October 28, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time without a “Regular” Job

Monday was my last day of working at a job I truly loved and had for 16 years. I grew up professionally in the company, and a large portion of my adult life was devoted to my career there. A year ago when we decided to go on the road I thought for sure I would have to quit. Traveling in an RV was an unusual choice and although much of my work was done remotely, or with fly-in business trips, I thought it was too “outside of the box” for my then boss to approve. I was grateful and surprised though when he said I could travel anywhere on the east coast, as long as I was near an airport, had cell coverage, and internet access. So, unlike many people, I had the opportunity to try this lifestyle while at the same time keeping my current job. I am extremely grateful for that opportunity, because dealing with all of the change over the last year has been much easier with the consistency of a job I was comfortable in. And striking a balance on the east coast was relatively easy, because we have many field offices there and finding cool places to stay while still being within a reasonable drive to an airport was not that difficult. Lee and I both knew, however, that things would get much tougher when we headed out west. There are longer travel days, more places with minimal or no cell coverage, and staying close to an airport can be much harder. Shortly after we hit the road, I got a new boss, and he didn’t care where I was, as long as I could get to an airport, and still had cell and internet. That worked out just fine, and we were always able to meet those requirements without too much difficulty. We managed to make it work until we hit Glacier and it became clear to me that something had to give.

Just to be clear, many people travel and work corporate jobs very successfully in the West. I know two people very well, who have struck a good balance and manage to see great things and still work. For me though, the constant pressure of balancing enjoying the life and fully contributing to my job was coming to a head. The nature of my job required me to be in constant contact via cell phone which ruled out many of the more remote locations that Lee wanted to experience. I also never really felt like I was “off work” and weekends and vacation were often full of work concerns. Lee, to his credit, allowed me plenty of time to work this out. He never put pressure on me to choose, but he also wasn’t shy about talking about what he ultimately wanted this life to look like. As a good partner, he understood though that I would get there eventually and forcing the issue would only result in resentment on my part.

Simultaneously, I was thinking more and more about starting my own consulting company and what that would look like in this lifestyle. I had toyed with the idea for many years, but with a mortgage and three kids in the house, I never had the courage to take that leap. Now things were different. We had minimal debt, it was just Lee and I, and one of the major drawbacks of consulting (the weekly travel to a location) could be somewhat mitigated by our ability to move our house to wherever the work was. I was under no illusions that consulting would solve everything. I knew I would still need internet and cell, but it would give me more flexibility in my scheduling. Plus, I was very excited about the opportunity to do the work I loved for other companies and in other industries. One of the best parts of my job is when I get to help people’s lives be a little better. In a corporate job, those moments happen, but always on someone else’s terms. Consulting would allow me to focus on work that could be meaningful.

In many people’s minds the decision would be a no brainer, but for me it was really difficult to walk away from a “perfectly good job”. I was raised with a Midwestern work ethic and in that environment you don’t leave a job unless you have a really good reason. Plus, I am risk averse by nature, and to be honest, super comfortable with the environment I was in. I knew the rules, I had long term relationships, and a solid reputation as a person who gets things done. To walk away from all that was difficult, no matter how attractive the alternative was. So that’s where the situation stood until God/Universe opened a path for me. The company offered a Voluntary Separation Package that provided salary and health insurance for a specific amount of time, along with a separation bonus. The deal was the perfect amount, and came at the perfect time, so the choice seemed very clear to me. That doesn’t mean it was easy to make the choice, but there was not a doubt in my mind that it was the right thing to do. So I signed the papers, and the last few weeks have been about saying goodbye.

That has been brutal, by the way. You know when you leave a job that many of the people you have had daily contact with simply won’t be part of your life going forward, and because I was there for so long some of those people felt like family to me. There definitely is a grieving process and feelings of loss. Loss of relationships, loss of identity, loss of security. It is not a small thing. I am very grateful for my support system, however. People have been checking in with me and been great about acknowledging that this is a big deal and encouraging me to take my time dealing with it. So that’s what I am trying to do, deal with it.

So here’s my approach, and I am sharing this not because I think it will work for everyone, but in the hopes it might help someone. First, I am not treating this time as a vacation. Many people do, and that’s perfectly fine, but for me it’s important to spend some time every day working on my new life and business. I am being very careful to strike a balance here and not overdue it, because that could easily turn into feelings of being panicked. In my head, I know we will be fine. We are smart, driven people who work hard. As Lee says, we have been through much tougher situations than this, with less skills. Emotionally though, it’s hard not to give in to the fear. It’s not rational fear, it’s not rooted in anything that’s real, but wow, is it powerful. Knowing where it comes from, doesn’t really seem to help lessen its effect and as much as I would like to just move past it, I know it will take some time. So in the interim I completed my consulting website, www.tsperkinsconsulting.com, if you are curious. I updated my resume (thanks so much Cori for helping), I changed my Linked In profile, and I am reaching out to my professional network to let them know I am consulting now. Finally, I am writing this blog. Saying things out loud lessens their power over you. Knowing everyone goes through this experience sooner or later helps. Knowing that people truly care helps. Having Lee be so completely supportive helps. But ultimately, I understand that I have to work through this. I have to believe in myself. I have to put my big girl panties on and own my choice.

Thanks for listening,

Trace

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July 8, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Changing the Way I Define Myself

I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about how I define myself and how that is changing with our new lifestyle. The reason I have been thinking about it is that when I am out of my comfort zone I often mentally catalog my accomplishments. It is my way of grounding myself when I am in a situation that is unfamiliar or scary. Essentially, it is my way of taking a deep breath and counting to ten. I do realize though that the list of accomplishments is continually changing. Partly because my life experience itself is changing (which makes sense) but also because what I value changes. When I think about who I am and what I have done, certain things matter in that moment, but later in life those same accomplishments don’t seem so spectacular. A great example is when I achieved my bachelors degree I felt really great about that at the time (and it made the internal list), but it was later supplanted by the MBA, and then ultimately supplanted by the more generic fact that I spent 13 years simultaneously going to school, working, and raising kids. So as I get older what I view as an achievement changes and as my life circumstances change that changes the criteria as well. It’s not surprising then that becoming full timers (the second biggest change in my life next to having a child) has that internal list all in a jumble.

For a long time my list was pretty traditional. Raising kids has always topped my accomplishment list, but the older the kids have gotten and the more their accomplishments are truly their own the less impact that has. It does feel a bit like resting on laurels at this point. Yes, I did it, and arguably I will never do anything more important, but most of the heavy lifting (although you never stop being a parent) was done in the past. Education was always very important to me and will be something I carry with me forever, but as time passes those accomplishments also become more distant. There are more esoteric items of course. Being a good person has always been on the list, but how I define what a good person is has fluctuated. It’s also complicated because being a good person is also tied up in my faith and I am constantly reevaluating how to be a good person and still have limits with people. In any event those three items have been on my list since adulthood and will remain there in some form probably forever, but the other criteria is undergoing a huge change with this lifestyle which is what prompted this post.

