Celebrating Ten Years of Wandering

Posted in Lighthouse, Road Trip, RVing, Sunset, WildlifeTagged , , , ,

What an amazing ten years! Each marker on this map represents a place where we camped in our RV.

Ten years ago, on July 1, 2006, we spent our first night in an RV park in Tampa, Florida. Two weeks later we left Georgia with no reservations anywhere and a bucket list of what we wanted to see. You can see highlights of that trip at Looking Back on our First RV Trip. Last year I posted a few of our most memorable experiences from our first nine years at Celebrating Nine Years of RVing.

Many of our trips revolved around either visiting family or attending a special event such as a wedding or Titanium Rally. Sometimes we traveled just for the fun of seeing new places. No matter where we were going, we always took the long way around to get there.

We discovered beauty in every state and province we visited. Sometimes the everyday things were the best.

I love watching the changing landscape and seeing the many farms and ranches.

I love seeing the farms as we drive along
I love seeing the farms as we drive along
We always enjoy seeing lighthouses.

Split Rock Lighthouse on Minnesota's North Shore
Split Rock Lighthouse on Minnesota’s North Shore
Seeing wildlife is always a treat.

Black Bear beside the road in British Columbia
Black Bear beside the road in British Columbia
And of course we loved visiting many of our National Parks.

Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View Overlook
Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View Overlook
Sometimes we enjoyed watching the sunset from our campsite.

Mount Redoubt sunset in Ninilchik, Alaska
Mount Redoubt sunset in Ninilchik, Alaska
We did a few amazing hikes.

At the Summit of Enchanted Rock
At the Summit of Enchanted Rock in Texas
Chilling by a camp fire is always fun.

Enjoying the campfire
Enjoying the campfire
Now that we have ten years of RV’ing under our belt, our priorities have changed. Of course, we are ten years older and it is more difficult to make long trips. When we started our wandering, we only had two grandchildren. Now we have four and we want to spend as much time with them as we can. Going on long trips takes us away from them for too long.

Our wandering days are not over. There are still many places we haven’t seen in and near our home state of Georgia so from now on we will travel a little closer to home.

33 thoughts on “Celebrating Ten Years of Wandering”

  1. I understand. The aging process causes a few adjustments, sleeping in your own bed is a good thing, and four grandchildren trump everything else for sure. Enjoy every moment with those four special people because they will be teenagers and off on their own before you can even imagine. 🙂

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    1. Thank you! We tent camped and had a pop up when we were younger but taking the fifth wheel on long trips is a lot different! Wishing you safe travels and happy trails!

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  4. That’s great you’ve gotten to visit so many places, should make it that much easier to focus on the closer places you enjoy and getting to be close by family as the bonus! Congratulations on 10 years of memories you’ll never forget!

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  7. What an amazing 10 years! I have to admit it just sounds magical and I can’t imagine getting to see all the places you have seen! I understand about wanting to be closer to home and family and I look forward to some of your more local journeys.

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  8. You really have gotten around! And you did it before the huge wave of baby boomer retirees hit the road. It’s getting crowded out there. I know you’ll enjoy trips around the southeast. There’s so much to see and do close to home. We’re looking forward to doing some local exploring up here and down there in the winter.

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    1. There seem to be so many more RV’s on the road today than when we first started out. Many of the private rv parks have gotten really expensive and it’s hard to get into the public parks during the high season. We usually travel in the spring or fall when a lot of the parks are not full. We make reservations for the popular ones now so we will be sure to not be disappointed when we get there. We have a couple of short trips planned this year and next and we always enjoy making day trips from our home. There are places around here we’ve never visited!

      There must be so many places to see close to where you are to keep you busy exploring for years!

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  9. What a great anniversary to celebrate! I’m so glad that you’ve had such a good, long stretch to enjoy the RV experience and totally understand how priorities can (and should) change, even though I don’t have grandkids. We are pretty much relegated to traveling closer to home in ours for the near future but hope to have the opportunity to travel further from home in ours when retirement finally gets here. We actually enjoy our repeat visits to our favorite parks around here, too. Enjoy! 🙂

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    1. You will have some experience under your belt when you get ready to venture out on longer trips. We just took off for two months after only spending a few nights in our fifth wheel! We learned a lot on our first long journey.

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  10. Wow! So many places! And your pictures are just amazing. We’re also sorry we didn’t start sooner….we’re feeling our age (63). We thought we’d go farther, but we just can’t be away from our grandsons longer than 3-4 months. But there’s enough to see in the mid to eastern US….

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    1. It’s hard to be away from those grand babies too long! You are so right! There is so much to see in every state! It’s amazing how the landscape can change in just a few hundred miles. And yes, age does make such a difference when traveling. We went to Alaska three years ago because we knew if we didn’t go then we might not ever get another chance.

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  12. Beth, what wonderful trips you have taken, creating long lasting lovely memories. It is totally understandable after ten years and two additional grandkids you and hubby would want to stay closer to home. I look forward to reading your adventures no matter where they are and no matter how far from home you venture.
    Take care! Enjoy each and everyday!! Hugs

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  13. What wonderful trips you have done in the past 10 years! The photos that you share in all your posts are always amazing. I am so happy for your milestone… What an accomplishment!
    I have been offline and have a lot of catching up to do. I will be back to see more of your posts that are going to start your second milestone of 10 years!!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by my blog! We drove all the way. We crossed into Canada at Sweetgrass, Montana and traveled through Alberta and BC to start at Mile Marker zero of the Alaska Highway. On our return trip we drove south on the Cassier Highway and crossed back into the states in Washington. I highly recommend buying the Milepost book and the Traveler’s Guide to Alaskan Camping book. I posted maps of our entire trip at https://wanderingdawgs.com/our-route/ and a list of campgrounds where we stayed at https://wanderingdawgs.com/campground-list/

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