Still no.
By my very rough calculations, we’ve tallied more than 77,000 RV miles since we left housebound life behind and hit the road in August of 2015.
And this year, I’m abandoning my prior annual update format, and instead telling you what we did to celebrate our 6th “nomadversary.”
But you can still click to go back in time to the “Amusing Tally of Miscellaneous Statistics” from 5 years in and 4 years in, and the “Questions We Hear All The Time” from 3 years in and 2 years in. Oddly, I did not blog about our 1st nomadversary, but I did make wee mention on Facebook.
Wait.
Okay, I will bring forward one item from previous annual updates: our map of RVisited states.
We’ve only got CT, DE, RI and NJ left to go in the lower 48.
Alaska is still way the hell up there, unrolled upon by our wheels, and I really don’t know how to count Hawaii. We flew there in 2019, in Year 4 of full-time RVing, and it took some skillful planning on Tim’s part to find a place to park the RV without arousing my suspicions and spoiling my 50th birthday surprise, and we certainly wouldn’t ever go through the hassle and expense of shipping our own RV there, if that’s even possible, so… uh… where was I going with that?
Doesn’t matter. Here’s the map.
(Map created at amcharts.com)
And now, onward to our celebration: the Escapees Cascade Mountains Hangout!
As I mentioned in our 2nd quarter update, we’re attending two Escapees Hangouts this summer, and the first one happened to coincide with our 6th nomadversary. We love Hangouts because they are as simple as this: register & pay, show up, make friends and have fun. Excursions and activities are planned and organized by someone who is not us (see packed calendar shot above), which makes it feel like a total vacation.
Some of the photos in the following slide shows (1 for each day of the Hangout) are a bit irreverent. It’s how we roll. And let me just say that it is very tempting to post these pics without benefit of explanation and leave it all up to your imagination, but uhhh, my parents read this, and I don’t want to get grounded.
Day 1: Our team was so fresh and festive at the start of the scavenger hunt in Leavenworth. That couple on the right? Went on their first date before we were born. And that’s the beauty of Hangouts — we get to spend time with active, energetic, adventurous RVers representing many decades of life, and pretty much showing us how it’s done. 
(version without caption blocking us) 
Then “Don’t touch my nuts” happened at the Nutcracker Museum … 
… and a few stops later, Tim pulled his favorite photo stunt. Some people get rabbit ears; I get this. 
And here’s how things stood near the end. Fresh and festive? Gone. “We’re all getting DIVORCED!” (Kidding – we had a blast, a few of us cooled off with a mid-day beer break, and we’re all still friends.)
Day 3: Our visit to the historical museum in Cashmere included a docent-led tour arranged by Hangout directors Rob & Laura, looking very thankful that they get to wear regular clothes. 
Inside, there were hundreds of local Indian artifacts, including this image of a petroglyph that I would like to rename “Emily: a grenade with pigtails.” 
I wanted to be the conductor of the crazy train, but I was too slow and had to be the ass instead. 
Mr. A. Smith, proprietor. My paternal grandfather was a Mr. A. Smith too … 
… and I made Mrs. A. Smith’s family famous mac & cheese for the potluck dinner that evening. 
Yum.
Day 4: ‘Twas an early start to make the 1-hour drive to Chelan for our 2.5-hour boat ride to Stehekin (rhymes with Mohican), a uniquely remote town in the Cascades. Roads don’t go there. 
Lake Chelan is a 55-mile long fjord. 
Turnabout is fair play, baby! 
A stop at the famous Stehekin Pastry Company was a must … 
… and we hiked off at least some of our overindulgences. Tim has in fact hiked here once before, as part of his Pacific Crest Trail adventure in 2013. I’m pretty sure that taking the boat into town is way easier than walking in from Oregon like he did. 
Living in a town like this requires a certain sense of quirkiness. I am a fan.
It’s rare for the two of us responsible-and-reliable-to-a-fault people to arrive late for anything, ever, but someone didn’t believe me when I told him that our return boat left from a different dock than the one where we’d arrived.
So we waited at the wrong dock until Tim wondered out loud why nobody else from our group was there, and that was when the stoned hiker — with whom we’d been having an amusingly rambling conversation — served an even higher purpose (ha ha) by pointing us in the correct direction.
Which I had pointed out before.
But Tim likes to say that god came to us in the form of a stoner dude that day, and saved us from literally being left up the creek without a paddle.
Came skidding in sideways to meet our boat just in time. Whee!
(True story: this is the second time we’ve been “rescued” by a stoner. Here’s the first.)
Day 6: I made challah for the potluck brunch… 
… before our tour of the Aplets & Cotlets candy factory … 
… where we looked like Oompa Loompas thanks to those fetching hair nets. 
After that, we toured the peaceful Ohme Gardens, high on a bluff overlooking Wenatchee … 
… and where there was a most unusual water fountain. Who could resist?
What’s next?
We’ll close out August with the Escapees Glacier Country Hangout in Montana, and then we’ll head back to Port Townsend for a second visit with our older son, and a weekend at the annual Wooden Boat Festival. Tim’s going to attend the seminars and tour the boats for three days, and I’m going to pull a few volunteer shifts because 1) I like helping, and 2) I honestly lose interest in the boats after about an hour, and that’s not worth the price of admission. Volunteers get in free, so it’s a win for everybody!
This Hangout was our 4th. I wrote about the other three too. Check out:
Downeast Maine (Aug 2019)
Carlsbad Caverns Clean-Up (Jan 2020)
Baja Mexico (Feb 2020)
Despite the rah-rah tone, this is an unsolicited and uncompensated testimonial, and we don’t work for Escapees. It’s just that holy crap, we love those Hangouts!
Wait – they made Tim wear a hair net? 😉
Hahahaha! It does seem a bit excessive, doesn’t it?
It’s funny all the different rules we travelers have imposed on ourselves to tally what counts as having visited a place! I’ve actually seen people argue about it, like it’s a THING.
Ohme Gardens is one of my favorite places. To walk around up there and think that two people did all that without power anything is just amazing. On the other hand, Aplets and Cotlets are vile. LOL
I hope you decided to get a Walla Walla and have a sammich!
The sammich was not a go yesterday, but all the ingredients are on my list just in case we pass another farm stand!
Are you sure you don’t want to work for Escapees and run a Hangout? Thank you for your support of the program and we are so glad you enjoy them so much. We love getting to spend the time with you guys too!
It’s so cute that you think we’d want that level of responsibility. Not a chance, sistah!