traveling – The Wandering RVer

Cool Finds in New Mexico

Not wanting to spend any more time than we had to at the RV park, I mapped out a long, circular day trip route. I’ve always wanted to go to Truth or Consequences, NM. Why? Well…it’s name is Truth or Consequences! Or as the locals call it T or C.

Up until March 31, 1950, the town was called Hot Springs, New Mexico. (Not to be confused with the 11 other states with towns named Hot Springs.) The change in the town’s name started out as a joke when Ralph Edwards, host of a radio quiz show on NBC Radio offered to broadcast his show from the first town to rename itself after his show – Truth or Consequences. The original intent of the citizens was to change the name back, but here we are 74 years later and it is still called T or C.

As we headed northwest out of town, I was looking for additional things to see or do along our route. I discovered something else that is also visible from space, like White Sands NP. Valley of Fires recreation area is located next to the Malpais Lava Flow. Approximately 5,000 years ago, Little Black Peak erupted and flowed 44 miles into the Tularosa Basin. The lava flow is four to six miles wide, 160 feet thick and covers 125 square miles. The lava flow is considered to be one of the youngest lava flows in the continental United States. From space, there is a stark contrast between the white of White Sand NP and the black of the lava field.

If I had read up on it earlier, I would have planned an entire day there. As it was, we made a brief stop to see a bit of the lava field…

Scientists believe Little Black Peak erupted from a small vent as a continuous lava flow for 20 to 30 years. I imagine this offered a better chance of survival than a mass ejection of molten lava. Either way, I’m glad I wasn’t around then!

As I was reading names of towns we would be driving through aloud to Steve, he decided we just had to go to Elephant Butte. (Of course, to be funny, he kept pronouncing it “butt”.)

We stopped at Elephant Butte Lake State Park. The ranger at the gate was kind enough to let us drive through without having to pay the entrance fee. We explained we just want to look around quickly. He did tell us however, if we decided to kayak, we’d have to come back and pay. Much like many of the other reservoirs we have seen, Elephant Butte Lake was very low…

But, they did have a very cool sand sculpture…

We left the beach area and drove over to the dam. I’d love to see what it looks like when the lake is full, but this was the view in early April…

I entered the address of the visitors center in T or C as our next destination. I was hoping they would have a sticker with the town’s name on it for my collection. In case you didn’t know, I put stickers on the side of the slide of cool places we visit. On the other end of the slide, I put stickers of all our national parks, forests, seashores etc…just like I do on the Jeep. They didn’t have any stickers, but suggested I take a picture of the sign on the way into town…

5 gift shops later, I did finally find a sticker! Another reason for visiting T or C, other than the cool name, is T or C Brewing Company!

The afternoon was flying by and we were still only half way through the route I planned, so we enjoyed a quick beer and headed to our next destination, Las Cruces. I’m sure you won’t be surprised, but there is a brewery in Las Cruces! And, you guessed it, that is where we went for dinner. We went to their North Main Street location and had a delicious pizza, spinach/ artichoke flatbread and some great Ice Box Brewing beers.

After dinner, it was time to head back to Alamogordo. By the time we got back to Waldo, we had driven 322 miles, visited 2 breweries, discovered Valley of Fires and laughed about butte versus butt. All in all, it was a fun, but long day. In the morning, we would be heading back into Texas, but more about that next week!

Coming Up…

“Hey Texas – We’re Baaaack!”

Welcome Back to New Mexico

With the FMCA Rally over, it was time to move. We had come as far west as we were going to for this part of our travels and it was time to head east, once again. Our entire spring travel was built around 2 required destinations. The first was the FMCA Rally and the second was Waco, TX to meet up with friends for the solar eclipse on April 8th.

I planned on 4 nights in Alamogordo, NM to visit White Sands National Park, Pistachioland and Truth or Consequences, NM. It was going to be a lot to pack into 4 days, especially when I discovered SO many other things to do in the area.

