for 24 hours – and great to cook a feast – and also great to return to our empty nest – and I am SURE she enjoyed returning to her apartment and “college adulting” (which really is like “Adulting, Jr.”.

12. You might miss driving or you might not.  I miss driving. My dear husband does not (because he is doing it all!).  Backstory:  I have a growing history of vision limitations that makes me uncomfortable driving in in the dark, in unfamiliar places or with unfamiliar vehicles.  Therefore, driving a massive F350 long-bed, dually truck (after driving a small Volvo SUV for years), ALWAYS in a new, unfamiliar place, and sometimes towing a 35 foot trailer, leaves me with few options to drive.  I have practiced, and will do so some more, with the hope that some of my vision problems of recent months can be improved over time.  But in the end, I miss feeling as independent as I did previously when I could easily hop in a car and just go. 

13. RV propane stoves and ovens aren’t so great. I have had a strong preference for gas stoves all my adult life, but not in the RV!  Adjusting the flame is difficult (burning hotter than they need to and impossible to achieve a good “simmer”), they warm up the small space of the rig on already warm days, and the oven is so uneven in its heating that it is generally useless.  On the rosier up-side, I LOVE our portable single burner induction cooktop and our convection microwave oven!  I use the propane oven for pan storage and can often cover the stovetop to create additional mission critical counter space.  I prefer to cook for the two of us on the induction burner (using free campground electricity instead of purchased propane) and I do nearly all my baking in our convection oven (microwave).  Both took some learning, but the results are very satisfying.

RV propane stove on the left (3 burners)….portable electric induction cooktop on the right. It is nice to have options.

14. The time between each freezer defrosting is shorter than you might expect.  It seems that no sooner do we defrost the freezer, it is time to do so again (monthly, on average).  This is a task we did not have with our previous electric residential fridge but it is a necessary evil of an RV (propane/electric) refrigerator.

15. The countertop ice maker makes ice that is ALMOST as good as Chickfila ice!  It is also my favorite appliance (we use a lot of ice).  I suppose if we had opted for the residential fridge in our RV (that is an option in camping now that didn’t exist years ago), we could eliminate the previously mentioned defrosting issue as well as the need for a counterspace-eating ice machine (the residential fridge comes with an ice-maker), but for now, this setup works for us.

16. The sound of a hard and steady rainfall on the camper roof feels sooooo peaceful and safe and relaxing.  Yep, roof rainfall, especially in the evening, cuddling with my DH (and perhaps a dog or cat) evokes feelings of great comfort.  It reminds me of the feelings I had during my childhood when our entire family would gather on the back porch of our home during thunderstorms, huddled under blankets, just to hear the roar of the rain on the porch’s plastic corrugated rooftop.

17. RV air conditioning is loud and temperatures are somewhat erratic.  I miss the quiet consistency of traditional central air (and I only had central A/C twice in my life – in a townhouse I rented in my mid-20s, and in the last five years of our “sticks and bricks” living!)

17. You will miss your loved ones…but appreciate them so much more.  Being apart from your children, after spending their entire childhood WITH them is perhaps one of life’s greatest changes we face as parents.  It is expected and takes some time to adjust to a new way of living.  When we added a nomadic lifestyle on top of our empty nest, I began missing them in a whole new way.  It also has grown feelings of great appreciation for the young adults they are becoming.  They make me so proud of where they are headed and how they got there.  Additionally, I miss my mom, my sister, my brother, my stepkids and a whole host of people that I haven’t lived with for a really long time – or never lived with at all!  To all our extended family and friends – WE MISS YOU and we CHERISH the time we get to spend with you.

These are our people – well, most of them. And we miss them every day!

Safe travels – roses and thorns included!

To Know Him Was To Love Him – And Sometimes To Shake Your Head In Wonder

He had a smile and a laugh that could be contagious – even if you realized you were laughing at his antics as much as laughing along with him.

The day after we moved into our fifth wheel trailer to launch our full-time RVing adventure, my dad died, less than a month before his 80th birthday.  It was July 18, 2020.  It was another blow to our family, just about halfway through 2020, a year that will be remembered worldwide as being one heck of a tough year.

It had been obvious for the previous two weeks that the end of Dad’s boisterous journey on this earth was upon us, but his health had been declining for quite some time, a victim of decades of smoking (followed by decades of quitting), a lifetime of poor diet (but no alcohol) and a number of falls that hastened his decline over the years. No matter the resulting health consequence, Dad was unfazed.  Diabetes?  No need to cut back on M&M’s or test blood sugar!  Heart attack?  Don’t tell ME I can’t do the things I enjoy!  Back injuries?  Physical therapy and exercise are for sissies!  Failing heart requiring a defibrillator?  Why the $%@ can’t those !#%$ doctors fix this and get me back to puttering in my yard!?  

We had always joked with Dad that he had as many lives as a cat, and each time he fell from a tree or roof that he should not have been climbing, or survived triple bypass surgery, or crashed his vehicle for unclear reasons, he was one step closer to his demise.  It took decades, but it seems that 2020 was his year, and COPD was the final challenge he would face.

He actually complained less and reminisced a bit more once he became bedridden in the last days.

Thankfully, his final days, laying in bed, losing his independence to weakness, losing his spunky attitude to delusions, losing his consciousness to morphine, were short-lived.  His final days were perhaps his biggest fear, always teasing us that we should just take him out to the field behind the house to shoot him rather than force him to suffer.  Instead, we sat with him and Mom.  Visitors helped us all pass the time.  Hospice workers helped us understand how to help him.  In the end, he was peaceful and as he took his final breaths, my sister, Mom and I said prayers over him (something that he would have cringed about while living, but was just perfect in the moment he passed.

