One Year As Full-timers!

We generally think of June 9 as our beginning, because that's the day we launched from our old home town. But this morning marks one year since we first woke up living in our motorhome!

Of course we can't believe it, no one ever can :-)

When we're asked if we still love it the answer is always yes. Any regrets - none. Glad we did it - absolutely. Do anything different - not really.

We've been so many places that we loved - a LOT! Top of the list are Valley of Fire SP, NV; Trinidad, CA; Oregon Coast; Eastern Sierras, and the Olympic Peninsula, WA.

Places we don't need to see again are Ukiah, CA; Spokane, WA; and Southeast NM. We saw good friends or family so have lovely memories, but the places didn't grab us.

The short list of places we could call home are Tillamook, OR; North Bend, WA; Tombstone, AZ: and Williams, AZ. Every place has seasonal considerations, but these locations check so many boxes for us that we'd want to spend more time in each before making that decision.

Our only disappointment has been finding quality service places for the motorhome. Fortunately our issues have been few, but unfortunately each one has required multiple attempts to resolve.

The tug of family is strong, especially the grandbabies (second one due in August), and we miss them all. So many ways to stay in touch - in real time - makes this much easier.

Most surprising has been the new friends and growing community in what is really a very solitary life style. I touched on this in the blogging anniversary post, but it bears repeating because we feel so blessed to have these new friends in our lives after just a year of traveling. 

A couple other "so glad that worked for us" items are having good friends "handle" our mail, and medical maintenance. 

Not receiving mail anymore is nearly as wonderful as never watching the news - it is very liberating! Lori has forwarded a couple items (new credit and membership cards, and voting ballots), and the rest she just sends us photos and we take care of it online. 

Our prescriptions are mailed to us or we paid out-of-pocket at Walgreens if we waited too long (me). Local labs are in every medium to large town, easy to use and reasonably priced. Emailing the results to our physicians for any modifications in prescriptions (not so far) is effortless. 

Eye doctor and dentist appointments coming up in Colorado this month so we'll see how those are. Expecting them to be easy as well, as the insurance providers are nationwide. Wish our healthcare was!!

The very best thing we did in preparation for the full-time life was finding Tessa. We could not ask for a better traveling companion. Smart and loving and well-behaved, having her along makes every day even better. The no-shedding is a big plus too :-)

This life style isn't for everyone - good thing, as it's getting crowded out here! But for us we couldn't imagine a better, or more satisfying, retirement. 

We laugh when people ask us "how long are you going to do this?". Hell, we just got started! There is so much to see, so much to do, and best of all - no deadline for seeing and doing all of it. 

Thursday we pull up stakes from Roswell, NM, after nearly a month of getting Bill's mom moved to her new home. Physically and emotionally exhausting, and so very satisfying being able to get it all done for her. Getting the house sold the first week (I know Dave, you are not amused), was a big load off our minds. Mom handled the huge changes in her life like a champ, and we feel good about her settling in.

Our second year is still in the planning stages with our wheels turning east towards the end of summer. Routing includes Christmas in New Orleans, and back to SoCal in the spring. 

We're off to see what we can see - looking forward to dusting off the camera!!