Owning a house was a really big deal for us. It took us years to build the financial stability necessary to buy our first home and subsequently ownership of a home was a huge accomplishment beyond the physical entity itself. It stood for achieving a level of adulthood and responsibility and represented safety and security. When we started this lifestyle we knew we could give up the house, but I don’t think I truly understood how we would also be giving up those other feelings. I know I am not alone in this, many people struggle deeply with the concept of being “homeless” and it is a major emotion most people have to deal with when becoming full timers. You can make the case (and many do) that the RV will take the place of your home, but for me it is different. Again, I am talking about my home as an accomplishment and base of security, not the physical entity itself which is an important distinction. This has required a major shift in thinking on my part and has removed one of my pillars of accomplishment. That sounds a bit dramatic but becoming a home owner was a really big deal for me. Along those lines I think this is a good place to talk about comparisons.

Most people tend to compare themselves to others based upon that internal list of things they value. It’s an incredibly subjective measurement of success of course, but most people’s early list is defined by their parents, family, friends, and society they grow up in. Unless we are unusually self-aware we often don’t realize how subjective the list is until much much later. Personally, I was raised in a small town, non-diverse community where what qualified as success was VERY clearly spelled out. It took many years of being exposed to diverse people (along with my husband who has a totally different measurement system) to understand that how you define yourself and whether your life is a success can and should vary from person to person. The worst thing you can do is use someone else’s measurement system to define yourself. But if you do have to compare yourself to others, this is important: make sure it’s an even playing field. For years I beat myself up because we didn’t own a house earlier (as compared to some of my peers) but later discovered that many people we knew who bought houses earlier than we did had significant down payments given to them by their parents. So you would think at my age I would have learned to judge myself only by my behavior, but the desire to in some way “keep score” seems to be deeply ingrained. What does all this have to do with full-timing? I have absolutely no idea how to keep score in this new life, and seriously since the whole point of the thing is freedom why would I want to? It happens though, because people are people and I have seen judgement made on whether you are a full timer or part timer, what kind of rig/truck you have, how many days you can boondock without emptying your tanks, etc. As soon as you start defining something, some people start categorizing and assigning values to it. Although while we were in the research stage I bought into some of that, now that we have been doing this a while I think all that is pretty silly. I definitely subscribe to the “No One True Way” mentality when it comes to how people full-time. That’s good, but it still leaves me with this problem. I would love to say I had evolved past the need to judge myself, but I am just not there yet. The traditional categories don’t make any sense anymore so I am left with trying to define some “success” criteria that makes sense.

As much as I hate to use what you do for a living and how much money you make are pretty traditional ways of determining how well you are doing. Other commonly used ones are how many toys you have, the kind of car you drive, or the neighborhood you live in. But here I am in a lifestyle that by its very nature defies those sorts of categorizations. The vehicles we use are functional, we don’t have an address, we have very few toys since we don’t have room for them, and although I have kept my job and my title I am trying to live a lifestyle where my life doesn’t completely revolve around that job…it’s one of the major points of the whole change. So I am thinking that if I absolutely have to find a way to judge myself maybe I should go back to the beginning and start with what I value. Not what others value, but the mature, hopefully evolved me. I value kindness. I value contribution to society, which can take many forms. I value hard work, transparency, and inclusiveness. I value constructive rebellion, nonconformity, and courage. (I truly value those last three but I am not very good at them). I value friendship, and my marriage. So how do I create subjective criteria in these areas? I have absolutely no idea. But I do know I need to find a way to change my mental list to reflect these values which hopefully will lead to a day when I am truly comfortable in my own skin and can give up the list altogether. Either way it’s a work in progress, but as they say, the first step is recognizing the need for change.

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As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Search Amazon Here
You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
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May 22, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Getting Solar

We have been talking about getting solar since before we bought our rig because Lee has always been interested in Boondocking. Boondocking is camping with no outside water, electric, or hookup to dump your black tank. The reason Boondocking is so attractive to people is to get to the places that are really out in the middle of nowhere you generally need to give up the services. Also it is much cheaper. For example, our average campground fee is running $25 a night, but Jim and Barb (who do a lot of boondocking) had an average campground fee of $5 last year. A solar solution helps you generate your own electricity. The system is sized based upon how much electricity you think you will need in a day and varies from rig to rig and person to person. We have a generator which will use propane to generate electricity, but we only had one battery and generators are pretty noisy. Some campgrounds have designated generator hours and others don’t allow generators at all. We knew we would need some sort of solution, but we also wanted to make sure we had enough information to order the right system for us. Plus, cost is a factor. A top of the line system can be very expensive and we knew we wanted a small system to start with the ability to upgrade over time as our needs changed. Enter our friend Greg who owns RV Solar Solutions. Greg sat with us and really listened, helping us determine the ideal system for our rig. He was understanding of the fact that we are on a budget and we ended up with a quality, perfectly sized system that was affordable and met our needs. He also designed it with future upgrades in mind, so we can add more panels if we decide to add a residential refrigerator. Currently our refrigerator runs on propane or electricity, which is great, but it’s also pretty small, which is not so great. They are also pretty expensive to replace, so if this one ever dies, we will probably replace it with a residential fridge. Since those fridges won’t run on propane, you either have to be on electric hookups all the time or have an alternative way of generating your own electricity. It sounds simple, but it’s not, and having a professional help navigate the myriad of choices was invaluable.

For those who care, we ended up getting 4 panels and 4 batteries with an inverter and a controller. Honestly, I don’t understand everything about it yet, but the important thing for me is we have enough juice to run my fan and noise machine all night long and the system is set up to automatically shut off when you hit below 50% charge on the batteries. The batteries we bought are very expensive and have a shelf life, so it’s important we don’t reduce their useful life by taking them below 50% charge too often. Greg oversized our system and programmed it to shut off to ensure we would never be put into that situation. So here’s the specs…again not sure what all this means but I know it matters to some people.

Four 6 volt 220 amp Lifeline AGM batteries
Four 160 watt Grape Solar panels
Magnum Pure Sine 1200 watt Inverter
Blue Sky 3000i Solar Charge Controller

Here’s some pictures of the install. The guys all wanted to get in on the action and learn more about solar and I didn’t mind. Plus with so many helpers the job went really fast.

