We are tired.

Really tired.

Weary, fatigued, drained, exhausted…

Over the past several weeks we’ve driven an enormous amount of miles in both the RV and the car. We’ve camped in 9 different campgrounds in 6 different states (Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, Ohio, and Indiana) and we’ve driven to or through 5 additional states (Connecticut, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Illinois). And all of this followed on the heels of a 5 week trip to Canada that included massive amounts of mileage and stays at an array of campgrounds that, oftentimes, made everything feel that much more exhausting. Add to all of that Dixie’s ongoing medical situation and the stress involved in managing her issues, and we are downright wrecked.

Now, of course, I am well aware that all of this qualifies as “first world problems.” Indeed, I imagine that right this very minute there is a person sitting in an office somewhere who, after reading the first paragraph of this post, has slowly sat back in their chair and, while narrowing their eyes until they can barely see and clenching their jaw so hard they can feel a headache coming on, has raised both of their arms straight in front of them and extended both middle fingers directly at their computer monitor.

And if that person is you, listen: I get it… I do.

Rest assured, we are endlessly aware of just how fortunate we are to be doing all of this, and we are certainly cognizant that many, if not most, people have much bigger problems than us. But…. I post a lot of pretty pictures on this blog, and I get a lot of comments about how people want to do what we’re doing, and one of the stated goals of this website is to help other people who are considering fulltime RV travel. Therefore, in my mind, it’s only fair to be honest about the things that go wrong as well as the things that go right. And lately, we’ve been feeling like a lot of things, while maybe not exactly going wrong, haven’t exactly been going right.

When you spend week after week at campgrounds that look like this, you’re gonna be unhappy (at least, if you’re like us)

As a result, we’ve learned a lot of lessons about how to plan our trips, what we should prioritize when picking campgrounds, how to handle a sick dog, and the importance of figuring out when to say yes and when to say no. Over the next couple weeks as I catch this blog up to current day, along with the usual travelogue stuff, I’ll try to explain what we’ve learned through this experience. Hopefully, all of this will help other folks avoid making the same mistakes we’ve made.

Now stop flipping me the bird.

In the meantime, we are cautiously optimistic that things are about to turn around. We have several lengthy state park stays coming up, and, in our view, state park campgrounds are uniformly more enjoyable than commercial parks. And while at one time we envisioned using those state parks as jumping off points to go explore nearby cities, we have committed ourselves to not overdoing it this time. Additionally, while we both have projects we’re working on, we intend to prioritize exercise and outdoor time over sitting inside staring at our computer screens while the sun shines just outside our door.

Goals….

Seriously, do you still have your fingers up? Put them down. It’s rude.

Anyway, you’re probably wondering why all this navel-gazing is part of a post featuring a young woman with a bad ass looking bird perched on her arm. Well, I’ll get to that, but first thing’s first…..

Leaving Canada

Just after Labor Day, we hauled ass (as much as one can haul ass while driving a huge RV) from Nova Scotia to Bangor, Maine. We had no time to enjoy our one night stays along the way and, by then, we were pretty burned out by the less-than-stellar commercial campgrounds we’d been staying at, so we were happy to just drive, sleep, and keep moving. We did, however, stop for Tim Horton’s.

A cup of Tim Horton's coffee Somehow, we’d managed to spend almost six weeks in Canada without trying their popular coffee shop. Our verdict: Damned Solid Coffee.

New England

After a brief stop in Bangor, we headed south to Massachusetts for an appointment. As we were making the long drive from Maine, we started discussing one of our favorite restaurants – Durbar Square, a Himalayan/Nepalese restaurant we’d discovered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire a year earlier. Somehow we concluded that it would be perfectly reasonable for us finish the drive from Maine to Massachusetts, park the RV, unhook our car from the back of the RV, then get back in the car and drive all the way back to New Hampshire…all so we could get a bowl of soup.

(I know… it’s super difficult to understand how we managed to exhaust ourselves this month, right?)

But I’m telling you, this soup is really something special. It’s called Gundruk Soup and it’s exactly what you want when you’re in the mood for hot, spicy, comfort food…

Gundruk Soup and Momos (dumplings) at Durbar Square Restaurant in Portsmouth New Hampshire

…or when you just like driving a lot.

