Category: Cabin Fever

WheRVe we been? Our travels, 1st quarter 2022

We were in only two places, but one of them was way more than one place, we did not get there by RV, and we lived for two months out of two carry-on roller bags and two backpacks — which makes us two crazies!

It was Mexico.
Mexico is way more than one place.

January ~ Texas

We began 2022 the same way we ended 2021, as guests on a friend’s property in Boerne, TX, helping out around the place to earn our keep. And because we unexpectedly bought a truck camper and had to pack and prepare for two months in Mexico, we spent most of January dealing — rather giddily, I must say — with both of those things.

Our fleet
Tex, the 2018 DRV Mobile Suites 38KSSB
Road Island, the 2013 Lance 1050S

February & March ~ Mexico

First, let me disabuse you of the notion that we packed suitcases and flew to Mexico to make our way around on our own. We are brave enough to do that, mind you, but that wasn’t our method for this trip.

Instead, we had places to land, and knowledgeable and experienced guides — specifically, Tim’s parents, who have been spending winters in Mexico since long before I joined the family 30 years ago. We traveled together with them, and also used their expertise to seek out adventures of our own, and it was the perfect blend of reliance and independence for our first lengthy international sojourn.

(Plus, this wasn’t our first trip to Mexico. We’ve flown down for brief visits over the years, walked across the border for dentistry, and even driven to the northern Baja in an RV caravan.)

We spent our first month on the mainland, in Ajijic, an hour’s drive south of Guadalajara, on the northern shore of Lake Chapala. From there, we also took a 10-day road trip with Tim’s parents to the towns of San Miguel de Allende, Angangueo, Valle de Bravo, and Pátzcuaro. Here’s the month in brief: food, people, landscape, architecture.

  • Leg 1: San Antonio to Guadalajara
  • Road trip starting and ending in Ajijic

We spent our second month on the Baja, in San Jose del Cabo, where several members of Tim’s family gathered for a mini-reunion. All the cousins, siblings, in-laws, out-laws, etc. had flown back to their homes by the 10th, so Tim & I had the rest of the month (and the condo!) to ourselves. Here’s another little taste for you.

  • Leg 2: Guadalajara to San Jose del Cabo
  • We went on a road trip from there too.
  • On March 31, back to TX we flew.

We liked this interlude so much that we intend to make it a winter habit. Maybe not next year, and probably not every year, but the more we explored Mexico, the more we wanted to explore, and the more comfortable we became with the idea of doing so on our own. The weather is fantastic, the tacos are cheap, the people are welcoming, and quite honestly, spending two months hopping around between inns, apartments and condos that someone else has to maintain? Pure gold. Respite we didn’t even know we needed.

Wait. Only 2 carry-ons each? EACH?

Pack less, do more.

We stayed in 12 different places, and went on two road trips (one of which crammed 4 adults in a small sedan) so being able to pack quickly and lightly was a necessity.

I won’t bore you with my detailed list, but I will tell you it was a challenge packing for two different climates. We needed winter clothes for part of our February visit to the mainland, during which we spent a week at elevations of 7,000-10,000 feet. Didn’t wear any of those the second month, on the Baja, but then my bathing suit, shorts and tank tops didn’t exactly make it out of the suitcase during that chilly first month.

  • What we took on the plane from San Antonio
  • My suitcase…
  • … and my backpack/purse
  • Made it through with only 2 pairs of shoes!
  • All my clothing, hats, electronics, and toiletries

Yes, there’s a third suitcase in that first picture. The blue one on the left contained items Tim’s parents had requested, as they’d already been in Ajijic since November, and shipping from the states is expensive and unpredictable. It was easier for us to fill a bag and check it — and then donate it to a charity resale shop before leaving Mexico.

Where to next?

We’re currently back at the ranch, preparing to take Road Island (the truck camper), into the upper right corner for the summer. First stop is in northern VA for a wedding at the end of this month, then we’ll travel through the northeastern states, including stops in the four we need to complete our RVing map of the Lower 48 (DE, NJ, RI, CT). Might even throw in a roll through the Canadian Maritimes if time and border policies allow.

As per our typical practice, we’ve made almost no reservations, and have only a vague mental outline of where we want to be and when. We are aware of the risks. But in nearly 7 years of full-time travel, we’ve never found ourselves homeless, even in Tex (our 41′ fifth wheel), even in northern states in the summertime.

Sorry if I’ve made you Capital-P Planners cringe. I just can’t do it your way, any more than you could switch to mine, so it’s a good thing we can all still enjoy sitting around the campfire together, swapping stories, sipping our beverages of choice, and by the way can I pet your dog?

We started full-timing in August of 2015, but I didn’t think to do an annual review until the end of 2016, and it was just a listing on Facebook of places we’d visited. After that, I started using a quarterly format.

WheRVe we been? Our travels, 3rd quarter 2020

We put some miles on, y’all!

And thanks to friends in remote places, we were able to feel safe about where we stayed — a fair trade for making a big diamond around CO instead of spending time exploring it as we’d originally hoped to do this summer.

Just in time for fall, we drew you a leaf!
We went from TX to AZ to UT to MT to WY, and added our 40th RV state by spending a night in NB on our way back to TX.
RV miles traveled this quarter: about 4338
(Map does not reflect exact routing.)

