A Year Down the Road

A year ago we pulled out of William O’Brien State Park in Minnesota and headed off into our new full-time RV life. In this first year we have experienced and learned so much. It has reinforced lessons we already knew and taught us new lessons along the way. Here are a few insights from our travels.

November 2021

December 2021

Spreading our roots
Selling your home and going full-time in an RV is often described as pulling up roots. For us it has been about spreading our roots. Roots come from the heart not a foundation. While our deepest roots are still in Minnesota of course, we have woven so many other places into our lives.

We have found connections with ancestors in various places around the country. In Southern Minnesota we located the graves of Dan’s great-grandparents. In an Iowa museum we discovered a clock made by a great-great-uncle in Norway. In Maine Kara learned she is related to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In Massachusetts we toured a house built in 1678 by her ancestors 10 generations back.

And it has been a great joy to visit friends and family where they are. We get to know them so much better than when we are at a gathering somewhere. Thank you to all who have shown us such wonderful hospitality. From hiking an Illinois prairie and taking shelter from the lightning in an ammunition bunker to off-roading in the Arizona desert we have had a lot of fun together.

January 2022

February 2022

It hasn’t been easy
Living full-time on the road hasn’t been the easy life or a life of leisure. It is a lot of work. If we were staying 3-6 months in a place it might be easier, but not when we’re averaging less than 4 nights per stay. And we weren’t looking for the easy life. We were looking for the rich life, and that we have found in abundance.

March 2022

April 2022

Life goes on
There is still the business of life to deal with from bills to maintenance to family matters to personal wellness to making reservations. We spent a couple days parked in a casino parking lot finishing taxes. It all becomes more challenging when you’re mobile, even just receiving a package, but it is doable.

May 2022

June 2022

We are travelers
Tourists have destinations while travelers have way-points. Not that one is better than the other, they are just different experiences.

When we were working we would carve out some time for a vacation, go to a destination and explore that area as best we could in the time we had, which was never enough. Now as full-time travelers our destinations have become way-points. Not only do we learn about many different places, we also learn about the greater context and how all these areas connect in place and time. We learn about how different communities relate and compare. This world is fascinating and it has been good to get to know it better, from the Grand Canyon to the world’s tallest filing cabinet, from this country’s inspiring stories to its silent history.

July 2022

August 2022

Weather is a wildcard
We started with a general goal to stay in places where the high temperature was in the 70s but that has proved to be more of a challenge than we expected. Weather has become more extreme and less predictable. If we can stay above freezing as much as possible and avoid the big storms we’re doing good. All in all we have been very fortunate with weather though there have been some close calls.

September 2022

October 2022

November 2022

Are there things we miss about our life in a stationary house? For sure. Is there anything we would do differently had we the chance? Perhaps. Do we have any regrets with our decision to sell our house and travel full-time? Not at all. We appreciate the opportunity we have to explore the why in the road and are so glad we seized that opportunity. Now on to the next year.

28 thousand miles and 1 year down the road

States visited: Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina.

National Parks visited: Big Bend, Saguaro, Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Yosemite, Redwoods, Yellowstone, Badlands, Indiana Dunes, Cuyahoga Valley, Acadia, Shenandoah plus 15 other National Park sites.