Our roof before panels

Bill helping with the install

Closeup of one of the panels. They are rated for 70 mph winds and 1/4″ hail which is pretty cool

Lee and Craig on the roof

Voila. The fourth you can’t see in the shot

Lee drilling the hole in our closet with Craig looking on. The holes are minimal and I don’t even notice them

Craig working on the wiring

Greg hooking up the inverter

Obviously we wanted to try it out and when we left OBX we and three other couples stopped at a Cracker Barrel and spent the night. Many businesses allow RVers to spend the night in their parking lots because it doesn’t cost them anything and they can benefit from the good will and business revenue from RVers. One of the most RV friendly businesses is Cracker Barrel; all of their locations (excepting those in a city where local ordinance does not allow it) allow folks to spend the night. There are different schools of thought on “Wallydocking” as it is commonly called. Some people love it, do it frequently, and use it as a way to keep down costs. Others rarely, if ever do it, preferring to stay in campgrounds or “Moochdock” at a friend’s home. We were interested in trying it, and although the experiment was extremely successful from a power standpoint (we had enough juice to watch 2 hours of TV, read, and then run the fan all night) neither Lee nor I was crazy about the overall experience. Let me be clear, the Cracker Barrel manager was really nice and allowed us to stay in the evening and into late morning with no issues but we weren’t particularly comfortable with the arrangement. The parking lot was not level so we were at an angle (Lee said he dreamed about falling all night) and we both felt “exposed”. Nothing unsafe happened, but we just didn’t feel very comfortable. Also in this case it actually was not cost-effective. We spent about $40 eating a dinner and then breakfast at Cracker Barrel and although we saved $25 on campground fees it did not help the budget overall. It is considered polite to spend money at the place you are staying at, and although no one enforces the rule the thought is if too many people take advantage the companies will discontinue allowing it. I will say I am interested in trying a Walmart though, because groceries are part of our standard budget, so we could buy some groceries and follow the spirit of the etiquette without any incremental cost. We would still have the safety issue to deal with though, but we will need to try it more and see. So even though we didn’t get the solar to Wallydock we are glad that we now have this option if we can’t find a reasonably priced campground in the area we are traveling through. As an FYI, we have been using Passport America campgrounds on most travel days and that has worked very well for us. We have services and generally the cost is around $17. They aren’t always the nicest campgrounds but we have yet to run across one where we didn’t feel at least marginally safe. Again, we are very very new to this and some people swear by it, so we really need to try it a few more times before we make a final judgement.

As far as boondocking in general we will see when we get out west. I will say I am cautiously optimistic, and since we have two weeks scheduled at the farm in Wisconsin and two weeks scheduled with Deb and Steve in Glacier National Park we will get plenty of opportunities to figure it out. For me those two places drove the decision to get solar sooner rather than later. Glacier is an absolute bucket list item for me, and I am taking a week’s vacation so we can go deep into the park. The farm is owned by my future son-in-law’s parents. We stayed with them with our travel trailer and had a wonderful time, but they only have 15amp service so we knew this time we would need to be able to produce our own energy to make it work. Plus (and this is no small thing) I trust Greg and the quality of his work. Those three things drove me to dip into our contingency fund to make this happen.

As a side note we have been spending some of our contingency. The solar and the wedding were the major factors thus far. I am going to talk more about budgets at the end of this month, but at the halfway point it’s not looking pretty. Being with friends for three weeks and then the rally has had a financial impact. Would I change my decisions?…largely no… but this month is a special circumstance. I am concerned though because next month we are visiting our home town and the month after that is the wedding, so there are two more months of special circumstances coming up. When I balance the cost with the quality of experiences it’s a no-brainer, but we will need to find a balance between living this amazing life and our costs. We simply aren’t there yet, and I try to give myself a break and think of it as the “newbie” learning curve, but it’s tough. I do feel it’s important to mention to provide a balanced picture of what’s happening.

We went back to Ebenezer Park for the week between OBX and the rally and I got to spend some more time with my sister and her family. I also scheduled a work trip and was in New Hampshire and Westminster, MA Monday through Thursday morning. I worked in the Westminster corporate office for 12 years and had not been back since I went out on the road. People’s reactions were pretty interesting. Many folks knew I was doing something unusual and were interested. Others are closer friends and they have been following on Facebook and the blog and they were VERY interested. My favorite experience was having dinner with two long-time close friends Kellie and Kathy. They have known me forever and as we have created a support system for each other have seen me at my best and worst over the years so their opinions carry weight with me. Both of them were genuinely happy for me and kept saying how great I looked and how I had this glow. Kathy said if a year ago someone had said Tracy would be traveling the country in an RV she would have laughed at them…and rightly so…if you knew me before you never would have thought I would have done something this unconventional. And they both stressed that they could just tell how happy I was. They also mentioned I am not that good a liar so they knew it was true. Their comments meant a lot to me, particularly because these are both women who talk straight and if they thought I looked like shit they would definitely tell me…they have certainly done it before. It was an external validation of the choice I made from people who really care about me and it was a great evening. As Kellie said, “You took a risk and it’s wonderful to see that it paid off.” Couldn’t have summed it up better myself.

Lee spent the last three days working on a project for the RV, shooting video of an install for Greg, and hanging out with the gang who fed him in my absence. Not that he is not capable of feeding himself, but Lee is never one to turn down good food. When I came back into Charlotte on Thursday, Lee and I went to see my sister who made us a wonderful dinner and made Lee two whole chocolate pies from scratch. Right out of high school Wendy went to pastry school (that’s where she met her husband) and even though she is a nurse now, she still is the best baker I know. Plus she’s known Lee since she was a little kid and is aware that the best way to his heart is with pie. So Lee was in pie heaven and we got to spend some quality time with the boys, the baby, and Josh. I was sad though. Wendy and I have spent more time together in the last six months than we have in 10 years and it made me sad that Abram (who is 11 months old) won’t remember any of it. Since we are headed out west it may be awhile before we get to see him again, and the thought was not a pleasant one. I am going to have to start pulling out those ideas for staying in touch with kids on the road I have been reading about, because I absolutely love the little peanut and want him to know who his Aunt Tracy and Uncle Lee are.

So it was another full week and now we are headed to Marion, NC and the reunion rally. We scheduled this trip 9 months ago and are very excited to see Red and Pam who have been out west for the past year and we miss very much. Plus looking forward to seeing Howard and Linda again and meeting other RV Dreamers and learning from them. The opportunity to learn in person from long-time full timers is a valuable one and I know I will have lots to add to my “Things I Learned from RV Dreams” page…so stay tuned.

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As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Search Amazon Here
You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on Itunes.

May 15, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Mother’s Day on the Road

Another busy week here at the OBX compound. On Thursday, Glyn and his wife Diane from RV Driving School arrived. Several weeks ago Jo (who took training from him and now drives her rig almost everywhere) arranged for Glyn Carson from RV Driving School to come and visit our group here in OBX. They were willing to send him for four couples so Lee and I, Cori/Greg, Kelly/Bill, and Sue/Guy signed up. So Glyn and Diane arrived on Thursday and Jo cooked a very nice meal for the group for their arrival. We had a nice time chatting and since the weather was perfect we built a fire down on the beach. The circle was much bigger with 12 couples so Craig built a larger fire than normal. I had a lovely chat with Glyn and Diane who are very nice people. Their story is very cool because they started full timing when Glyn was 47 and ended up moving to Alaska after they fell in love with it. Glyn worked as an ice road trucker and after 14 years he semi-retired again and they are back on the road. Very interesting because Lee and I are that age and it’s great to hear a story from someone who full timed for a while, took a break, and started again. Eventually the crowd dwindled down and there were only 7 of us left. The tide started to rise and we all sat in our chairs laughing when we had to lift our feet when a wave came up too close. Suddenly a particularly strong wave completely covered our fire and BAM there was a steam explosion. Sand, water, and wood sprayed everywhere and thankfully no one was hurt. I got a huge glob of wet sand on the top of my head and when we were sure everyone was OK we all started laughing hysterically. Craig (who was a professional fireman) was as surprised as the rest of us. So it was amazing BUT please do not try this at home. We are really lucky no one got hurt!!