We knew we were getting close to Alamogordo when we saw a roadside monument for the White Sands Missile Range…

What we didn’t know at the time is that when they are actively firing missiles, the road we came in on would be closed for hours at a time. White Sands NP has a page of their website with scheduled closures. Luckily, we didn’t run into that situation, but were told it happens quite frequently. I guess we really dodged a missile. Lame joke, I know, but it was funny at the time.

The missile we didn’t dodge was the Zia Skies RV park. I knew we were in trouble when we turned onto Lemin Street…

Their website mentioned a locked gate, but this wasn’t the neighborhood I was expecting! What would have been really nice is if they had sent us the gate code, since there was no office at the park. And if there hadn’t already been someone in OUR site. It is the only RV park I have ever left a review for with the heading “DO NOT STAY AT THIS PARK!”

The weather was chilly and the wind just would not quit. That explains my hairstyle when we went to the 575 Brewing Company out first night in town…

Our first full day in Alamogordo was spent at White Sands National Park. From 1933 until 2019, it was known as White Sands National Monument. The NPS still hasn’t found the funds to update the signage…

The dunes at the park make up the world’s largest gypsum dunefield and are visible from space. A 16 mile (round trip) road leads you into the heart of the dunefield. I had no inclination to hike the dunes nor to sled on them, but it was fun to watch from the Interdune Boardwalk trail…

As we walked along the boardwalk, I marveled at the windswept patterns in the sand…

I was surprised so many people were sledding these particular dunes with all the scrub growing up when they could have driven a bit further to get to taller dunes with much less scrub. I was also surprised to see motorhomes with toads in the boardwalk parking lot…

As we drove further into the dunes, the views changed rapidly. We went from dunes with lots of scrub to acres and acres of tall dunes…

The most perplexing thing I saw was a sign where the road turns from pavement to packed sand…

Look closely at rule #3. Apparently, from Feb. 1-May 31, alcohol is prohibited, but it is allowed from June 1-Jan. 31. My guess would be Feb-May are the months of peak visitors. Extreme heat in the summer and snowy conditions in the winter would make visiting less appealing from June to the end of Jan. It was March when we visited, so no picnic with beer for us at the dunes.

I did see a really cool Utility RV in one of the parking lots. Given the shape of the license plate, it definitely came from another country, but I love the mural on the back…

As we were leaving the park, we stopped to take a picture of a dunes climber and his dog taking a break…

The weather took a quick turn for the worst when we got back to Waldo! I was happy we weren’t still driving around the dunes when it started to snow/sleet…

With another National Park off the bucket list, the next day we opted to knock an Atlas Obscura item off the list – Pistachioland! I love pistachios and almost always have a bag of them in Waldo for travel days, but eating pistachio ice cream in front of the world’s largest pistachio will only happen once in my lifetime!

The United States has the largest share of pistachio farming in the world, producing almost 40% of the crop worldwide. The trees at McGinn’s farm were still in the dormant stage. It would be neat to see them loaded with one of my favorite nuts!

Thank you for coming along. Have you been to White Sands NP or Pistachioland? Let me know in the comments below!

Coming up…

An unexpected surprise just outside Alamogordo!

Into Arizona

On the way to Tucson, we visited Rope Lake Sate Park, just outside of Safford, AZ. I hadn’t really planned any day trips, it was just a place on the way. Had I done ANY research, I would have known, there is plenty to do!

The drive from New Mexico took us less time than we thought, so we arrived before check-in. A $10 day pass was our penalty. Luckily, on an overcast Friday in March, there was plenty of room for Waldo in the day use parking area. We disconnected the Jeep for a drive around the park while we waited for a call from the ranger’s station. In the loop we would be camping in, I saw some Gambel Quails, they always make me smile…

Mt. Graham was still wearing a thin blanket of snow…

Once we were settled into our site, we spent a relaxing afternoon playing Yahtzee (one of our favorite pastimes).

Looking at the map, I found several places of interest. The first was the Black Hills Rockhound Area, renowned for its deposits of fire agate.

