June 17, 2021

Dunes, dunes, and more dunes with a cherry on top!

June 17, 2021/ Deb

From reading other RVers travel blogs, I knew that Michigan was a pretty state but I had no idea how beautiful until we visited. I am so glad that we decided to spend a month touring through this state. Since we are eventually heading back to Pennsylvania, we decided that we didn’t have time to visit the Upper Peninsula so we will have to come back at some point to see that area. For this trip, we planned a week in Empire, MI near Sleeping Bear Dunes and then 3 weeks in St. Clair, MI at a Thousand Trails park. With those two stops, we are able to visit both Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

June 11, 2021

Visiting Michigan City, IN

June 11, 2021/ Deb

While our RV was at Amish Family RV Service, we had to find a place to stay for a few days. I did some research and discovered that far west corner of Indiana is on Lake Michigan and there is a National Park there. Since we want to eventually visit all of the National Parks, we couldn’t pass up this opportunity. I found a small inn, Bridge Inn, in Michigan City that sits on an inlet from the lake and was really close to Indiana Dunes National Park. Seemed like the perfect place to spend a few days.

June 05, 2021

Visiting Indiana Amish Country for RV Repairs

June 05, 2021/ Deb

We arrived in Shipshewana, IN on Tuesday afternoon. We planned to stop here for a week prior to taking our RV to Amish Family RV Service for repairs and maintenance work. I am on a Cedar Creek Facebook group and heard so many great things about Orvan and the work he and his team do. Many people buy brand new Cedar Creek Fifth Wheels and take them immediately to Orvan for service. He has developed “extra’s” that he does to improve and stabilize the slide outs and the suspension. Every comment and review I saw were extremely positive so we planned to come this way to get some of the work done.

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.

May 10, 2021

Spring 2021 Travels from Florida to Indiana

May 10, 2021/ Deb

Tim and I left Florida a few days earlier than planned on Saturday, April 17. The weather forecast was showing stormy weather heading our way and all day rain with more wind than we wanted to drive through. Even though it would be rainy in Alabama where we were heading, the weather maps indicated less rain and winds a little north of Florida. It started to rain just a little after we got into Alabama but not enough to impact our driving. The first day was a little longer for us but overall an easy travel day.

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.

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!

November 29, 2020

Our New Winter Home

November 29, 2020/ Deb

We are back in Florida for the winter and again staying in one place for almost 5 months. One thing that we learned in our first year of full time living is to compromise. I love traveling and visiting new places continuously but Tim prefers longer stays in one place. So traveling part of the year and staying put part of the year is the best of both worlds. This year we decided to try a different place for the winter. We are in Wildwood, FL at Three Flags RV Park which is a Thousand Trails campground.

November 19, 2020

Stormy Weather

November 19, 2020/ Deb

We didn’t do much touring in our last two weeks at Nature’s Resort in Homosassa. As November arrived, so did cloudy weather with afternoon rain showers so we hung out at the RV park most of the time. Luckily the showers did not last too long but not knowing when and where it would rain discouraged us from going out for hikes. Watching the election results come in filled some of our time, but I could only watch so much of that so we had to find something else to do.

November 06, 2020

Visiting Homosassa, FL

November 06, 2020/ Deb

After leaving Montgomery, we decided to try another Harvest Host location for a night on our drive to our next location. I chose the Tallahassee Automobile Museum for our overnight stop since it was along the route and pretty much right off of I-10. It was definitely a good choice. They directed us to a large grassy area lined with trees in front of the museum to park for the night. It was easy to find a level spot which made it easy to park and put out our slides. The only drawback was that it was a very warm day and even though we were under trees, it was pretty hot. Definitely a drawback when we didn’t have enough power to run the air conditioner.

October 22, 2020

Second Pass (Re-exploring Montgomery, AL)

October 22, 2020/ Deb

Our route south this year brought us back through Montgomery, AL so we decided to spend two weeks in the area this time. Montgomery was one of my favorite stops last year because of its historical significance, especially for the Civil Rights Movement in 1965. Both Tim and I are history buffs so we like touring historical sites and museums. Since we are avoiding indoor activities this year, I knew we would not want to visit the museums again but felt we could still find enough to do outside.

October 09, 2020

Visiting Northern Alabama

October 09, 2020/ Deb

Alabama is home to Tim and my favorite stops during our first year on the road. Tim’s favorite was Noccalula Falls in Gadsden, AL and mine was Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, AL. Since we enjoyed Alabama so much last year, we decided to spend 4 weeks here this year. I picked two different spots so we could visit different parts of the state to see if we liked them as much.

September 21, 2020

Exploring Tupelo, MS and the Natchez Trace Parkway

September 21, 2020/ Deb

Planning our RV travel route at times can be challenging especially since there are so many choices of wonderful places to visit. As I planned our route south to Florida for the winter, I set a few goals for the trip. My first goal was to reduce costs by staying at Thousand Trails parks so that we could take full advantage of our membership. This made goal two, to visit new states, more difficult to accomplish since the Thousand Trails campgrounds are clustered on the coasts. After leaving Indiana, I had to plan stops in states we had already visited, like Tennessee and Alabama to be able to stay in a Thousand Trails campground.

September 13, 2020

Visiting West Tennessee

September 13, 2020/ Deb

For the past two weeks, we have been staying at our second Thousand Trails campground, Cherokee Landing, located in West Tennessee. From the Thousand Trails website, I thought the campground was a bit closer to Memphis than it actually is but that has worked out fine for us. When I initially booked, I was planning a visit to Graceland and a few other Memphis landmarks. Since Covid 19 is still happening and case numbers were up a little in Tennessee, we weren’t sure about visiting a popular tourist site.

August 31, 2020

Enjoying Nature in Kentucky and Tennessee

August 31, 2020/ Deb

After the busy campground in Indiana, we wanted some peace and quiet in smaller campgrounds which is exactly what we found as we drove south through Kentucky and Tennessee. Our first stop was for two nights at Cave Country RV Campground in Cave City, KY. I chose this campground because it was close to the interstate and Mammoth Cave National Park. This park was quite a contrast to the last one with only having 50 sites compared to 800. Less than half the sites were occupied which was wonderful It is a very well maintained and quiet park located in town.

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.

Blog