May 21, 2021

Exciting News

May 21, 2021/ Deb

Exciting News - we adopted a dog! Our niece, Jenny, is involved with the Leader Dog program helping to raise and train puppies for the program. If the dog doesn’t make it to become a leader dog for the blind, she gets an opportunity to adopt. If she doesn’t want to keep the dog, a family member or friend can apply to adopt. She knew that we were interested so asked us if we wanted to adopt her latest dog, Trent, if he didn’t pass the program. Having a dog would be a big change for us and could impact our travels, so we thought seriously about it. Our last dog, Chance, came from the same program and he was such a wonderful dog. It was so hard when we lost him that we weren’t sure if we wanted to get another dog. Even though it was a difficult decision, we focused on the joy and happiness a dog can bring and decided to adopt Trent if he didn’t succeed.

April 18, 2021

The Weather is Changing and We are Moving

April 18, 2021/ Deb

Winter is over so it is time to start migrating north for cooler temperatures as spring and summer heat up. It was definitely getting too warm and humid for us the last couple of weeks and we were ready to head north for spring. We ended up staying a few extra weeks at Three Flags to get our second COVID vaccine. We were excited to get our second shots this past Monday and we both did pretty well after the shots. I had a few mild symptoms for just a day but Tim just had a sore arm. Definitely worth it. In two weeks, we should have immunity and will feel much more comfortable being out and about. I am looking forward to touring more in our upcoming travels.

April 06, 2021

Flexibility and Changing Plans

April 06, 2021/ Deb

Some people approach the RV lifestyle without making plans and just going with the flow, letting the road take them wherever it leads. There are risks with not planning in advance, especially finding places to stay. For us, that would be too stressful and nerve wracking. I like having a plan and knowing we have RV sites scheduled in areas that we want to visit and Tim wants to know he has a definite place to stop after 3-4 hours of driving. So instead of last minute planning, I tend to plan about six months in advance so most of our nights are booked. I leave a few nights open for travel days for a little flexibility on those days.

March 06, 2021

Much About Nothing

March 06, 2021/ Deb

For the past month, I have been struggling to find a blog topic. I felt like I didn’t have much to write about. For the most part, we are just hanging out here in Florida, enjoying the weather and not doing much of anything. It is a rainy day today, so I thought it was a good time to go through my pictures to find a topic. I realized that I have quite a few pictures and stories that I haven’t yet shared. Since we spend most of our time at the campground, I will start there.

February 09, 2021

Bicycle woes

February 09, 2021/ Deb

One thing that you learn fairly quickly when living and traveling in an RV is that things will definitely go wrong at times. If you have been following the blog, you know that we bought some used bicycles last winter when we were in Florida. Mine was fairly cheap, an older folding bike that actually fits easily in the trunk of my car. For Tim, we bought a recumbent trike and although it was used, it wasn’t cheap. We also paid to have it altered so that both the gear shift and the brake control were on the left side for Tim’s use. Tim spent time making a bike rack to carry it on the back of the fifth wheel using a metal tray that we already had. Initially it seemed like it worked well. Unfortunately, our good luck did not last.

January 21, 2021

Winter in Florida

January 21, 2021/ Deb

On the news the other day, they mentioned that so far this has been the coldest winter in over 10 years in Florida. I guess that is why many here are complaining. To me, the weather in December and January has been perfect. It feels like Fall which is my favorite season. The evenings are cool and we have had a few cold nights where the temperature got down to 32 degrees. Even with those cold nights, for the most part, the days have been sunny and warmed up to the high 60’s or low 70’s. Even with a few cooler, rainy days, we can’t complain. We don’t have to shovel snow or deal with driving in snow or ice, so I am happy!

December 20, 2020

Ho, Ho, Ho - Blog, Blog, Blog…

December 20, 2020/ Tim

It is amazing how fast the Christmas Season is upon us again! It is very true, “The older you get, the faster time flies”. Seems odd to say after the past year when our lives seem to stand still in this age of covid. Living in a smaller world, well our world for sure. We have been keeping our distance, wearing masks and doing what we should during these challenging times. We set out to explore our great country and instead got to know each other a little better.

October 02, 2020

Checking the Rear View: Lessons Learned in Our First Year of Full Time RV Living

October 02, 2020/ Deb

Well it is official! We have been full time RVers for one year. It seems like just yesterday I was still working and going to an office every day. Now we are living the life that we planned and enjoy traveling the country. Tim and I talked about what date we should use as our full time anniversary date. My last official work day was September 20, 2019, and technically I was working from the RV for the last two weeks. Since we stayed in Pittsburgh for some of those two weeks and were still moving some of our stuff from there to the camper, we decided to use my last work day as our official full time anniversary date. We stayed in that campground until October 8, 2019, then we started traveling, so Pennsylvania was the first state that I put on our map.

August 25, 2020

Visiting Indiana and Experiencing Thousand Trails

August 25, 2020/ Deb

Tim and I decided to join Thousand Trails in January, 2020 mainly for a discount on a seasonal site for January through March, 2021. The annual camping pass membership cost us $499 plus tax and with it we got a $500 discount on our 2021 seasonal reservation. If you aren’t familiar with Thousand Trails, it is a membership organization for campgrounds where you can camp for specific periods of time with your membership with no additional cost. There are levels of memberships with different purchase prices and rules. It is almost like buying into a time share.

