Thursday, 2/24/2022 - Welcome back everyone. It’s been almost nine years now that Claudia and I sold our home in Massachusetts and began our life on the road. So much has happened over these past nine years and we’ve seen more places and done more things than we could have ever imagined. For those of you who don’t know, Claudia and I met in 2000. We met online and although we both mentioned our love of travel, neither one of us had thought much about camping. At some point as we began travelling together the thought of a camper or trailer or maybe even a motor home began to evolve as a nice way to travel. After a couple of overnight stays in trailers and a one week rental of a Class C motor home we knew we had the bug. It was so nice to travel with our own amenities and have our own bed to sleep in. In 2001 we bought our first motor home. It was a 23 foot Class C Dutchmen Express. The only bed was over the cab and it was short but we had our own kitchen, living room, bathroom and sleeping quarters. For the next ten years we travelled in that motor home during vacations, mostly up and down the east coast. Eventually the Dutchmen began to show its age so in 2011 we purchased a 32 foot 2007 Damon Daybreak. This was our first Class A and was fully equipped with everything we could have imagined. At this point we knew that only Class A motor homes would be in our future. We also began talking more about our retirement and the idea of travelling full time. It was in 2013; just before Claudia was planning to retire that an unsolicited offer to purchase our home in Lexington, Massachusetts was made. Originally we declined since I was still two years away from retiring but when a counter offer was made that covered what I would have made if employed, we decided to immediately sell the house and make the move to become full time travelers. The rest as they say is history and can be viewed on this web site. In 2014, following a trip of almost 18,000 miles including an amazing trek to Alaska we did eventually trade in our Daybreak for a brand new 2015 Thor Challenger. As you can read on our site however the Challenger had a history of service issues so at the end of this past year, we sold that motor home not knowing what was in our future. We considered travelling by car and staying in hotels and motels. After a couple of short trips doing just that we knew we had no choice. Although we also now enjoy a mobile home during the winter months deep in Texas, while travelling there is no better place for us than a motor home. So, on that note we wanted to share that we’ve recently purchased a 30 foot 2019 Winnebago Intent with plans to return to the road in May for our normal five months or so. We have some exciting destinations in mind and look forward to sharing our travel experiences with you. We know that this type of life isn’t for everyone but for Claudia and I, this is paradise. We’ll be updating our web site over the month or so with our plans. We hope you’ll check back and enjoy the ride with us.
Sunday, 5/1/2022 - Hey everyone. It’s hard to believe that it’s already May. We’ve had an enjoyable winter here at Sandpipers although a good portion of the winter was cooler than usual. Not any more however. Temperatures are now reaching the 80’s & 90’s most days with very little rain. We completed our annual week of Olympic Games late in March which is typically a sign that many of our friends would begin hitting the road and that’s exactly what we’ve seen although we hear that many of them have encountered colder than usual and snowy conditions on the road so far. It has become very quiet around here but we are comfortable waiting for the better weather north of us before we begin our road trip.
Over the past month or so we’ve had a couple of health scares that have kept me from posting. For a few weeks we were pretty sure that our plans for this season’s road trip would be either cancelled or shortened significantly. We have finally received the good news we’ve been hoping for that has given us the green light to go ahead with those plans.
For the past couple of months we’ve been planning our route for this year and have decided to head out for our summer road trip beginning on May 25th. Our trip this year will begin with a stop at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee before heading north to North Carolina and Massachusetts to visit with family. Along the way we plan to visit Washington DC for a few days. From there we’ll be heading west along the northern border for lots of sightseeing stops before heading south again to spend some time in Nebraska, Kansas & Colorado. We’ll be making some lengthy stops at Rocky Mountain National Park, Black Canyon National Park and Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. We’re also planning to revisit Durango where we’ll be taking some scenic car drives. Then its south again as we stop in Taos, New Mexico and then return to Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Texas before completing our 2022 journey. We plan to do lots of hiking and enjoy some great scenery this year and hope you’ll join us for the ride. We’ll post again before heading off on our maiden voyage in our new motor home.
Saturday, 5/14/2022 – It’s another beautiful day here in the Rio Grande Valley as we begin our final preparations for this year’s road trip. We’ve added one stop along our route so that we can enjoy a visit to the Houston Space Center as we head out of Texas this year. This means we’ll be leaving our home at Sandpipers on 5/22, a week from tomorrow. We’ve been busy taking care of all the usual chores that need to be done to stock up the RV and close up the mobile home. We’re still making minor improvements to the new RV in order to make it a little more comfortable and feel a bit more like a home.
As we are every year, we’re very excited to be hitting the road again. It’s a short trip for us this year as we’ll be gone for just over four months but the excitement remains the same. We’ve found that we’re always excited and ready to hit the road each year but when the time comes we feel the same way about returning to our Sandpiper home. We’re a very lucky couple and we know it. We’re beginning our tenth year on the road and although we’re beginning to feel our age, we feel like we have so many more places to see. We hope you’ll join us this season as we make our way across this beautiful country once again.