And since we we were traveling 120 miles round trip for soup, we figured we should probably order some entrees as well.

Goat Tarkari at Durbar Square Restaurant in Portsmouth New Hampshire
Takari (it’s like a stir fry)….

Anyway, if you ever find yourself in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, or really, even if you’re nowhere near it, you should definitely visit Durbar Square. I promise, you won’t regret it… until a month later when you’re super tired of driving all over the place and you think back to that decision and ask yourself, “What the hell were we thinking??”

When not traversing New England in search of soup, we used our time in Massachusetts to visit with family there….

Kevin, me, Jen (our sister in law) and Jeremy (my brother) in Massachusetts

as well as in Connecticut (resulting in even more driving…because we’re so dumb.)

Vermont Makes the List

After Massachusetts, we headed, once more, for Vermont

One of the goals of all this travel is to find where we’re going to live when we’re done with it and Vermont is officially number 1 on the list.

…during the summer.

Yeah, we’re not living in Vermont in the winter because we’re not crazy.

But summer… Oh man…. Simply put, Vermont is summer perfection.

We were only supposed to spend 2 nights there on our way from Massachusetts into New York, but when we got to Crown Point Camping Area, we found that an entire section of this awesome, heavily wooded campground was completely empty because it was after Labor Day. After spending 6 plus weeks in ass-to-elbow Canadian campgrounds, we looked at our new neighborhood…

RV parked in Crown Point Camping Area

Heavily wooded campsite at Crown Point Camping Area

and we looked at the huge pile of brochures the campground owner had handed us at check-in….

Vermont tourism brochures

and we promptly changed our schedule so we could stay in Vermont a couple extra days.

That schedule change allowed us to visit just about every one of these places which, at the time, was great! As you’ll see below, we had a fantastic time, but, knowing what we know now, we would do things very differently.

The Vermont Institute of Natural Science

VINS is a wildlife rehabilitation facility that mostly focuses on rescuing raptors (aka: birds of prey). The facility is home to a number of them that, because of their injuries, cannot return to the wild.

A one-eyed owl at Vermont Institute of Natural Science in Quechee, Vermont
A one eyed owl
Bald eagle with a broken wing at Vermont Institute of Natural Science in Quechee, Vermont
An Eagle with a broken wing

These resident birds are considered ambassadors for the facility. Several hundred other birds are taken in by the Institute each year, rehabilitated, and released back into the wild.

When we first got there and paid our $15 per person fee, we were wondering whether the experience would be worth it. However, within minutes, we were absolutely convinced this was a first rate facility with incredibly dedicated volunteers and staff. We spent the better part of a day there, attending various programs and talking to staff members – all of whom were extremely knowledgeable and more than willing to explain what they were doing and why.

A tour at Vermont Institute of Natural Science
A staff member giving visitors a tour of the resident birds’ enclosures

We may have also crashed a class field trip to learn about turtles and snakes.

Kids on a field trip at Vermont Institute of Natural Science

What??? Turtles are cool!

Additionally, we watched a demonstration with some of the ambassador birds….

A Red Tailed Hawk at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science
A Red Tailed Hawk
An owl at Vermont Institute of Natural Science
A freaky looking owl (not its technical name)
Vermont Institute of Natural Science
Action Shot! (Yeah, I don’t remember what type of bird it is…)

We were truly impressed by this organization and glad to support their mission.

Simon Pearce

The first time we were in Vermont, we happened upon a glassblower’s studio in Stowe and stopped in to have a look. We loved the experience, so this time, when we saw there was another glassblowing facility nearby, we decided to check it out. We learned that Simon Pearce is a famous manufacturer of handmade glass products, and their facility in Quechee, Vermont is home to a really nice restaurant and shop.

Table at Simon Pearce Restaurant in Quechee, Vermont

The Simon Pearce shop in Quechee, Vermont

What we didn’t realize until we were standing there was it’s a completely different type of glassblowing than what we had seen before.

