RV Sabbatical Adventure

Day 62 started a lot like most of days after traveling with starting slow with coffee and completing Wordle. Ann Arbor KOA was on a local lake with lots of activities on the water. We spent the day driving around the area and taking in the beauty of the lake drives. It was mostly a lazy day and we wrapped up the day grilling steaks, yum!

Day 63 was a crazy travel day to Pennsylvania. And when I say crazy, I mean very frustrating drive through Michigan. Apparently, Michigan thinks closing two of the three lanes on a major interstate is a great idea. So the GPS thought it was a great idea to take a detour to avoid the congestion. We ended up in a neighborhood where it wanted us to go down a closed road. I got to test all my driving skills with a 34 foot long RV. I navigated through street parking, dirt piles, and road barriers. You can imagine my enjoyment of driving an RV through an obstacle course, not fun! Passed the test and then we pitted GPS directions against each other, RV Life vs Apple Maps. I learned my lesson about not listening to my navigator. However, we both wondered if we were ever going to see the highway again. After another 30 minutes of touring the country side we ended up back at the highway sitting in traffic. So the time saving detour was a bad idea and the lesson is to stay on the highway always. It took us another 30 minutes to go 5 miles. The most frustrating part was no work being done that required two lanes to be closed. Michigan’s Saturday joke to aggravate all of us trying to get out of the state. Never so happy to see the entering Ohio sign. The rest of trip was uneventful for the most part until we got close to the campground. I leaned on my navigator once again. The RV Life GPS was going to take us on an interesting path and Theresa vetoed it. Can you believe it I listened and followed the directions. Miracles do happen! The Virginia’s Beach campground is on Lake Erie and the view from the RV was one of our best yet! We wrapped up the evening going to the local town to knock out our grocery list.

We spent day 64 exploring the area and learning more about the crops grown in the area. We quickly noticed that there were grape vine fields everywhere. Theresa Googled to find out that grapes are abundant in the area. This is due to the favorable growing conditions provided by Lake Erie. Great views of Lake Erie from the campground and only bummer was the weather. We had rain every evening we stayed there. We finished off the day with a quiet dinner enjoying the view of the lake.

We hit the road again on Day 65 heading to our last stop in Waterloo, New York. As I have reported in previous posts, Pennsylvania is the hands down winner of the worst roads. I was never so happy to bounce my way across the New York state line to smoother roads. We arrived early afternoon into Waterloo at a very nice KOA. We set-up for the last time and grilled burgers for dinner.

We spent our last day exploring the area and shopping at the Outlet Mall. We started at the Kate Spade store to buy a purse for Grace and Shayla. We wanted to show our appreciation for taking care of the house and the dogs. Of course Theresa purchased a new purse and wallet for herself. We wrapped up our shopping at the Eddie Bauer outlet store. Rain was in the forecast. So, we spent the evening getting the RV ready for the trip home. We spent the evening talking about how much fun the trip has been and not being ready to head home.

So day 67 was very much like our first days with getting the RV ready for travel in the rain. We were both excited and sad that our trip was ending today. Theresa was very excited to get home and see the dogs. Also the girls as well. The trip home was in the rain and it was uneventful for the most part. We were happy to pull into the driveway. We completed the last challenge of navigating the RV safely into its resting spot. We had done it! Traveled through 18 states, 6,566 miles over 67 days. The memories, the time with family and the amazing things we saw was priceless.

It is bittersweet as I finish the final communication recapping the final days of our amazing adventure. We had an incredible time spending time together in our mobile vacation home. We were very nervous in the beginning but we have become very skilled at RVing. We definitely used our checklists for tear down and set-up to make sure we didn’t have any big mishaps. Theresa was an amazing navigator and she put up with my stubbornness when it came to me questioning directions. The best part of the amazing adventure was spending time with Theresa without the distractions of work and life. We are definitely looking ahead to our next RV adventure and miss it already. I have a real appreciation for living life to its fullest with someone you love after this 10 week trip. Thanks Theresa for always pushing to take time to enjoy the moment. You are amazing and I love you so much.

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