It should be noted, before sounding too harsh or callous, that my dad was a CHARACTER!  He cursed like a sailor and loved to argue all the tricky topics in life – politics, religion and the medical field!  What he lacked in tender loving care, he made up for as a really great dad.

Dad managed to mix work and play – be it cleaning up the yard or building a project for us.

Dad showed his love differently – he was steadfast, reliable and good to his core.  You ALWAYS knew what you were getting from him.  I think WE understood him better than he understood himself.  He showed his love in his actions and in his subtle presence.  We knew Dad loved us, even if he very seldom uttered the words. 

It was a treat to watch him become a grandfather – and see the full extent of his “soft side”, as it were.

He quietly supported us in everything that interested us.  Scouting projects for my brothers, directing Christmas traffic in our church parking lot, and taking unexpected trips to my college to rescue and repair my car following a flood. He could fix just about anything with whatever tools he might have on hand, a roll of duct tape and a little elbow grease.  

Mike, Dad and Britt out on the town together.
This is Morfar, quietly supporting grandson Lorne, at his band’s first gig. (Dad struck this pose as my sister prompted him to look all cool like the young kids!). Hilarious. (note the Huey helicopter t-shirt, undoubtedly a quiet way of supporting and remembering our brother, Steve)

Dad sat quietly in the room, the willing participant of any family gathering or social event, even if such activities were not the way he would ever choose to spend his day.  Conversely, a healthy debate, albeit greatly skewed by his perceptions and undaunted by the facts at hand, was pure entertainment for him and often resulted in exasperation for us all.  If you didn’t “get him”, you could very quickly be offended by him.  But to “know him” was to understand and love him.

Ho, ho, ho and Merry Christmas from the quiet man of the house (but yet the hat declared “bah humbug”!)

He would argue or lash out in anger seldom, but when he became that upset, you knew that he was struggling greatly with the issue at hand.  He was passive by nature, a roll-with-it kind of guy above all else.  Even when frustrated beyond words by something idiotic that we four kids might have done, the worst punishment would be the spewing of a few choice insults, interspersed with some colorful curse words, and the hurling of his wooden Swedish clogs in our direction.  His bark was always worse than his bite, and we grew to toughen our skin to his rough edges and instead see all the goodness, fun and helpfulness that was within him.

His quest for helping was especially true with animals, I think perhaps, because he saw them as the most helpless in a difficult world.  He rescued them, nursed them, built habitats for them, and always, always, stopped to help a box turtle across the road.  Critters found in the wrong habitat (in our house or car), were gently placed outside to “be free” rather than squishing and tossing them.  Over the years, he always took the time to feed the horses in the roadside pasture, visit with the ducks on the pond, or sit and watch the geese fly overhead just before sunset.  Over the years his dogs were his best buddies and his favorite conversationalists, simply because “they listen and don’t give me no lip”.

Dad had many canine buddies, and this little lapdog, Cheetah was among his adoring fans.

Every day, Dad arrived home from work at 6:00 pm and we had dinner together as a family.  He was a small business owner, and I grew up to greatly admire that simple daily act.  He managed to walk away from the endless responsibilities of his business and simply go home.  He would enter the back door, “drop trow” at the top of the basement steps, toss his dirty uniform down the basement so that Mom could add it to her endless laundry pile, and then scurry through the kitchen in his “skivvies” past the hustle and bustle of his family gathering for the evening meal.  Every day, for my entire childhood, I could count on him and knew what to expect from him.

But I think the biggest impact Dad had on me was his willingness to see different places. EVERY summer, he would close his small auto-repair business for two weeks and take us camping.  At a time when there was no paid time off, and little money to spare, he and Mom managed to show their children the world.  By the time I was an adult, I had been to half the states in the US and several countries as well.  We had experiences in those adventures that became a direction in my life – a desire to work hard and succeed in my goals so that I might travel and see even more of the world.

Not many American kids got to say they were able to travel to Sweden, Germany and Canada before they were all grown up and on their own.

Mom and Dad encouraged us when we shared our plans to travel full-time for a while.  “GO!”, they said. “Do it now (before we are retirement age), while you are able”.  You see, their camping days after we kids grew up, amounted to RVing the country about six months out of the year.  The balance of the year they spent at home with family in the Maryland/Pennsylvania area and worked part time jobs to save up money for their next trip.  They were blessed to take some of their grandchildren camping for a week at a time, to tag along on their children’s camping vacations, to travel across the United States for an extended trip out west, and to take annual trips to Myrtle Beach and Florida, two of their favorite destinations.  But their health declined before they were “finished”.  They always wanted “next year” – to the point that up until his final weeks, Dad would still talk about getting their motorhome in shape for their next adventure.  Dad and Mom weren’t quite wanting to be “finished” with traveling, but their health limitations brought their adventures to an end.

Dad would take a “Sunday drive” just about anywhere, and when on vacation, every pit stop and roadside attraction (even “South of the Border, SC”), led to another mini-exploration of the world.
MA and Pa…Holmstrom, hamming it up on one of their visits back to the old “homestead” in Fallston, MD while NOT traveling during retirement.
Camping with the grandkids – sometimes three generations all together, and sometimes just kids and their Mormor and Morfar – made lifelong travel memories (this photo was from a winter trip to Florida).