Not one to miss a chance at picking up pretty rocks, we headed out. I spent our drive time reading about how to find and identify fire agate. I found a great post by The Rolling Rockhound which gave me, at least, a clue as to what we might find. I showed Steve what to look for and we set off it opposite directions. Every so often, I’d look up to make sure I could still see the Jeep…

In the end, we found lots of pieces of chalcedony and 2 containing fire agates. Without the proper tools and skills to reveal the agate, they will remain just pretty rocks in my collection.

Another area which drew my attention was the Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area. I confess, I had to look up what “riparian” meant. For any of you who don’t know either, it means “relating to or situated on the banks of a river.”

There are lots of off-road trails, but since we still don’t have 4 wheel drive, we stuck to the easy trails.

Our first stop was the information kiosk and scenic overlook…

As with several other of the places we’ve visited lately, the spring wildflowers were dazzling…

With so much scenery to take in, it’s hard to see everything, but we did our best!

We realized how a campground, chosen strictly as a place en route to Steve’s upcoming job, really could be a destination for adventures! Until next week…

Coming up…

While Steve goes to work, Laura goes to play!

Striking It Rich In New Mexico

With only one day left in Deming, we ere determined to make the most of it. After studying Google Maps for a bit, I was able to determine a round trip route which would include ghost towns, mines and, of course, a brewery.

Our first stop was the Lake Valley Historic Townsite. After silver was discovered in 1878, the town swelled to a population of over 4000 people. It wasn’t long before the mine played out and the people scattered in search of new opportunities.

The Bureau of Land Management has restored the chapel and the school house. There is a self guided tour and an interpretive walk but, unfortunately the site is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Our search for another ghost town, not far from Lake Valley, found only beautiful scenery…

Steve had done some research as well and thought we could throw a winery in as well. The “almost” ghost town of Kingston boasts of having the oldest continuously operating social club in the American west, The Spit & Whittle Club. With a little research, I learned Spit & Whittle clubs are a gathering of people to retell tales of the past. And Kingston certainly has a storied past, at one time, it was the largest town in New Mexico with nearly 7000 residents frequenting its 23 saloons.

As we searched for the winery, we talked about what life had to have been like in the 1880’s. The boom and bust saga is nearly the same for every mining town we have ever visited. But roughly 132 residents of Kingston, refused to give up, even after the post office closed in 1957. We never did find the Black Range Vineyards and contented ourselves with a drive along Percha Creek before heading out.

Our travels took us through Gila National Forest, established in 1899. The Gila Wilderness Area, an area within the National Forest, was established in 1924. The wilderness area was the first of it’s kind in the world. It only took 40 more years for the Wilderness Act was passed.

The winding road up and down through the Black Range with lots of scenic overlooks to stop at, provided us many photo ops…

We were hoping to have a beverage in Pinos Altos at the Buckhorn Saloon, but it wasn’t going to be open for several more hours…

The Pinos Altos mine was originally known as “The El Dorado of New Mexico” and produced more than $8,000,000 in gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc before mining ended.

What we didn’t know when we left Pinos Altos was we would find the Santa Rita cooper mine a few miles down the road, one of the oldest operating mines in the US.

I have always loved the huge mining rock trucks. I mean, just look at the size of the tires!

Look how small the service truck is compared to the rock truck…

Our final stop of the day was Silver City…

Unlike the ghost or near ghost towns we visited, Silver City has not only not busted, but has tried to revitalize itself. At last we would find a beer and a burger…

After our late lunch at Little Toad Creek Brewery and Distillery, we checked out some of the buildings…

With the long drive back to Deming, we decided to call it a day.

I hope you enjoyed our search for ghost towns and will come along on our next adventure!

Coming Up…

Into Arizona

The Florida Mountains

We knew we were going to be in Tucson in less than a week, so we had the “special bolts” shipped general delivery to a post office there. 4 wheeling would have to wait. We heard about a dirt road around the Florida Mountains and thought, well, if it gets too bad, we can always turn around!

After a quick stop at the Spring Canyon Recreation Area, a separate unit of Rockhound SP, we went in search of Gap Road SE. The ladies we met at Luna Rossa winery had told us a family member had recently purchased a large ranch on the backside of the Florida range. She assured us the land wasn’t posted so when we came to the impressive entrance to the ranch, we knew we had found the right road.