1st major stop: 45 miles outside Kanab, UT, on private land belonging to friends of friends, who are now our friends

When I wrote last quarter that we’d planned to head northward to cool off, but didn’t really have a specific itinerary, our friends, David & Cheryl Goldstein of Landmark Adventures said, “Well, if you don’t know where you’re going, why not stay with us on the way?”

It was impossible to argue with that kind of logic.

They’d set up housekeeping in southern UT, on land belonging to fellow Escapees, Cindi & Roger, who we’d somehow managed not to meet at the Escapees Baja Mexico Hangout that we all attended in February, but we quickly made up for that lost opportunity during our very private, 12-day “Socially Distanced Unofficial Hangout Limited to 6 Escapees.”

Getting to our secluded enclave involved a 45-minute drive out a dirt road, from a point that was a 30-minute drive from the nearest town. Now that’s remote!

Getting into our designated site was a challenge that required navigating tight turns, narrow pathways, tree branches, and the other two RVs.
Tim likes to call this video “How I performed a 187-point turn into a tight spot in only two minutes.”
(We were aiming for that yellow square.)
I like to call it, “Keep your eye on your wife, and you might get a fun little dance at the end.”
The view from the property was well worth the parking hassle.
Got a little warm inside the RV, though.
Usually means it’s time to head north when I shout, “Honey, the coconut oil has liquified!”
We did some hiking through mystical rock formations…
(Location: Lick Wash Trail)
Location: Peek-a-boo Slot Canyon
… and rented one of these so that all 6 of us could go on a “motor assisted hike”
(Cindi & Roger drove their own).
Seriously, though. Who wouldn’t have a good time with a group like this?

2nd major stop: Thompson Falls, MT, for a birthday celebration that was worth the travel

We’d decided months and months before we’d even heard the word “Coronavirus,” that one way or another, Tim was going to find a way to be with his parents for his father’s 80th birthday in August.

You think we’re moving targets? You should try keeping track of my in-laws!

As it turned out, we were able to meet in Montana to celebrate about two weeks early, with the added bonus of doing so with one of Tim’s sisters and her husband.

So many of us missed multiple milestone events with our families this year. We are exceptionally thankful that this one happened.

Tim and the Birthday Dad at Kootenai Falls
Tim, his mom, dad, brother-in-law, and sister shaking things up on the swinging bridge,
just downriver from the falls
We climbed all over Thompson Falls, and let the record show that Tim’s folks
went up even higher than I did.
Pretty little riverside town.
Visit Thompson Falls
From Thompson Falls, we made a long day trip to Glacier National Park.
The marmot wanted Tim’s dad to put down the camera and just let him into the rental car.
He clearly knew that cars and humans mean food, and he was not wrong.
We did indeed have a whole day’s worth of snacks onboard.
Now if this guy had asked?
I think we’d have let him have all the snacks, and probably the car too.
“Just take the keys, Mr. Grizzly, sir. It’s allllll yours.”

3rd major stop: Meeteetse, WY, on private land belonging to friends we’d met in January

Hey, remember when we helped clean Carlsbad Caverns by picking lint with teensy little paintbrushes? That’s where we met Debra & Larry, and learned that they own 20 acres of property about 30 miles south of Cody. But when we parted with, “Hey, we’ll let you know if we come your way in our travels,” we didn’t really know it would be so soon.

But summer safety this year meant avoiding crowds, and Wyoming makes it really easy to do that (population of the state of WY = 1/3 population of the city of San Antonio).

We thought we’d boondock on Debra & Larry’s little piece of paradise for about a week, but it turned into a whole month!

Not only is Meeteetse small, but our location was on a gravel ranch road, about
4 miles from the heart of town.
A typical experience: evening drinks and shared dinners at the pole barn
The lifestyle common to our friends, both Wyoming natives, was not typical at all for us.
What a gift that they shared so many of their experiences with us.
These included a 7-mile hike with two humans on foot, two on horseback (I took this photo from the saddle, y’all!), three doggies, and a random herd of cows…
… fishing for our supper …
… canine assisted kayaking …
… stand-up paddle boarding …
… making chili using ground elk instead of ground beef or turkey …
… and making judicious use of an outhouse, which allowed us to save enough space in our black tank that we didn’t have to find a dump station until we were ready to leave,
which was 3 weeks later than planned…
… but was also just in time.
Debra texted us this pic of our “yard” just a few hours after we left on Labor Day.
We knew the storm was coming, and we made it eastward to Casper in time.
We woke up to about 4″ of snow there the next morning.
Debra & Larry got 4-6 feet, and couldn’t open their RV door!

Where to next?

Wellllllll, we’ve got medical appointments keeping us in San Antonio through the first week of November.

After that, we’re not sure. We’ve talked about moochdocking with friends in Pensacola, FL, for part of the winter, or boondocking in the southwest. The latter would put us in better position for a springtime run up to WA to visit family there, as we missed our older boy & his girl this year, along with Tim’s other sister and her family.

We’ll figure it out, and as ever, you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter for updates as we go.

“It certainly was not the summer we had planned, but it was the summer we needed.”
~ that wise friend mentioned above, David Goldstein

We started full-timing in August of 2015, but I didn’t think to do an annual review until the end of 2016, and it was just a listing on Facebook of places we’d visited. After that, I started using a quarterly format.