So it seems completely expected and greatly satisfying to “see” my dad in my full-time RVing travels since we lost him on Day 2 of our adventure.  We  have spent time in Virginia exploring some of the very places he and Mom took me to while camping as a child.  We have sat in our camping chairs around a campfire, just like Dad did, in rural South Carolina and the swamps of Georgia and savored the special outdoor moments you only experience with camping.  

The campfire was always the perfect place for Dad to solve the world’s problems – if only the world would do it “his way”

We have also spent weeks in Florida, at a quiet campground, where I see an elderly gentleman ride his bike every day.  He immediately reminds me of my dad and I wave.  The shaky old-man wave I get in return is just like Dad used to do – a slightly uncomfortable social interaction, but with a pure intent to just say “hello”.

“Hi Dad.  I miss you.  We all miss you.  Thanks for all the valuable gifts you have given us.”

This is not Dad…and it is ot the man on his bike in our campground…but both were just as adorable as this gentleman. (Photo credit: Dunya News

Safe travels, and show your “people” you love them.

Dad built the pool…and the swing set…and the play house…and the fort…and we all (Britt, Mike, Steve (pictured) and Tina all had a great childhood on Upland Road.

Fargo, Georgia – Where Wildlife Outnumbers The Human Life!

Since my dear husband and I are not (yet) regular boondockers in unimproved land areas (#campinggoals), we are not often faced with the feeling of isolation and true solitude.  We both grew up in a world without cell phones, where our parents were not able to reach us or determine our exact location all day as we played outside in the woods behind our neighborhood.  As children, that was normal.  Teenaged Andrew and Tina would drive at night on a country road (trying to avoid parental detection, but also not easily able to reach anyone if we got an unexpected flat tire, or ran out of gas (a more likely scenario in my teenage years).  As teenagers, that was normal.  We were comfortable with it because that was the only option back then.

We were typical kids of the 70s – and playing outdoors iwas how we spent or days. (Photo credit: Children’s Environments Research Group)

Today, however, that feeling of being completely on your own, if only for a few hours, seldom happens.  If a child leaves the house, a parent generally has the ability to know where they are located.  If a problem happens, help is usually a simple phone call away.

For the first time in a long time, Andy and I recalled those feelings as we drove through Fargo, GA on a gorgeous fall day in October 2020.  It was Halloween weekend, and our destination was the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, also known as the Okefenokee Swamp (cue spooky music).  The one-lane road laid out ahead of us, as straight as a pin, with small pine trees and natural green growth on both sides.  We drove and drove, windows down, the dogs excitedly sensing that our destination was near.  We rode for 20 miles from Fargo, down Route 177, with the last dozen miles absent of businesses, homes or crossroads of any kind.  Miles before our destination, our cell service became unusable.  Texts stopped coming and going.  As dusk fell, we felt like we had already left civilization before we had even arrived.

There were miles of road into the state park – and not much else!

The entrance to the park is gated and closed each evening, and it felt as if we were leaving one world and entering a new one as we passed through it.  It was after 5:00 pm when we arrived, so with the Steven C. Foster State Park Trading Post closed for the day, we went straight to our campsite.

This spot is just a few steps from our campsite.

The next morning we awoke to a very quiet morning and we took a walk.  The campground only has 66 campsites, and it was largely empty (and grew emptier at the end of the weekend – spoiler alert, after the weekend, we were one of only three campers on our loop).  Our first task had little to do with seeking solitude.  In fact, sad to say, we needed to find cell service so that I could handle our small vacation rental business in the coming six days, and Andy needed to make sure he could see his Baltimore Ravens play football on Sunday from our remote location.  

We hadn’t wandered 50 feet from our campsite before we turned a corner and saw deer.  At first a couple, then several.  They were accustomed to human presence, but still wild and skittish.  It was as if they understood that we were a temporary visitor to their land, their space.  They obliged us, and allowed us to watch in awe at their morning beauty.

That morning we arrived at the Trading Post, located about a half mile from our campsite, really hoping we could meet our tech needs and still take in this beautiful place.  As we approached the building, I noticed a couple on their cell phone video-chatting with their family members.  As we entered the screened-in front porch, I saw a gentleman on his laptop.  I was encouraged.  Upon entering the store, we were met with an oasis of civilization.  Camping supplies, snacks and tourist trinkets were all for sale.  This was also the place we could rent boats to see the swamp up close, or even schedule a guided tour.  But the moment of victory was the confirmation of free wifi!  It only worked in and around the trading post, but it was blazing fast and able to handle my email, file processing and wifi phone calling and texting needs for the next several days!

Later that day, Andy had managed to maneuver the satellite dish to acquire the minimum NFL channels needed to watch the Sunday game, albeit at about 85% satellite connection.  “Please Lord, don’t let it rain on Sunday!”, I whispered under my breath (ultimately, it DID rain on game day – for about 1 ½ hours, right up until kick-off, when the skies finally cleared and the game came into focus!). 

Victory times two! Time to enjoy Okefenokee!

We spent five days immersed in the wildlife.  Every hike we took, every trail we wandered, and even just walking down the state park road, we stumbled upon a new animal discovery.  We saw a multitude of deer, several bucks included.  We watched them eating, running and scratching their backs in the late afternoon sunshine.  Andy spotted a raccoon and we enjoyed the sight of many birds of all sizes.  We saw bears on three occasions, surprisingly close to the state park employee resident cottages, sitting below the acorn trees.  Other campers had reported that the bears had also been seen in trees, so we became adept at looking up, down and all around us as we walked.  

