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Our Awesome Travels

Our Awesome Travels
Taken In Quartzsite Arizona Dec 7th 2015

Friday, August 18, 2017

11 Years Full-time, and fun at Rock Glen resort today with friends.

Where are we today ?
clic a pic to enlarge it

       This map below is the general areas we have travelled in our 11 years full-time n our coach and of course many places in between.
         It was 11 years ago today August 18th 2006 that the sale of our house closed and we were officially living in our coach full time. A lot of people thought we were crazy, wanted to know how long for and where would we live afterwards?  I had just turned 57 and Suzie 49 and more people said we are too young to retire especially with no pensions. But we had been planning this for years and had a few bucks tucked away and have lived a pretty frugal lifestyle.  So on this day we were excited about to embark on our a new journey of adventure and exploring and see what we can see. 
       We purchased this house below in Plattsville in 1992 and renovated it over the years inside and out, until it was just the way we wanted it. But renting the house was not an option, we wanted to be free, so sold it we did, urged our possessions and not paying for storage, more capital to invest and live off the proceeds. I have had rental properties over the years and can be a headache.
this was our house in 1992
this same house we sold in 2006
our last day here
we are ready to hit the road
        Purchased our coach in May 2006 , 7 years old then, (from Larry Vanstone at Sicard Rv) and at that point pretty well decided we needed to quit working, sell the house and hit the road. We began the process in June quitting work in July, purged the house contents and moved into our house on wheels.
        We hung around Ontario until October visiting family etc and crossed the border mid October, we are only allowed 6 months in the USA and we wanted them to be in warmer weather than here.
         Sept 16th we had a retirement party for us and celebrated Suzie's 50th birthday at the same time lotsa of family and friends were there to wish us well on our adventures.
      What a celebration it was and great send off for our new lifestyle.
Our first night free camping on the beach 2006
Mustang Island Texas
sunset on the beach 2010
Stone Island,
Mexica Mexico
Sea of Cortez Mexico when we spent
 3 months in Mexico, 2009 and 10
         We have seen so many places and met so many amazing people in our travels and made a lot of new friends.
         I began blogging in 2006 just new to blogging and took me until 2010 to get to doing some regular  postings that I was happy with, but at least we have a record of most places we went to and a few hundred thousand digital photos to look back on.
where we park in Plattsville
       I have lived in this village since 1982, ran my restaurant in town for 10 years, active member in the Plattsville Bright Optimist club for 18 years so I knew and still do know a lot of people in the area. Suzie's family is close by as is daughter number 2 with 3 grands and another on the way so is a very convenient place to park for a week or 2. Another daughter 90 minutes away with 3, and son an hour away with 1.
        The way we like to live is constantly change scenery every week or 2, tried staying in some places for a month or more, but not what we want to do yet. Of all the places we have been we love the south west the most. Just something about the desert that keeps calling us back.
we love boondocking in the desert
this is in Quartzsite Arizona
         We have been wanting to travel across Canada for a long time and looked like the fall of 2015 would be the year.  It did not work out, still plan to do this in the future. 
         So now entering into year 12 on the road, and still loving every day of this exciting life together. We have had a few issues, but nothing real major, regular maintenance and repairs on our coach (now 18 years old) and our car (15 years old).  Our coach had 35k miles on it in 2006 now 135k miles (we have travelled 100 k miles in 11 years) and still runs great. The 2002 saturn had 21k miles on it now 149k miles on the odometer plus towed another 100k miles so 298 k miles on the chassis.
         Now we are looking forward to many more years of this lifestyle, and for as long as we can. The only thing that will slow us down will most likely be health issues and so far we doing awesome! But being fairly active keeps us young and feeling alive.
        Living in our small house 24-7 has never been a problem for us, we do our own things, I love to cook so I do the shopping (Suzie hates shopping) I take lots of walks she loves to read we both do our computer stuff, me mostly pictures and blogging. And we do things together as well sightseeing and visiting, hey works perfect for us.
         Looking forward to seeing new places and new faces, as well as running into people we have met over the years in our travels. And making new friends on the road.

TODAY

      Today just puttering around this morning after a few walkabouts I helped Diane and Don set up their satellite dish again, a few issues were taken care of, and some help from a neighbour Greg.
      Checked out Walt (our flooring guy) finishing up the assembly of a shed for a seasonal site here and even had Gerry working with him again,(that's amazing to see Gerry work , lol)
     A quick trip to Forest for a few supplies and check out the farmer's market and back to Rock Glen to relax in the shade with Suzie and our e-readers. After Lunch and Suzie tried this Donut Peach  and she enjoyed it. Looks like s green donut, no fuzz, firm like and pear but tastes like a peach. Supposed to to even healthier than a peach too.
Donut Peach
all looks good
still have fresh local strawberries here too
        Then a few friends dropped in for Happy Hour, Gerry, Melinda, Paul and Tucker, (Suzie got another doggies fix), nice to catchup and solve all the problems of the world again.
We being happy
one more treat for Tucker
  Just after 6 pm headed over to Stephanie's, we were invited to partake in some Panzerottis for a wonderful feast, each one made to order with our own fillings.
Kim making to dough
Stephanie putting them together
this is mine, before frying
sealing it up like a pro
Mike doing the frying, 2 deep fryers
this mine , huge and so tasty
enjoying our meal
then desert, small cherry and raspberry ones
also amazing 
        Wow what an amazing feast we had, and so much fun, Thanks to Stephanie, Kim and Mike for your hospitality, was a feast we will not forget.
        Thanks to y'all for following us on our travels, (over 2,800 postings so far) some of you have followed us for the last 11 years, it has been a journey and we both hope for many more wonderful years of travel,living this lifestyle.
Where have we been this summer ?