Craig built a beautiful fire

Hobie likes to hang out on the beach. Luckily Greg took him up before the explosion

I was a mess the picture doesn’t do it justice

On Saturday, Sue planned an excursion for us to Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. I teased her that she needed an itinerary to plan an excursion for a group of this size and without a beat she made the following flyer for all of us and handed them out. This made me laugh so hard, because Sue was poking back at me about my tendency to over-schedule. I love that Sue has a wicked sense of humor and was excited that she was going to navigate the group for the day. Whenever we go anywhere it’s 3-4 cars, coordinating the leave times, and finding a good place for lunch. Oh, and you’d better check Trip Advisor for that lunch! So the outings have been a blast but keeping everyone together is a bit like herding cats, so I loved just going along for the ride on this one.

Sue’s invitation was hysterical

The drive to anywhere here is absolutely beautiful and Lee and I had a great time in the car and were in the back of the pack when we all came to a stop. Now, finding a place to pull over with 4 vehicles (two of them dually’s) in a line is challenging, but I give Jo huge credit (she was driving the lead truck) for pulling us into a side residential street. Turns out the address shown above is not 100% accurate…actually there was no true address for the refuge. Every wildlife place we have been has a ranger station of some kind that offers information on the park. This one had two wooden stands with a couple of maps. The maps were not super clear as the street markers were very faded. Also the roads were dirt and gravel and were supposed to be wildlife drives but truly not so much. The “restrooms” marked on the map for example was one port-a-john. At this point we have been to lots of these parks and none of us have ever seen anything like this. So it really was a great day to not be in charge of the schedule. Sue did a valiant job of getting us all to the first walking area…I say valiant because there was no cell service, the GPS didn’t work, and the maps were super unclear. But we made it and the walk itself was very nice. The park is off the island on the mainland and was quite a bit more humid than we have been experiencing but the flowers and foliage were very pretty. It was also very interesting walking the path with Craig and Glyn who are experienced hunters. There was quite a bit of bear sign around the path and they pointed out to me how I could tell where the bear had been. We didn’t see any bear (probably for the best) but I did learn a ton about tracking their movements. Afterwards we had a great lunch at Tortuga’s Lie Restaurant. The jerk chicken was the best I have ever had and then everyone split off to run errands. It really was a lovely day and Sue did a wonderful job. Hmmm we may need to give her the additional title of Excursion Planner!! Seriously Sue would have made an awesome cruise director.

Bear poop..the guys said it was about 2 days old

tough to see in pic but this was a bear paw print

The bear scratched at this tree branch to get to grubs. Gave us an idea of how tall it was. Look for the gouges

Greg, Bill, and Kelly at the restaurant

From left: Sue, Glyn, Diane, Guy, Jo, and Craig

As if the day wasn’t nice enough, when we got back to the campground there were flowers waiting for me at the rig. My middle daughter Kat worked with my husband to send me flowers at the campground for Mother’s day. They were absolutely beautiful and the card brought tears to my eyes. My oldest daughter Kyrston had called a few days back to ask about what to give me and I knew exactly what I wanted so she shipped the soy lotion candle to my sister. I also had a great conversation with Kay, my youngest. She admitted she was at a loss as to what I would want…a great question since we just got rid of everything and are pretty tough to buy for. I told her an ITunes gift card was good anytime, because there was always music or ebooks that I would be interested in. Since this was my first Mother’s Day on the road I wasn’t sure what to expect but my kids all went out of their way to tell me and show me how much I mean to them. Really there is nothing else a Mother could ask for and I am truly grateful to them all. They have been 100% supportive of our full timing lifestyle from the very beginning and I am exceptionally proud of the women they have become.

Mother’s Day morning my driving lessons started. I was really mellow about the whole thing until the morning of the first session. The girls all got up and came out in their pajamas to wish me luck, which was incredibly sweet and I found myself getting nervous. I have driven some, mostly on the interstate, and was starting to get nervous about driving “in town”. Glyn was very calm however. As he said later, after driving a truck in Alaska all those years not much could rattle him. We practiced backing up, parallel parking in a shopping center so you can get out (my favorite part) and lots of left and right turns. Because you use your own rig the lessons are extremely helpful and after a few hours I felt MUCH more confident. One of the best things he did was show me what would happen with a little toy truck and trailer first. I was having a heck of a time visualizing what was happening on the “blind side” of the trailer, but when Glyn showed me with the toy a light bulb finally went off in my head. Lee is a good teacher and has been very patient, but I just wasn’t getting certain things. Glyn showing me and all those things Lee had said finally clicked. Each couple had purchased 2 sessions of 4 hours each for $440. The price is on the high side but it is hard to put a price on gaining that level of confidence. Also I called my insurance company and they did say we would get a break on our insurance for taking the class, so hopefully that will help offset the cost. I will say though that for me I think a single 4 hour session would have been sufficient, but I have already driven some and you may feel you need the additional hours of practice. The great thing about Glyn is he is very open to providing a custom experience. A couple of the women stated they were nervous about driving over bridges and he immediately changed their route to make sure it included bridge driving.

Lee got his first official RV Tech repair gig. I say that because he has been fixing stuff for us and our friends since school finished, and we’ve been working on finalizing the details of the business. He put the sign out when we hit OBX and his first job was replacing a Norcold 1200 cooling unit. As these things go that’s a pretty big job, but he jumped right in and successfully completed the installation. You may have noticed I added a map on the right hand side of the webpage showing where we are at any given time. As soon as we complete Lee’s webpage, I will be adding a map to show our upcoming route and we will definitely be adding a DIY tab on this site to show all the customizations he has done. We have never been small business owners so we are working our way through the marketing and accounting aspects of running a small business and our friends Cori and Greg of RV Solar Solutions have been very helpful in sharing their many years experience in running a small business with us.

Monday we got hit with the tail end of a tropical storm and it poured on and off all day. Gene and Eileen arrived on this day and unfortunately because of weather we couldn’t make a group dinner work. The ladies sprung into action though and put together a chili, salad, and cornbread meal for them. I was working during all of this and it was so nice that they took care of making sure they were fed. Since Gene and Eileen drove through the storm, it took longer than they expected and they were really tired. Everyone came to greet them and bring them the food and since I didn’t make anything offered to walk their dog Max. I have missed Gene and Eileen, but I was most excited about Max. I know Hobie is going to get a little jealous but he will just have to learn to share me with other dogs.