That Stowe shop was an artistic one, where the proprietor created pieces of decorative artwork. Simon Pearce is a “production” facility. Meaning, the pieces are meant to be used – drinking glasses, wine glasses, bowls, etc.  And the craftsmen who work there are primarily paid by the pieces they produce. They will typically make the same piece over and over again across the day, and it takes years before they’re making more complicated pieces. The shop runs 363 days per year with multiple glassblowers working in shifts. Each piece is individually appraised the day after it’s made and accepted or rejected for sale. The glassblower then receives feedback about what mistakes he made and how to improve his work. As they continue their employment with the company, they are constantly honing their skills and becoming better at their craft.

Glassblowing artists at Simon Pearce in Quechee, Vermont
Working together to make a wine glass

Glassblowing artist at Simon Pearce in Quechee, Vermont

The cool thing is, they love talking to visitors. Even though they are paid by the piece and if their work is substandard, they don’t get paid, they were more than happy to chat. We talked to this guy for about half an hour. We could tell he loved the work he was doing and was very proud to be part of this company.

The American Precision Museum

This museum is located inside the old Robbins and Lawrence Factory in Windsor, Vermont. During the 19th century, the factory produced guns, railroad car parts, and machinery.

The American Precision Museum

The museum explains the development of machine tools – devices that could create the same item over and over and which would allow for parts that could be swapped out. These machines were crucial to the industrial revolution.

Inside the museum are all kinds of historic machine tools. Hanging from the ceiling are the belts that powered the machines (all of which was powered by the river outside).

The interior of the American Precision Museum

The museum brings on interested high school students to demonstrate how some of the machines operate…

A student demonstrates how a machine works at the American Precision Museum

The facility had a wide variety of these tools, old and very very new – like a 3D printer that was actively working on a project while we were there.

Alpacas

In Vermont, when you go to a store, you can hang out with friendly Alpacas.

Alpacas in Quechee, Vermont

I’m telling you, everything is better in Vermont.

The Vermont Toy Museum

We also visited the Vermont Toy Museum. It’s a pretty basic set-up (it looks like it opened 20 years ago and hasn’t been renovated since…), but it really did have an impressive collection. Their motto is “Hey! I had one of those!” and it’s true – as we were wandering around, we kept hearing people exclaim exactly that. (Click on the photos for larger views…)

Fruit and Beer, and Fruit Beer

In addition to stopping by Harpoon Brewery to enjoy some flights, we also stopped in at this awesome Farmers Market in nearby Woodstock. It’s a permanent shop with lots of great local products. And, lo and behold, there happened to be a representative from Citizen Cider, which we discovered on our last trip to Vermont, providing customers samples of their ciders….

Sign for Woodstock Farmers Market in Quechee, Vermont

Needless to say, we went shopping…

(And those strawberries and raspberries tasted as good as they looked).

Now, of course, all of this Vermont stuff sounds like lots of fun, and it was. But lurking behind these enjoyable experiences was the thing we’d been dealing with all summer, the cause of so much of our stress and exhaustion, the gift that kept on giving….

Of course, I’m talking about….

Poop-a-Palooza 2017!!!!

Woooooooooo!!!!!!

(I know I have a bunch of new readers recently…. First, welcome, and thanks for reading my nonsense;  Second, the short version is our dog was having apparent spinal cord issues and our vet put her on a course of steroids that completely screwed up her stomach. You can read more here and here…)

Anyway, without going into too many details, suffice it to say, it’s good we have such a warm relationship with Canada because our dog crapped all over their country. She pooped on 3 different Provinces, had diarrhea at 7 different campgrounds, and produced enough gas to power the entire city of Quebec. She was like Hansel and Gretel, except instead of a trail of breadcrumbs, she left a trail of farts.

Sorry Justin… You and your country are wonderful and you didn’t deserve that.

I feel like he’s forgiving me with his eyes….

Dixie didn’t deserve it either. Poor puppy. I’ve never seen a dog so miserable for so long. She was either sick to her stomach, suffering from painful gas, or starving because we couldn’t feed her normal amounts of food. We tried everything the vet told us to try – prescriptions, special canned foods, 24 hour fasts, home cooked bland diets, probiotics, everything. She would start to get better for a couple days and then revert back to the misery. Over and over and over for weeks.