The bears and the deer seemed to like the acorn trees and showed up nearly every day
This was perhaps the largest buck we saw during our stay.
It was thriling to be able to get up close and personal with the animals.

On Halloween night, we lit a campfire, and set out a small bowl of candy as about a half dozen children came by to keep the Trick-or-Treat tradition alive in a very different location.  What we noted was the absolute darkness of the sky.  Absent of any light pollution, the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge reveals a big dark sky that was wondrous – it is difficult to describe the vastness and open miles of blackness.

The highlight of our stay, however, was an afternoon on a rented skiff, out on the water trails of the swamp.  Having received surprisingly little instruction for its operation (once we finally asked!), we were pushed off the little dock and out onto the open waters that completely surround the little island that the campground sits upon.

Andrew quickly learned to drive our little boat well – and we had two oars with us as well in case the engine failed us.
The canal that left the campground Trading Post was narrow, but opened out to wider waters.

The initial waterways of the swamp are wide open and the birds were soaring over our heads.  There were other birds that stood on fallen trees, waiting to spot their next meal.  The landscape was unique and stunning.  The quiet feeling of being alone in this natural swamp world was pervasive for most of the next four hours we spent on the water.  We spotted only three other groups of people in our water travels – two skiffs like ours and a group of six kayakers paddling silently with binoculars and cameras in hand.  

This skiff, like ours, was one of only three sightings of other travelers that day on the water.
The bird life was soaring all along our travels.

Our goal for the day, however, was to see alligators.  With a small map in hand, marked with water trails and natural points of interest (hollow tree, Alligator Cove, Five Sisters cluster of trees, etc), we noted the wooden signs staked into the swampy waters with arrows to guide us, and made a left turn down a water “trail”, identified the narrow open water surrounded on both sides by millions of lily pads.

The Five Sisters was a marking landmark on the map and helped us navigate the water trails.

It immediately grew darker, as the overhead tree cover and Spanish Moss filtered out the sun.  Andy had to drive the skiff slower, to adjust for the obstacles in the water – mysterious bumps underneath us that were likely hidden logs of long ago fallen Cypress trees.  I was reminded of a 1970s animated Disney movie called the “Rescuers”, where an international team of mice flew to the spooky bayou swamp to rescue a little girl named Penny.  The mystery animal sounds, the black waters, and the shadows cast by large overhead growth all created an impressive backdrop for our day’s adventure.

The mix of dark and sunlight in the swamp made a mysterious and beautiful scene.
Awww, Bernard and Miss Bianca, along with Evinrude, cruised the swamps fearlessly….Andrew and Tina were a little more tentative.
Disney’s bayou may not have been in Okefenokee, but it sure felt like it!

It didn’t take long before we noticed bubbles under the water, and small ripples on the surface that told us we had just missed an animal of some sort startled by our presence.  We were keenly aware that there were MANY eyes upon us, and we would have to remain quiet and alert if we wanted to see our prized alligator.  About an hour into our travels, we were rewarded.

We estimate that snout to eyeballs was about 1 1/2 feet,,,with a lot more gator under the murky water!

Andy saw him first.  Just the eyeballs initially, then the crown of the head, the long snout.  The rest of this massive alligator remained hidden in the water.  His head alone we estimated to be more than a foot long.  I immediately began snapping photos in the general area he described seeing the gator, but it was another 30 seconds or more before I actually SAW the beast and was aware of him through the camera lens.  All of the wildlife, especially the alligators, are incredibly well disguised in their natural habitat.

Invigorated by our sighting, and thrilled with the size of the prize, we relaxed and were able to see the rest of the phenomenal water world in which we were now fully immersed.  I jokingly reminded Andy that I was worth more alive than dead, in case he had enough of me already, as this would be the perfect place to plan the disposal of any evidence of ne’er-do-well activities.  I also wildly wondered that this was the perfect place for a band of criminal brothers to live a life of seclusion and safety from the world that wanted them caught for their bad acts (cue more spooky music).

We traveled about ten miles into the watery day trails on our skiff and were fortunate enough to spot two more alligators.  They were both smaller than our first, but both were completely OUT of the water, sunning themselves on logs.  We accidently coasted to within four feet of one (learning to maneuver the skiff), and thankfully, that alligator did not flinch one muscle.

We managed to get the nose of our skiff (where I was seated), to within four feet of this gator (accidentally)!
As we left the swamp day grails, we found this beauty sunning on a log.

Upon our return to the civilization of the Trading Post, we missed our final turn into the canal that led to the dock, a final reminder of how far away we were from the human world to which we were so accustomed.  This was truly a special place set aside by our nation to provide refuge for wildlife, and we were so blessed to be able to become a part of it for six days.  We were rewarded with breathtaking sightings of animals, natural growth that was astounding, and just enough time apart from the human world to feel enveloped by God’s great design. 

 Relaxing on our little skiff, taking in the beauty of God’s natural outdoors.

Safe travels, and Go Gators (double entendre intended)!

The thrill of the gator hunt was exhilarating!

This is The Best Campsite Of My Camping Life

A panoramic sunset just outside our camper door.

Sometimes the very best campgrounds have no cable, no wifi, no sewer hookups and limited amenities.  These are the campgrounds that use their natural resources – provided by Mother Nature (and a massive man-made lake) to become among the best out there.

