Celebrating a Special Anniversary.....................

Today starts our third year of living our dream.....living and traveling in the motorhome across the country! Unbelievable! Time has flown by, and we are heading into our final stretch before settling down by the end of the year, if all goes as planned. When we first started our journey, we had planned on about 2 to 3 years....and its hard to grasp that we are on the tail end already.

It has been an AMAZING experience in ways I cannot even begin to say right now. Most people ask us what we've liked the best, and we honestly say "everything". There is so much to see and appreciate in this country, beginning right in our own backyards. And its a BIG country!

Over the span of about 10 years, Tom and I dreamed about traveling and living in an RV when we retired, with no house to worry about. We talked about all the different things involved - good and bad - and spent a lot of time researching to make informed decisions. We had so much fun over those years just dreaming together. Did you ever share a dream with someone? Its so cool! In fact, even if the journey never came to be, we always said it was fun planning it. Anyway.....we knew things would have to be just so if we were to launch this dream of ours, and eventually the stars lined up and we knew it was our time to go, if ever there was a "good" time. Everyone was healthy. Our kids were settled. We had no grandchildren. Our finances were in order. We took advantage of our opportunity, and went for it.

Neither of us are risk-takers, so you know this was a big scary thing to do....sell our house and live in the motorhome? Leave our family and friends? Our kids? Yikes!! We had a nice life. Comfortable. Wonderful. A conservative lifestyle. Talk about leaving your comfort zone! We were not running away from anything or trying to get off the grid of life. The lure of the open road and the opportunity to experience this country "from our backyard" was what drew us to this dream of ours. We have not been disappointed yet...and have no regrets.

The winter we started preparing to make it happen was a snowy one! Our brand new RV was stored offsite since we could not drive it up our steep driveway. Packing the RV with our necessities wasn't easy, so we depended on our checklists. My favorite! Some days we would sit in the camper and just think -together-to make sure we had everything covered for our first trip. Little did we realize that once we headed out, we would not be returning until our house was sold! It just happened that way.

clearing the snow so we can get in the RV

Can you believe we are really doing this?

thinking about what to bring....and by the way, its freezing in here!! 

Planning on how to make the house a "home"....the blanket is a good start...hahahaha

oh no....more snow

Tom clearing the snow off the roof

Sometimes people ask us if we miss our house. The answer is no. Okay, and we don't miss shoveling snow either-hahaha. We have fantastic memories of our house...building it (especially memories of Tom's Dad), raising our family, enjoying the outdoor setting ....we really had it all... right there.  When we left, it was not with a heavy heart. We had a wonderful life in our home, but our kids were grown and living out of state, and we were getting older. We were ready for our next chapter! Looking forward to it, actually! Even though it was a little frightening when we really thought about it. What a risk for Mr. and Mrs. Boring. Haha.

When your house is on the market, the driveway has to be DRY! Blacktop with NO ICE! Not easy to do!

starting to see blacktop....but still work to do!

So glad Tom is back from Virginia to help me:)

appreciating our own backyard view 

we enjoyed watching the wildlife in our own backyard for years (from birds, to bears!)

it is really bad when you have to shovel heavy "feet" of snow off the deck!!

one last look before leaving on our maiden RV journey April 10th, 2014!

time to go...taking all my memories with me!

Once we hit the road, we had lots of adventures! Some were better than others, I will say that. We've had a few challenges along the way, as life can be. But for the most part, I think we've had a fantastic experience and I couldn't be happier that we took that leap together and went for our dream. We handled our challenges as they popped up. What else can you do?

the BEST driver 

our new home!

we have a lot of unpacking to do

who's sick?....ugh!

our first dinner in the new home....cereal!

lots of unpacking and settling in to do

heading to Virginia to see the kids before we hit the road west

let the journey begin :)

We've learned so much about the RV itself, traveling, and more since we started out. With a few special touches, we've made the RV truly our home. We want for nothing. Two full years into this journey of ours, we still say things like "Pinch me" or "Can you believe this?" and have never once said anything like "Why are we doing this". Hands down, the absolutely hardest thing for us is the fact that our family and friends (and brand new baby grandson) are so far away. The second hardest thing is when we have crappy or no internet and phone service to stay connected with.

As we start this third year, heading slowly east, we are ever thankful that we made the leap off the "safe side of the street". This journey of ours has been priceless. It is not only the sights we have seen. It is the people we have met. The towns we've "lived" in. The few challenges we've had to face...yes, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Our next destination is programmed into the GPS. In a couple of days, we will be ready to roll again. As we like to say, "Driver, start your engine"............(Of course, that means Tom! I'm still terrified to drive this huge rig.)

April 10, 2016   -  still smiling after 2 full years!!