Adding to the stress, on multiple RV trips she suddenly had an urgent need to go to the bathroom and, unfortunately, Canada is not big on rest stops or shoulders, so while Dixie, bless her heart, was trying her best to stay calm and not have an accident, we were trying to find safe places to pull over our 55 foot house/car combo.

We can’t just pull into a random McDonalds…

Making matters worse, Dixie can’t go up and down the stairs into our RV these days, and she hasn’t been strong enough to start working with a ramp yet, so Kevin has been carrying her in and out of the RV every time she has to go out. This meant that when she would wake us up in the middle of the night because she wasn’t feeling well, Kevin would always be the one who had to take her out. (Though, just to be clear, I think I paid my due by being the one who handled the Superfund cleanup sites when she had accidents in the RV.)

In any case, just recently, we FINALLY got her on an antibiotic that has seemingly crushed the demon bacteria that had taken hold in her belly. Hallelujah!

Dixie and Kevin on the sofa
Feeling better!!

As for the problem that started all this, we’re still not sure. She’s not falling over as much, she’s not dragging her back paws as much, and she seems to be stronger, but she’s still not 100% and we are just now starting to take her on longer walks. Time will tell, I guess.

________________________________________________________________________

Anyway, I have once again written a ridiculously long blog, but this covers the 13 days from the time we started our exit from Canada to our brief trip to Vermont. As you can see, we were covering a lot of ground, seeing a lot of sites, and still dealing with a sick dog, all after spending five weeks doing the exact same thing in Canada. So… Lesson #1: Don’t do that.

Next up, we have a couple stays in upstate New York, followed by a whirlwind trip across Ohio, followed by a very fun long weekend near Chicago.

Where we stayed: Crown Point Camping Area

34 COMMENTS

  1. So glad to hear your baby girl is getting better, wish she had had a better time in Canada but happy you came at all. Maybe next time make more Tim’s runs…. Will keep the glass makers in mind for our journey, that looks amazing.

    • Thank you! We’re very relieved that she’s feeling better too. She had a rough summer. And yes, next time we cross the border, we will make coffee at Tim’s a priority instead of an afterthought. It really is good stuff!

  2. I’m exhausted reading this! Glad you will have a chance to slow down a bit soon. Your VT stories inspired us to head up there! Looking forward to it. It was great to see you in Chicago. Safe travels!!!

    • I think you guys are gonna love that area – especially with all the fall colors…. It should be spectacular this weekend. I look forward to hearing what you guys think – and seeing all the pics on Instagram! It was awesome seeing you too. Look at us… complaining about being tired when you just ran 26 miles in the heat. We’re the worst 😉

  3. We (or I did more than Mike) recently experienced the burn out when we travelled from Indiana to Louisiana. We hard-charged it, and I was down for the count for a couple of days afterwards health-wise. Decided then and there that we just can’t do that many miles in one fell swoop. We do love our 30-day stays and are still learning what pace, etc., works for us, but have shorter stays on the books as we travel out west and I’m not sure I’m looking forward to it. You’re right telling it like it is (it’s not all roses and sunshine–it’s real life), and I don’t think many are giving you the bird–well, okay some might be. I’m also very sorry about Dixie and her health issues. I hope she continues to improve and we’re sending her lots of virtual belly rubs. Take time to relax–it’s okay. I love your posts! Dawn

    • Thanks Dawn. I just think there’s a constant contradiction with this stuff. On the one hand, you’re constantly being told to live each day to its fullest and not waste time, but on the other, if you do that, you burn yourself out and end up miserable. Somewhere there’s a happy medium and it does seem to be different for different people. We’re still trying to work ours out, but we are learning these lessons as we go, and I think it’s worth it to at least throw the ideas up here…. Who knows? Maybe a year from now, I’ll look back on this post and realize I had it all wrong. We are always changing our mind about how to do things these days. Anyway, thanks for the good thoughts on Dixie. Hopefully things are on their way up!

