Vacation or a New Reality?

Vacation or Real Life?

It’s Saturday… Which means it must be Just One More Blog Day!!!  Thank you for taking the time to read about our crazy adventures of full-time RV living!

We are still in Austin and loving it!  It has been so wonderful to be in one place for so long. Of course, spending so much time with our niece Katie has been incredible.  She has been the best tour guide on all the fun things to do and where to eat in Austin. 

When you are reading this, our dear readers, we will be driving to Baytown, Texas visiting another aunt of Jerry’s.  Aunt Kathy and her husband John have lived there for many years.  It is a 3-hour drive from Austin.  Kathy has told us that she is having a “hullabaloo” for us.  Should be interesting, right??

We are staying Saturday night and coming back early Sunday morning to spend the day with Katie at another area she has been wanting to take us called The Rainey Street Historic District.  This is our last Sunday in Austin as we will be leaving two days earlier than we planned as we have a couple of issues with our RV that needs to be fixed before we continue.  Watch our Nov 18^th YouTube to find out all about this.

The place we are taking “Madge” to is in La Vernia, TX is about 2 hours away.  It’s right outside of San Antonio.  We have decided that when Madge is being worked on, we will go into San Antonio and be tourists!  Very excited about that.  We have no idea where we will be sleeping on the 17^th and 18^th as we do not have reservations until the 19^th.  We will be heading back to Northern California starting on the 19^th, so we will just wing it and see what happens after the repairs.  This is VERY unusual for me as I am a planner and have reservations booked until March 23 and then some for next September, 2022.  Yep, a bit of a control freak here.  So, this will be a fun story next week!!!!  Make sure you subscribe to the blog so you do not miss out!!  

Talking about being tourists…Jerry and I have had some major discussions on this lifestyle we are embarking on.  Is it a vacation or is it real-life?  This is a very difficult question to answer.  We are living in our RV.  It is our home on wheels.  However, when we get into a new city, it is like being on vacation.  Where do we HAVE to go?  Where do we HAVE to eat?  The big difference is that we are not rushing around doing all the things you are supposed to do while on vacation as you only have a certain amount of time.  Living in an RV, we can decide if we like the area and want to stay longer OR say that we will for sure come back another time since our house is on wheels.  When you are on vacation, you usually hit all the restaurants and fun areas in a shorter amount of time. 

The biggest challenge for us is eating out a lot!  When you hit a new city, people continually tell us, “you need to eat at…., don’t miss eating at…, YOU HAVE TO GO TO…”  You get the drift.  And, of course, we do.  Not only can it be expensive but can affect our healthy living.  Which we do eat VERY healthy while in our RV.  This is a major conundrum!  I have no solution for this yet as we are still so new to this lifestyle.  As we continue our adventures, we will continue to figure it out.  Of course, not everywhere we go is a metropolitan area.  That will help! 

The other major “ah ha” moment for me was not having anything to do when I woke up.  I know you are saying, “what the heck is wrong with that?”  You are right!  There’s nothing wrong with that.  In fact, it’s pretty awesome.  However, for both Jerry and I after working for so many years, it is a very different feeling every morning.  AND, everyone, Jerry is sleeping in until 8:00 am!!  For those of you who know him, he would rise at 3:30 am for work.  On the weekends if he slept in until 6:00 am I was shocked.  This is a HUGE shift for Jerry!!!

There are many mornings when we have plans for the day.  The days when we do not have plans it’s a very weird feeling.   We don’t have to be anywhere we don’t want to be.  Jerry will ask, “what’s up for today” and I’ll say “nothing, let’s hang around the campground and read or go for a walk or bike ride or do nothing.”  It’s so strange. 

After having this discussion with Katie, she had a great suggestion to schedule different endurance events across the country.  Such as 5 or 10ks (not ready for another ½ marathon).  Start training for those.  Have a purpose.  My knee is ready for a 5 or 10k for sure… as a walker, not a runner for those of you who know me.  We are pretty excited about that.

The other thing we decided to do when we are in an area for more than 2 weeks is that we will volunteer somewhere.  There are so many volunteering opportunities out there across the country. We’re excited for the opportunity to not only give back, but to do so all across the country and in different communities!

The bottom line for us is that we have to have a purpose in life.  Whatever that is each day, we are working on it and will keep you updated as we continue this incredible journey we are on.  We are beyond blessed to be able to be traveling this way.  We love our home and this lifestyle and everything it has to offer.  Of course, not so much when the RV needs repairs.  But, hey, that’s part of the adventure, right??

Just One More…..RV Repair (I wish I could say this will be the last, but I doubt that very much)