Well, I have found the best – at least My Best – and it is a hidden gem that I am willing to share with you.  Just don’t tell too many people, please!  We want to return there someday, and I hope my best campground ever still has my best campsite available when that day arrives!

Let me set the picture.  The campground is in the rural upcountry area of South Carolina (the northwest corner of the state).  It sits on a series of three very small islands that are connected by a narrow road in the middle of 18,372 acre Lake Keowee.  This area is a water-lover’s paradise – pontoon boats, canoes, kayaks, speed boats and jet skis – just a few of the watercraft you will find.  Fishing, water skiing, swimming, sunbathing, hiking and more can all be found very nearby.

Aaaaahhhhhhhh.

But the thing that makes this place so darn special is the view – just sit in your camp chair and take in the 360-degree amazing water views.  Add a small breeze, the warm fall sunshine, and a campfire at dusk and you have all the makings of a perfect camping day.

Okay, here are the details…and then some more photos at the end to prove my point.  

Mile Creek County Park is in the foothills of Pickens County, SC.  You can visit MileCreekPark.com to find out more about the park itself.  If you want to reserve sites at the campground that is part of the park, simply go to ReserveAmerica.com.  The roads are narrow and sloping at times.  The sites vary in shape and size and setup significantly, so don’t fudge any camper lengths when selecting your site.  Even if you cannot snag a waterfront site, you will still enjoy lovely views, as these are tiny islands, and these sites are perched high, tucked low, and hidden among trees – giving you a feeling of privacy that belies the closeness of the sites to each other.

Our GPS screen on the drive into the campground gave us great perspective about the size of these three tiny islands. Our site was located at the last blue breadcrumb shown by the read triangle (the top edge of the 2nd island).

We had only four nights to stay at Mile Creek Park, so we never left our little island.  Why bother?  We had what was essentially a little private sandy beach beside our site that I imagine would be great for summertime swimming, although even during our late October visit, we spotted someone swimming nearby in the lake.  We had trees all around us that were changing into their fall color show.  And we had water – lots of water….On. All. Sides.

A view of our campsite from across the lake (campground island number three) shows our rocky shore and our sandy shore.

Yep, it is my favorite campsite ever.  Site #42.  Of course, we’ve only been FT RVing for 16 weeks, so I am really excited about what great beauty we have yet to find along the way, because this is a beautiful country.

A setting sun on our tiny Home Sweet Home on wheels.

Safe travels – and may we all find the perfect spot just to sit a while.

Note that ALL of the following photos were take FROM OUR CAMPSITE.

    Visit Virginia’s Historic Triangle – It’s Not Your Grade School History Lesson!

    History comes alive when you see the ships peeking through the trees that brought early settlers to what would eventually become part of Virginia’s Historic Triangle.

    When in grade school, I remember studying early American history, including our earliest settlements and the Revolutionary War.  History was neither my favorite nor least favorite subject, but I did enjoy the projects.  One project in particular was creating a Powhatan Native American village built from sticks and straw and hay and rocks that I found in the woods behind our house.  It was the artist in me, rather than the historian, that could always carry the day and make up for any academic gaps I had in history.  If it was interesting to me, as arts and crafts always were, then it made an impression on me.

    But it was a family camping trip in my late pre-teen days that I remember most and that brought the classroom history to life for me – a summer visit to the Jamestown Settlement that made an interesting and lasting impression on my childhood memories, so much so that it all came back to me four decades later when my husband I traveled to the Virginia Historic Triangle.

    Mom, pull out the old photo album – there HAS to be a photo of me in middle school standing in this very spot (sans Covid mask but still my same nerdy self!)

    You do not need to be a history buff to enjoy the Historic Triangle of Virginia.  It is really appropriate for just about everyone.  Really.  Adults, children of all ages, Americans, international visitors, history buffs and those that barely survived American History class in high school – they all can find a place here.  Our September 2020 visit left us wanting more, because the more we explored, the more we wanted to see.

    It was important to George (Washington) that we remain Covid-safe during our visit to the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown.

    The Historic Triangle of Virginia includes three historic colonial communities located on the Virginia Peninsula of the United States and is bounded by the York River on the north and the James River on the south. The points that form the triangle are Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, and Yorktown. They feature many restored attractions and are linked by the Colonial Parkway in James City and York counties, and the City of Williamsburg.

    The obvious stops are Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg, and we only got to see two of the three.  A sprained ankle (me) and some unexpected eye doctor appointments (also me), chewed up many of our days and left us knowing that we hope to return to the area, perhaps in a post-Covid world, hopefully injury-free, and be able to dig deeper into what the area has to offer.  Nonetheless, we had a great visit and experienced some fun and learning along the way.

    We decided it was best to go in chronological order, so we started at Jamestown Settlement (we did not have time to visit the archeological site of Jamestown Settlement where digs continue to discover history even now).  Among the first things I noticed at this recreation of America’s first permanent English settlement was that the Powhatan Native American huts are still there as I remembered them!  The historically accurate Jamestown fort was there as well, along with the addition of three replica ships that brought the settlers to the area – the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, all featuring interpreters wearing 17th-century wardrobe and filled with wonderful historically accurate knowledge that helps you truly feel the incredible challenges these early settlers must have suffered to try to survive.

    The recreated Anglican Church inside James Fort was a place you could almost see and hear the long sermons of mandatory church service, important meetings and other large gatherings of the early settlers during such difficult years.

