RV Adventures

  Exactly one month ago Pam and I left the comforts of Minnesota in order to live the life we are currently living. Winter is coming and we're chasing the warm weather. It took a lot of planning and research to make this happen. It wasn't easy, but then again anything worth doing takes some effort. Though it's only been a month, sometimes it feels like it was long ago. Pam and I were just talking the other day about it being only a month and it somehow feels like it may as well have been a year ago that we left. Perhaps it has to do with all of the things we have done and seen in just thirty days. Jefferson Estate The above picture was taken at Thomas Jefferson's estate in Virginia. You may recognize the building, or maybe not. It is the building on the back of the nickel. It was Thomas Jefferson's home in Virginia, called Monticello. It has been pictured on the nickel since 1938. He grew up only two miles from this house at the bottom of the mountain. The views wer...

 I have been asked many times why Pam and I made the decision to buy a 5th wheel and travel full-time. The answer is different for everyone. Some range from "I have always wanted to do it" to "It was either this or homelessness." Our story is closer to the former, and nothing like the latter. We have talked about doing this for many years but never pulled the trigger. Pam was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020. The doctors told us it was a late stage three cancer and they treated it very aggressively. After roughly two years of treatment and several surgeries, she has recovered fully. After that experience we both agreed that nobody is promised tomorrow and why not live our dream of traveling the country in an RV? What are we waiting for?  We figured we should go ahead and do it while we still could, afterall we are in our fifties and not getting any younger! So, after about a year of searching, we bought a truck and a trailer and hit the road. I left behind a ca...

    We went to the Natural Bridge in Virginia the other day and it was massive. They say that it is taller than Niagara Falls. George Washington did the surveying of the land and Thomas Jefferson bought it at some point. Jefferson was having financial difficulty later on and needed to sell it. It was always his wish that the land would become a national park. In 2016 it finally became a park and Jefferson's dream was realized. You can maybe get a glimpse of how tall the bridge is if you look at the tiny person closest to being underneath the bridge. If you pinch your fingers together you could crush him. But what about the bear attack? Just hold on, I will get to it! While we were visiting the Natural Bridge we also decided to go on a cave tour. It was a really impressive and fun tour. Pam was constantly concerned that the walls and ceiling would cave in on us. Luckily, we made it out alive. At one point our guide turned all the lights out. I put my hand to my face to experien...

 In our short time of traveling with the RV we have had some issues arise already and, if it continues, our trailer will end up looking like the photo above. I do not consider anything  to be a failure. Rather, they are meant to be a lesson learned and to make us wiser. The trailer is no different in this capacity. Things have happened to the trailer in our travels that we did not anticipate, and we have learned what to do and what not to do in some cases. Of course, some things are unavoidable like driving through Chicago which will wreak havoc on your trailer. If you've ever driven through Chicago, no matter the time of year, then you know what I mean. If you haven't driven through Chicago, allow me to give you a glimpse of what that experience is like. I drove an eighteen-wheeler for twenty years and I have been through Chicago many times. As a truck driver it was necessary to keep most paperwork on the dash of the truck due to lack of storage space inside the truck (maps, ...

  Our adventures in Virginia continue. We went on a hike on the Cellar Mountain Trail the other day. The above picture was taken near the top but we didn't have time to make it to the peak before the sun went down. Besides, who has time for climbing to the top of the mountain in their fifties? The air is fresh, but the lungs are old and out of shape. The older I get, the more I realize why I like Florida so much . . . because it's flat! It was a beautiful hike, and the dogs thoroughly enjoyed it as well. The trail was complaint-worthy as most of it was uphill (but not both ways like our parents used to walk to school). Both Pam and I had to breathe hard! We don't like exercise. Rather, at our age we prefer something more flat, like a sidewalk or Florida. Is there any way we can petition state parks to make the mountain trails out of sidewalk? The picture below clearly shows the negligence of the state by not providing us with a clear walking path that isn't so challengi...

We left Gettysburg, PA on 10/7/2023. It was a much easier ride than the one that brought us to Gettysburg. There weren't any roads that we didn't belong on and the trip was as fluid and easy as could be expected. I did not grow anymore gray hair, thankfully. We headed out for our next destination which was Virginia. So far we have driven about 1700 miles and it has gone pretty well. However, sometimes Pam can't watch when she gets nervous and sometimes I can't either but that's a completely different conversation. If you want to yell at me for not watching the road, get in line because Pam sits right next to me and "helps" with that (j/k Pam!). In any case, why did we head for Virginia? Great question! One of the many reasons was to visit this guy. He is Pam's Uncle Kenny. He is 93 years old and gets around better than I do at 53. We went to see him yesterday and we asked if there was anything he needed help with while we're here for two weeks. He ...

                                              Welcome! Thanks for checking out our page. My name is Dean, and my wife Pam and I recently began our FT RV lifestyle 1 1/2 weeks ago. We left Minnesota on 9/26/2023. We have a 43' Grand Design Momentum toy hauler that we're dragging behind us along the way. Have you ever pulled a water-skier up from the water from a boat? Well, it's nothing like that! This is more like trying to pull up the entire lake with the boat! Anyway, our adventures will be documented here along with some pictures and helpful information. This is the inaugural post, so if you're looking for something in particular from this website today, you won't find it! This page will be informative as well as our personal journey's stories. I am hoping to start a YouTube channel and will provide links here.  In the Beginning   Scripture says "In the begin...