3rd Anniversary

Today is a travel day for us.  We are heading for Yuma, AZ, but first we want to do a little reminiscing.  Why today?

Well, three years ago we started our new life on the road filled with many adventures, new friends, and interesting places to visit.  It is hard to pick out one favorite place because each one is unique in its own way.  There have been no regrets in selling our sticks & bricks house.  Look at all the things we would have missed if we had stayed in Albuquerque working 40 hour weeks with only a 2-week vacation.

Ready to start our adventure on the road.

 We would never have been able to see our granddaughters or our daughter as often.  We have seen both granddaughters do a lot of growing up in the last three years into well-mannered young ladies.

 

And some of our family has been able to visit us in our different locations.

Our son, Shaun visiting us in Patagonia

 Sandy's brother Jay visiting us in Key West 

Dan's sister and her husband visited us in Patagonia, but we never got around to taking any photos.  We'll have to make up for that next time.

Then there's many adventures we would have missed.  We would never have been held up by the Burro Gang in Custer's State Park in SD.

Give us all your apples!

 We never had views like this from our home....

South Dakota

Key West, FL

Florida

Arizona

Some places are filled with friendly people....

Saguaro Skp Co-op, Benson, AZ

 Other places are a lot less populated...

Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve

We never would have kayaked in the Florida Keys...

 or have seen the Arches....well, maybe since we did live within traveling distance for a 2 week vacation....

Anyhow.....or climbed rock fins...

 or frozen our feet to see Crater Lake...

How can you beat views like this?

Northern California

Shenandoah National Park

So much more to see and do.  It will be a long time before we get tired of our lifestyle.  Happy Trails to all!

Shenandoah National Park

Fawns with Mama enjoying our site

We stayed in Loft Mountain Campground inside Shenandoah (webshots photo album link) National Park.  Sandy says she feels like we were on top of the world.  The campground sites were nice and private.  The parking of a large RV is a little tricky on the curved sites, but the spaces were large and surrounded by trees and bushes.  We watched birds, deer, and rabbits.  No black bears.   They must have heard we were in the area with our cameras.

Our first time on Skyline Drive

All the scenic views have been spectacular.  Driving 25 miles on Skyline Drive to the campground felt more like 40 miles because of the 35 mph speed limit.  Sandy wasn't so sure about this drive in the motorhome since she had read a description saying the drive wound around on top of the ridge of the mountains.  But it wasn't that bad.  Most of the time it was a tree lined narrow road with wide and very spacious overlook areas for pulling over.  We could fit our motorhome towing the car with plenty of space for many more cars.

We got a little relief from the hot weather.  We had just settled into our new home when the heavy rains came through.  The rain lasted a little over an hour, but it certainly made a difference in the temperature.  It was so nice to be able to sleep with the windows open at night.

Doyles Fall Trail

For our first full day in the park, we did a 3.5 mile hike on Doyles Fall Trail that was described as “moderate”.   It turned out to be a little more difficult for us since we are no longer use to higher altitude or steep climbs.  Yep our bodies were telling us “Time to get back into shape!”

Virginia Quilt Museum

We were tired the next day so we decided to drive to Harrisonburg.  Sandy wanted to visit the Virginia Quilt Museum while Dan spent time exploring the historic downtown area.  Sandy has a separate blog for her quilt adventures.  You can click on the link to her QuiltinCats Blog in the right column.

We ate lunch at a very unusual coffee house called The Artful Dodger.   The inside was eclectic decorated with local artists’ works along with household items that we recognized from our youth.  There was a large collection of retro wall clocks, old lamps, and other memorabilia from the 70s-80s time frames.  Oh, and the food was good too!

Our next hike was a little over 4 miles on Rose River Falls.  Two friendly Rangers advised us that the trail was an easier walk than Doyles and better because it followed the cascading river.   We did not feel as wimpy on this trail.

Wildflowers along Skyline Drive

We moved to a campground outside of Lynchburg, VA on Tuesday.  We will probably keep this stop short.  Dan is already plotting out our next moves towards the west.