The adventure continues as today
marks our 6th year on the road! Most
people we know were shocked when they learned that we had basically sold
everything we owned and hit the road fulltime in an RV without even so much as
testing the lifestyle. Guess you could
say it sort of surprised us, too, but here we are 6 years later and glad we
took the leap.
We had dubbed our RV “The Folly”
because in a sense that’s exactly what this leap was! But it’s been an amazing journey, and we
continue to marvel at all that we have seen and experienced. We’ve also made great friends along the way,
reconnected with others, and even lost a few.
The lifestyle is somewhat different
than we had anticipated. There’s still
the typical household chores (laundry, dishes, bill paying, etc.) plus others
not so typical (maintaining house batteries, cleaning the roof, dumping the
“black tank”, etc.), but we have learned so much. We don’t sit or eat outside as much as we
thought we would, but since this is our fulltime home, it’s not really
surprising since we seldom did that when we owned a stick home (that’s RV jargon
for a regular house).
We realize that we all have
choices in life, and the fork in the road offers two choices - follow the GPS
or follow our heart. For us it’s a mix
of both. Hopefully we have been your
eyes into an incredible adventure and into things you may have not been so
lucky to have seen or known…at least not yet.
SIX YEARS BY THE NUMBERS
51,159 Saturn miles
47,610 RV miles
11,158 feet highest elevation
6,376 gallons of diesel
2,213 monthly health insurance premium
625 longest 1 day drive
234 National Parks/Monuments Cancellations (in our National Parks Passport books)
151 most consecutive days in one place
119 campgrounds
106 highest temperature
96 National Parks/Monuments visited
80 cost of an annual National Parks pass (well worth the investment)
45 cost of our C2C campground membership (best investment we’ve ever made)
40 states traveled in
38 states spent the night in
38 nights spent in Wal-Mart parking lots
35 annual maintenance fee for our campground membership
28 nights spent in a casino parking lot
2
5 Sweet Adelines choruses visited
23 Saturn mpg
20 Junior Ranger badges earned
19 nights spent in Camping World parking lots
18 lowest temperature
18 family members visited
14 State Parks stayed in
13 Missouri Tigers football games
8.1 RV mpg
6 St. Louis Cardinals baseball games
4 MLB parks
3 ferry rides
2 ferry rides that included the RV
2 states of residence
2 countries visited
2 shuttle launches
2 fish caught
2 St. Louis Rams football games
1 Missouri Tigers basketball game
BEST/WORST- 6/19/08
National Park
Picking the best National Park is a tough one. We are going to go with
Shenandoah Valley for its sheer beauty and solitude, and Gettysburg for its significance and the most
humbling experience. There really isn't a "worst" National Park. Updated 6/19/09: Badlands National Park has to rank as one of the
best. We still have not found a bad one. Updated
6/19/10: Badlands
may not even be in the top 10 anymore. Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Glacier, Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon, Canyonlands, and Devils Tower
are all amazing in their own right, and are listed in no particular order. Updated 6/19/11: Now
that we’ve had the chance to explore Capitol Reef, we may need to add it to the
best list though we still haven’t found a “worst” National Park. Updated 6/19/12:
Since we keep returning to Yellowstone, guess
you could say it’s at the top of our list.
Updated
6/19/13: No change
Campground
The Fiesta Key KOA in Long Key, FL, with its view out the front window of the
Gulf and sunsets is hard to beat. Shiloh's RV & Travel Resort in Monroe, LA,
was by far the worst. Updated 6/19/09: Hart Ranch in Rapid City, SD, and Pine Island RV Resort in Jay, OK, are
two of the best. Although Shiloh is still the worst, Frosty Acres Resort in Schenectady, NY,
comes close. Updated 6/19/10: Long
Key State
Park has to be added to the best…ocean 20 ft. in
front of the RV. Updated 6/19/11: No change. Updated
6/19/12: No change Updated 6/19/13: No change
Location
Long Key, FL, and Front Royal, VA, were equally enjoyable. No need to rush, no
traffic, just the time to spend as you like. See Monroe, LA,
for the worst. Updated 6/19/09: Add Rapid City,
SD, to the list of best. Updated 6/19/10: Long Key
State Park and any of the
national parks of the Colorado Plateau. Updated
6/19/11: No change. Updated 6/19/12: No
change Updated
6/19/13: Obviously have to add Yellowstone National Park as a favorite location.
Restaurant
If you ever make it to Titusville,
FL, Dixie Crossroads is the place
to eat. If you ever make it to DeFuniak
Springs, FL, Bo's
Family Country Cafe is a place of last resort. Updated 6/19/09: No
change. Updated 6/19/10: Café Diablo in Torrey, UT,
has been added to the best. Updated
6/19/11: No change. Updated 6/19/12: No
change Updated
6/19/13: No change
Pizza
Lombardo's in St. Louis, MO, is hard to beat. Think it has something
to do with the cheese! Buck's in Denham
Springs, LA, leaves a
lot to be desired. Updated 6/19/09: No change. Updated
6/19/10: No change. Updated 6/19/11: No change. Updated
6/19/12: Outlaw’s in Gardiner, MT,
is pretty good but Lombardo’s still ranks the best. Updated 6/19/13: No change
Roads
Georgia and Texas seem to
consistently have the best roads. Louisiana is
the worst with New Jersey
not far behind. Updated 6/19/09: Illinois and Minnesota have joined
the ranks of bad roads. Although we are beginning to realize our federal
highways are all in need of repair. Updated
6/19/10: Not sure that they are getting
better. Updated 6/19/11: A lot of money being spent but still not much better. Updated 6/19/12: No
change Updated
6/19/13: No change
Wal-Mart
The best Wal-Mart was in Front Royal, VA, and had only been open a few days
when we visited. The worst is in Berlin,
NJ, and we can understand why
Russ' sister is not big on Wal-Marts! Updated
6/19/09: With Wal-Mart being our choice
for basic staples, we do see a lot of them. Almost all of the newer ones are
very nice, and one we visited outside Columbus,
OH, is now #1. Updated 6/19/10: No
change. Updated 6/19/11: No change. Updated
6/19/12: No change Updated 6/19/13: No change
Supermarket
The Schnuck's in Eureka,
MO, was great. We have never been to a Piggly Wiggly that is worth the price of
admission. Updated 6/19/09: No change. Updated
6/19/10: Sweetbay in Clermont, FL,
is added to the best. Updated 6/19/11: No change. Updated
6/19/12: No change Updated 6/19/13: Unfortunately the Sweetbay in Clermont closed this
year. We still considered it one of the
best, but the neighboring community didn’t sustain it.