    This is where history comes to life, with a scattering of really friendly and well-informed museum employees that can discuss their historical areas of expertise.  You can easily tell that they love history and love that their job is to share their love of history with others.  We spoke with guides that were knowledgeable in foods of the era and medical care.  Peeking in on the living quarters of the inhabitants was eye-opening, including the “survival cannibalism: that is discussed, something that I certainly did not recall being taught in grade school!

    Inside the Jamestown Settlement museum is a vast array of artifacts and educational displays.  I highly recommend the introductory video as a way to start your visit, so you can learn some of the historical context and details, or brush up on the history lessons you forgot long ago.

    This Continental Army tent was for an officer of means – tents of similar size were also used to sleep six enlisted men.

    Several days later we visited the American Revolutionary Museum at Yorktown.  The quality of both the museum and the outdoor living history areas, which included a continental army encampment and a revolutionary-era farm were impressive.  The indoor museum was expansive and also included a wonderful film and exhibition galleries.  Equally well-informed employees were available to guide us and answer questions.  This was truly a place that a history buff would spend an entire day, but it was walkable enough so that in only a couple of hours we could get a good understanding of the historic significance of Yorktown.  As proudly pointed out to us, the most special and valuable artifact in the museum is the rare July 1776 broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence on display in a large circular gallery in the museum.

    The museum quality was appropriate in appearance, high in quality and vast in content.

    What impressed us most overall about both Jamestown Settlement and the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown was the overall quality.  Both properties were accessible, in good order, very clean and well maintained, and as neat as a pin.  We felt safe at all times in a Covid world.  The breadth of the display content and the span of history covered were impressive.  The admission price of $27.50 per adult ($16.50 children 6 – 12; under 6 free) for a combination ticket to both locations within seven days, appears to be put to good use and worthwhile.  Other ticket options are also available.

    Beyond the obvious history museums most of us expect of the area, there is much more to discover.  Historic Yorktown is a beautifully appointed waterside destination that was a great stop along after a few hours of museum visits.  We enjoyed an outdoor meal on the water and drove briefly through the historic town and battlefields that reminded me a lot of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

    Historic Yorktowne was waterside, warm, quiet and had outdoor dining options that we could enjoy.
    I imagine that this place could be hopping in the summer, when not in the middle of a pandemic!
    The battlefields above the riverfront area of Yorktown made for a pretty drive.

    Among our favorite little adventures was a three-hour semi-private sail boat charter.  It was just us, Captain Dan and one other couple sailing on the beautiful York River.  There are a number of similar options, on bigger or different types of boats, but this was perfect for us.  The Captain pointed out several routine overhead flights by Air Force One and we had the opportunity to pass by two immense US Naval ships that harbor near the Coleman Memorial Bridge and travel weekly (turning the center of the bridge to “open” it so that the tall ships can pass and head out to nearby Norfolk.  We watched the opening and closing of the Coleman Memorial Bridge (not sure why, as no Naval ship was passing through) and enjoyed a water’s edge view of Yorktown, a Naval Weapons Station and even Bruce Hornsby’s mother’s house.  But the highlight of the day was watching dolphins swim peacefully and playfully on all sides of our sailboat.  The captain indicated that it was a late-season treat, as he had not seen any dolphins on the river for the previous ten days.  The joy and beauty of these creatures was all around us, first one or two, then at least eight or more in a group swimming as if they were putting on a water show just for us!

    It was a rare treat to see the Colman Memorial Bridge to open since Navy ships are the only for which the bridge would be closed to cars and opened for vessels (the sailboat shown just happened to be there at the time and was not seeking passage under the bridge).
    Being surrounded by these beautiful creatures was the highlight of the day for us!

    Part of all travel and sightseeing is learning to be okay with not being able to “do it all”.  We left a lot on our “next time” list that we didn’t even know about before we arrived inside the triangle.  Post-Covid America would be a great time to see a few items we couldn’t get to on this trip – Busch Gardens Williamsburg, PatriottoursVA.com, home of the historic Yorktown Segway tour and any of a number of well regarded wineries in the area.  Considering that the historic triangle is only about a 3 ½ hour car drive from most of our family in the Baltimore and surrounding areas, it seems like a great place to entice family visits and show them what we still wish to discover.

    Our semi=private sailboat charter on the James River was a thrill.

    Safe travels and keep history alive!

    We learned a lot from the historic interpreters/guides – here we learned about cooking at the Continental Army encampment.

    Here is a listing of some of the great things to see and do in Virginia’s Historic Triangle:

    WilliamsburgBusch Gardens
    Water Country USA
    Colonial Williamsburg
    Jamestown Settlement
    Pottery Complex
    Dinner and Music Theatre
    YorktownRevolutionary War Battlefield
    Victory Center
    Beaches/River Cruises
    RichmondScience Museum of Virginia
    Kings Dominion
    Richmond International Speedway
    Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
    Children’s Museum
    Hampton RoadsDinner Cruises
    Maritime Museum
    Virginia Living Museum
    Fort Eustis
    NorfolkNaval Station
    Tall Ship Cruises
    Battleship Wisconsin
    Chrysler Museum
    Nauticus National Maritime Center
    Victory Rover Naval Base Cruises
    Virginia BeachAtlantic Ocean, Beaches, Boardwalk
    Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel
    Virginia’s Eastern Shore
    Contemporary Art Center of Virginia
    Ocean Breeze Waterpark
    Marine Science Museum
    Urbanna or NearbySeveral 18 Hole Golf Courses
    Museums and Historic Sites
    Plantations (Shirley, Stratford Hall, Sherwood Forest)
    Narrated River Cruises
    Parks and Trails
    Charter Fishing
    George Washington Birthplace
    Boutique Shops, Antique Shops
    Wineries
    James Fort was recreated based on all the history that has been uncovered in the area where the actual Fort once stood.

