TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG? THAT IS THE QUESTION!

As I write this in West Palm Beach, FL, it has been just over 19 months since we gave up the keys to our home. In that time we've traveled almost 18,000 miles, visited 36 states, and stayed in 85 RV parks (plus a handful of driveways, parking lots and rest areas.)

While it’s true that we have visited 36 states to date, nine of those states don’t count because we drove straight through them. This was the result of Covid quarantine requirements in some states and a repair issue with The Beast in August, 2020 that took us on a 2,100 mile detour from Buffalo, NY to Red Bay, AL and then to Cape Cod, MA. We will definitely revisit and explore those nine states, plus the 12 we have yet to visit, for a total of 21 more states to experience.  So, we’re roughly halfway through this gig.

Our plan at the outset was to be on the road for two years. We didn’t start out trying to necessarily see all 48 lower states, but that idea took hold early on in our travels. As the first year unfolded we had some unexpected delays: family matters took us back home for a couple of months, Janell broke her wrist in Palm Springs, and Covid inspired us to shelter in place for six weeks in Santa Fe, NM.  We realized after a few months that two years on the road wouldn't cut the mustard so we stretched our time frame out to three years and a few months in order to see the entire country without rushing through it. 

Before leaving on this adventure we were asked by friends and family if we would be writing a blog or a journal. We responded, unequivocally and without (much) hesitation…. NO! 

We didn’t want to be tied down by the expectation of regularly reporting on our travels, and we honestly didn’t think there would be that much of interest to say.  Not that our travels wouldn’t be interesting, it just felt like we’d be expecting people to watch our vacation photo slide show..... Over and over again!

Also, as many of you know, on my cross country bike trip I posted a daily journal, spending 2-3 hours on it each night: curating photos, writing a narrative, embedding music and organizing the content.  All of this after pedaling, on average, 60 miles per day.  It’s not a stretch to say that my biking journal experience played a part in my reluctance to commit to a blog or journal of our multi-year RV travels. 

Here is a link to my bike trip journal, should you be interested:

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1mr&doc_id=21872&v=fx 

 

OKAY, SO WHY NOW?

Honestly?  We miss you guys!

Gallivanting around the country has its advantages during the age of Covid.  One advantage is that there is no temptation to hang out with family or friends because they are 2-3 time zones away from us!  We keep in close contact with our sons and siblings and some lifelong friends, but we feel like staying in touch with our many other friends has been difficult.  An occasional email just doesn’t cover the bases as we would like. So here we are roughly halfway into our travels and we are going to give this a whirl!  We definitely have photos and the occasional anecdote that we hope you will enjoy.

We are starting the blog by creating entries for our recent stops in Georgia and Florida. We’ll keep you posted as we roll on through the rest of 2021 and through late 2022. Our hope is to, as time permits, also create posts for some of the interesting places we have visited over the past 18 months.  We’ll give that a try and see if it is of interest to readers.

 

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With that, we are off and running!  

 

Death Valley