  4. Boy do I relate to your woes. We are currently fast tracking it to Colorado from Niagara Falls. When being a full timer becomes seeing the miles roll by, it changes the nature of the journey. Even though I love looking out our big picture window enjoying the view, listening to podcasts and good books, I need to stop. We did that last night just because I became aware of mental fatigue. Since I’m all about the emotional journey, staying in touch with my body helps me keep balanced. Maybe it’s like jet lag. I got one of my now chronic headaches and so knew it was time to say WHOA! When we left for Canada at the first of July from New Mexico for a 3 month trip, I thought we had all the time in the world to go to Nova Scotia and back – slowly. Well it wasn’t slow enough. I guess trial and error will show me the way. I’ve met people who have been full timing more than a year and now they stay in place a month at a time. Now that’s slow!

    • Yup, we started noticing just how physically spent we were several weeks ago. You don’t think you’re doing very much on any given day, but driving a huge bus down the road in heavy traffic and through construction zones is stressful. And constantly driving the car around in unfamiliar places gets tiring. And never knowing where anything is or how to get from point A to point B, starts wearing on you after a while. And then instead of going home and chilling out in a nice relaxing environment, you find yourself parked 5 feet from your neighbor – who fires up his diesel engine at 7:00 a.m….. It’ll wear anyone down. We haven’t figured out exactly what our pace will be, but we seem to be happier the slower we go, so that’s what I’m working on at the moment. Given how we’re feeling now, if I think of traveling from New York to Colorado or New Mexico to Canada, I envision months, not weeks…. Hope you guys get some rest!

  5. Just say “no” to one night stands! We learned that the hard way, too. Now we try to never stay anywhere less than two nights, preferably three. If there’s anything really interesting going on, we stay longer. It makes all the difference, especially because we are apparently incapable of resisting trying to do and see everything. We still haven’t broken ourselves of that (I think it’s hardwired into both of us) but slowing down at least allows for some spaciousness in our overdoing (with time for laundry).
    Love those wildlife rehab places! It’s always heartbreaking, but at the same time inspiring. You have a Harris Hawk in your unidentified hawk photo. 🙂 They like to hunt in family groups — when you get to Arizona in your travels, be sure to visit the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum near Tucson. There’s a fabulous free flight demonstration, including a family of Harris Hawks that fly free amongst the saguaro.
    So glad Dixie is feeling better!

    • I KNEW one of my bird watching blogger friends would help me out on that! Thank you! And thanks for the tip on the one in Tucson. We’ll definitely check it out…. because we plan to be in Tucson for SEVERAL weeks… because we are LEARNING from our mistakes. Look at us!!! Eh?? I think your solution is gonna be key for us too. We’re not actually gonna stop running around seeing and doing things, so the solution will be to stay in places longer to build in more down time. We actually skipped a huge sightseeing opportunity two weeks ago when we decided to skip Niagara Falls. We were just a few miles away, but we simply couldn’t motivate ourselves to leave our gorgeous state park campground to go there. However, we do regret not going when we were so close. Going forward, the solution will be to just stay at that campground long enough to go see the sites AND to relax. Problem solved.

    • I like Owls too, but damn, they are some creepy mofos!!! If you look at the picture of the 2 owls in the collage, one of them is facing the other way and has his head turned all the way around. All “Exorcist Owl” and whatnot. And they were just sitting like that, not moving, for like an hour! They’re so weird!!!! Anyway….. I miss you too! I hope Chris is feeling better… he really needs to watch women’s soccer more than men. Men are just not all that good at it. #girlpower 🙂

  6. Since we are hoping (and I am waiting and waiting and waiting) to “full time” I appreciate the good, the bad, and the ugly! It won’t stop us but gives us information to help us plan! So, thank you!
    We went to a big RV show this week…my husband is getting excited but is so busy working (he consults “part time”) that he says nothing will happen until at least next Fall…he’s almost 66 and I am 63 so I am anxious to get going. However, because of his job we’ll be going to Hawaii next June! So, in July I am putting my foot down and making October the ultimatum! Ha! Anyway, loving your posts! Keep ‘ em coming!!