    Bibliography

    Wikipedia. Historic Triangle, 22 05 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historic_Triangle#:~:text=The%20Historic%20Triangle%20includes%20three,%2C%20Colonial%20Williamsburg%2C%20and%20Yorktown. Accessed 09 10 2020.

    Hoist up the main sail, matey! It was a thrill to learn just a LITTLE bit about sailing – thank goodness for Captain Dan to get us there and back safely!

    Ten Lessons Learned In Our First Three Months of Full-Time RVing

    Photo courtesy of Pixabay

    After only three months of full-time RVing, we have learned some stuff!  Some of it we learned the hard way, some of it, just by observation and experience.  Some of it matters a lot, and some are just little anecdotes that we’ve figured out along the way.  Here is a list, in no particular order.

    1. Don’t go too fast or too far in one day.  The guideline that I have read about is “The Rule Of Three’s”:  1.  Don’t drive more than 300 miles in a day; 2.  Don’t travel after 3:00 pm;  and 3.  Stay at each destination at least three days.  We have broken that rule a few times, and we usually end up reminding ourselves that we really should follow “The Rule Of Three’s”.  Once we were RVing full-time, we re-learned that lesson the hard way when we drove too far, and arrived as it was getting dark (long after 3:00 pm) and planned a quick overnight stay before heading on down the road again the next morning.  Doing so caused us to be tired, hungry and anxious to get our camp set up for the night.  The end result:  Camper Slide-out – 1; brand new Apple Macbook – 0.  That sucker was crumpled like a piece of corrugated sheet metal.  Ugh.  Time to buy a new Macbook, slow down, and live by “The Rule of Three’s”.
    A very new, yet very sad Macbook lost out to our RV slide on a day we ignored the Rule of Three’s. Sigh.
    1. Our Cat Loves RVing!….(and our dogs don’t do too badly either).  We had a small menagerie of pets in the years leading up to full-time RVing.  We thought that due to the advanced age of some of our pets and soon-to-be adulting children who might take a few pets with them, that we would end up with only one or two dogs on our trip, which wasn’t too bad considering that at the time we married and combined our households into one, we had three dogs, four cats a parakeet and even a passing additional cat and guinea pig!  By the time we launched full-time RVing a little more than five years later, we were left with two dogs and one cat.  We REALLY HAD NOT PLANNED TO TRAVEL WITH A CAT.  REALLY.  So it really was a pleasant happenstance to discover that Stencil the cat really is a great camper.  It took about four “travel days” for her to quiet down in the truck – she clearly did not enjoy the travel part of camping at first.  But once we returned her to the camper, she LOVED it!  The ever-changing window views, the fresh air through the windows, even the ability to move from one end of our camper to the other with very little “floor travel”, Stencil quickly became our best furry camper!
    Stencil prefers faucet water over a water dish every time.
    1. FT RVing is NOT vacation!  Accept this fact early, because there is a big difference between vacationing in an RV and living in an RV.  When on vacation, it has been our personal experience that diet and exercise sort of get a “pass”.  That is NOT true when you LIVE in an RV.  You cannot act like you are on a perpetual vacation.  Lots of things in an RV are different (and better) than a “regular” life in a sticks and bricks home.  But diet and exercise cannot be two of them.  You must continue to put some miles under your feet…and you have to eat like it is NOT vacation!  Trust me.  Three months in, and we are just beginning to realize that the dryer did not shrink our clothes that much!
    Walking, walking, walking – in beautiful downtown Greenville, SC = Reedy Falls Park
    1. Cleaning is quicker, but must happen more often!  This one is simple, but still nice to realize and live first-hand.  Get a great vacuum (Shark Rocket), use some nice essential oils and diffusers (especially if you have pets), and embrace simple cleaning techniques (vinegar and baking soda are clutch!).  Life is simpler, cleaner and less overwhelming (especially if you RV with only grown adults!)!
    1. Sometimes it is okay to take a shot of whiskey at 10 AM – Consider this real RVing scenario:  Take a little hike.  A bug flies into your mouth.  Spit.  Cough.  Swallow.  Complete your hike, with visions of the wriggling bug in your digestive system.  Take a shot of whiskey – just to MAKE SURE that the unfortunate bug is fully neutralized.  Yep, it was 10 AM and my dear husband joined me in my whiskey cleanse with a toast and a smile.  It did the trick and readied us for our next hike in the beautiful outdoors.  Perhaps next time I will keep my mouth shut a little bit more!
    This wasn’t our whiskey walk morning, but a peaceful wine evening at Ft. Chiswell RV Park in Max Meadows, VA on our 5th wedding anniversary.
    1. Your dogs may need time to adjust to tiny house living – It may take some training, some secret spying or some new dog teaching tools to be certain your dog is behaving well in your absence.  We moved from a home on 1.22 acres in a rural area, to a home that generally sits in a close-knit campground with regularly changing surroundings.  Our first month our dogs got a “ticket” from the campground, giving us a friendly reminder that they were misbehaving while we had left to do laundry.  We worked to change the behaviors and just when we were beginning to think we might have the problem licked (close the windows, play the radio, pull the shades and have the dog “vibrate-collar” ready as we pull up to the camper in case our arrival causes them to misbehave).  Nope.  A kind dog-loving neighbor in month three let us know that Calvin-the-separation-anxiety-dog was whining miserably because he missed us so much when we left for a dinner double date.  We have upped our game now, with ultrasonic training boxes and no-bark collars that emit a tone and vibrate automatically.  We will figure it out – it will just take some time.
    Bug is our old-man traveling dog – a very happy and peaceful camper – sort-of willing to share his camping chair with his human.
    1. Alone time is still important but takes some planning to achieve – When retired, my mother and father would travel for about six months of the year in their RV.  Mom told me that the secret to creating some alone time for her was to tell Dad that she needed to go shopping for some “unmentionables”.  Like magic, Dad lost all interest in tagging along with her and she had the afternoon to herself.  In my RVing life, my husband and I joked about how our trip might end up being only six weeks long if we couldn’t adjust to so much life togetherness in a tiny space.  I am a person that values, enjoys and really needs some regular solitude.  Now that we live together in 350 square feet of space, I do still get my alone time, but it just happens differently than at any other time in my life.  It used to be that kids would leave for school and my husband would leave for work.  Viola’, alone time just happened five days a week!  Now I have to discipline myself for early morning walks to start my day off right.  I have also discovered that I really enjoy using a meditation app on my phone to create peaceful harmony in my headspace.  Reading creates a sense of time alone as well, and FT RVing has allowed me to really dig into leisure reading like I haven’t been able to enjoy since summertime when I was a nerdy middle schooler!  Now, when my husband goes to play a round of golf, the day is a nice treat for me as well because I have a block of hours all to myself!  I might just use the time to watch a chick-flick or decide to balance the check-book.  But it is only me, myself and I for that time to be recharged and ready to miss him all over again!
    Andrew enjoys some solitude at the front of our chartered sailboat on the water in the Historic Triangle of Virginia. Alone time can be achieved in many great ways when FT RVing.
    1. A surprising number of campgrounds do not supply fire rings or picnic tables – As a kid, I only cared if there was a playground or swimming pool at a campground, so perhaps I just didn’t take notice of how many campgrounds provide no picnic table or fire ring.  Out of the ten campgrounds we have stayed in for our first three months of FT RVing, four of them allow campfires, but provide no ring.  One of those campgrounds allowed a simple ground fire, but the other three required we provide a fire pit raised off the ground.  So we have now purchased a Solo Stove Bonfire and stand, which is pricier than the portable firepits you may be more familiar with, but is high quality, takes up a smaller footprint (19.5” diameter) and is made of heavy duty stainless steel.  There is a double wall exterior which helps to create a secondary combustion and virtually smoke-free fire!  We love it!  The picnic table shortage that we encountered is not as much of a problem for the two of us, but it may be very important for larger families.  We already have two portable tables and several chairs that meet our needs.
    Our purchase of the Solo Stove Bonfire and base stand accessory (not shown here), was a great addition to our glamping gear!
    1. Most campgrounds do not recycle – Perhaps this lesson is more of an east coast thing, but it is so disappointing to see so little support for recycling.  Only ONE campground out of ten has supported any recycling – and they did a poor job of it at that.  They had a couple of recycling dumpsters at one location in the park that were poorly marked and gave campers no guidance to get it right (what is recyclable in that location?). They did not indicate to us that recycling was even an option when we checked in. Regular garbage dumpsters were distributed around the park at different locations, so most campers never even saw the recycling dumpsters and simply threw everything in the garbage.  I recognize that recycling costs businesses money, but I would bet that more campers than not are accustomed to recycling some of their waste in their non-camping lives and would prefer to do so while camping as well. Recycling just seems to be a natural fit with camping, doesn’t it?  It has been difficult to feel “okay” with throwing out glass, plastic, paper, aluminum and steel like it was the 1970s when recycling just wasn’t a thing in our world.  It just feels wrong to me.  I hope that this is a FT RVing experience that does not hold up as we criss-cross the country.
    I hope that more campgrounds will begin to support recycling to help us all love the earth a little better.

