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WE ARE GOING TO DO IT!

WE ARE GOING TO DO IT!

A little over a year ago we stopped full time RVing. We had been fulltiming a little over a year when I had a medical emergency which knocked us off the road. (You can read the details of the medical emergency in The Unexpected Journey in earlier posts on this blog.) We could not foresee ever being able to full time again or RV at all. So we sold our truck and fifth wheel and walked away from…

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HOW WE BOUGHT A MOTOR HOME

HOW WE BOUGHT A MOTOR HOME

Early on during my health crisis (you can read about it in my blog posts The Unexpected Journey) we didn’t think we would ever be able to manage our RV again. Even if I recovered, we doubted that we would be able to handle a thirty-eight-foot fifth wheel and the one-ton pickup we hauled it with. So, we sold it as documented in the previous post. But when it became clear that I was going to…

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HOW I SOLD MY RV

HOW I SOLD MY RV

When you need to get rid of your RV, what is the best way to do it? If you are also thinking of getting another RV the issue is a little different than if you are just selling. We have done both.  We traded in an RV when buying a different one and we have sold an RV on our own. A few months ago, we sold our thirty-eight-foot Laredo. Here’s how we did it: We wanted to present the RV in the best…

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The Next Chapter

When I became critically ill, while we were in the Rio Grande Valley, we had a decision to make. We were full time RVers. There was no way that I could do the tasks necessary to just manage the day to day routine of living and traveling in a fifth wheel. What were we to do? The details of my medical journey and the journey from Texas to Michigan are in the previous five posts. We decided that we…

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THE UNEXPECTED JOURNEY Part 5

THE UNEXPECTED JOURNEY Part 5

Thanks to Raychel Erdmanczyk for this instalment of the Unexpected Journey. Well it is my turn to tell you about this crazy journey we’ve been on. Dad saved the best for last! I’m to tell you about some of the funny things that happened during this time. There were lots and lots of laughs had.  I think the sayings go, “Laughter is the best medicine” or “If I’m not laughing I’m crying”. Both of…

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THE UNEXPECTED JOURNEY Part 4

THE UNEXPECTED JOURNEY Part 4

Team Q at the Kidney Walk – Detroit Zoo Having arrived back in Michigan I was transported by ambulance from the airport to a rehabilitation facility with the goal of gaining enough strength to go home. Home had been our fifth wheel RV for the last eighteen months. We had sold our sticks and bricks house and our furnishings three years earlier. Mary and our daughter Melissa were working to secure…

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THE UNEXPECTED JOURNEY Part 3

THE UNEXPECTED JOURNEY Part 3

This post has been written by a guest author. Melissa Kiger, our eldest daughter has been so kind to write it. I asked her to write this because she was the one who actual worked with FMCA Assist through this leg of the journey. This is the third installment in the Unexpected Journey series. If you haven’t read the first to posts of the series you can find them down below. Having a sick parent…

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THE UNEXPECTED JOURNEY Part 2

THE UNEXPECTED JOURNEY Part 2

It was the last week of June, 2017. We were on our bi-annual camping trip. Along with both our daughters and their families we were at the Platte River Campground in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. We had been planning for months for this week. We all had arrived on Saturday. The plan for Sunday was to go to church that morning (Yes we go to church when on vacation.) and explore…

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THE UNEXPECTED JOURNEY

When we retired in October of 2019, we began a journey that we knew would be filled with adventure and surprises. On our very first RV journey, back in the 90’s, we had learned this lesson. We were driving from Yellowstone National Park to Stanley, Idaho. While driving across southern Idaho, all of a sudden there was a dramatic change in the landscape. We found ourselves in the middle of this…

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WORK CAMPING

According to Workamper News, work campers are adventurous individuals, couples, and families who have chosen a wonderful lifestyle that combines any kind of part-time or full-time work or volunteering with RV camping.  We had gone to Texas because I had taken a position with Christian Resort Ministries (CRM). I would be serving as chaplain for CRM in an RV Resort. I would receive a portion of…

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FINDING COMMUNITY

* My previous post confused some who have been familiar with our current circumstances. We are not currently traveling. We are nowhere close to Texas. But we were there six months ago. I got way behind on posting, not that I was ever that timely, because of our current situation. More about that later. So, I’m just trying to get caught up, sort of. I could just complete this post with one…

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TEXAS HILL COUNTRY

Upon leaving Louisiana we made our journey into Texas. We were heading to Bandera, TX where we would stay for a week. On our way we boondocked overnight at a Home Depot in Waco. There was all kinds of road construction going on all over Waco. We had hoped to visit Magnolia Farms but by the time we made it through town, and thanks to Covid, they were closed. But we dropped the RV at Home Depot and…

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ALONG THE WAY – THE END OF THE ROAD

ALONG THE WAY – THE END OF THE ROAD

Original Monument

Law Enforcement Monument

Left Behind

The End of the Road

The end of the road was May 23, 1934.  It had begun about two years earlier.  What it was, was the end of what perhaps was the most infamous crime sprees in American history.  Along the way cars were stolen, banks and stores were robbed, and 13 people were killed, nine of them law enforcement officers. The end was about eight…

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ALONG THE WAY - THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI TEA COMPANY

ALONG THE WAY – THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI TEA COMPANY

As we travel the roads of this nation, we discover things and places we just weren’t expecting. The Great American Tea Company was one of those places. While panning our route from Biloxi, Mississippi to Homer, Louisiana I discovered a Harvest Host location which was a real surprise. I just wasn’t expecting a tea plantation in the heart of Mississippi. I didn’t even know tea grows in the U.S. So,…

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THE GREAT LAKES STATE

THE GREAT LAKES STATE

After leaving the Dakotas we traveled back to Michigan for the first time since we began full timing ten months earlier. We returned to be with family, enjoy the company of friends, see our doctors, and travel the northlands of Michigan.

We spent two nights on our journey from Bismarck, ND. Upon arriving we did some mooch docking in the parking lot of our former church. The parking lot would…

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NORTH DAKOTA

Missouri River Valley North Unit

Sunset from the “Front Porch”

Geological Features North Unit

South Unit

Boondocking Site

Wild Horses at Sunset

4th of July Parade Medora

Elkhorn Site of Roosevelt’s Home

Fort Mandan

We traveled north out of South Dakota into North Dakota. This would be our first visit to North Dakota. The first town we came to was Bowman. As we continued north out of Bowman our Tire…

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SOUTH DAKOTA

We chose South Dakota as our place of residency for purely practical reasons. It is only a little over four hours away from our youngest daughter. So, if we need to take care of any business we can do so while visiting her family without a major trek. Secondly it is affordable, no income tax and low insurance rates. It was also very easy to establish residency. We spent one night there, went to…

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