IRELAND PICTURES

A few more pictures of Ireland

9 members of my family traveled to

Ireland in 2007

 

 

 

 

My daughter & niece

My brother Mike passed on this past spring

 





 

My mom in the white scarf

TRAVELING ALONE

I've been giving the fulltime RVing a lot of thought.  I've been thinking about type of tow vehicle and type of trailer.  I've been researching Casita and other travel trailers.  Then last week I started thinking about traveling alone.
I've never given it a lot of thought.  I love to travel.  I've taken short trips by myself for a night or two but I've never camped alone.  I've tent camped with my children and traveled with friends. Whenever I've thought of traveling I saw myself driving from destination to destination but never really saw myself sight seeing alone.  Very interesting, I may have to rethink this fulltiming plan.
I decided to go hiking alone and that was a failure.  It was only a 1 mile trail and I only went about a quarter of the way before turning around.  There were ticks and spider webs and it was hot and humid.  I never think about these things when hiking with other people it's just part of the experience.  Not a very good showing for my first experiment in hiking alone.
Maybe I should buy a van and try a couple of week long trips before I waste money on the RV.  In the mean time I am working  on getting my house ready to sell by next summer.  I'll be ready no matter which route I settle on.

Here's a little touch of Ireland from our 2007 trip

Up Comming Trip

I love planning trips.  We will be traveling along Lake Heron in Michigan visiting lighthouses. We plan to spend one day at Frankenmuth to check out their Christmas store, and to eat German food.  I can usually skip the tourist towns but I do like good German food so we will give it a try.
Last year we traveled the Upper Peninsula and along the coast of Lake Michigan.  Just a few of the lighthouses we toured:

 

The first picture is the Mackinaw bridge as seen through the window of the Old Mackinaw Point lighthouse.

Have a great day!

RAINY DAYS ARE GOOD!

My normal morning routine requires getting up early, walking the dog, exercise, eating breakfast, fixing lunch, preparing food for dinner and getting ready for work. I'm tired before I reach work.
This is why I love rainy days.  I fix tea or coffee and I sit on the front porch watching the rain, my small pond and the birds.  It's so quiet and peaceful.  This morning I drove to McD's for coffee and stopped by the little river near my house and watched the ducks playing in the rain.  Okay, so maybe they weren't playing more likely fishing. All things must end though so off to work I go.

I have been following a blog: http://rvsueandcrew.net/.  It's very interesting.  Sue was in a somewhat similar situation when she decided to full time RV and she is very happy with her decision.  I enjoy reading about her adventures and how she made her decision to go fulltime.  If you have ever considered RVing fulltime you should check out her blog.  She tells it like it is living on the road. Also try: http://www.hitchitch.com/links.html

I've been rather amazed by all the blogs.  There must be blogs on almost every subject.  If you have a dream and feel unsure about following through just start reading blogs about that subject.  The blogs cover successes and failures exposing the good, the bad and the ugly, helping you to learn from others.

Wishing every one the very best with their dreams.

Yellowstone Trip

These are pictures from our trip to Yellowstone in 2013.

 

baby bears

 

hiding moose

 

elk

 

 

This is my experiment with uploading pictures.

 

Yellowstone was amazing.  We saw a large variety of wild life.  We had a coyote cross a path about 20' in front of us and we saw wolves crossing the road but were unable to get pictures of them because they were moving so fast.

Travel is in my future

My dream situation would be having my house paid for and being able to save money for travel.

 Here I am in my mid 60's and still needing to work to pay the bills.  I don't mind working but I'm not able to earn enough to make the house payment, upkeep and save to travel.  And I will be in my 70's before the house is paid off.

My business is not doing well and barely pays for itself.  This small income and social security just covers my living expenses.  There is nothing left over for savings.  If I close my store and go to work elsewhere at my age I'd be lucky to make anything above minimum wage.  Financially I don't believe I would be better off.

In 1995 I traveled with my mother and step-father to California and back.  They drove their small motorhome and I drove my mini van. It was a wonderful  6 week trip, but at that time I didn't think I would buy an RV because of all the expense and work involved in traveling in an RV.  We stayed in campgrounds - some state parks, some privately owned - I enjoyed the experience but it seemed like a lot of work and of course gas was expensive.  Gas is twice the price now.  Please don't misunderstand.  I loved the trip.  The freedom to travel for 6 weeks was amazing.  Every evening we would sit down and decide how far to drive the next day depending on what we wanted to see along the way.

Now I'm contemplation living in an RV full time.

 If I close the business and sell my house I could buy a RV to live in and travel some.  My days would be filled with work camping jobs and maybe some volunteer work.  When not working I would have to stay at boondocking sites because I wouldn't be able to afford a RV park.

I have spent a lot of time in the last six months reading blogs by fulltime rv'ers.  RVSue, Simple living, Travels with Emma and many many more.  Their experiences have made me believe this can really happen. 

For now fulltime RVing is the direction I am working towards.  We will see where I end up.