Double rainbow from the tropical storm

Hobie making himself at home on our desk. I can't beleive Lee let him up here

Hobie making himself at home on our desk. Can’t believe Lee let him up.

For weeks I have been walking the beach and collecting shells with the vague idea of making a shell picture frame and putting a picture of the gang in it. A couple of weeks ago, Cori and I bought a couple little glue guns and some cheapie picture frames at the Dollar General. The weekends and nights though have been taken up with lots of activities and with the driving classes being staggered I didn’t think we would have the opportunity to all get together for a girl’s night. Cori though proved once again why she is such a great friend to me and quietly got everyone together so we could have craft night. It was really sweet and a lot of fun. We all got to be together, talk, and drink a little wine. That’s what I love most about Cori..in very quiet ways she goes to some trouble to make people happy and if you mention it she always denies it’s a big thing. She also happens to be an excellent shell picture frame maker and by general consensus hers looked the best. Lee said, “No offense, but Cori’s looks like it could be sold in a shop.”

Sue

Kelly

Eileen

Cori is the winner!!!

Since I had driving class on Sunday the rig has been a bit of a mess, plus the guys are finishing up our solar install so I am working at the kitchen table to try to stay out of their way. During lunch I got to take both Hobie and Max with me to the beach. I’ve been wanting those guys together for the last three weeks and Sue was happy to come with to help me get some pictures. There were a ton of college aged kids on the beach and it was a beautiful day, although a bit windy. It was a great 1/2 hour and I finally got the pics I have been looking for. It’s neat how they look similar but have somewhat different coloring. They are both cavachon’s and I think Max looks more Bichon whereas Hobie seems more Cavalier. Can you tell I am totally obsessed with these dogs?

Me working at my table

Sue on the beach

Max says he’s not getting enough screen time and wanted a solo pic

Couldn’t get both kids to look at me at the same time, like getting a picture with a couple two-year olds. Hobie on the left and Max on the right

Tuesday night we had a group dinner of Lasagna (made my Kelly) and home-made Caesar salads prepared by Lee. Lee’s first job was making Caesar salad’s tableside at a fancy restaurant and when Kelly got wind of that a plan was born. Also, Diane and Glyn talked to us about Alaska which was incredibly helpful. There are tons of urban legends about RV’ing to Alaska and they were very helpful in dispelling most of them. You don’t need an extra gas tank for example to visit the commonly traveled areas and you can use some flexibility when booking campgrounds along the way. I highly recommend talking to someone who actually lived there before making a trip as they truly can tell you what the area is like. One of the funniest things that happened all night was Lee was playing ball with Hobie and Max. Max is really good at catching the ball on the bounce and apparently Hobie got a little upset because the first opportunity he had he lifted his leg and peed on the ball. It was if he was saying, “I’ll show you Max.” So funny and we laughed until we cried. The look on Cori’s face was priceless when her “kid” misbehaved. Loved it!!!

Lee making Caesars

Diane and Jo looking at Alaska pictures

Gene, Eileen, and Gene’s 91-year-old mom Rose

Glyn and Guy looking at Alaska pictures

Guy went and put this hat on. Totally cracked me up

Puppies playing ball

Laci Lou wanted to get in on the action

Wednesday we finally got to go kayaking. This was the one thing Cori wanted to do and because of work schedules, other activities, and weather it kept getting pushed. So we were going no matter what and we had 4 couples who had boats. Although the tide was very low and we had to do some walking in spots, we had a great time. I also got some cool black and white shots of an abandoned bridge. Then we went to a local bar, Watermen’s and watched the sunset and ate some dinner. The food was delicious and the company was great. For the first time Lee and I shared a meal. (He’s not a hug fan of sharing his food!) We got stuffed mushrooms and prime rib all for $36 before tip. There was plenty to eat for both of us and I think we will definitely try this approach again.

All our boats in a line

Gene and Eileen and Sue and Guy

Love this picture of Cori and Greg. Cori is the queen of multitasking

Really pretty views

Lee and Gene pulling the boats along

View from the restaurant

Beautiful sunset

Lee, Greg. and Cori

From Left: Greg, Sue, Eileen, me, Lee, Gene, Cori, and Guy

Our last night in OBX we celebrated Greg’s birthday and had our last fire on the beach. IT was a wonderful night and a great way to cap off a great month with people we love. It’s bittersweet to be leaving because we really like it here and have had a great time on the road..but can’t wait to see my sister and get to the reunion rally.

With trick candles of course!!

Cori got Greg a Security T-Shirt ..so now it’s offical

Front row: Rose, Guy. Sue, Cori, Hobie, me, Lee, Kelly, Bill, Jo Back row: Eileen, Gene, Glyn, Greg, Diane, Craig

Front row: Rose, Guy. Sue, Cori, Hobie, me, Lee, Kelly, Bill, and Jo. Back row: Eileen, Gene, Glyn, Greg, Diane, Craig

Some members of Dreamers Class of 2014

Lessons Learned

Do not let the ocean cover your beach fire when you are sitting near it because it could cause a steam explosion.
An RV class is a terrific idea, but to make the most of your experience be very clear with the instructor on what your concerns are so he can provide a custom program.
Crafts can be a fun and inexpensive way of spending time. Adding a little wine only makes it better!!
Before RV’ing to Alaska talk to someone who has spent a lot of time there or better yet lived there. There is a ton of misinformation on the internet. Big shock right 🙂
When Kayaking in the ocean sound check the tide levels

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First Time in Ocracoke

Sunday we went to Ocracoke Island which is a small town with lots of cool shops and restaurants. The only downside is we had to take a ferry which in off-season only runs on the hour one way and the half hour the other way. I have never been on a ferry with cars…was always a little scared to be honest but it was the only way to get there so we piled into three cars and left at 8am on Sunday morning. Going out wasn’t so bad. The small ferry we were on wasn’t full of cars and you can go on the observation deck and get some cool pictures. We had a nice day walking the town and eating lunch, but coming back there were tons of cars waiting for the 3:30pm ferry and we actually had to wait an entire hour for the next one to come. Not only did we have to wait, but Lee and I in the trailing car were second to last on the boat and up until the last-minute I was convinced we weren’t going to make it. So, I do recommend seeing it at least once, but if you can go during the week I would and give yourself extra time to get back. The waiting area is along the shore so you can walk the beach a bit, but an hour wait in the hot sun is obviously not optimal. Other than that though was a great day and I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

The first mammal I have seen on the island. We stopped on the side of the road and took some pictures

The gang waiting for the ferry

The loading area for the ferry

We realized all the couples were color coordinated except for us and Guy and Sue…so we switched partners for the pics

Beautiful houses along the shore

View from the ferry

Ferry

Ferry we passed coming the other way

We stopped and saw some “wild” ponies. They are descendants of the original wild beach horses

Beautiful views

Cori found this bunny on a path near the horses

He posed for us

Nature sculpture

Craig was talking to the woman in the wheelchair so didn’t wave. He’s a sweetie like that

