Oceanside

Oceanside, CA

(Maps of our travels in 2001 and 2002)

Our First Year of Fulltime RVing

June 28, 2002 will mark the first-year anniversary of our new RVing lifestyle! At times it seems like it's been only a few months and then at others, when we reflect on all we've seen and done, it seems much longer than that. In the year on the road, we put over 15,000 miles on the motorhome alone. The poor Jeep was towed that much and logged another 13,000 miles sightseeing!

March 16, 2001 we took delivery of our first RV ever, a 2001 Country Coach Intrigue. At 40' long and weighing in at over 15 tons, it was intimidating, but after several "practice runs" and times spent in deserted parking lots learning how to park it between orange cones (that we bought just for that), we felt that we should be able to do as well as anyone out there...or at least that's what we hoped!

June 28, 2001 was Chris' last day on the job and marked our final day of owning a house...or at least one that was "land-based." We have a house on wheels now...everything that we had in any other house we now have in this one...it's just smaller. However, we have learned that this space is more than sufficient for all we do and we have actually found we are carrying more stuff than we need, so we've left some items in our rented storage room.

Over the year we've found that this lifestyle is everything and more than we hoped for. Some of our reflections are:

1. Things WILL break down. How you handle it is up to you. We have plenty of "lifelines" to help: Country Coach folks have been outstanding at talking us through problems...most of which have been "operator error." Other campers are also more than willing (and frequently able) to help with problems.

2. The US has a myriad of types of places to see....more than any guidebooks can show you.

3. The RVing community is what I refer to as an "amorphous neighborhood that moves." Like any neighborhood, neighbors help neighbors...if only by email or cellphone. Sometimes it's just sharing a great recipe.

4. If there are "Orange Barrel" sections of highway...I will be driving.

5. There's nothing like picking your own raspberries!

6. People who share the same interests will always get along very well, no matter what their economic status.

7. Head north for the summer! (or at least to a higher elevation!)

8. Head south by October.

9. I miss my dog(s), but I'm happy to not worry about leaving them when we take off for the day...and glad we can make spur of the moment decisions to extend our plans for the day if we want to. (Someday we'll have another dog, but not yet...)

10. I've learned how to calculate amperages from watts and know how many appliances I can run on 50 amp or 30 amp services.

11. Chris has learned "Wipe on, wipe off" is good exercise, especially when done over the acreage of surface our RV has.

12. We've both learned more about batteries, inverters, & electricity than we cared to, but found we had to to survive this lifestyle.

13. We both are licensed to drive anything over 26,000 pounds.

14. We couldn't do this without our cellphones, the internet, and email!

15. Chris says he has more respect for a 102-inch-wide vehicle! Also, we have more sympathy for truckdrivers!

16. We've gained a healthy respect for the enormous inertia that a 35,000 pound big rig generates going down hill!

There is no way to answer the question that we are always asked: "What is your favorite place you visited this year.?" Like all RVers, we have lots of answers that begin with "It depends..." I can't differentiate between magnificent Monticello or the incredible Anasazi ruins; the isolated beauty of Michigan's Upper Penninsula or the grandeur of the expanse of Monument Valley; the quiet bayous of Lousiana with their Spanish Moss dripping into the black, brackish water or the fiery red rocks of Bryce Canyon. This country has so many gorgeous sights to see and interesting places to visit...one of my personal favorites was the Jelly Belly Factory!

We've been surprised at the types of parks we've camped at...our favorites are not dependent on how much they cost. Several of the best were unknown county or city parks that offered us wonderful spaces with full hookups at a very reasonable price and usually with incomparable views. If we're camping at a less than desirable place we just close our curtains and we're "home." We can always leave if we want to! (but we never have.) The longest we've stayed anywhere is in Oceanside, CA for 6 weeks (near our family), but usually our stays average about 3-5 days in a place...and often overnight if we are just "on our way" to a destination and there's nothing much to see. We try to drive only about 200 miles in a day (about 4 hours), but sometimes we've driven as little as an hour to get to a new place to visit and stay.

I've decided that hunting when properly done, isn't a bad thing...the numbers of deer are overwhelming in some parts of our country and the hunters are necessary to keep the numbers within reasonable limits. It's far more cruel to see deer by the side of the road who suffered massive injuries in car accidents...let alone the damage or injuries that may have been done to people in the vehicles!

Both of us have been surprised at the "lack of free time" we have had..."free time" being relative to our activities we are doing: we spend much more time visiting with new friends and learning about places to travel to or sharing our travel experiences with them; and we spend more time researching the areas we are traveling in, whether by Internet or guidebooks.

We had expected to be able to read many books this year, but each of us has read only two: John Adams, and Truman for Chris and John Adams and a "junk novel" for me. I've done no scrapbooking or needlework...so much for that allotted space for those items. Both of us have done much more photography than we thought...or at least it's taken more time. Chris has found he enjoys putting our videos and digital photos together into concise videos of our travels, complete with voiceovers and background music. I've switched over to almost total digital photos now and rarely use any of the film cameras. The amount of cataloging, etc. involved in working with digital photos is incredible, but lots of fun! Of course I spend a lot of time working on the website, too...as well as corresponding by email with our scattered friends and family. Chris has played less golf than he thought he would, but he's found some wonderful courses that weren't on his list of ones he "must play."

We've made more new friends than we ever expected to in this first year. Now we see why so many RVers attend rallies...it's a great central place to meet up with your friends in one place. Many of our new friends share our fulltime lifestyle, but a good many are retired and have "land-based" homes also. No matter what, we have found we share a common curiosity, adventurous spirit, and restlessness, and the need for intellectual stimulation and freedom from the "normal" travails of life.

Already, we've not "x-d off" places to visit, but rather have begun a list of places to visit again...so how long we continue this adventure remains open to anyone's speculation. For us, this has been a fantastic year of adventure and we look forward to what the next year of fulltiming brings!

Jan & Chris McNeill

June 2002