    • I mean…. there are worse places to go while you’re waiting than Hawaii…. I’m just sayin. 🙂

      All I can tell you about the planning process is, one day, you’re thinking “we’re never gonna actually get to the day we do this” and the next it’s: “Holy crap! Did we really just sell everything we own so we could live in a bus??? We’re insane!”

      It goes by quick! And in the meantime…. Hawaii!!!!!

      Anyway, thanks for reading my blog. If you ever need help or advice, feel free to email me.

    • While I love my dog and we spoil her every way possible, there’s no way on God’s green earth that she is getting to try acupuncture before I do. Nope…. She’s just gonna have to deal with western medicine like the rest of us. 🙂

    • Thanks for reading and thanks so much for commenting. I really appreciate it! And yes, we are relieved she is doing better too. Hopefully she’ll keep moving in the right direction!

  7. Oh, gosh – I can relate to dog GI issues, carrying large, weak doggie girls outside & the awful, awful cleanup that results when you’re not fast enough. Glad Dixie seems to be doing better.

    We are dealing with the big D at home this time. Stupid antibiotics kicked it off.

    Your post isn’t “ridiculously long” – it’s meaty ????

    • Yeah, it’s funny. Before we started traveling, we were worried about how she would adjust to living in the RV and wondered if she was gonna have all kinds of GI problems because she’s anxious to begin with, but she’s been such a trooper. She had no issues at all adjusting… until this whole thing happened and suddenly everything became a problem. And then living in the RV makes things super challenging because of the steep stairs and all. But, fingers crossed, we’re turning things around….

      Hope yours gets better quick too. It is definitely not fun to deal with.

  8. We appreciate all your hectic wanderings since we can then just glom off your adventures when we do the East Coast next year! So just think that your sacrifice and tiredness is helping the rest of us.

    Ugh, poor Dixie though. When Max’s legs got so weak he could no longer use the ramp (or get up on his own), we ended up getting him a Help ‘Em Up Harness (http://helpemup.com/) which allowed us to basically lift him up but he was still able to help a bit. If Dixie still has trouble with her legs, this might help her and prevent Kevin from throwing out his back. It’s tough enough when you live in a house, but it has to be 10 times worse when in an RV with a doggy with GI issues. You ALL have our sympathies on that one.

    • We actually got one of those harnesses, but haven’t used it yet. I think once we have her back to normal walking, she’ll be able to go up the ramp on her own. She’s still young enough and relatively strong, but we’ve just had her restricted so much to let her spine heal, she’s lost muscle. Once we get that built up again, I think she’ll be able to do it. (I don’t think she’ll be able to do the stairs though…. they’re just too hard for her without a running start). I do think the harness will be good for guiding her on the ramp since I expect she won’t be a big fan of it at first (“why walk up a ramp when dad will just carry me in???”) I think it will also be good for controlling her when she comes down the stairs. She’s still not supposed to run or jump a lot because she could re-injure her spine, so keeping her from bounding down the stairs will be important. I think the harness will help with that.

      Anyway, I think you guys will love visiting all the places we went on the east coast… just go slow….really slow…..much slower than us. 🙂

  9. Glad to hear Dixie is feeling a little better! I think burn out happens to all full timers and it is important to recognize the signs, find a nice place to stay, and enjoy some downtown. Did you stay in any Provincial Parks when you were in Canada? I know the ones in BC and Alberta are much like state parks but our trip to the maritimes was cut short last year so we were never able to check out those parks. And great pic of Justin!

    • No, that was one of my big planning mistakes. I looked at a couple of them early on but they didn’t have availability, so I just gave up and booked us at commercial campgrounds. I should have gone back and checked for cancellations or looked at alternative parks rather than just giving up. I am sure we would have been much happier if we had at least one or two stays at a provincial park rather than ALL commercial places. I’ve heard they are really nice. Next time we head up there, I won’t give up so fast.

  10. Laura, I may have missed it in the post, so forgive me. But how do you determine where to take your beautiful pup for vet care when you’re on the road? We will start traveling next summer with our two Ridgebacks, so just curious. They are healthy now, but life does have a way. Praying for you to get some rest soon!! Thanks for the honest post. I am in the research phase, we haven’t even bought our RV yet. Reading everything I can right now! And taking notes (Nerd alert!).