The spring wildflowers were putting on quite a display as we got closer to the mountains…

At first, the road was a simple unmaintained dirt road, easy enough to travel…

I use an app called onX Offroad to find trails and to navigate when Google maps thinks we are clearly lost.

You can download maps before you set off on an adventure in case you find yourself without service in the backcountry. The problem we ran into was because it is part working ranch and part BLM land, there are so many unmarked trails, it can be difficult to know if you are actually on the trail you want to be. A couple times we had to backtrack, but doing so gave me plenty of photo ops…

The first closed gate we came to had me wondering it we would have to turn around, but upon a closer look, I could tell it was easily opened. It is meant to deter cattle not vehicles…

We did run across a 2 wheel drive pickup truck coming from the opposite direction. The driver told us he had accessed the road from Hwy 11 which was our endpoint. I was glad to have confirmation it could be done!

One of the things I really like about OnX is it can track us, even without cell service. I can then save the map of our adventures…

When we made it back to a paved road, I stopped tracking us and looked at the stats for trail…

Steve decided the perfect way to end the day would be to stop at the other award winning winery in Deming, Lescombes Winery…

Our bartender, Chrissy, certainly ranks right up there for a sense of style when it comes to taking a selfie…

After an adventure filled day, we headed back to Waldo. We only had a couple more days at Rockhound and were determined to see and do everything we could pack into our stay!

Coming Up…

The places you find when you are looking for ghost towns!

Visiting the Texas Gulf Coast

After leaving Louisiana, we headed for the gulf coast of Texas. There are 8 state parks along the coast and 6 of them have camping. Since we’d already been to Galveston Island SP two times, we decided to check out some of the other parks.

We started with Sea Rim SP in Sabine Pass.

I read reviews (usually) and nearly everyone complained about the nonstop barrage of mosquitoes year round. And, yep!, they are that bad!! But knowing in advance made it much more bearable. A liberal dose of bug spray and a bit of tolerance toned it down to mildly annoying.

The Gambusia Nature Trail Boardwalk is named for the small gambusia fish you will see in the marsh. It has several interpretive signs and covered benches along the .7 mile trail.

We saw plenty gambusia, along with a couple water snakes and some turtles. We only saw one small flock of American Coots. In case you ever wanted to know, a flock of coots is called a commotion! Most people assume coots are ducks but what makes then so different is the fact they do not have webbed feet…

This picture is from the Cornell University "All About Birds" website — This picture is from the Cornell University website “All About Birds”

You can drive along the east and west beaches for miles, with the center section reserved for non-motorized travel. While we did in fact do that, I’ll be darned it I know what I did with the pictures!

We set a day aside to go into Sabine Pass to see the lighthouse (which I believe is technically in Louisiana).

We were getting ready to leave when we saw the Lucky Johnny trawler heading out into the gulf.

Our time at Sea Rim was over much too soon, but that means we’ll just have to go back another time!

Our next stop was Mustang Island SP outside of Corpus Christi. This was a place that had been on my To-Do list for years and I was quite excited about our stay. Unfortunately, my excitement vanished when we arrived. Not because it wasn’t everything I had hoped. But because the transfer case in my Jeep had grenaded somewhere along the way. We now knew what that sound was we had heard 😦 He discovered when the t-case grenaded, it also took out the front drive shaft, ripped out several wires AND put a hole in the fuel line. Oh joy! He did all the repairs he could do at the campground and found a shop at our next stop to complete the job. So….he spent our time there “mechanic-ing” and I read books. I did manage a walk on the beach, but my heart just wasn’t into it but then I found something weird in the surf…

No one seemed to know exactly what is was/is, so I’ve dubbed it my Texas Gulf Coast Alien.

The only other picture I took the entire 4 days was an early spring promise of a beautiful yucca plant flower bud…

Looking back on it, it could have been so much worse. We could have been 5 miles down the beach when it happened or on the highway doing 60 mph. But knowing that did not help how I felt at the time! So,with high hopes of a repaired Jeep, we headed off to Laredo. More about that next time!

