Wow, how time flies when you are having fun! It has been over 3 weeks since my last post as we were about to leave Gainesville FL on our way to a 6-week stint in NC. Heavy rain and storms chased us across FL to Jacksonville for a one-night stop so we could visit with Jeffrey's brother Richard and his wife Cathie. We almost stayed a second night to wait out some heavy rain activity, but were lucky as the weather moved past us by late morning so we could drive through Georgia for our next one-night stay near the southern border of SC and then another night near the northen border.
This gave us a chance to try our new annual Passport America membership that gives you discounts for short stays at certain parks. If these are along your route, they are a great deal at 50% off. We haven't yet tried the "stay overnight in a Walmart parking lot" option as we prefer a park instead. It may sound like we aren't driving very far every day, but we have determined that 200 miles a day or less is ideal and we like to get to our destination by 2pm to have some day left to explore or relax.
Made our final road trip "leg" on February 28th to get us near Raleigh, NC where we have two of Jeffrey's brother's, their wives (both of which Maren went to college with), two nephews, and a niece. We also arrived just in time to celebrate a milestone birthday of my maid-of-honor. She also happens to be one of our sister-in-laws, having met one of Jeffrey's brothers at our wedding. Lucky us!
Max is parked in nearby Clayton (since Raleigh itself does not have RV parks), but we are only a 25 minute drive to the nearest family and are spending as much time as we can hanging out with the them as well as connecting with former IBM friends who are now based here. We are also getting lots of experience with cold weather. We have had numerous nights that dipped below freezing and require us to decide to run either our propane furnaces, our heat pumps, or both. Thankfully, Max's dark paint warms him/us up quickly once the sun comes up, so we aren't needing heaters during the day. By the way, this dark paint is NOT as welcome in the summer months!
Our plan is to be here until mid-April, but We have been busy planning our travels for the few months beyond NC so we can find parks along our path. It is really quite a process -- decide where to go and who to see, what parks are nearby, do they match our needs, get a reservation, etc. Some RVers don't bother planning in this detail, but we are still newbies and prefer to have things arranged ahead as much as possible. The size of our rig (41 feet) also limits what parks we can stay in as some only have spaces that are smaller.
I'll post our next itinerary soon :-) For now, enjoy the picture below... Max hanging out with the "big boys" at a rest area we stopped at on the way north.
This gave us a chance to try our new annual Passport America membership that gives you discounts for short stays at certain parks. If these are along your route, they are a great deal at 50% off. We haven't yet tried the "stay overnight in a Walmart parking lot" option as we prefer a park instead. It may sound like we aren't driving very far every day, but we have determined that 200 miles a day or less is ideal and we like to get to our destination by 2pm to have some day left to explore or relax.
Made our final road trip "leg" on February 28th to get us near Raleigh, NC where we have two of Jeffrey's brother's, their wives (both of which Maren went to college with), two nephews, and a niece. We also arrived just in time to celebrate a milestone birthday of my maid-of-honor. She also happens to be one of our sister-in-laws, having met one of Jeffrey's brothers at our wedding. Lucky us!
Max is parked in nearby Clayton (since Raleigh itself does not have RV parks), but we are only a 25 minute drive to the nearest family and are spending as much time as we can hanging out with the them as well as connecting with former IBM friends who are now based here. We are also getting lots of experience with cold weather. We have had numerous nights that dipped below freezing and require us to decide to run either our propane furnaces, our heat pumps, or both. Thankfully, Max's dark paint warms him/us up quickly once the sun comes up, so we aren't needing heaters during the day. By the way, this dark paint is NOT as welcome in the summer months!
Our plan is to be here until mid-April, but We have been busy planning our travels for the few months beyond NC so we can find parks along our path. It is really quite a process -- decide where to go and who to see, what parks are nearby, do they match our needs, get a reservation, etc. Some RVers don't bother planning in this detail, but we are still newbies and prefer to have things arranged ahead as much as possible. The size of our rig (41 feet) also limits what parks we can stay in as some only have spaces that are smaller.
I'll post our next itinerary soon :-) For now, enjoy the picture below... Max hanging out with the "big boys" at a rest area we stopped at on the way north.