Bakery
Tellico Grains Bakery in Tellico
Plains, TN, was
fantastic. As far as the worst, is there really a bad bakery?? Updated 6/19/09: We
have stayed away from bakeries! Updated
6/19/10: No change. Updated 6/19/11: No
change. Updated 6/19/12: Haven’t really seen many bakeries on our travels so no
change. Updated
6/19/13: Main Street Bakery at the Magic Kingdom
is definitely one of the best!
Moment
Another tough one. Watching the shuttle launch, seeing the Milky Way from the
Keys, and a big black bear on the Appalachian Trail.
The worst moment....was that the awning?!?! Updated
6/19/09: Niagara Falls and Walt Disney World at
Christmas can be added to the best, and the awning still ranks as the worst. Updated 6/19/10:
Grizzly bears, eagles, and walking The Narrows. Updated 6/19/11:
Watching wolf pups frolic in the sage and a mama grizzly teaching her cubs to
forage. Updated 6/19/12: Elk surrounding the RV and observing them during the rut
was pretty cool. Added to the worst…who moved the road and fence post?!?! Updated 6/19/13: Among
the best…watching two bull elk locking horns, an SEC football game in Columbia, MO,
and Christmas at Walt Disney World.
A FEW THINGS WE'VE LEARNED
1) A possum is a flat animal that sleeps in the middle of the road.
2) There are 10,000 species of spiders, and most have visited us.
3) Gnats do not taste good.
4) The average person standing on any street corner of any city or town in this
country has more common sense than the entire U.S. Congress combined.
5) There are as many varieties of camping vehicles as there are people out
doing it.
Updated 6/19/09:
6) Our house batteries are important…take good care of them.
7) Anything under 32 degrees Fahrenheit is cold.
8) We will again watch fuel prices rise throughout the summer.
9) We have more fear coming down the mountain than we did going up.
10) Financial experts/advisors are pretty much worthless. Once they get your
money, they never recommend selling. They seem to use the same pitch as the
market continues to plummet, “All my big clients are buying because we are near
the bottom.”
Updated 6/19/10:
11) Time is short and passes quickly.
Updated 6/19/11:
12) As a campground host, you find that everyone is pleasant and super friendly
until you have to tell them they cannot do something and then watch out!
Updated 6/19/12:
13) No matter the species, mamas are super protective of their young.
14) People are pretty much the same no matter where you go.
Updated 6/19/13:
15)
Mice can get in through the tiniest of holes.
16)
Good friends are priceless.
17) The
SEC has a lot of good football teams.
Most of our wildlife sightings are positive and exciting, but on
occasion something happens to remind us of the circle of life. On one such day we headed out to Lamar Valley
very early in the morning and were fortunate to see a bull moose, some sheep,
mountain goats, the osprey sitting on her nest, coyote pups, and of course
bison with their calves. We always take our
park radio with us, and as we were making our way back, we heard a dispatch
that a black bear had been spotted near the Roosevelt Lodge. We 
weren’t far away, and as we entered under
the Roosevelt Lodge sign, immediately to our right we spotted a mule deer doe
with her two young fawns. I was able to
get several shots as they seemed to almost pose on the side of the hill, mama
ever vigilant. We continued down the
road towards the lodge looking for the bear but couldn’t see it so decided to
leave.
As we turned the corner, we noticed quite a number of cars parked along
the road and in the gas station lot as well as a couple of ranger vehicles. We pulled over and spotted not only the bear
but the doe on the other side of the hill in what appeared to be a stare
down. After I took a couple pics, we
went back to the Lodge road and parked not far from the entrance where we had
an incredible view of what was to transpire.
Russ opened the sun roof so I could stand on the seat and take photos
without getting out of the car, which would have been a huge no-no with our
proximity to the wildlife.
from two miles away. She ran in
large circles around the bear, she ran up the hill, she ran close by, she
leaped and bounded, frantically hoping the bear would follow her and not harm
her young. We watched her panicked state
and her tireless efforts, wearing herself to near exhaustion but she would 
not
give up. We also watched as the bear
seemed to narrow its search, occasionally sniff the air, and practically ignore
the doe’s tactics. Suddenly the bear was
lost in the sage and we heard the squeal of the captured fawn. Fortunately we did not see what occurred, but
we heard its little 
scream and that was almost as bad. At least it seemed to be over with
quickly. We have no idea if the bear got
only one fawn or both, but since the doe continued to run in circles, exhausted
and panting, we hoped that one was still alive and she was hoping to save it
from the same fate. It was time for us
to move on as the rangers were now moving people along.
