Livin' Part of Life

We are safely at a lovely KOA in Miles City, MT. This is our home state for multiple days, although tonight is just a MT warmup. There are great things to come after today!! Our friends are road warriors and aren’t far behind us, so we will meet up with them tomorrow (likely close to check-in time) and then the real adventures begin!!

Quick driving recap:

• I have found WI and MN to be just lovely states, and would love to come back and visit someday.
• ND introduced us to amazing landscapes again.
• While we won’t wish away the next 10+ days, we have Theodore Roosevelt National Park waiting for us afterwards… and our preview today while driving by the outskirts was spectacular.
• Dairy Queen burgers were such a treat, that neither of us have had for many, many years. Too bad that their soft serve was just out of order enough for “no cone for you”… but again, that can wait for another day
• OMG MT. ??

While we were home for a few weeks, there was a great opportunity to see many (but not all) friends and family. The questions were pretty consistent, so to catch everyone up

• Don’t we feel cooped up after driving all day? (Good question to answer on a 7+ hr driving day!) We definitely need a good walk after driving, even without Daisy, and especially today. But the “back of the house” is different from the “front of the house”. So driving is one space, relaxing is another. Kind of like when you work at home in your office all day and then you just need to leave your office when work is done, but the porch or sun room or family room is what you need.
• Do you get sick of each other? I’m so happy to say no! We definitely get on each others nerves with things but we know it. And we laugh about it because it is predictable. eg you don’t have to help me do that, honey (K to R)… eg you seriously want to keep that last bit of that (R to K) But overall, we enjoy each others company, run at similar speeds (Rick needing a little more sleep but Karen enjoying the quiet in the am), get irritated about similar things and don’t sweat the small stuff. Lets face it, most of it is small stuff.
• Don’t you miss going “out”? We enjoy our time at home cooking, whether in the RV or at home. We especially enjoy cooking ahead for RV travel. We treat going out as a special occasion. That can be home cooked meals on our patio or next to the RV. But as far as traditional “going out”, we will always do it, but feel the need less often
• How do you handle packing for that kind of a trip? It’s a work in process. But getting easier. Lots of lists, lots of stocking of the RV, and lots of cleaning along the way since you have limited amount of everything. And we need to make the most of a Walmart/shopping stop since we don’t do it very often. Same with laundry, we don’t want to do it often so pack wisely.
• Are you happy with your decision to do this? Absolutely! We couldn’t have picked a better vehicle for us. We are well equipped to do the work required, which is extensive but we also feel we are mastering. We have many more adventures that we want to do that are conducive to this lifestyle. We are super, super glad to be meeting friends for this trip and hope to meet up again with them/others who want to do this kind of travel. We also like being solo, so we are doing it one way or the other!
• Do you miss work? No. (only the people, not the work) We are GREAT at being retired and will take our time figuring out if we want to work again, for the right purpose/timing.
• What was the best thing we did on our trips so far?
  • K: I love the new hikes. They don’t have to be long but I always love a new trail. And of course I also love being with the animals on a quiet morning in the camper.
  • R: Time together and seeing new things. The whole experience. But if I picked one thing, the seaplane ride to Dry Tortuga
• What was the worst thing so far?
  • K: accidentally dumping poop at the Disney campground when the pipe wasn’t hooked up. Driving with the threat of ice. And driving through New Orleans because I don’t like congested streets, especially in the RV
  • R: Sequoia RV park/resort because it was so unexpectedly bad. It was worse than the stone in the windshield. And if that is our worst thing, that is pretty good!
• We are loving our RV life, yes!!!