Turning the Page

 We went on our first trip in an RV in 1988.  We borrowed John's sister Cindy's popup tent trailer to take our son Eric to a Christian youth gathering--DC88-in Washington, D.C.  That was it for a couple of years, but we had enjoyed it so much that, to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, we bought a Coleman popup tent trailer for ourselves.     

    We used that trailer for getaways on our days off and for traveling during our month-long summer vacation.  One year we went to the Northwest and up into British Columbia.  Then, in 1996 we bought a 1996 Komfort 5th-wheel trailer.  Since then, we have owned two Montana 5thwheels and a Mobile Suites 5th wheel.  Downsizing in 2016, we bought an Airstream travel trailer.  

 Fast forward to this year--we are aging and decided it was time to stop RVing.  The parking area next to our winter home in Arizona no longer has a trailer parked there.

   

On April 18, it pulled out of our driveway without us!  

We have so many wonderful memories of traveling in our trailers.  Over those years, we have slept overnight in our trailer in all 49 of the continental United States. This year, we both turn 79. We have been there, done that.  And decided it was time to change our lifestyle.  To turn the page. 

I began blogging about our life in 2006.   In 2009, we moved out of our home in Centennial, Colorado, and began living in our trailer full-time.  We have traveled; we have volunteered in national parks in Utah and Arkansas; we have volunteered in state parks in Utah and Colorado and in a private RV park in Montana. Then, in 2014, we bought a casita in Gold Canyon, Arizona, where we lived half the year, traveling the rest of the time.  We haven't owned a 5th wheel trailer since 2016. The title "5thWheelWanderings" longer relevant.

Each year I have published my blog posts in a book.  Look at the stack of books I have published!

  

I began blogging about our life in 2006.   In 2009, we moved out of our home in Centennial, Colorado, and began living in our trailer full-time.  We have traveled; we have volunteered in national parks in Utah and Arkansas; we have volunteered in state parks in Utah. Texas and Colorado and in a private RV park in Montana; we have volunteered for US Fish and Wildlife and Oregon Fish and Wildlife. Then, in 2014, we bought a casita in Gold Canyon, Arizona, where we lived half the year, traveling the rest of the time.  We haven't owned a 5th wheel trailer since 2016. The title "5thWheelWanderings" longer relevant.

It is time for a new blog.  From now on, you can read about our life at:  changingourfocus.blogspot.com.

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We Come and We Go

We certainly do. At this time of the year snowbirds, winter Texans, whatever you call the residents of the snowy northern states who come south for the winter, are turning their wheels north where the temperatures over the coming 6 months or so will be more comfortable than they are in southern Arizona, southern Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. They will enjoy the temperate zone for half a year or so before heading back south sometime between October and January.

We are doing the same. Next Tuesday, after enjoying Easter at Epiphany Episcopal Church in Tempe and a visit with friends on Monday, we will be headed out as well. We are in the midst of cleaning the house, moving everything we will need for the summer into our Airstream. We have arranged to have someone check on our house here over the summer, turned in the paperwork to have our mail forwarded for the duration, had final get-togethers with friends we won't see till next fall and washed the truck and cleaned it inside. I am finishing some turning projects; the federal and state tax returns have been filed.

When we go for our daily walks in our resort we can see many of the other winter residents here have already left. This is a very predictable migration, as marked as the time when students return to school in the fall and are released for summer vacation.

Before returning to Colorado for July, August and part of September, we will be driving north to I-40 then east to address part of our bucket list by staying in the final 5 continental US states we haven't yet spent the night in--New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island--before visiting our son Doug and our granddaughters Rachal and Samantha in New Hampshire. We are looking forward to traveling.

We began RVing in 1988 and in 2005 we did our first volunteer assignments at Nails Creek State Park in Texas and Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. The following year we volunteered for a couple of months at Fort Parker State Park in Texas. That is where we met full-time RVers Frank and Chris. She introduced me to blogging. On May 21, 2006, I created 5thwheelwanderings.blogspot.com and published my first blog post. Since then I have published 1274 blogs and this will be 1275. We felt we got to know some of those bloggers as they shared their life on the road. And on January 29, 2009, we moved out of our Colorado house and became full-time RVers.

In the 8 plus years we have seen many people also begin full-timing and have made real friends--not just virtual friends--with some of them. In October 2014 we purchased our house in Superstition Views, ending our full-time lifestyle but not our travels. Some people who are full-timers live that lifestyle
for only 1 to 3 years. Sometimes they are traveling to find a good location to spend their retirement. Others are on the road for 10, 15 or 20 years. In the years I have been blogging and we have been reading RV blogs, we have watched at least six of those full-timers (including Frank and Chris) do just as we have done, buying a house for part of the year or setting up the RV permanently in an Escapees RV park. Obviously, traveling full-time in an RV is something people come and go from. We understand.

I also understand how hard it is to keep up a blog that is primarily about travel when travel is reduced to only part of the year. This is my first blog post since April 5. They will be coming more often beginning next week when we hit the road again. I am not looking for more RV blogs to read. I am spending more energy getting to know people here in our resort but not making new friends on the internet.

The most constant thing in our lives is not the people around us, the work we, the place we live or our lifestyle. It is change. And it keeps us on our tow and learning new things all the time.

A Lesson Learned

I learned something yesterday.  In fact, I learned several things.  We drove to Austin (something like 54 miles from here) and visited the Zilker Botanical Gardens and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.  We both took cameras to capture what we saw.  I used my Canon PowerShot SX40HS, which takes great closeups.  John used our small, older, Canon PowerShot 260HS and his iPhone.

When we are being tourists, we both take lots of pictures which I then download into my computer.  From the many (many, many) photos we take, with lots of duplicate shots of the same thing, I pick out a few to use in my blog.  Because I can do exposure bracketing with my SX40HS (the camera will automatically take photos 1/2 stop either side of the setting that seems best), I often get 3 photos for every time I click the shutter.  Yesterday, I took lots of close-ups of flowers in addition to shots of the larger displays.  I knew I had a lot of editing and deleting to do last night.

After dinner, I downloaded all those pictures.  As always, when I was done, I picked up each camera again and deleted all the photos from the day.  That was a big mistake.  When I went into Picasa on my computer, I had all the photos John had taken with both his cameras.  But mine weren't there!!!  I spent a couple of hours rethinking everything I had done.  Where did I go wrong?  I'm still not sure.  I obviously skipped one step in the download process.

What did I learn?
     It is good that we both take photos, even if there are lots of duplicates.  That is a good back-up for human error.
     I must double check that the photos are  really on my computer hard drive before I delete them from the camera.

But these lessons are really common sense and minor.  As I think back to yesterday and to most of  the times that I take photographs, I realize that I am so focused on the camera and getting the right picture that I am not really experiencing what I see.  I intend to re-experience it when I look at the photos.  But I am really missing the actual experience that way.  I don't take time to appreciate what I am seeing, to let the pictures imprint on my mind.  I see only the camera and I don't see the event or location we are visiting until I get home and see it on the computer.  THAT IS WRONG! 

I hope I have learned the two common sense lessons about taking duplicate photos and double-checking my work.  But more importantly, I intend to really enjoy what we are doing and seeing--while it is going on .  The photos are an extra, allowing me to see it again and share it on the blog, they aren't the reason I am there.  I hope this loss of photos has taught me a little about how to enjoy the life we live, while we are living it.

How about you?  Is this what you experience?