An epic adventure and the reality of planning before becoming snowbirds

I took an adventure pretty close to our big adventure of traveling in the RV for an extended time.  I returned home about three weeks ago from an adventure with our daughter and a former girl scout's family to celebrate Layla turning 15. I flew to meet them at Port Canaveral, then onto a cruise on a Royal Caribbean Ship called the Utopia of the Seas. It is the 2nd largest ship in the world at this time. Ashley and I have never cruised on this line. It was a fabulous time with many laughs, giggles and shenanigans. As much fun as I had, it added to my own stress of the upcoming trip. We also went camping with friends for an extended Labor Day weekend. That was also a great time with many laughs, stories, corn hole and enough food to feed an army. Both of these trips could be a full blog on their own, but this one will focus on the upcoming journey.

If you know me at all, I am not usually in full blown panic mode before a trip, but I think I reached that point about two weeks ago. Even though I have my lists, spreadsheets, and my usual organizational skills, I was feeling the reality of everything that had to be done. Some of the tasks were self-imposed because I wanted things finished that were not necessary to prepare for the trip such as cleaning the carpets in the living room and completing our daughters Christmas gift, but I am proud to say every essential and optional tasks have been completed! I am excited and nervous to embark on this long trek, but we will pull out of Minot on Tuesday morning.

Oh, the things that you have never thought of for a regular camping trip have been researched and implemented such as getting a mobile internet provider, forwarding the mail to a temporary address, arranging for snow removal, purchasing a transponder for toll roads that are in the US, figuring out how to get our medicines, deciding how much to pack for clothes, food, supplies we use  at home regularly to be put in camper, finding places for all of these items in a confined space, and satellite radio to name a few. I had to prioritize what was accomplished daily. Wow, at one point, I thought I would not be able to finish and still get some sleep in the process. What a great feeling to know the time has come to fulfill a long-time dream!

We have the route planned and campground reservations up to mid-November at this point. We have an itinerary of seeing family and friends heading East. We have the RV packed except for the food which we will do on Tuesday morning. The jeep will be hooked up on Monday. We had a going away dinner with our closest friends and got a special blessing at church for safe travels. We have worked and planned for a very long time for this to come to fruition. We have been blessed and want to take advantage while we are both healthy enough to travel. We don't want to have regrets about not seeing interesting parts of the US that we haven't had a chance to do yet. 

We do have a timetable at the beginning of the trip, so there will be a few long travel days. We will relax a bit while visiting both sides of the family in Upstate NY. We then will really kick back on a twelve-day cruise out of New York City where we will not have to cook, clean or plan the next adventure. It is really happening and it hasn't sank in yet of how long we will be gone. Pray that we have good travel weather, no concerns with the motorhome and lots of good times together and loads of new adventures. Hope to update about once a month on our journey of life as snowbirds, Mark says we will go wherever there is no snow until April or May of 2026.