32 comments:

  1. Congratulations on 11 years. I make it 10 in early October. Not the least interested in stopping either.

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    1. Thanks Barney, It is an amazing lifestyle and we are like you not interested in stopping, that will happen when it happens.

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  2. Wishing you both many more wonderful years enjoying the lifestyle you love.

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    1. Thank you guys we are looking forward to many more as well.

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  3. Loved the recap of your full timing life adventure. Quite the map you have there, and yes, blogging is so wonderful for so many reasons, especially keeping track of what you did when and for making friends. Thanks for sharing, George.

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    1. Glad you enjoyed it Sue, yes the blog sure helps us with that for sure.

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  4. What a great post with all the reminiscing of the past 11 plus years. You will be able to keep it up for years to come as you both live a very healthy lifestyle. So happy to have met you both on Stone Island/Isla de la Piedra or the Isla as I call it way back in 2010. I remember you telling me about blogging as I taught you how to peel and de vein fresh shrimp. We go back a bit, don't we. So looking forward to the next time we meet up. I will never forget you as you were responsible for me starting my blog in May of 2010.

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    1. Yes Contessa we do go back a few years we had a lot of fun on the Isla, so many great memories. I remember you teaching me how to peal the whole fresh shrimp does not work as well on the frozen shrimp we buy here now.
      I am glad you enjoyed our Blog and that you got yours up and running as well. Nice to hear whats going on out west and on the Isla. Will be nice to meet up again one of these day we just never know.

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  5. It's great that your full timing has worked out so well. I had never heard of Panzerottis but they sure do look delicious.

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    1. Yes Larry it is working out amazing! Panzerrottis (Calzone) is like pizza rolled up and either baked of fried, excellent.

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  6. And many more years to come as long as you are able!
    the Panzerottis look great.

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  7. Wow...11years is a huge celebration. That map looks like a jigsaw puzzle...hehe. Happy Anniversary! Wishing you 11+ more years.

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    1. It is a pretty nice milestone, that map is only an outline of where we have been since full timing , lots of places before. Thank you, we are looking forward to many more years as well.

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  8. Congratulations more safe travels in the future!
    It's been fun being part of your travels south of the border.

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    1. Thanks Tucker, so glad that you were able to share some of them with us.

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  9. Sounds like you had it worked out well, and have enjoyed all those years. More power to you!

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    1. Thanks FG we have enjoyed every minute of it and hoping for many more.

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  10. Wow, Congratulations on 11 years! Your positive approach to life motivates us for the future and we hope to finally connect with you this winter in Arizona. Many more safe, healthy and happy years to come, enjoy!

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    1. Thanks Kevin, finally meeting up with you and Tracy would be wonderful, hope we can make it happen.

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  11. Wishing you many more years of happy travels and good health. Keep blogging, it gives me cooking ideas... and the travel bug...

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    1. Thanks Peter, we strive to keep on going and blogging as lone as we can.

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  12. Congratulations on eleven years! We wish you many more years of safe travels ... and blogging :-)

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    1. Thanks you it has been an amazing journey so far. And looking forward to more.

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  13. It becomes a chosen lifestyle. It's one many don't understand but I can't imagine being stuck in one place for the rest of our lives until we have to.

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    1. That is exactly so true, and it is an amazing lifestyle for sure.

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  14. Congratulations on 11 years! Must be a good life. You two look as young now as you did in 2006.

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    1. Thanks Doug, it sure is a good life, keeps us young!

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  15. I don't think we'll ever be 'Full Timers', but you make it look so inviting ... great to follow your adventures and good times with friends. I expect to remain a 'traveler' between our homes in OH, CA and Baja. But dang, I sure enjoy our road trips!

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    1. Thanks for following along Jeff and we are enjoying your "road trips" as well. We all have our comfort zones and this works for us. You do have a lot of hies to visit.

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  16. We just passed 4 years since we moved into the Alfa full time. The first six months we had the house on the market and spent much of the Winter at Camp Driveway, but I count that as full time living since we slept each night, and did all the cooking in our RV. The house was a shower and laundry facility. Still happy in our choice. Glad to hear you are too. Maybe one of these winters we will cross paths.

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    1. Thanks Merikay.
      It is a wonderful lifestyle for sure , hopefully we can meet again, we did meet very shortly at bloggerfest 2015 in Quartzite when I hosted it, but we were both busy at the time. Not much time to chat.Keep enjoying your travels.

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