Five years ago today, July 25, 2013, I hugged my co-workers in the CT Department at Froedtert Hospital, and swiped my badge on the timeclock for the very last time. It was the last thing on our “to-do” list to prepare for full-time living on the road.

Dan had already finished up in June with his job as a high school math teacher.  Our house in Wisconsin had sold in April, along with most of our belongings, and we picked up our fifth wheel at the end of June and parked it at Doug and Linda’s (Dan’s sister) a/k/a “Camp Meyer.”

I remember walking out the doors of the hospital to my car with a lot of mixed emotions.  Dan and I had always talked about RV’ing when we “retired,” but with working at a Level One trauma center, you see first hand how quickly life can change.  It’s what prompted me to realize we need to do this sooner, rather than later.  I had spent so much time researching the RV lifestyle and following blogs that I knew we were ready to try this.  And it didn’t take much to convince Dan…he was all-in as well.

Our future was now a blank piece of paper and we could fill in the details as we went along.   We have never looked back and not once have we regretted our decision about living a nomadic lifestyle.  Yes, we have missed weddings, graduations, and other special events, but we just can’t imagine coming off the road any time soon.  I feel like we haven’t even scratched the surface with the places we want to see and the experiences we want to share.

We have relied solely on work camping jobs for our income these past five years, and have not had to touch our savings at all.  Our very first job after we quit our careers, was with Amazon, in Campbellsville, Kentucky.  I remember thinking after two weeks of working as a Picker, what have we done?  It’s a hard, and mind-numbingly boring job.  However, the people we met and the places we were able to explore more than made up for the mundane job. If you want to read more about our Amazon experience, you can search our past blogs.

We spent our first full summer in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota working at Crazy Horse Memorial, and our second summer at Madison Crossings store in West Yellowstone, Montana.  The past three summers we have worked here at Luton’s Teton Cabins in Moran, Wyoming. We have worked with great people and it is nice when we are able to meet up with them on the road and catch up on all of our latest travels. We also enjoy catching up with friends and relatives when we return to Wisconsin and when some of them are able to visit us somewhere along our path.

The social aspect of the RV lifestyle has been the biggest surprise for me.  People become like family in RV parks.  Everyone really looks out for each other.   And if you don’t like your “neighbor” it’s easy to move to another spot!    We have lived in neighborhoods for several years, and never really knew all all of our neighbors.  Yet in an RV park, you can know most of the people in just a few days.

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

Any time you have an anniversary, it gives you time to pause and reflect on the past, and think about future plans.  We have decided to make some changes going forward.  The past four winters, have been spent in Florida.  We have accepted a position to work at Westwind Golf and RV Resort in Yuma, Arizona from mid-October to mid-April.  Although it’s a six month commitment, (our longest work camping position so far), we are looking forward to exploring a new area for the fall/winter season.  A couple that we worked with at Crazy Horse Memorial, Henry and Terry, contacted us about the job openings.  Dan will be working three days a week doing golf course maintenance, and I will be in the office the same three days.  My position will be paid, and Dan’s position will cover the site rental.  In addition, we will have a $50/month credit towards electricity, and a $100/month credit to use at the RV park’s golf course, restaurant and concert tickets.

After we finish our jobs here around October 1, we will slowly make our way south to Yuma. We are leaning towards coming back here for one more summer in 2019, and are just beginning plans to go to Alaska in 2020.  Our friends Karen and Al also want to go, and we hope to have a few other couples join us as well.  We don’t plan on working that summer, just exploring, so we have already begun saving for that trip.

After that, we would like to start exploring the eastern part of the United States.  That’s our plan for now, but we know things can always change.

Another change we are considering is down-sizing to a smaller RV, either a small class A (but still diesel), or a class C.  We’ve been looking, but not very serious yet.

And so the journey continues…..stay tuned!

Quote for the Day:  “Go for it now.  The future is promised to no one.” – Wayne Dyer

During our visit to Oklahoma City, we spent a morning visiting The 45th Infantry Museum. The Division was established after World War I, from the states of Oklahoma, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.  The division was called into service during World War II, and served with General George Patton’s US 7th Army division.  After WWII, the division was just for the state of Oklahoma, and reverted back to National Guard status.

The 45th Infantry Division was again mobilized for the Korean War and fought in several battles.  In 1969, the division was disbanded and restructured into several divisions.

45th Infantry Museum and Plane

The museum contains an extensive collection of military weapons from the Revolutionary War through Vietnam.  It also contains weapons from other countries that were confiscated during various wars.

The size and power of the weapons changed between the Revolutionary War and World War II!

Members of the Division were part of a raid on Hitler’s residence, and brought back a lot of his personal items.

Display cases are filled with “hi tech” equipment, used during the wars.  I’m not sure how effective this gas mask was.  Seems like it is just attached to a tin can.

