We love our traveling life, but we’ve also realized that we want and need to make some changes if we’re going to be happy long-term in this lifestyle. It’s a bit of a challenge, for a variety of reasons.
What We Can’t Change
Here’s what we can’t change: We have family in Florida, but we also have family on the West Coast, as well as our home and many dear friends in the Pacific Northwest. That means cross-country trips, both directions, every year. Flying isn’t really a viable option because of the length of time we want and need to spend with family. Plus, we want to have our home with us. It’s really hard to go back to any other kind of travel after RVing. We also love our summer camp host gig on Lopez Island, and we’re not yet ready to give it up.
What We Can Change
Here’s what we can change: The pace at which we travel, and the rhythm of our daily lives. Each time we’ve journeyed cross-country, we’ve extended the amount of time we’ve taken to get from the Pacific Northwest to Florida. We started out with a month (which seems crazy now). Last fall, we took seven weeks. This time, as we make our way back to Lopez Island for our camp hosting gig mid-June, we’ve given ourselves just over two months. My crystal ball predicts we’ll be slowing the pace even more.
We’re also staying places longer. We’ve agreed that we’re not going to stay anywhere for less than two nights unless there’s really nothing of interest, and it’s an easy overnight stop. Most places, we’ll stay a minimum of three nights. In many places, we’re planning to stay five to seven nights. We’ve always kept our travels to about 200 miles for each move, but now we’re keeping at least half of our travel days to under 150 miles.
This Is Not A Vacation
Perhaps most importantly, we’re doing our best to stop behaving as though we’re on a two-week vacation. It might sound strange, but one of the primary drawbacks to full-time RVing is that it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of wanting to see and do everything. At least, that’s been true for us. Eric and I both love hiking, biking, kayaking, birding, exploring new places, museums, music, art, architecture, festivals of all types, hanging out with long-time friends, meeting new friends, cooking, discovering new restaurants, farmers’ markets, and photographing everything.
New places—and familiar favorite places—offer a never-ending array of things to do. But constantly being on the go is wearing on us. Apparently too much of a good thing really can be too much. Unlike our pre-full-time traveling life, we don’t have time to naturally integrate our travels with “normal life” by returning to a stationary home. Therefore, we need to rein ourselves in.
We need some downtime—time to hang out at our site in the morning with a cup of coffee, enjoying an easy start to the day. We’re both avid readers and would like leisurely time to read a good book, not just a couple of pages at night before falling asleep, book in hand. I want time to practice my guitar and learn new songs. Eric wants time to update his birding photos and bird lists. We want time to enjoy the sunset with a leisurely happy hour, instead of skidding into our site just in time to make dinner after a long day of adventures. And of course, there’s trip planning and daily life tasks, including work and blogging, all of which add to the hours that are spoken for in a day.
A Promising New Beginning On Dauphin Island
We’re off to a promising new beginning. We spent the first week of April on Dauphin Island, a narrow barrier island just off the coast of Alabama. It’s a good place for not doing much of anything. With easy biking, lots of trails for hiking, and a good portion of the island devoted to bird sanctuaries (it’s one of the top locations in the U.S. for spring bird migration), it’s a paradise for slowing down. We first visited the island a couple of years ago on an all-day birding extravaganza with our friend MonaLiza (Lowe’s Travels) and had such a good time that we vowed to return.
A Good Place To Get Away From It All
We spent the entire week doing nothing other than biking the island, visiting various bird sanctuaries, walking miles of trails, and leisurely looking for birds. Other than a ferocious rain and windstorm that lasted most of an entire day and night, we enjoyed a peaceful stay. We even met new friends on the trails—Diana, Ed, and their sweet kitty Eze—who decided on the spur of the moment to meet up with us at our next stop in New Orleans (you’ll meet them in our next post).
Click on any photo for a larger image
If you’re looking for a place to get away from it all, Dauphin Island is a lovely choice. Bring everything you need, especially food. There is no viable grocery store on the island, and Mobile is 30 miles away. However, there is a fantastic fresh seafood market with local offerings (they’ll even steam your seafood for you) and a surprisingly good lending library located in the nice little Visitor Center.
Where We Stayed
Dauphin Island Campground is a unique and wonderful place, located directly adjacent to the Audubon Bird Sanctuary, with miles of walking trails through beautiful forests, marshlands, and access to miles of beaches (with unfortunate views of offshore drilling platforms). The bathrooms are beyond funky and the washers in the laundry are rusted—the whole bath complex is scheduled for a major overhaul this summer. We stayed in a partial hook-up site for $28 per night; the seventh night is free. (The campground also has full-hookup sites, both 50 amp and 30 amp.) Verizon coverage is good.
Choose your site carefully. The considerable rainstorm we had left much of the campground with enormous pools of standing water for several days. Our site and the other sites at the east end of the campground were fine after 24 hours, but others weren’t so lucky. We loved our time there, and will happily return.
