Two and a half years later

Well, here we are, 2 1/2 years later.  We now have an RV.  We were able to get a "slightly used" 2016 Coachmen Leprechaun in July of 2016.  It was a previous rental unit, but only had about 15,000 miles on it.  It seemed in pretty good shape, and the price was right.  Its a Class C bunk house.  We'd always had this plan to take the grandkids on a trip, and figured we'd have more room with a bunk house style. And Jesus (my hubby) likes it - he wanted a Class C because he felt more comfortable driving the Class C than the Class A.

So, we have the RV, but are not full time RVers.  Yet.  Maybe someday.  That remains to be seen.

We have taken the RV out many times in since we got it.  We started with two nights, then three, then longer.  Last summer we took a 17 day trip to New Mexico.  We took our grandkids, Nathan and Jacob (14 and 11 at the time).  We kind of forgot that they are big now, and don't really fit in the bunk beds. They did fit in the cab over bed though, so it worked out. We visited White Sands and Carlsbad Cavern.  It was amazing.

I still dream of full time - of being able to go somewhere and not rush. To spend a week, or two weeks, or a month, in one place, and explore all there is to explore.  There are so many places I want to see.  However, right now, full time isn't going to happen.  Someday maybe.

As of today, we are on the road for the next 3 months.  So, we'll get a taste of what full time would really be like.  We won't be going as slowly as I'd like, but slower than we would have back in our car road trip days. We left CA and are taking a somewhat slow, sightseeing trip to visit our friends in Florida.  David (my youngest son) came with us.  He graduated from Cal State Fullerton on Sunday.  He didn't have a job lined up, and since his major was photo communications, figured that documenting the trip would be a good way to create a portfolio.  He's also going to teach me how to use the new camera I bought for this trip.  All this stuff about aperture, exposure, etc., is all new to me.  I've always just had a point and shoot camera.

When I originally started planning this trip, I had planned to retire before leaving.  Our friends, Clint and Zandra, that we are going to see, had just bought a house in Florida, and thought they'd be moving there in June, and thought maybe it would be fun to caravan there.  So, I was going to retire and off we were going to go.  Then, they sold their house and ended up moving in November.  By that time, we were getting excited on the possibilities of the trip, so I decided to retire and take the trip to visit them.  So, I kept planning out the route, trying to decide what we wanted to visit, where we wanted to stay, how long we wanted to take.  Then, in January, I brought up my retirement to my manager at work, and also the possibility of working part time instead of retiring, at least for a while. I full-time telecommute anyway, so working from the RV isn't much different.  I've done that before, on our shorter trips.  So, to make a long story short, I went part time a week ago, and I will be working from the road.  I have a lot of PTO (Paid Time Off) stored up, so I can take vacation when we are somewhere we really want to spend the day visiting, but since we are going slow, on other days, I can totally put in some part time hours.  I think it will work out fine, as long as I can get internet reception.

I decided to try to blog about the trip for several reasons.  I don't want to overload Facebook with everything, although I'll post cool pics and stuff, but I really want to record details.  I want to write about the details of the National Parks and other attractions that we visit, and the campgrounds we stay at, and things we do, and things we see on the road.  I'd like to make a photo book when we get home, and I want to remember all the details, not try to figure out what picture was taken where and what day we did what.  I want to critique the campgrounds and RV parks we stay in, for the next trip we take that may pass the same way, or to benefit others that may be headed that way.  So, in that respect, this blog is for my benefit.

I also know some of my friends want to know what we are up to, but not everyone does, so this way, those of you that want to follow our journey in detail can, without me totally blowing up Facebook. So, hopefully, for anyone that wants to read it, I won't bore you to death with too many details.  I hope you enjoy the pictures (when I have some to post - Got to figure out that camera first!) and the stories.