    SAVOR every moment – Loosen up, slow down, and savor the simple things.  Our FT RVing life won’t last forever.  Traveling North America is not something we plan to do forever.  So now is the time to really savor what we are experiencing in our traveling lives.  I am simply terrible at this.  It has taken me every bit of these first three months to simply be OKAY with sleeping in a little longer just because I can.  I have to remind myself to be OKAY with putting off a chore another day so I can sit by the lake and read for a while.  This is a life lesson for me that I have always known and always worked to balance in my busy life, but by launching our travels this year, it has been a great reminder for me.  This is OUR TIME, these are OUR TRAVELS, and life will still have challenges and TRIBULATIONS.  So my biggest lesson learned is to work every day to SAVOR.  EVERY.  MOMENT. 

    Savoring the mountain views when we entered the open air chapel at Pretty Place, SC – As is engraved on the overhead beam “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills.” Psalm 121:1
    Savoring some patio time in Waldo Florida – even if it was 90 degrees and 90% humidity!
    Savoring the view from our campsite at Palmetto Cove RV Park in Cleveland, SC
    Savoring a day in the city of Greenville, SC – a walk in the park, lunch by the waterfalls, and some touristy shopping makes for many fabulously “savorable” moments.
    Safe travels, and enjoy the living and learning as you go!