Happy Third Anniversary to Us!

This weekend marks three years that we have been living in our DRV 5th wheel full-time and traveling this great country. Last night the sky did a little something special to help us celebrate.

Rick is also doing something to help us celebrate. Two days ago he began a list of everywhere we have been in the last three years. He has an incredible memory, plus he has a little help from his log book where he keeps a record of all the places we've parked our RV, and his photo library. I say "everywhere" we've been, but I don't think the list includes all the car washes, laundromats, yoga studies, barber shops or grocery stores yet. But who knows? It started as a list of national parks, then museums, then national forests, then state parks, and now I think it even includes restaurants and tourist traps. 

We've had a lot of fun recalling places. Rick will say "Remember that bike ride we took in La Crosse, WI?" and I draw a blank.  Then he provides a few more details, and eventually I remember it too. 

We have lots of memory aids. I mentioned Rick's log book, and his photos. On top of that we've got my photos, a paper atlas with all our routes highlighted, a Word document itinerary of all our overnight stops, souvenir magnets on the fridge and the sticker map of the US states where we've RV'd  on the outside of the rig. And still I need help remembering places we've been. Oh, and of course this blog, started before we left home in Spring '11 as we made the transition to full-timing. (If you're interested in visual highlights, see the new page of my favorite photos from the last year in the right hand column.)

How do other people record and remember their travels? Any new ideas?

One Year Anniversary

We've been "dancing 'cross the country" for one year now and in honor of our anniversary I thought I'd post a geographical review.

We sold our home in Naperville, IL on May 31, 2011 and moved out the same day. For the month of June we hung around in motels, in the RV dealer's parking lot, and in a nearby campground until we felt we had everything in order. Since then we've been traveling, staying places anywhere from one night to two months.  Aside from this blog, and taking photographs, here are some other ways we've recorded our journey.

This was made in Google Maps, then screen captured and imported to Picassa. I hope to learn how to remove the lettered pins soon.

This is a sticker map, common among RVers, that we've put on the outside of the RV, near the door. You can get them at Camping World and add state stickers as you go.

These are old fashioned paper maps from a US and Canada atlas that I keep track of our travels in. The one above is Southern California where we spent about four months this winter, and the one below is Oregon.

As we travel, we usually don't buy souvenirs, as we don't have room to keep them. The one exception is refrigerator magnets from the National Parks we've visited. Here's the western US collection. I try to arrange them roughly geographically on the freezer door.

Our plans for the next year include continuing north to Sequim, WA where we will stay for one month, then on to Vancouver Island, BC for three weeks. Then we start the long trek diagonally southeast across the country so that we can be with family in South Carolina for Christmas 2012. We will probably winter somewhere in Florida, then head north to New England for summer 2013 to see many friends and family and get a few New England contra dances in. 

As always, our purpose is to gratefully embrace opportunity, explore possibilities, 

have new adventures, and dance as we go.