Our lunch place on the water

View from the restaurant

Sue and I loved this little pig statue but it doesn’t do two things

Lovely little cottage on the harbor

Lots of little houses/shops like this

The Ocracoke lighthouse

Loved this twisty tree

Proof that we were the second to last car that got on the ferry

This Class A took the ride…they really know how to park the cars to get the most on the ferry

So it was a lovely day and we had a very nice week. On a side note, I think I like this communal living. The other day Kelly made the guys breakfast, I walked Cori’s dog, and Cori made lunch. The saying “many hands make light work” does apply to some extent with a large group of people and it elevates the more mundane chores to something fun when you can do it with your friends. We had several group dinners including Monday’s “grill your own” night which ended with us all watching the Full Flower Moon rise. I have never seen a moonrise before and it was so beautiful. Truly the picture does not do it justice and if you ever have a chance to watch one on the ocean I highly recommend it. Tuesday was Cinco De Mayo and Greg fixed three kinds of tacos with Bill providing margaritas.

As Bill says, “Moonrise is underrated”

Guy pulled out some 20 year port. Bill our bartender approved

Guy pulled out some 20 year port and Bill our bartender approved

A man and his dog

Wednesday night I needed a break!! I definitely need to work on my stamina as some folks are putting me to shame. Lee and I ate pot pies, stayed in and watched some TV. Thursday night was date night and the couples were spending some quality time. Some went to dinner alone, others paired up. We went to Jockey Ridge State Park which is a MUST DO in this area. Totally free you walk up a very long sand dune (takes about 20 minutes so give yourself ample time) and watched an amazing sunset. So far in this lifestyle all of my favorite things have cost $10 or less and this was right up there with my all time favorites.

The dunes walking up to the ridge

Lee in the expanse. He felt like Lawrence of Arabia

It is a steep climb up the hill so where the right shoes. My dinner sandals were not the best pick

It is a steep climb up the hill so wear the right shoes. My dinner sandals were not the best pick

Beautiful views along the way

Sometimes I am amazed this is my life

A little smooching on the dune.

Ready

Set

The clouds were so cool and this is not color enhanced

I think everyone missed each other, though we ended up all meeting up at a local Karaoke bar. I had mentioned on Tuesday Lee has a wonderful voice and can sing Sinatra so Cori (the rabble rouser) organized the whole group (via text) to meet up at the karaoke bar and talked Lee into singing. I used to be terrified of singing in public and have never ever done it at a bar, but Kelly wanted to sing and since she conquered her fears at the Adventure Course with me I thought it was the least I could do for her. Turns out it was a ton of fun. I wasn’t nervous at all with Kelly standing there, and I was even totally sober!! As the evening wore on though things got a little on the rough side. Lots of locals hang out here and there were many hard-working fisherman singing. At first it was fun, but when one guy changed the lyrics of the song to, “All you tourists, we will kick your ass” we all decided it might be a good time to leave. I get it, these folks live here and people come in and act like they own the place, but we were just trying to have a good time. Anyway, I absolutely recommend singing in a karaoke bar, just not this particular one.

Lee and Kelly looking over the song list

Craig and Guy

Lee singing “Summer Wind” by the Chairman of the Board

And yes here’s the video of Kelly and I singing. Quality is not great but you can tell we were having a really good time. Need to stop for now as we have another big weekend planned. Who knew I would have so much to blog about!!

Day 4 of the Black and White Photo Challenge

I was challenged to take black and white photo’s for 5 consecutive blog posts for the Black and White Photo challenge. I would like to nominate Kelly Murray to participate in the challenge. This week’s picture was taken on the island of Ocracoke. It was a tough choice but these statues remind me of my mother-in-law’s garden and I love how the boats in the background are slightly blurred.

Winner Day 4

Recipe

Satay Pork

This was such a pleasant surprise. Easy to make and absolutely delicious. Several people tried it and really liked it.

3# boneless pork cut into strips
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 TBL chopped peanuts
1 TBL Worcestershire Sauce
1 TBL chopped onion
2 cloves garlic; crushed
2 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp curry powder
Skewers

Combine all ingredients except chicken; blend well
Marinate pork for 1-2 hours; stir occasionally
Drain pork; reserve marinade
Thread pork onto skewers in a S pattern
Grill kabobs on an uncovered grill for 5-6 minutes turning frequently and marinating often
Serve

Satay Pork

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April 28, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Changing Relationships

So here I am on Monday morning, awake at 3am…not sure why I can’t sleep…I’m not upset or anything, but I woke up with a thought and I felt I wanted to use the time to write about it. The thought was that you could take your current relationship and plop it into an RV and live your life or you could use this lifestyle as a catalyst for change. Any couple that is solid and stable enough to stay the same through this process, more power to you, but we are finding that the change in scenery is also changing our relationship. The thought doesn’t upset me, and despite the evidence to the contrary it doesn’t keep me up at night, because as Lee says, the change is an organic one and at least for us it’s part of this whole process. We started all of this by recognizing that being empty nesters was barreling down on us and we needed to make some changes as a couple to survive that. I’m serious about that…despite being married for 25 years, knowing each other since we were 14 and 16, and truly liking each other, we both saw the handwriting on the wall so to speak that because we had drifted apart if we didn’t take steps to remedy that we would eventually be in trouble. Neither of us are people who settle in life. We both want and even demand high levels of quality in our relationships, each other, our work situations, our children etc. It doesn’t make us easy people and we certainly weren’t easy parents, but I think that this desire for excellence comes from the right place. We want to be better and have always demanded as much from ourselves as we have from others.

So we knew we would never be the couple that stay married and just sort of tolerate each other. I can see how people drift into that, though. Once the kids are gone and financial pressure lessens, and life in general gets easier, it’s nice, and you don’t want to rock the boat. You relax a bit, get complacent, and then next thing you know you stop working at your relationship. As all things without change, the marriage gets stagnant and ultimately the people themselves get stagnant or they go looking outside the marriage for what they are not finding within it. We’ve all seen it and many of us have experienced it, so Lee and I were acutely aware of what could happen and decided in advance we wanted to do what we could to head it off at the pass. There are lots of reasons people start full-time RVing. The desire for adventure, wanting to live with less rules, the need for simplicity in their life, there are a myriad of reasons. But for me the absolute number one reason was a desire to strengthen my marriage. Let me be absolutely clear here…we were not in trouble. Things were good, probably better than they have ever been for us, but as I said I could see down the path of what could be and since absolutely nothing is more important to me than my relationship with my husband, I wanted to do everything I could to give us the best chance possible.