August 12, 2020

First Time Experiencing Harvest Host

August 12, 2020/ Deb

Last August, Tim and I were making decisions on what organizations to join to help us save on camping fees. One that we chose was Harvest Hosts. This membership program provides a list of wineries, breweries, farms, and museums across the country that allow members to park overnight for free on their property. All they ask is that you support the host’s business with a purchase during your stay. I didn’t think supporting wineries and breweries would be difficult for us.

August 04, 2020

Home Sweet Home

August 04, 2020/ Deb

For the past two months, Tim and I have been back home in Pittsburgh and now it is time to pack up the RV to get on the road again. It is hard to believe that this is our last week in the “Burgh”. Where did the time go? These past 2 months have really flown by. We were very busy while we were here, mainly filling our time getting in our annual doctor appointments, dentist, eye doctor, etc. and visiting our family and friends. With this new normal, we weren’t able to go out and enjoy our hometown as much as we would have liked, so we didn’t visit restaurants, bars, theaters, or museums. We had to find other ways to enjoy our favorite city.

June 27, 2020

Nostalgia

June 27, 2020/ Deb

We arrived at Mountaintop Campground near Pittsburgh, PA on June 1st and quickly settled into life back at home. Our goal is to spend two months here visiting family and friends as well as getting in our annual doctor and dentist appointments. With Allegheny County just reopening to the green phase after we got here, we are only visiting a couple people at a time. We are trying to have those visits outside to the extent that we can. If you are familiar with Southwestern Pennsylvania, you know that we have frequent rain and storms, especially in June so outside visits are challenging. Since we still aren’t going out too much, I found myself with time to reminisce our years of camping. Hope you enjoy this post that covers camping over the past 45 years.

May 29, 2020

Deja Vu

May 29, 2020/ Deb

As we started traveling again, I thought I should write a post about our last few weeks in Zephyrhills, FL. I was beginning to wonder if we would ever be able to leave Florida, first and foremost due to Coronavirus keeping us sheltered for the last few months. The second concern was RV repairs and waiting for parts to come in. Does that sound familiar?

May 07, 2020

Just Hanging Out

May 07, 2020/ Deb

Here we are still hanging out in Zephyrhills; so different from what we thought we would be doing in our first year of full time RV life. We started this journey to travel and see the country. Since our plan was to go slowly, we anticipated staying in each place for a period of time. 5 months in one place is more than we expected but overall it is still good and we are enjoying living in our small home on wheels. Since it is getting warmer and the sun can be brutal midday, we moved sites to get a little shade.

April 08, 2020

Twiddling My Thumbs!

April 08, 2020/ Tim

Twiddling my thumbs! Yeah, you are right, too hard to do when you are short on thumbs! I told Deb I would write a blog. When your life is in a holding pattern, finding topics is not so easy. We have been spending a considerable amount of time together. Trying to “social distance” ourselves from others, to protect both ourselves and them.

February 05, 2020

2020 Planning

February 05, 2020/ Deb

We have now been in Zephyrhills for a month and it has started to feel like home and less like we are tourists. To be honest, we haven’t been touring much at all the last 3 weeks. First I was down with a head cold, then when I was getting better, Tim came down with it. For him, it has now lingered for over 2 weeks and his cough was not getting better. We finally decided to contact his doctor and he is now on antibiotics. I am hoping that does the trick and he will be feeling better very soon.

January 15, 2020

Our winter home - reflections on the decision to stay in one place for a few months

January 15, 2020/ Deb

As I sit here in our RV home watching the sunrise in sunny Florida, I found myself thinking about staying in one place for 3 months. Why did we decide to do this instead of continually moving to see new places? You know how much I like exploring and seeing new areas so would think that stopping for 3 months would not be in our plans. Believe it or not, I am looking forward to having roots and being one location for awhile.

January 04, 2020

First Christmas on the Road

January 04, 2020/ Deb

We left Alabama on December 14, 2019 and headed to Florida, our winter destination for our first year in the RV. For the holidays, we decided to stay near my Aunt and Uncle who live in Inverness. It is nice to have family to visit for the holidays since we are far from home. We selected a campground closer to the coast in Homosassa, FL so we could be near the Springs for easy manatee viewing when we weren’t visiting family. Since it was over a 6 hour drive from Gulf Shores to Homosassa, we decided to stay a few nights in Tallahassee to break up the trip. We have discovered that we do not like driving more than 3-4 hours at a time on travel days so this was a perfect distance for us.

November 17, 2019

Vacation Mode

November 17, 2019/ Deb

Are we in vacation mode too much? Tim says that I am and need to change what we are doing while traveling or we will spend our money too fast. I don’t really think that I am on vacation. For me, this is our new lifestyle and we now have the opportunity to see new things daily. We started this journey to be able to explore and see our wonderful country. Hence our name, Exploring Tomorrow’s.

November 09, 2019

Great Place for a Fall Visit

November 09, 2019/ Deb

We are so glad that we decided to spend 2 weeks in Pigeon Forge, TN. The extra time here has allowed us plenty of time to explore The Great Smoky Mountains National Park as well as the surrounding area. The best part is that we don’t have to rush to see everything in a few days as well as be able to stay indoors on the cooler rainy days. The temperatures have been very variable with frost on one morning and sunshine and warmth on another.

Blog