Tag: indiana

WheRVe we been? Our travels, 3rd quarter 2019

We don’t always make plans without consulting our calendar or a map first, but when we do, we end up having to drive from Maine to southern California!

Luckily, we had almost a month between events. And hey, maybe next year, we’ll try the Washington-Florida diagonal to make things even.

Here’s the summary of our 3rd quarter travels, mapped with a little help from Google.

RV miles traveled this quarter: about 5512

The briefest possible description: we went from PA to IN to MA to VT to NY to ME, then spent about 3 weeks rolling to CA.

Erie, PA, June 30 – July 7: As I mentioned in our 2nd quarter wrap-up, we spent 4th of July week moochdocking in a cousin’s driveway, and hanging out with Tim’s cousins and auntie.

Knowing that pie crust is one of my culinary challenges, Tim’s aunt invited me over for Pie Camp, and walked me step by step through her no-fail process. I had my own pie tin, and did all the measuring and mixing my own self. Look at that thing!
(She also taught me her method of hard boiling eggs, and I think I’ve finally got it now. Yes, I can make bread in the shape of a perfect frigging lobster, but I regularly fail at eggs.)
We also did some kayaking on Lake Erie, ate our weight in gyros at the Greek Festival, and just enjoyed a relaxing time with family.

Howe, IN, July 7-11: We went back to the DRV factory for Round 2 (ding ding!) of warranty repair work. The punch list had grown after our first visit in February, and since we were already in the general area, we had the repair team attack it.

We know that things go wrong with all RVs, even new ones, and ours has been no exception. That doesn’t make it any less disappointing, and we are both of the opinion that our unit must have missed Quality Control Check Day before it left the factory.

This article explains a lot of the weak points and outright failures in the RV industry, and provides ample evidence that we are not alone.

But misery loves company!
While in IN, we finally got to meet Andrea & Shawn of 40foothouse, and reconnected with friends Michael & Kelly of Performance Trailer Braking — all full-time RVers.
And speaking of performances, we watched some Amish mommies leave the park with their kiddos. They made it look just as easy as piling everyone into a minivan and backing out.

But then, they do learn early.

Massachusetts, July 12-30: We’ve been to Boston before, so this time we focused our sightseeing efforts on some of the outlying areas, like Bedford, Lexington, Concord, and Salem.

We saw Minute Men monuments, Walden Pond, and several cemeteries containing the remains of people who were around to witness the birth of our nation.
Oh, and I got a little witchy in Salem.
I bet brooms don’t break down nearly as often as RVs do. Hmmmm.
We also celebrated our anniversary by taking a ride back in time.
One of the stops on our honeymoon in 1992 was the historic carousel in Fall River, MA, so we recreated the photo 27 years later.
Grayer hair, wider ass, but by golly, that is the same horse.

Waterbury, VT, July 30 – Aug 1: Remember our partners in crime, Chip & Penni from our Amazon Camperforce days? We really have stayed friends! Waterbury is their home, and when we said we’d like to come visit, they offered up boondocking space at their summer location.

Ice cream played a big role in our time together.
We went out for maple creemees, and of course made the pilgrimage to Ben & Jerry’s.
To Chip, it’s a former employer. To me? The holy land, and a visit I’ve been waiting to make for 30+ years!

Albany, NY, Aug 1-11: The good news is that my Auntie Judith turns 85 this year, and a big big surprise party was planned for her in her home town of Albany. The bad news is that I jumped the gun on making a campground reservation, and had to hide for ten days so as not to spoil a surprise that took a year to plan, and involved family members arriving under top secret conditions from locations across the country!

And how do you hide a 41-foot 5th wheel? You can’t.
So even though we were at an exceptionally lovely state park that whole time, I kept my mouth shut and my social media posts vague.
And it worked.
That was one utterly gobsmacked aunt/sister/mother/grandmother/great grandmother, and we hope to surprise her again at 90. Or maybe 88, just to keep her guessing.
(She’ll read this, so please take a moment to face NY and shout, “Happy birthday, Judith!”)

Maine, Aug. 12-19: I’ve already written about this adventure in detail, so here are two photos I haven’t posted yet.

The lobster “roll” I made for a potluck vs. an actual ready-to-eat lobster on my plate.
They could be twins. Right?
(Click for my bread recipe)
Between Tim’s naval career and our RV travels, we’ve admired a lot of coastlines.
Maine’s gets an A+.

The long diagonal from Maine to California, Aug. 19 – Sept. 10: For the first 11 days, we stopped for only one or two nights at a time, before spending the next 11 just south of Tucson. Tim has an aunt & uncle there, so we were able to visit with them and make ample use of their garage for building our solar panel frames.