Where Have You Been the Last 2 Years?!?!?

I know, I know. We’ve been missing in action as far as updating the blog, but I am going to try to re-motivate myself. We’ve been lots of fantastic places and I’ve struggled with where do I pick back up. Do I go back to where we have been? Or do I just start with what’s been happening recently? The “plan” I’ve come up with is to get you all up to speed on where we are, what’s going on and what’s coming up first, then, throw in random places from the past. So with that in mind, here goes…

2024

We had a major change at the end of 2023, we opted to stop selling Christmas trees for Hayes Farms. It was a tough decision. It was a huge part of our lives for the last 5 years. We had gone to Florida in October with the plan of selling trees, but, things change. We still sell fireworks for New Years so we started 2024 in Florida. We spent our first night back on the road at our favorite Harvest Host, Southern Grace Lavender Farm. It is always a pleasure to stay there and it breaks up the long drive out of Florida. Then we headed west to Blakeley State Park in Spanish Fort, AL. From here, it was an easy drive into Mobile. We missed their Mardi Gras celebration by 1 day, which was kind of OK with me. I’m not a fan of big crowds or impossible to find parking. After doing a Google search, we found The Oyster City Brewing Company…

This is Dane, our bartender. Apparently taking a selfie, before taking our picture sounded fun. It’s not the first time it has happened and I’m actually a bit disappointed now when it doesn’t happen.

We walked the boardwalk trail passed the “hiding tree”. It is said that it was a hiding place for Confederate soliders trying to escape capture after loosing the battle of Fort Blakeley….

Next, we headed to Palmetto Island State Park in Abbeville, LA. In case you don’t know, all Louisiana state parks offer a camping discount for people 62 and over! Score! It pays to have an old man for a husband, hehehe. My main reason for stopping there is they have 3 ponds/lakes that are connected by a kayak trail, but the weather had no plans to cooperated with me. Don’t let the patches of blue sky fool you, it was cold!

Instead we decided to check out the local, come on! you know what’s coming…brewery. Adopted Dog Brewery in Lafayette did not disappoint!

There are many impressive live oak trees in the area, but this one really stood out to me. It definitely has a desire to live!

Up next, 17 Days to Cross Texas

Adventures in the Bluegrass State

We headed straight to Kentucky – The Bluegrass State when we left New Hampshire. Time with family and friends was great, but I was ready for some adventures. Our original plan was to boondock in the Daniel Boone National Forest, just outside of Morehead. There were two main reasons we nixed that idea, first being the was absolutely no cell service but the main reason was when we got to Paragon Road, the sites were muddy and soft. I could have lived with no service, but if we had gotten Waldo into the site, it would have taken a tow truck to get him out.

We spent the first week at Shady Valley Campground in Grayson. I rarely book a campground that has a Facebook page as it’s website, particularly if it isn’t updated regularly. But, I made an exception and it turned out well. Our site was fairly level and spacious…

We did have a freaky visitor make his home on our picnic table…

Several Google searches later, I learned it was a female Arrowshaped Micrathena spider. I know lots of people don’t want anything to do with spiders, but I thought she was cool.

We spent most of the week just driving around the area and seeing what there was to do. We explored backroads and small towns, we discovered the fact that Kentucky still has lots of dry counties – in 2020 – who’d have thought that!?!?!?

Anyhow, one of our daytrips included a stop at Greenbo Lake State Resort Park . We were quite surprised when we learned there are no day use fees for any of the Kentucky State Parks. As we toured the park, we saw how much there is to do, they even have miniature golf (for a very small fee). As we were leaving the park, we came across this…

It’s hard to imagine all of the work that went into building it. I’m sure it produced a heck of a lot of Kentucky iron in its day. On the way back to the campground, we took a detour to see this…

I have always loved covered bridges and photographing them. There were picnic tables inside, but the gates were chained shut, presumably because of Covid.

Back at the campground, I searched for somewhere to explore the next day. What I found piqued my curiosity! An abandoned town with an abandon mine. Who could resist?

