Happy 1 Year Fulltime RVing!

We set off from San Antonio on April 10, 2016 to begin our fulltime RV adventure not knowing what was to come but ready for anything.  After 1 year I can say we are truly enjoying our travels and do not regret our decision to sell our home and rid ourselves of most of our possessions and hit the road.  This is a wonderful way to see our great country and experience different cultures and local traditions.

We've learned a few things during the past year:

Learn where your rig's circuit breakers are located and how to reset them so that when something stops working, you can fix it quickly.  One time we were cooking waffles for our granddaughters and we opened the waffle iron expecting to have hot cooked waffles.  We were surprised to find gooey batter.  Tripped circuit breaker!

Don't drive more than 4 hours at a time--it makes one of us cranky to drive too long (guilty!) and besides, we have nothing but time so why not enjoy the drives?

If you're going to be away from your RV site overnight, remember to turn off the water.  We left for 4 days once and didn't think about turning off the water until we received a call from the park management telling us that water was dripping out one of the compartments.  Fortunately there was minimal damage which was easy to fix.

We don't enjoy the south in the summer! We had to unexpectedly spend some time in San Antonio last July when temperatures were close to 100 almost every day.  The ACs could not cool fast enough and our refrigerator was getting too warm.  John did some research and decided to install an exhaust fan in the compartment behind the refrigerator to help push the hot air out from behind the refrigerator.  When he went to install it, he found there were already FOUR fans installed but not hooked up.  Don't know why, but John hooked them up and it helped a lot!

Learn to use your outdoor grill (it helps keep the rig cool during warmer weather). Some of our favorite things to grill include pork chops, burgers, foil packet meals, and of course, steak.

On the subject of cooking--we can cook just about everything in our little kitchen that we used to cook in our house.  We have a stove, microwave, slow cooker, multi-cooker, and a toaster oven in the basement that we sometimes bring out.  It's just a matter of getting used to working in a smaller space. We've made everything from quiche to bread to roasted vegetables to intricate gourmet recipes.

I rediscovered the joy of biking!  Our biking excursions are now from 10-20 miles at a time.  A year ago I would have never imagined I would be biking so often and for such distances.  Everybody should go out and ride bikes, and ride through water puddles and laugh--you'll feel 10 years old again!

We make our RV feel like home.  I keep decorative knick knacks in a collapsible box that I unpack when we're going to stay put for at least 2 weeks.  We also have an electronic wireless picture frame so we can look at all of our favorite family photographs without having picture frames out everywhere.

Be sure to take along things you enjoy doing.  We travel with 1 or 2 colorful plants to make our sites feel more like home because we enjoyed the gardens we used to have.  I also travel with my sewing machine, cutting mat, and fabric for those times that I feel crafty!

You don't have to live in a beige, brown, and taupe RV.  I replaced all window treatments and the bedspread that came with the RV went for some color on the windows and a new duvet cover.  Reds, yellows, golds, oranges!

Keep a checklist!  We start packing up the day before we're scheduled to hit the road so in the morning we just have a few last minute things to do.  Then we check our checklist!  When we started out the list was only 1/2 a page long but now it fills the entire page.  It reminds us to do some things that you'd think would be unforgettable (like take the bedroom tv off the wall, raise the landing jacks, and close all interior doors) but it's easy to forget one of these things when you're anxious to get on your way.

Finally, I've learned that America is a beautiful country with wonderful things to see from cornfields in Iowa to the white sand in Orange Beach, Alabama to the palm trees of Florida, to the alligators on Hilton Head, South Carolina. We have found fellow RVers to be very friendly and helpful.  We are looking forward to our planned trips this year.  We'll be in the eastern US heading to Maryland, Pennsylvania, Niagara Falls, Montreal, Canada, Vermont, and Maine to name just a few stops.  Don't know what's in store for us but we're up for the adventure!

Working on the blog after a long day of biking