    Thanks again!

    • Hi Laura, So we still have her regular vet back home in Virginia, and we stopped by there a couple months back and got all her yearly shots done. But when we’re on the road, if she has an issue that needs attention, we just rely on Google and Yelp to find local vets. When she first started having problems this summer, I found a vet in Northern Maine that got good reviews and we took her there. That vet recommended the neurologist we later took her to, and when we were at the neurologist’s office, she told us to let her know if we needed a referral in the future since she knows vets in other parts of the country. So it’s really just word of mouth and the internet. And it’ll be the same for you…. I had to go to a dentist a couple weeks back and just had to find someone on Yelp. It’s scary, but we haven’t had any bad experiences so far. At least we live in an age where we can easily research this stuff and find reviews, rather than just picking a random name in the Yellow Pages, ya know?

      Good luck with the research. It can seem overwhelming, but it will all make sense eventually. Feel free to send along any other questions you have. We’re happy to help.

  11. Poor Dixie. I hope she continues to get better. I’m sure you will find your traveling groove. It is hard when there are so many wonderful places to visit and good soup to eat. BTW, Gundruk Soup is now on my list! I’m starting to enjoy cider. I usually don’t like beer or anything in the family, but on a recent trip to Belgium, I discovered lambic beer (fruit beer), and it convinced me to start trying hard ciders here.

    • Cider and Lambics are what got me started down the beer road too! I used to really dislike beer… but I found it was definitely an acquired taste and that’s how it started…sweeter, fruit type drinks and then pilsners, and on and on…. Now it’s a mess and I drink everything. Oh well…. There are worse problems to have, I think! 🙂

  12. Oh man, we can totally relate to this. Except instead of our dog pooping everywhere, a family member was peeing everywhere, stepping in wet cat food and tracking it around his apartment, and, well… I’ll leave it at that. Here’s hoping things improve for all of us (esp. Dixie!) this fall! Also can we pre-request an RV pad at your VT summer house if we buy a winter house and put one in?

    • I can honestly say, without any hesitation, “I do not even want to know.” 🙂 I am definitely hopeful about this fall. If all goes well, we’ll all be well rested and feeling healthy again before we see you guys and spend hours on end drinking and shoveling food in our faces resulting in us all feeling like crap again. Some day we’ll learn, but that day is unlikely to be anytime real soon. In the meantime, you get dibs on the RV pad, no question. Between the four of us, I feel certain the place will always have a healthy supply of maple syrup and cider!

    • Yeah, I don’t know what the hell we were thinking… we are definitely still truckin…but just going a lot slower these days!!! 🙂

  13. In my opinion…which you didn’t ask for…most new full-time Rv’ers play “tourist” too long and “hit the wall.” It is exhausting, I know this because we found out the hard way. And something else I discovered, and this might fall into the “bad and ugly” side for those wanting and waiting to hit the road, it seemed a little shallow after a while. Now the middle fingers are pointed at me, and you are off the hook 🙂 I don’t know how to express it, really, just that without some kind of “purpose,” checking things off your bucket list doesn’t feel as rewarding as you imagined from your full-time cubicle. If you treat full-time Rving like you treat a vacation, it will never live up to the “dream,” in my opinion. Food for thought from someone who’s been there…
    Box Canyon Mark

    • I agree with you 100%. In fact, that was one of my biggest concerns when we left our jobs – not wanting to end up bored, unchallenged, and with no purpose. But that’s why we don’t consider this a long term pursuit. We usually refer to it as a ‘3 year project’ to see the country, after which, we’ll figure out what’s next. Hence – the name of the blog. This is one chapter in our life. If all goes well, there will be several more where we’ll do totally different things. So far, a year into it, we haven’t been bored yet and have actually managed to stay happily busy with our hobbies. And, usually, we don’t run around like crazy people – that’s why this was an out-of-the-ordinary experience for us. If we were doing this type of running around all the time, I’d be ready to quit by now. It is definitely exhausting. Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I love hearing words of wisdom from people who’ve been on the road for a while.

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