We came to the abandon town of Lawton first. We explored everywhere it was safe to go…

When we came to the final building, I didn’t think much would still be inside…

As we walked around, we found an intact door that had a lock on it. I’ll go through any open door, but I draw the line at breaking in. There were several boards missing along the foundation so I was able to peek inside, imagine my surprise…

I have no idea how long those vehicles have been in there, but I can’t imagine it’ll be easy to get them out. The roof is failing, the walls are leaning precariously and who knows if the floor is safe.

We drove on a few miles and found the entrance to what is now called Mushroom Mine. Originally, it was the Tygart Limestone company which shut down after WW II. Some time in the mid-60’s a group of Kentucky farmers decided to turn it into a mushroom farm. That lasted until the mid-80’s. In 2004, 2 bodies were found inside about a 1/4 mile from one of the entrances. The couple had been missing several months and their son was ultimately charged in their murder. In 2006, the mine was the center of a scam involving the building of a data storage site. Read more history here.

I was surprised how accessible the mine was…

Armed with flashlights, we entered the mine. It was obvious lots of people drive in, but we left the Jeep outside and walked. Near the entrances, there is plenty of light…

But the further in you go, the darker it gets. We found plenty of evidence of the mushroom farm…

Rooms and rooms of growing trays. The farther in we went, the more water we encountered until we were forced to turn back. A selfie in the nearly pitch black surroundings…

Back outside, we explored what was supposed to be the data farm buildings. Half built structures with tons of graffiti. I don’t care for the subject matter, but some of the “artists” had talent…

The mine was definitely creepy, but so much fun to explore.

Have you ever explored an abandon place?

Up next – the move to Carter Caves State Resort Park.

Georgia’s Waterfall Heaven

If there’s one item in nature I really enjoy photographing, it’s waterfalls. Big ones, little ones, roaring ones – I don’t care. During our visit to the Georgia coast, Steve picked up a tourist magazine with an ad for the Georgia mountains featuring, you guessed it, waterfalls.

As we made our travel plans for heading north, we decided to stay a week at the southern end of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Georgia. A quick search on Google maps showed there were well over a dozen waterfalls we could visit. One of the determining factors for me was how strenuous was the hike? Anything over easy/moderate and I’m out. One review I read on a hiking forum stated “trail is difficult to follow, not well marked and dangerous”. Needless to say, we skipped that one!

On Monday, we headed out to Anna Ruby Falls, only to discover it is currently closed on Mondays. So we stopped at Fred’s Famous Peanuts to check out their store and waterwheel…

I may put that sign on Waldo!

Care for some TOE or FROG Jam?

We did skip the boiled peanut samples, they just aren’t my thing, but the store was a neat stop on the way to the next falls.

The trail to Dukes Creek Falls starts off with an easy boardwalk and switch backs several times, making it more like a 2 mile walk in the woods (round trip) than a hike…

Once we reached the viewing decks, we did come across a few other people, but it was still fairly peaceful. I’m a huge fan of long exposure shots of water…

But, sometimes, it can add a bit of weird…

Over the 2 1/2 seconds it took to take this image, the swirling bubbles in the water created a face. I didn’t see it until I downloaded the picture onto the computer. A lady there was kind enough to take a picture with my phone for us…

Since it was still early when we got back to the Jeep, we decided to try and get 2 waterfalls in one day. We headed to Horsetrough Falls, only to find the Forest Service road blocked off. On the way back to Waldo, we stopped off in the town of Helen. It seemed like a strange place to have an alpine Bavarian style town…

But it was fun to walk around. We found an outdoor bar/grill and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon just relaxing. River tubing is a big draw in Helen and shuttle buses run constantly…

Tuesday we headed back to Anna Ruby Falls. They are only allowing 65 cars in the parking lot at a time to help people keep socially distant, so I can’t imagine how crowed the trail would have been otherwise! The trail is paved the entire way, but, holy hell, it is steep! Thankfully, there are lots of benches along the way and interesting signs to read while you give your legs a rest. Anna Ruby is a double falls and it was difficult to get a good picture of them both with the sun shining on one and not the other…

So, I contented myself with individual shots of the falls…

The trail follows the river and I took quite a few pictures of the rushing water. These are some of my favorites…

My favorite hike was to Helton Creek Falls. 3 miles down a narrow dirt road you find the parking area. There are upper and lower falls and it is a pretty easy walk to them. People generally stop quickly at the lower falls, snap a few selfies then head up to the upper falls with its swimming area.