Congrats on slowing it down. With exceptions, we’ve slowed it down too. After all, there is so much to see and do, that you can’t possibly do it all… Safe travels!
R & K, that’s the hard part for us, accepting that we can’t possibly do it all! Hope to see you guys on Lopez this summer. :-)
More fantastic bird shots!
I sure do understand your desire to slow the pace. We may start looking for a house in the next year, but if we don’t find what we want I know I’ll have to slow down even more and possibly spend several months in one place. The RV lifestyle is amazing, but it has its limitations…
Thanks, Lisa. We do love the birdies. :-) I’ve always enjoyed the way you and Hans seem to spend a week or more every place that you travel. We love our two months each summer on Lopez Island — but we need to slow the pace in our cross-country travels.
HI Laurel & Eric – enjoy your blog soooo much, always several tips that are helpful, like your not going to stay anywhere for less than two nights. take care, read you soon.
Thanks, Rick. Glad our blog is helpful!
The first six months or so I couldn’t bear to spend more than 3 nights in one place. Too much to see! Then we got tired of that and slowed down by volunteering for 3 months, and have done that several more times. Over the years we’ve found it more enjoyable to spend a longer time in most places. After over 7 years, we’re growing weary of trying to figure out where to go and where to stay, so we may be slowing it down even more. It’s still a wonderful life, though, and hard to imagine living any other way. I wouldn’t want to have to make the cross country trip every year like you do, though, but there is so much to see and do between Oregon and Florida.
I agree, Gayle — it’s hard to imagine living any other way, at least at this point. Although it wouldn’t be my first choice to drive cross-country and back every year, I must say we always enjoy our journeys — as you said, there’s a tremendous amount to see and do between Oregon and Florida. I think slowing our trips and doing less (ha!!) is going to help a lot.
Another wonderful and insightful post full of fantastic bird photos. Did you encounter all of them on Dauphin Island? I especially liked your photo of the lovely purple shirted chickadee, so very rare!
Dave and I haven’t found “taking life slowly” difficult on the road. Even when we have to make a few overnights in a row to get somewhere, we find ourselves protecting our precious “second cup” and “happy hour” schedules by traveling less miles in one day, leaving after sc and arriving before hh. We love to spend time here in Beluga taking care of life’s business and then having time to explore our new surroundings. Best of all worlds!
Thank you, Sue. We thought of you guys when we were on Dauphin Island, wondering if you had ever been there. It’s an amazing birding hot spot in the spring — we were there a bit early, but still saw all of those wonderful migrants (including the purple chickadee, haha!). A week later would have been even better, although it’s always a bit of an unknown. Good reason to stay there for two weeks next time.
You and Dave are an inspiration to us in the way that you enjoy your “home” life in Beluga just as much as your outside adventures. That ease really comes through in your blog.
I’m not surprised that Sue had my exact thought about the purple lovely in the bushes :-) The incredible number and variety of birds there is wonderful. Being so new to this life we do start getting itchy to move toward the end of a week’s stay. But we’re still glad that we’ve started out at a pace of 150 or less miles each move with at least two nights. I try to pick “ugly” places for just an overnight so we don’t regret having to move on…..they’re much harder to find though :-)
Haha, that’s hilarious — and a very good plan! I’m almost always dragging my heels leaving every place that we stay. But I didn’t feel that way when we overnighted at a rest stop in Amarillo last fall….so I think you may be on to something, Jodee. I hope you guys have the southeast in your travel plans at some point. :-)
This looks like a lovely destination if and when I decide to head east again. Thanks for the great review. Incredible colors on those birdies!
The “family commute” is the very reason I bought my RV in the first place, thinking I could drive back and forth to check on my elderly parents. But a couple of drives across West Texas solo was enough for me. I have taken to “parking it” and flying back each time, which defeats my original purpose, but makes the RVing experience more enjoyable for me. It’s a double edged sword for sure.
You understand exactly, Suzanne. Your solution is a good one, and we may end up doing the same at some point — although we would sorely miss having our RV home with us. We also do love our southern adventures and would miss all of that if we were to fly. For now, we’re going to just slow things way down and see how we feel.
You’ve convinced us to visit Lopez Island on our way back to the states after our Vancouver/Victoria stay. What is the name of your campground there on the island and do we need reservations for the middle of September?
thx…
— jcw3rd
Oh, how great! I think you’ll really enjoy Lopez and Spencer Spit State Park. How big is your rig, though? The campground is small and sites for bigger rigs are very limited. Mid-September things generally open up and reservations aren’t essential (except for weekends) but I’d say if you need a specific site, it’s a good idea to reserve it.
