Thursday, February 19, 2009

Countdown

Only 5 more days of work!

Friday, February 13, 2009

Catch up on Pam's travels for the last several years

I'm finally starting a blog so friends and family can follow along in my travels. I retire soon and plan on traveling full time in my RV when I sell my house. Below is a quick summary of the last several years.

This is a picture of my first RV - a Sportsmobile Camper van. The picture was taken at City of Rocks State Park in New Mexico. This park has some campsites with hookups, but the more interesting sites are dry sites among the rocks. I bought the van in 2002. Before that I tent camped. Once getting this I knew RVing was for me. I'll still tent camp some. There are some great places where you can't take an RV, but I sure like sleeping on a real mattress!

For the 5.5 years I had the van, I took it many places. I visited the Smokies many times. I also went to the beach a lot. In particular, Dr. Julian G. Bruce St. George Island State Park (also known as St George State park) and T. H. Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park (St. Joe State Park), both in North West Florida. I took several longer trips (2 weeks or more), including out west and up to Michigan and Wisconsin. I took it to the Canadian Maritimes, but only had a chance to visit New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. A summer long trip is on my list for when I start full timing.

One of my favorite places on that trip was at Hole in the Wall Campground on Grand Manan Island. They have places for RV's, but their best sites are tent only cliff side sites. Their web site said the whales might wake you up at night Believe it or not, that's true. It was amazing. There were several times during the night that I thought the whale must have been just feet from my tent. During the day when I wasn't hiking or getting sick on a whale watching trip, I would just sit in my chair watching the Minke and Finback whales. We did see one Gray whale and on my way back from the outhouse, I watched him breach. To take this picture I climbed down some rocks and looked back towards my campsite. If you click the picture and zoom in on the center point, you should see my blue campchair. My tent is very hard to see because it's behind the bushes, but it's about 6 or 7 feet behind my chair. In other words, I'm glad I didn't sleep walk! The person in the photo is at the site next to mine.

In 2007, I ordered a 2008 27'MB Lazy Daze motorhome. This is the RV that I plan on living in once I sell my house. To get a new Lazy Daze, you have to order one through the manufacturer, they do not have dealers. This means that when I picked it up, I had to drive it from California back home to Georgia. What a way to learn how to drive this vehicle and learn more about the RV. The picture here is my RV on the first night after leaving California.

So far I have only used it for weekend trips and very short trips, mostly in Georgia.

I retire Feb. 27 , so after that I will be able to take longer trips. Only 10 more days of work!!! Once my home sells, I will live full time in the RV and travel all over.

Below are a few pictures from my trips over the last several years.
Click on any picture so see a larger version.