Since we didn’t plan on swimming, I liked the lower falls better.

We were running out of days, but definitely not waterfalls. We opted to spend our last day just driving around. The Russell–Brasstown Scenic Byway was twisty, turn-y and steep but definitely worth the drive. There is a scenic overlook at the top and you are treated to a stunning view of Hogpen Gap…

The list of places I’d like to return to some day keeps growing. I call it “Bucket List 2.0”

Have you ever visited northern Georgia? What was your favorite place?

Up next – New Hampshire bound

5 Truths About Our Life on the Road

When we first decided to live full time in Waldo, I had a very different idea of what our life would be like. In some ways, it has far exceeded my hopes and in other ways, it has fallen drastically short. Here are 5 things I have learned about myself and our lifestyle:

1. We are NOT on vacation.

While most of my posts deal with all of the cool places we visit, the truth is we have to work. Neither of us are old enough to collect social security, nor do we have any type of retirement. Our only source of income is from the workamping we do. I had visions of living in Waldo the way my parents did, never staying anywhere for more than a week or two before moving on, sooner if the weather turned cold or rainy. But the fact is, we usually end up being somewhere for several months, after all, we made a commitment when we took the job. Quite often I find several months to be too long. I either get bored with a place once we’ve explored the area or the job isn’t really to my liking, but again, we made a commitment. For me, selling Christmas trees in Florida was nearly the perfect job. It was short term, it was warm and the money was great. If there was a “downside”, it was we didn’t have any time to explore the area.

2. Two people in 400 sq/ft can be a challenge

We had been married for 14 years when we made the leap to full-timing. I thought I knew everything I could possibly need to know about us – nope! The biggest difference between living in an RV and living in a house is if you find you need some “space”, there isn’t any. I had a home office in our house, now my office is in the same room as the kitchen, living room and steering wheel. Steve had a garage to go putter around in, now he doesn’t. We don’t generally get on each others nerves, but it happens. We don’t generally have disagreements, but they happen. The difference is we can’t go to our separate space. Living in the confines of 400 sq/ft has taught me that I need my space more than I thought I did. Don’t get me wrong, I love Steve with all my heart. I would never want to live this life without him, but sometimes I just need my space.

3. We’ll never get to see it all

Thanks to my grammar school teachers, I know there are 50 states. If we spent 3 months per state, we could only see 4 a year – that’s 12 1/2 years (assuming we could drive to Hawaii). While we could probably hit the highlights in each state in 3 months, we’d never have time to seek out the out-of-the-way places we both enjoy so much. Oh yea, back to #1, we aren’t on vacation. By the way, I’ve added travel maps to the blog. You can check out where we went by year. I hope to keep it up-to-date from now on.

4. We are 6 wheels away from homeless

I know this is a bit of an exaggeration, but it isn’t far off the mark. There isn’t much worse than seeing everything you own put on the back of a tow truck. I mean nobody ever towed off our stick and brick when it needed repairs. We’ve been exceedingly fortunate, nearly every time we’ve needed repairs, we’ve been able to stay in Waldo while the work was being done. The only time we couldn’t was when the roof was done. That wasn’t an issue because we were staying at my dad’s house. Every now and then, I get a little panicky when I think about what “could” happen. I know, no sense borrowing trouble. I just can’t help it.

5. We wouldn’t trade this lifestyle for anything!

When I compare our stick and brick life to our RV life, I realize I wouldn’t change a thing. We love our life. We have met some of the most wonderful people, in person and online, because of the way we live. We have seen places lots of people only talk about seeing. We visited 15 National Parks in 2018 plus countless state parks. And we are doing it together! I doubt it really gets any better.

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