Now you’ve got me replanning my trip west which I’ve planned about 6 times in the past 3 years just dreaming of being able to do it. Dauphin Island is clearly a place I would love. So what to cut out in order not to take 6 months to get to the west coast. LOL! But back to your post. Your bird pictures are just fantastic. So many I have never seen in person before. I’m eating my heart out. What a great place! And the fox squirrel shot is completely perfect. Love your site and hope you wrote down the numbers of all the ones that didn’t get flooded. I’ll be calling you! HA!
You would definitely love Dauphin Island, Sherry. I know what you mean about needing six months to get to the West Coast. That would be about perfect! We just figure we’ll drive different routes and explore new places on our many, many cross country trips and get it all in that way. :-)
Great memories, and yes I am getting envious as few migrants have arrived. I can still vividly remember our wonderful time there. I’m so glad you also found Dauphin Island a great place to wind down a bit. Steve is even thinking of a third return!
As for slowing down, we have considerably slowed down after our first year. Since then we have not stayed in a place for less than a week. We both have accepted the reality we can’t do it all and with this lifestyle, we can always come back.
Great photos! So the painted bunting has not arrived yet then.
We saw many more birds in our adventures with you, ML — especially the amazing day we spent at Ft. Morgan across the bay. And there were no Painted Buntings yet anywhere. Still, we had a great time on Dauphin Island — we will definitely return. It would be so much fun to spend some time there with you guys!
Lopez Island is such a great way to just “breathe.” When we first started our travels, I would ask Mike how we were going to see everything. He would tell me we aren’t going to. Just enjoy each day. Now I live where we are for my 3 month contract and enjoy the area, looking forward to our next adventure. It is crazy to be able to live this life but not “have to.” You are so lucky to have options and that can make a person crazy.
You are absolutely right, Debbie — we are so lucky to have the options we have — and at the same time, having so many choices can make us temporarily crazy. :-) Believe me, we count our blessings every day.
Love the pictures and the review of the campground. We were looking at it when we were there. We both are working at slowing down during our travels. We’re newbies to this retirement stuff. We had to skip New Orleans on our trip home this spring, so I am anxious to see where you stay and what you see.
Glad this was helpful for you, Pam. Dauphin Island is a great place to relax in preparation for a New Orleans adventure! This was our second time in New Orleans (while full timing) and we had an absolute blast. Post coming soon. :-)
Soooo interesting that we both wrote blogs about slowing down. It’s definitely something we feel the need to do…for both our sanity and our happiness. We loved Dauphin Island when we visited there in 2011, great place to hang!
Nina
I thought it was funny when we both posted about slowing down at almost the same time, too. :-) I think the trigger for us was starting yet another cross country journey at the beginning of April. Here’s to slowing down!
The island sounds like the perfect place for bird lovers. I know you two had a wonderful time just relaxing and watching the birds:)
We discovered in our first few months out that we needed to slow down. We weren’t on a short vacation and needed days to just live here at home. So we totally get it:) We tend to stay two weeks to a month or two quite frequently. We’ve been traveling back and forth to the east coast each year, as well. So far I haven’t minded our trips (but I sure would rather stay west). We try to take a different route each time and I enjoy seeing the other states. This June we will be completing our sixth year. While planning our travels is a pain, we still can’t imagine settling in one place. I struggle to sit still if it rains…haha! One day we may come up with a place or two to settle. So staying longer in places we love is the plan for the future. Sounds like you and Eric have worked that out too:)
I agree with everything you said, Pam. It’s so great that you’re coming up on six years of full timing and that you still love it. We’re hoping that it will be the same for us (and that’s why we’re making some adjustments). I even enjoy the trip planning — we just want to be able to stay places for longer. We’re working on it… :-)
You are inspirations. We also love the slow boat:-)
Wonderful photos (the fox squirrel is amazing)…I guess we just can’t time migration…we are hoping to return to the gulf coast next spring.
Thanks, Bettina. :-) We’ll be back on the Gulf Coast next spring — it would be so much fun to meet up with you two for some birding adventures. You have such fabulous bird sightings.
I understand the need to slow down. Glad you two have made that decision. With blogging and your work, I don’t know how you have kept up your pace for this long. Thanks for showing us an area of the country we have yet to explore. Lovely photos!
Thank you, LuAnn. Slowing down seems to be a good plan — if we can stick to our intention and not pack our days too full! Not always easy when there are so many interesting things to do. :-)
We have been at a slower pace than you guys. We have stayed a month or more in several places. In fact, we may need to pick it up a bit, but we do enjoy our leisurely pace. It is nice to stay long enough to get the feel of the place and explore the surrounding area, then move on. Enjoy your book reading…
Loretta, we also love staying in a place long enough to feel like we’re “temporary locals.” We’ve definitely had that experience on Lopez Island, as well as in Apalachicola. We’re hoping that slowing down our cross-country travels even more will allow us to have that experience in more places. Okay, now, back to reading my novel, haha!