We are joining the “cult” of RV solar power.
Tim may eventually write up the nitty gritty on that, because all I’ve really learned from this process is that I’m good at metal grinding.
Who knew?
I will instead heap praise upon two friends who assisted with some of the physical labor.
My childhood pal, Mark (who went to the Mexican dentist with us a while back), gave us a hand under sweltering conditions in Tucson, and Ted did the same in Escondido.
Love those guys!
As part of the solar power system installation, we have also joined the Cult of the Battle Born. These batteries get a lot of hype in the RV world — so much that I fully expected to hear a choir of angels when I opened each box.
But I did not, so I’ve added glowy starbursty things to the photo.
We’ll see what happens once we’ve actually got them all wired up and working.
Along the way: more meals with RV friends!
Remember Andrea & Shawn from our stop in Indiana, just a few inches up above? Hung out again in New Mexico.
Then, we met up in Tucson with Julie & Sean of Chickery’s Travels, who we’d met in Texas last year.
And finally, we reconnected with Ted & Jan of the Wandering Kolbs, for the first time since we met in Arizona, in January of 2017.
We’re all neighbors. We just rarely meet up in the same neighborhood twice.

Right now: We’re parked on site at the pumpkin patch for our seasonal jobs in Escondido. We’ll work 7 days a week for the entire month of October, co-managing all the fun things with another couple: hay rides, corn maze, school field trips, petting zoo, sunflower field, and of course pumpkins!

It was Ted & Jan who got us into this job.
They’ve returned for their third season at a Pumpkin Station location, and we figured that if they like it that much, it’s worth giving it a try.
Here we go!

Where to next? Uhhh… I guess we’d better figure that out by Halloween, eh? We might go visit family in WA, or we might hide out in the desert for a while, to get some use of that solar power system. Or both!

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter for updates as we go.

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, 2nd quarter 2019

We peeped at prairie dogs and petted a puppy cousin, marked major milestones and made memories, and I’ve now got a rock solid reason to drink more wine in order to save money. Or at least get our money’s worth. You’ll see.

Here’s the summary of our 2nd quarter travels, mapped with a little help from Google.

RV miles traveled this quarter: about 2213

We started in Kerrville, and went back and forth to San Antonio for three brief stays for our spring round of medical appointments (which explains why my mileage count is more than that shown on the map).
From Kerrville, we headed toward Wichita Falls TX, St. Louis MO, Elkhart IN, and finally, Erie PA.

Kerrville & San Antonio, TX, April: April in Texas meant lots of things: Lots of bluebonnets, lots of waiting rooms, lots of special moments, and lots of hail.

After a very rainy fall and winter, Texas reaped the reward of a spectacular wildflower season.
I spent a fair amount of time in gappy hospital gowns, with no fewer than 5 check-ups, and my first colonoscopy (I liked my other 50th birthday present way better.) But I got the 5-year all-clear from my cancer docs, and without their care, I would not have been able to take up running and cross that finish line holding my daddy’s hand.
Yes, I cherish every. special. moment.
And that marble sized hail is the main reason we extended our stay in Texas. The BFT took a few dings, and we had them repaired before we hit the road.
(Race photo credit: UT Health Creative Media Services).

Kerrville TX, May: We ended up working as camp hosts again (surprise!), watched our youngest nephew graduate from high school, and our younger son graduate from UT-Austin. Yay yay yay!

Another thing we did in May was ride behind a boat on an inflatable hot dog, and I wasn’t sure where to put that, but I thought it should be reported.
Many thanks to our friends and co-camphosts, Jay & Kris, for the fun and the photo!

On the road, June 15-30: Outbound at last! We made some fun stops.

Giddy with the sight of our home in the passenger side mirror, we stopped at Lake Arrowhead State Park in Wichita Falls, TX, to hang out with the prairie dogs.
After that, I did some touristy exploring in historic St. Charles, MO, while Tim met with his business partner in nearby St. Louis.
We then stayed for almost a week in Elkhart, for our RV owners’ club international rally (see below), and hit our first Harvest Hosts location on our way east from there.

If you are interested in widening your overnight options to locations other than big box store parking lots — places like wineries, breweries, farms, golf courses, and museums — we recommend investing in a Harvest Hosts membership. If you use the link here in my post, you get 15% off, and we receive a little extra wine money. Thank you!

We cannot say enough good things about our first DRV owners‘ rally. Not only did we enjoy informative seminars, organized tours, a lot of catered meals, and personal interactions with members of DRV’s corporate team and other RV industry suppliers, we also spent invaluable time with new lifelong friends — and two of those couples have been following our adventures since before we traded in our old RV for this one!

Right now: We’re in Erie, PA, spending 4th of July week with 5 cousins, an auntie, and a new puppy (!) on Tim’s side of the family. So generous of one of them to offer up his nice big driveway for our moochdocking enjoyment, yes?

You didn’t think I was going to leave you without a picture of the puppy, did you?
Wook at her widdle faaaaaace.
She is a 3-month-old chocolate lab, and borrowing her is perfect.
(Photo credit: Cousin Katie)

Where to next? We’re going right back to Indiana for our second round of warranty service at the DRV facility in Howe. Then we’ll head to the top right corner of the country, to check a few New England states off our list, including Maine for an Escapees Hangout in August. From there, we’ll be driving the diagonal alllllll the way southwest to San Diego for our autumn workamping gig. Crazy much?

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter for updates as we go!

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.