12 years full-time.

Where are we today ?

Rock Glen Resort

clic a pic to enlarge it
celebrating our 12th anniversary living this amazing lifestyle

     Sure glad I started this blog when we went full-time, so many memories of people we met and places we have been. always nice to go back and enjoy, like an on line diary we can share with friends. Question? Are we tired of this full-time lifestyle? Answer. Heck no, wish we had started it sooner.

    Well here we are wrapping up our 12th year full-time living in our Motorhome. If you care there is a lot of pictures I have taken over years from some of the interesting places we have been.

     This map below is the general areas we have travelled in our 12 years full-time in our coach and of course many places in between.

         It was 12 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 the day after we bought our coach, and Suzie 49 and some people said we are too young to retire especially with no pensions. But we had been planning this for years did our research, and had a few bucks tucked away plus 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, purged 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 they 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 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 4 grands so this 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 always got the itch to move. 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 13 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 19 years old) and our car (16 years old).  Our coach had 35k miles on it in 2006 now 145k miles (we have travelled 110 k miles in 12 years) and still runs great. The 2002 saturn had 21k miles on it now 160k miles on the odometer plus towed another 110k miles so 320 k miles on the chassis. We have done some repairs and upgrades over the years and really love our coach now is actually 20 years old to is a 1999 model built in 1998.

         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 we both love to read we both do our computer stuff, me mostly pictures and blogging. And we do things together as well as sightseeing and visiting so many friends we have made over the years, 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.

our first campground we stayed in Louisiana and love it here

2007 In New Orleans

the year after Katrina
a lot of houses have been rebuilt and raised

Rv Rally at Daytona speedway

one of our visits to Key West

     In 2007 we camped in the Imperial Sand Dunes and did some exploring.

love this old plank road

they moved these planks to get through the sand dunes

we met some people there and they took us out to the dunes
this is the Border to Mexico in the desert
there is now a high fence at this spot

    Then we toured the Grand Canyon what a sight to see. Took a train ride from Williams AZ added to the fun.

amazing scenery here at the south rim of the Grand Canyon

Pictures don;t do the Canyon justice

the road across the Hoover Dam

we drove our coach across the Dam, before the new bridge was built

Avery Island Louisiana, Tabasco Factory

Dolly Partons Dixie Stampede in Myrtle Beach

In the Atlantic Ocean at Myrtle beach

       Then we took a Caribbean cruise from Galveston TX to Grand Caymen and a couple more islands, cruises are fun.

Grand Caymen from the cruise ship

we went to Hell Grand Caymen

our cruise ship from Grand Caymen

Crawfish Boil with friends at Abita Springs LA

Sampling beers with our good friends Rob and Pat
New Orleans

Beautiful colourful scenery in Sedona Arizona

Verde Valley train ride
Near Jerome Arizona

Sandia Peak tram
Albuquerque, New Mexico

coming back down from the peak
what a thrill this was

     One of our many trips to Branson Mo. we really enjoyed this amazing musical at the sight and sound theatre. With Noah and the Ark and live animals.

2009

        During our 3 months in Mexico 2009-10 we had a lot of fun exploring the small villages

small village, neat bakery, had to go through their living
room to the bakery at the back of their house.

then the village of Copola founded 1654 so interesting

     We camped at Tres Amigos Park on Isla de las Piedras (Stone Island) met a lot of very nice people there, daily Happy hours and beach fun. Margarita Mondays were fun, this blender is powered with a chain saw motor, too cool.

margarita Mondays

    We did quite a few day trips while were in the area.

we enjoyed a tour of this Tequila factory

     We had seen a show in town with a Kenny Rogers tribute and it was wonderful, he was very good singer, we ran into him again on the beach a few days later, very friendly he was in person.

    Then we hung around to enjoy a lot of the Carnivale atmosphere in Mazatlan, these Mexicans sure know how to party and have a good time.

we had a nice seats waiting for the parade

then we wandered the crowds along the Malecon enjoying the atmosphere

We ran into this fun group waiting for the parade to 
begin, lots of laughs with them trying to speak English
 and us trying to speak Spanish  2010

    That is just a few memories of some of the highlights over the years of places we have been. So much more to see long the way, and this fall we plane on another cruise to celebrate out 25 wedding anniversary this year. And the fact that were have lived this lifestyle 1/2 of our married life.
    Thanks for checking us out and joining us on our daily lifestyle.

When we head south Oct 18thCountdown

Want to learn more about Membership camping at Rock Glen Family Resort ?

 click this link www.geosuzie.rockglen.com for a tour 

 Where have we been this summer?