The museum has a large collection of pistols as well.

Many jeeps, ambulances, and other vehicles are on display indoors.

Outdoors, the museum has several dozen tanks, aircraft, helicopters and monuments on display.  You can spend several hours going through the museum.

For me, the most fascinating part of the museum was a small display on the history of the Division’s insignia.  When the Division was established, their emblem was a yellow swastika on a red square, to honor the Native American and Spanish Heritage cultures of the four states forming the division.  The swastika was an Indian symbol of good luck. The Nazi party also adopted the swastika around the same time.  The division eventually stopped wearing their insignia, as the swastika took on a new meaning, and they did not want to be associated with the symbol.  What was a symbol for good luck became a symbol for evil and hatred.  The Thunderbird, another Native American symbol,  became their new emblem, using the same yellow and red color scheme.

We had never heard about this museum, or the history of the 45th Infantry Division before.  It was truly a little gem, and we would highly recommend a visit.  There is just so many things on display, and it was hard to pick out photos for this blog, as I have so many.

Quote for the Day:  “My first wish is to see this plaque of mankind, war, banished from the Earth.” – George Washington

We have arrived in hot and humid Florida!  Although the weatherman was talking about a “cold front” arriving for Christmas, with an expected high temperature of “only” 68 degrees.  The weatherman recommended wearing a jacket if you would be going out on Christmas!  We both had a good laugh at that!

We are currently staying in Clermont, until Thursday, and then will head over to the “east coast” of Florida, and stay until the end of March.  We are pondering doing some different things for 2018, although we will be back at Luton’s Teton Cabins for the summer, by Grand Teton National Park.

Work/bar updates

The weather in Wisconsin was chilly, but tolerable, while we were helping out with remodeling work at our friends bar.  We did leave a bit early, to get out before an expected snowstorm, which made its way across the country.  It was strange driving through Birmingham, Alabama, and seeing four inches of snow on the ground.  Dan continued doing electric, plumbing and whatever else was needed, and I continued staining and painting, as they continued putting up more walls.  My big project was refinishing 13 tables that will be used in the basement/party room of the bar.  I just turned it into an assembly line for staining.

Here’s a “before and after” photo of the progress.  The bar is done, the lighting is up, floor finished and the wall is closed off for the kitchen.

There is still a lot more work that needs to be done, and Dan will be flying back to Wisconsin at the end of January, for a couple of weeks to help out again.

Wisconsin time updates

Thanksgiving was spent at Dan’s sisters, and we had a few dinners with friends as well.  It made us (almost) wish we were back at Amazon, so we could walk off all those calories!

I met up with a few of my former co-workers for coffee, and it was wonderful catching up with everyone!

Katie, Jodi, Candi, me, Gail and Kari

Dan’s parents had a few “to do” items for Dan when we visited with them, including installing a new kitchen faucet.  There was a lot of discussion going on during this, so I just tried to stay away.  He had plenty of helpers, and “helpful advice!”

A Packer game was also on our agenda, and we did make it to Brett Hundley’s first start as the Packers quarterback.  The annual Jack Link’s tailgate party was also that day.  The Packers lost, but the tailgate was a lot of fun.  This year they had on display a truck they restored with the Lorissa’s Kitchen brand on it.  Lorissa is Jacks daughter-in-law, and she has her own line of grass-fed jerky products that are excellent.

Makena update

Makena continues to improve, and is happy that we are not working, so she doesn’t have to spend all day in her crate.  We are still putting her in the crate when we leave.  She is free to move about the fifth wheel, including going up the two steps inside to the bedroom while we are home.  We continue to carry her to go outside, and have taken her on very limited walks.  Her toys are still put away, which frustrates her, and she spends a lot of time staring at the drawer on the couch where they are stored.

Florida updates

We stopped in Tallahassee on our way down to Florida to visit with Melissa, who worked with us last summer.  Her mom lives close by the RV park we stayed at, and they gave us a bunch of lemons and oranges from the trees in their backyard.  Fresh Florida fruit!

The park we are currently staying at offers many activities, and we have been learning how to play Pickleball.  Dan quickly picked up the game, which is a cross between tennis and ping-pong. It is played with a tennis ball sized whiffle ball, an oversized table tennis racquet, and it is a lot more challenging than I thought.  I need to work on my hand/eye co-ordination!

Tom and Ellen, friends and co-workers from Amazon and Madison Crossing in West Yellowstone, are here for the winter.  We have had several get togethers with them, and ventured out to Lakeridge Winery, just down the street from us.  Tom and Ellen have seasonal jobs there by helping out when they have monthly festivals at the winery.  It’s a nice job with good perks.  We did a short tour, and tasting at the winery.  Our tour guide, Deb, did an excellent job.  Cheers!

We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Quote for the day:  “I once wanted to be an atheist, but I gave up – they have no holidays.” – Henny Youngman