It’s interesting because this lifestyle was a huge risk. It has put levels of pressure on our marriage that we haven’t felt since we were very young adults with babies, but that pressure feels to me like the pressure needed to make a diamond. For those of you going through it, you’ll get it, but let me try to explain: You take two people who love each other, are friends, and have known each other for a long time. You take most of their stuff away from them, put them in a 400 square foot box, and make them live together while changing their exterior environment frequently. Wow. Put that way it sounds like a reality show. But stripped down to its basics that is really what we are doing here. Yes, we get to see amazing places, yes we are checking bucket list items off left and right, but when those things aren’t happening we are living our regular day-to-day life and the rules above apply. So the rewards are amazing but it can be extremely hard. But as Lee and I often remind ourselves, nothing in our life that was ever worth anything came without a cost. To quote Tom Hanks from the movie A League of Their Own, “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”

It has been hard on our relationship these last few months but it’s also been great for our relationship. We are talking more to each other than we have since we were young together and trying to figure it all out. We are challenging each other to be better. And most importantly we are loving each other more deeply. So respectfully, for those couples who have taken their old relationship and plopped it into this new life intact, you might be missing out on a great opportunity here. It’s scary to mess with something that matters so much and tough to meddle, especially when it isn’t broken, but the reward in this case (in my opinion) is well worth the risk.

Day 2 of the Black and White Photography Challenge

I am participating in the Black and White Blog photography challenge where every post for 5 posts I am showing a black and white photo along with nominating a friend to also participate. Today I nominate Cori Young, my very good friend who has a new camera and a new blog to take up the challenge.

I’m really enjoying taking these black and white photos. Lee said this was his favorite because it told a story

Recipes

Stir Fry Rice Noodles with Pork

Since my trip to the Asian Market I have been trying different recipes. We tried three different recipes with rice-stick noodles and this was definitely the winner. It’s not that difficult (as these recipes go) and the flavor was super yummy.

8 oz rice-stick noodles
4 TBL vegetable oil
4 cloves garlic (minced)
1 pound thinly slice lean pork
4 TBL soy sauce (separate)
1 (10 0z) can chicken broth
16 oz shredded cabbage (you can use the bags in the grocery store pre-cut for cole slaw)
1/2 cup finely shredded carrot
4 green onions (finely chopped with greens separated from white part)
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

Soak rice stick in a bowl fully covered with water for 30 minutes then drain well
Heat a wok over high heat; Add oil and heat until lightly bubbling
Add garlic, then pork and stir-fry for two minutes moving pork frequently
Add 2 TBL soy sauce and stir fry two minutes longer or until pork absorbs most of sauce
Add broth and 2 TBL soy sauce
Stir in chopped cabbage, shredded carrot, and chopped green onion bottoms; Cover and cook for two minutes
Add noodles and pepper; cook stirring for two minutes or until noodles absorb most of liquid
Spoon onto platter and sprinkle with the white part of the chopped green onions

Stir Fried Rice Noodles with Pork

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April 5, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time on Augustine Island

Last week I traveled back to Nashua, New Hampshire for work which is about an hour from where we used to live and the office was my home office. First I walked off the plane into snow flurries. Not unexpected unfortunately for late March in New Hampshire, but compared to the mid 70’s I left not so great. The weather was better as the week went on, but there was still patches of snow on the ground and everything was so brown…lol. Jacksonville is lush and green in March and New Hampshire definitely suffered by comparison. I did get to see my oldest daughter Kyrston Monday night though for dinner, which was great. She drove over an hour each way to come and see me and we had a great time talking and eating at Texas Roadhouse. One cool thing about traveling is being on an expense report, so eating out is not only expected but largely necessary, and Kyrston paid her own way so great steak dinner with $0 budget impact 🙂

Kyrston is such a good daughter to humor me with this pic

The week was very good work wise. I had the opportunity to facilitate a Kaizen event (fancy name for a brainstorming session) with a terrific group of people. I was a little rusty because I hadn’t done it in a while, but the group was great and we came up with about 20 practical ideas to improve the project we are all working on. I love these events when the group dynamic is good and then one was very productive. I also drove to Boston and Hartford while I was there, which made for some long days but again got quite a bit accomplished. So I was pretty tired when I drove to the airport, Friday noon to get on my returning flight. Something really interesting happened at the airport. When I went through security I pulled out my brand new Florida drivers license and a young TSA agent asked me if I was going home. I had to stop and think for a second, is Florida my home, well not really but my fifth wheel is my home and I am going there flashed through my head pretty quickly, but since this is not really a conversation you want to have with a TSA agent I smiled and said, “Yes.” Then she glanced at my driver’s license again, looked envious, and said “Lucky.” That was the surreal moment. I have traveled extensively over the last 15 years and no one ever looked at my New Hampshire drivers license and said “Lucky.” Pretty cool moment actually but like I said….weird.

While I was gone last week, Lee was working on finalizing the name, insurance, signage etc for his Mobile Tech business (we will talk about that when it’s all done) and also decided to try to move us. We were staying at St. John’s RV Park Campground in St. Augustine. The price was terrific at $17 a night unlimited Passport America price for full hookups, but it isn’t the kind of place we would want to stay long-term. I will say the people were incredibly nice and helpful, the grounds were well cared for, but unfortunately there are numerous permanent trailers that give the place a run down look. We did feel completely safe there and the campground itself was very quiet. It’s a shame really because if they could just get some of the permanent dwellings to clean themselves up it would be much nicer. Anyways, our friend Deb mentioned St. Augustine State Park and when we went to visit it complete home run. Water and electric, reasonably priced with ocean access inside the park and deep well wooded sites. Unfortunately at our size there were only a few walk in sites we could fit into and all the reserve able sites were booked for weeks. The campgrounds policy on the walk in sites is first come/first serve when they vacate so whoever shows up at the office first got the site. We went and looked and only Sites 72, 69, or 41 would actually work for us. At that point, since I was traveling for two weeks, I kind of gave up on it, but Lee decided he wanted to stay there and became a man on a mission.

First he went to the best campsite for us and asked when the people were leaving. When he explained the situation (the folks who were Canadian) were happy to give him the date of March 31st. Then he hooked up the camper and drove to the campground at 8am. HE knew what their car looked like so he watched cars for 4-1/2 hours until they left and then popped into the camp office and nabbed the site. Now this sounds extreme ( and it is), but he said at least 10 people stopped by in those 4 hours so he doesn’t think it would have worked any other way. So I was driving back to a strange campsite from the airport that I had only been in once with just the site number to guide me. Luckily, the signage was good and even though it was very dark, I found our new site. Wow what can I say…he had it all lit up with our tiki torches and it was deep and completely wooded and so beautiful and peaceful. Plus a big fat raccoon sauntered out of the bushes and walked through our campsite as plain as you please. Absolutely amazing and the type of site we always pictured when we thought about this lifestyle. I was so happy to be home and especially happy to be here and incredibly impressed by my very special husband.

The woods go back very deep and although we can hear others cannot see anyone

Lee loves the twisty trees here

I woke up really early Saturday morning because I was excited about possibly catching a bit of the lunar eclipse. And since I was already up we decided to go down and watch the sunrise on the beach. I did get to see some of the lunar eclipse before it clouded over (no pictures unfortunately) and we watched an absolutely beautiful sunrise. Most sunrises I have seen don’t have much color but this one was like a sunset in reverse and absolutely gorgeous.

