RVing – Page 2 – The view from the edge of our empty nest.

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.

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.
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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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!)!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

The Moment We Became Full-time RVers Was A Little Surprising

Becoming a “full-time RVer” was a piece of cake in the strict definition of the words. We moved out of our house and into our 35 foot fifth-wheel trailer on July 17, 2020. We have not returned to sleep in our “sticks and bricks” home since. So by that definition, we have been “full-timing” for a couple of months now.

But in my gut, full-time living didn’t feel real to me until recently. We are still adjusting and finding our way there. That is because living in your camper, trailer, motorhome or RV of any kind is more a state of being or a change in mindset than the place you lay your head each night. It is a much larger and more significant process of change in your life and in your heart. “Going FT” took us about six years.

The idea of living full-time in an RV began as we dated and then married in 2015 and were talking about how we might spend our time together. When you marry in the middle of your life (late 40s) rather than in your youth, you feel compelled to increase the quality of the time you spend together. You have an appreciation for the brevity of life and gain a desire to make up for the time you lost together. So we began dreaming about our time together.

Marrying in mid-life grows appreciation for the quality of time you spend together.

We had about six years of at-home parenting to do with the youngest of our kids before we became empty-nesters. We already were not the traditional family, the typical marriage or the couple we expected to be. With different backgrounds, we needed to explore the possibilities. I was always drawn to travel and had been camping my entire life. My desire to see the country and the world had always been a part of my life, adjusting the distance and types of travel I did along the way for life changes such as college, career, marriage and kids. I always felt like there was a lot of travel ahead for me. Andrew had traveled occasionally for work but aside from a few plane trips to Disney when his children were young, vacation was often a “staycation” and work had been his focus. Before we married, he hadn’t seen himself much outside of the success and growth of his career.

We were both open to great change – heck, our entire lives had been DEFINED by change for years (death, divorce, remarriage). We wanted to really be able to plan these changes carefully and to take our time.

What began as daydreaming about our future travels, turned into an idea about camping together. “Let’s try it!”, we said. My kids and I already had a Coleman pop-up camper, so we took a long-weekend trip to see if camping might be “our thing”. Then we decided to try some nice resorts as well. So we took a couple of fly-in, international, “all-inclusive” vacations. We enjoyed it all. What we quickly realized was that we wanted to see and do a LOT. Our daydreaming evolved into a plan – “Let’s take an extended trip once the kids are on their own”.

We started small to explore camping as a couple…and saw great potential.

All-inclusive resorts are too-short-lived but really wonderful.

Recognizing that we couldn’t afford to travel long-term at high-end resorts, and acknowledging that camping in our 50s would be more pleasant if we focused on the “glamping” end of the camping spectrum, we hatched a rough plan. Let’s upgrade our camper and use these next few years to learn to camp together. We visited an RV show and spent a full two seasons deciding which style of camper would best meet our needs. We joined Facebook Groups, devoured blogs and Youtube videos of people that were taking epic long-term trips around North America. We discovered “full-time RVing” and felt like we had found our plan.

That moment of realization created great anticipation and excitement and created even more fun over the following years as we planned for our plan! We are by nature, big planners and very deliberate decision-makers, but with this big lifestyle change, we made a point to try to NOT plan the travel. We wanted to breed spontaneity and flexibility into our lives as we became empty-nesters.

So we used the preparation years to place our focus on getting ready for “our time”. We wanted to buy the right rig, the right truck, be safe and secure and set ourselves up for great success. We wanted to be prepared financially and made big decisions, such as selling our home, selling our vehicles and shedding nearly all of our possessions. We did all of those things and spent the next three summers building up our camping and travel repertoire and paring down our lives for the big launch.

That takes us, once again, to that summer day in July when we moved out of our house and into our camper. Literally years in the making and all it took was an afternoon to schlep our remaining clothes, food and most important possessions into our 350 foot square home on wheels.

From “sticks and bricks” to Codorus State Park, Hanover, PA – July 2020

We meandered within 25 miles of our starting point for two more weeks, visiting with family, emptying out the house and putting it on the market and REALLY PACKING the rig with everything the last little chick was taking to college. Down to Florida we went to deposit her at school, help her get settled in her apartment, and to just sit and settle down for a while. Life had been frenetic and exceedingly busy for months and we were exhausted. It had been difficult to enjoy the day-to-day because there had been so much to accomplish in those last weeks and months and years.

Through it all, it took a full month before my dear husband and I looked at each other and referred to our place as “home”. In the end, it had nothing to do with the rig we chose, or the things with which we had parted. It did not matter where the camper sat on that particular day. Instead, it had everything to do with a feeling of contentment. For us, it was grabbing those feelings we sought – slowing down, reducing responsibilities, changing the type of parenting we did, eliminating “stuff” and reconnecting with each other in a way we hadn’t really felt since we had been teenagers. At age 54/53, we now have a simpler life with fewer worries which has given us a giddy feeling of anticipation of what lies ahead of us. We are full-time RVers, exploring life fully – and we are so blessed to experience this lifestyle.