Where We Have Been and Where We Are Headed

Since it is now a new year, I thought I would write a post about our travel plans for the next four months.  But first, a recap of where we have been.  As I write this we are located on the Alabama Coast near Gulf Shores and have now been on the road for four and a half months.  On August 25, 2017 we moved out of our home and into our trailer.  In the past four plus months, we have traveled through 11 states and stayed at 25 different RV parks.  For some reason it seems like we have been gone longer because we have seen so much and stayed so many different places.

Living in such a small space has been a challenge.  Finding room for everything and keeping our belongings organized in a 21 foot trailer takes some work.  I used to think my house in Modesto was small, but it doesn’t seem quite so small any longer!  Sometimes I would like to have more room to spread out and perhaps a comfortable chair or couch to recline on.  It would be great to have more counter space when cooking, a bigger refrigerator and more cabinet space to keep our food stuff.

Perhaps our biggest challenge has been dealing with the weather.  Traveling through the South and especially along the Gulf of Mexico has been much colder than we expected.  We had snow in Louisiana and the owner of the RV park said he hadn’t seen weather like this in 20+ years.

We have had chilly temperatures in Mississippi and Alabama.  During our stay in Mobile, temperatures were below freezing for five nights in a row.  I was glad I brought along my heaviest coat.  Mark is a whiz at knitting hats and he knit this baby alpaca for me during our trip.  (When we left California, he had to trade his wood shop for a set of knitting needles).   I have been taking advantage of his hats and scarves!  This little guy below was a welcome fixture in the trailer.  When it is freezing outside it can be cold inside, especially since we sit near the door.  We have heat and air for our trailer, but having a space heater warming my legs is really comfortable.  We recently replaced “old faithful” for a newer, quieter model.  The funny thing is that it took us several weeks to locate a replacement.  They were sold out of them in five major stores in Mobile after the cold weather hit!  Mark even tried to order one on Amazon and there were none in stock.  When we reached Gulf Shores, Lowes had a model that was just right.

The sacrifice of space and comfort though is definitely worth it to be able to explore our wonderful country.  In each state, city and town we have visited we learned things we didn’t know about the people, their culture and history.  We have seen beautiful scenery in every state we visited.  Being able to hit the road and go from place to place whenever and wherever we want is truly a delight.  It does take time and research to figure out where to go, attractions to visit and the best places to stay, but it is a small amount of work for all the adventures we find in each new place.  Although Mark and I are sometimes a little sad to move on, we usually feel we have seen and done most of what we wanted to and are looking forward to what the next location has to offer.

Our travels have opened our eyes to so many unique places and people.  It is neat to see the pride that people have in their states, cities and towns and how happy they are to show it to visitors.  No matter where we go, I believe we will find much to interest us, even in the out of the way, lesser known and visited places.   The difficulty is not being able to see everything as we can only scratch the surface of what is out there.   This is especially true since we are trying to visit as many states as possible.

From January through April, we will continue our travels through the southeastern part of the U.S.  Here is where we are hoping to travel during the coming months.  It will be interesting to see if we keep with this plan.  There is so much to see, it is easy to get distracted!

January:  We will be staying in Alabama’s Gulf Shores area for another week and then heading January 23 to the Florida Panhandle.

February:  We plan to spend a month in Florida with the first few weeks in the Pensacola, Destin or Panama City areas.  I hear that finding an RV site in Florida in the winter can be tricky as others who are wintering here have reserved their spots months in advance and parks could already be full.   It will be interesting to see where we end up.  As I have probably said before, I don’t like making reservations way in advance because I feel it ties us to a schedule we might not want to keep.  After our stay in the Panhandle, we will head to St. Augustine, Florida on the Atlantic Coast for a few weeks.  Excited to visit the oldest city in the United States!   Around February 20, we hope to move on to Jekyll Island, Georgia for a week stay.  I visited here for a few days some years ago and vowed to return for a longer visit.

March:  We hope to be in Savannah, Georgia a few days before the beginning of March and spend two weeks there.  This is a city I have been wanting to visit for some time!  After leaving around March 13, we will move on to Charleston, South Carolina to spend around 10 days before continuing to North Carolina.  At this point in planning, I am looking at staying in Winston-Salem for a few weeks as it is mid point between the Blue Ridge Parkway and other cities of interest in this state including Raleigh, the Capitol.

April:  This month will find us moving into Virginia and staying in the Richmond or Williamsburg areas.  There are a lot of historic sights including Colonial Williamsburg, the capitol building in Richmond, Montpelier, Jamestown, Yorktown and Monticello.  Around April 20 we will travel into Maryland and hope to stay in the vicinity of Annapolis the Capitol for two weeks.

Although our first four months went pretty close to what we planned, the next four could wind up going in a completely different direction.

We hope you will continue to follow along with us and appreciate your support through our journey.  Just a reminder, that you can subscribe to the blog and then will be notified when new blogs are published.