The moon starting it’s lunar eclipse

Loved the colors

Sunrise on Anastasia Island

Beautiful

After sunrise Lee made me breakfast (with my favorite Bob Evans sausage links) and we took Steve’s advice and went around the corner to the local farmers market. I think this was the best farmers market I have ever been to with a mix of crafts, fresh grown produce, flowers, and food stands. Lots of booths gave out free samples and we munched our way happily down the aisle. I got some pineapple oranges, local radishes, homemade meat rub, and a turtle carved out of a coconut. Yes I didn’t really need that but for $6 how could you go wrong and the guy that makes them was awesome. I also wanted to mention here that when you get produce at farmer’s markets you should really look and see where the food is coming from. Many markets are now selling wholesale fruits and veggies and passing them off as local grown. They’ve actually enacted some laws against this in California and a lot of what you see in farmer’s markets is really grocery store quality food repackaged. I always look for signs stating what farm it is from and usually won’t buy if there is nothing listed unless the price beats a local grocery store and the quality is good. There were several stands that fit this bill for me and I absolutely recommend a visit if you ever get to stay here…it was phenomenal.

The farmer’s market was a long two down

Absolutely gorgeous orchids for sale so pretty

See the sign on locally grown. If it’s local they will NOT have everything that’s in your grocery store, but what they do have will be bigger and better

All of this for under $20

Since it was still early and wasn’t super hot yet we decided to take a drive around St. Augustine a bit and see if there was anything we wanted to do. Whenever we go to a new area I create a word document with possible things to see gleaned from Trip Advisor, Roadside Attractions, and the areas community website. Have to say for St. Augustine nothing really jumped out at me. Many of the places are pretty touristy and the prices are on the high side. We did drive by the lighthouse and take a couple of pictures but didn’t want to pay the $9.95 each to walk up it. I would have liked to see the Fountain of Youth area but that’s $15 each also and really didn’t look that great. We talked about getting a trolley pass since people recommend it but $24.95 for a three-day pass (no single day passes offered). Are you seeing a theme here 🙂

The best picture we could get outside of the gated area

Really the main town related thing I wanted to do was walk along and see a couple of the shops I found when researching. So we were on our way there when my sister Wendy texted me that a friend of hers was from St. Augustine and told me about this little hole in the wall shrimp place called O’Steens. We were only a mile away so we stopped in and found at least 8 people waiting in line at 10:35 and the place didn’t even open until 11am. I stopped and checked the menu ($12.95 for 9 shrimp basket) and we wandered back across the bridge. May want to try it later. We headed for St. George Street which is in the heart of old town St. Augustine and despite the crazy traffic had no trouble finding parking in a lot. We walked around and saw the couple of shops I was interested in and took a picture of the main building in old downtown. The two shops were really cool and I recommend them. Sea Spirits Gallery and Gifts was all sea related art. It was super pricey, but I just enjoyed walking through and looking at everything. If you go in, go all the way through to the back and get to walk into this cool little courtyard between two buildings which was a bonus surprise. But we spent all of an hour walking around before we decided to go back to the campground. There was also a cool shop around the corner called Filthy Rich. It was run by this very nice couple and they specialize in jewelry made by local artists that matches the jewelry of celebrities. I got lost in the Audrey Hepburn section and spent quite a bit of time looking at the Jackie Kennedy line (was thinking about you Mom). Didn’t buy anything but it was really neat to look around and Lee though largely bored did like the Jack Kennedy style sunglasses they have.

Saw this shop online and had to go

Beautiful wood sculpture of turtles was done from one piece (except for the flippers)

The building the shops were in is made from seashells

This courtyard was the neatest suprise, felt like I was in Morocco. The shop was in one of the oldest buildings in town

This courtyard was the neatest surprise, felt like I was in Morocco. The shop was in one of the oldest buildings in town

My mom would have really liked this store

Lee loves Bogie and humored me with the photo

Statue sent from Spain as a present to the city of the original Spanish Governor of St. Augustine.

Lightner Museum

Truly the best part of the day were the things we just stumbled upon. We took a couple wrong turns on side streets and saw some cool residential houses. The side roads are very narrow because the town is so old and there were some neat houses tucked into them. Also we stopped on our way back into the park (which costs $4 for one or $8 for two or more for a day pass btw) and took a walk along a path to see the remains of a quarry that the Spanish used to build houses on the island. The pit itself was more a study of how nature will take anything back over but we kept walking and at the end there was a pond with about 20 wild turtles in it. Someone must be feeding them because they all came up to the dock when we walked on it, and I have never seen that many turtles in the wild before. Then on the way back to the campsite Lee saw a big turtle on the side of the road and we stopped and looked at him for a while. He was not impressed 🙂

Gingerbread house on a side road

Very cool dinosaur log bench

The walk to the quarry

Here’s all that’s left of the quarry

The little guy on the right had so much algae on him he looked like a Chia pet

Big Turtle walking on the side of the road in the park

Love these little flowers

The rest of the day we just chilled. I tried to catch up on some media stuff and really needed some down time. One thing that happened while I was gone is we received a letter from the voting board about our address being a mailing address. Someone on the forums mentioned we just need to send in proof of our domicile to fix this, but it is one more extra thing that you have to deal with when your trying to color outside the lines. On the one hand I am not bothered so much because this life is so great and a little extra work is worth it. On the other hand I can get extremely annoyed because it feels like I am pushing a boulder uphill with the paperwork to get state residency established. Will let you know how it all works out.

Sunday we woke up and decided to go kayaking. We were due for some rain but not until later in the day and Lee doesn’t do so well on the water in full sun anyways so we headed out around 9am. It was a great day to go. Empty because of Easter Sunday and although we had sun wasn’t extremely hot. I have been wanting to try our Sea Eagle on the ocean and I will say that it is a lot more work to paddle with the stronger currents. We had fun though paddling along the marsh inlets and even though we didn’t see any manatees got some good shots of the birds. So it was a good weekend, but now I’m headed out for a week in Princeton, New Jersey at a change management training class. Lee’s going to finish getting our license plates (hopefully) and maybe visit the Pirate Museum and Spanish fort here.

Wood Stork hanging out where we put in ..looking fro some fish

Wood Stork hanging out where we put in ..looking for some fish

Easy to get into the water from the shore

You can paddle pretty close to the sand dunes and hear the ocean behind them

Nice view of the lighthouse

A vendor rents sailboats, kayaks etc right in the park

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Camper Chronicles

Travel Tales from Working Full Time RVers

Full Time RV’ing

First Time without a “Regular” Job

Changing the Way I Define Myself

First Time Getting Solar

First Mother’s Day on the Road

Lessons Learned

First Time in Ocracoke

Recipe

Changing Relationships

Recipes

Stir Fry Rice Noodles with Pork

First Time on Augustine Island