How’s it going? Mark

 

We have been going now 2 months and I thought it might be fun if Beth and I checked in on how’s it going without seeing what the other one said.  We are so different in our thinking I bet it will be interesting.  So I picked three questions or topics and we will both write.  The questions/topics are 1) How is RV life? 2) How is traveling/sight seeing? and 3) What are the challenges so far?  So here goes mine…

1. RVing

The first two months of RVing have really not been bad.  Beth and I have divided up the work with me taking physical care of the RV and her doing all the planning/routing/reserving.  We have pulled the trailer over 3,000 miles and stayed at 16 or 17 different parks without a major problem.  The trailer is easy to pull  and easy to set up and take down.  So far we have always stayed at places with full hookups so that has helped.

The trailer is actually pretty comfortable and it is really nice having all the upkeep of a house and yard.  I will do some posts and show the trailer and how we have adapted to it.  We bought a nice mattress right away because the ones that come with them are pretty bad.  I think I sleep better now.  Showering is not bad and I actually kind of like the water on and off during a shower.  The hot water seems just right and there is plenty for us to both shower.  Cooking (when we do it) is not too much different.  Before it seemed we would use dishes and keep going until the dishwasher was full then run it.  Now we just use a bowl then wash it and put it away.

As far as clothes I really like it!  For and old retiree like me the fewer clothes the better.  Jeans and a tee shirt is my uniform.  I keep a shirt around for going somewhere and 1 or 2 can last me for weeks.  A little spot for my shorts and socks and I am good.  Trailer fashion works for me.

The one thing I will say is that Beth does a terrific job on her side of planning and arranging!  We have really stayed in some good places.  The drives were a little long at first but now we have slowed quite a bit.

2. Traveling/Sight Seeing

I’ll talk more about this when I do my “Opposites Attract” blog but I really don’t like to travel much.  I never did much growing up and most likely wouldn’t travel if not for Beth.  That surprises people a lot.  I explain by saying that I don’t like to travel, but I love going places with Beth.  That being said the 2 months of travel have been really fun.  Beth comes up with great places to go and see.  They are interesting (mostly) and easy.  We go to places that are not crowded and easy to get to.  I have a pretty good collection of pictures( where our truck is the only vehicle in the parking lot.  It has also been interesting that places we go seem to go together.  Like we went to a museum that had WWII aircraft then went to the Truman Library that talked about his role in the bombings.  We go to a lot of history type places and it has been fun learning.  Beth tries take it all in, but I take a smaller path.  There were people living in the East and they took some paths to go West.  Do I really need to know more?  Names? Dates? Wagon models? I don’t think so.  For me a good museum has parking spaces big enough for the truck, some stuff to see and a nice gift shop at the end, preferably that sells Diet Coke and has a comfortable bench.   I can park, stroll through, see some things and be refreshed while waiting for Beth to finish her studies.

So, traveling, even for the non-traveler, has been good, but only having Beth along.

3. Challenges

For me there are 2 real challenges to this so far.  The first and by far biggest is the eating.

Eating well with this lifestyle is very hard.  As we travel there are so many good, new, interesting places to eat and they generally don’t specialize in healthy food.  I realize I have a choice, but going to a top BBQ place and ordering just the cole slaw is hard.  Plus, our oppositeism comes in here too.  I really love breakfast and Beth is a lunch/dinner fan so we wind up going to both a lot, some for her some for me.  Also, cooking takes time and cooking in a small space even longer.  Many days we are out and away early and back late so there is little time to quality cook.  The other downside is that eating out is really expensive.  We are doing ok on a budget except for eating out which is like 4 times over.  We are getting better, but still have a long way to go.

Number 2 challenge for me has been the pace.  We have done a whole lot in these 2 months.  For me, sometimes, too much.  For me there is a difference between being on vacation and living in an RV.  I used to say that Beth on vacation covered more ground than the space shuttle.  She would have 5,6,7 things planned for 1 day.  It is hard to keep that up.  I think we are doing much better now and most days the pace feels good.  I also know it is hard for Beth to pick which things we CAN”T see.  There is just too much.

(Another thing that is a huge downside is being away from family and friends.  I can’t say enough about that.  Using technology helps a little, but there is no fix for not being around the ones we love.  Can’t talk too much about this one.)

So eating better and finding a good balance for our time are 2 areas that I think we can still work on.

Over all, Exploring with Beth has been a lot of fun and gets better as time goes by. We worked hard for a long time planning and preparing and it seems to be paying off.   Some times I think my RV part is too easy and there will have to be problems.  We’ll just have to deal with them as they come.

We both feel very lucky to be able to travel together like this and are thankful for every day.

So, I hope this was a little interesting.  I am really curious as to what Beth will say.  She works hard on her blogging and will struggle with this one for hours I am sure.  We really appreciate all you that connect with us by reading and especially by leaving comments.  Please let us know how we might make this interesting and any questions or topics you might have.

Thanks.

Beth is pretty trustworthy and so I will go ahead and post this with her promise not to look until she has posted hers.  Should be fun.