Lens Artists Photo Challenge #405 – 13 years of RV Adventures

Posted in Birds, Photography, Road Trip, RVing, WildlifeTagged , , , , ,

Welcome back to the Lens-Artists challenge after our two week summer break! Ann-Christine:’s challenge is to show adventures from one destination only or from more than one place. She tells us: “Personally, I think every day is an adventure, but indeed some feel a bit more vivid and easier to describe.”

I am focusing on a few memorable highlights of our 13 years of RV adventures. Every day on the road was an adventure. I’ve posted many times about visiting National Parks and about our Alaska RV adventures so for this post I am featuring just a few of our other most memorable adventures.

Our first trip was a two month adventure traveling west to explore some of our western National Parks. Our second day on the road a bedroom window blew out of the camper as we were driving along the Interstate through Mississippi. It was a challenge working out how to get it replaced but that just added to the adventure. You can see photos of the National Parks we visited at Looking Back on our First RV Trip.

Our 3 months traveling from Georgia to the Pacific coast in 2007 began with several days of snow and icy road conditions in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Montana. We even had to spend the night in a motel in Minnesota. I posted about it at Stormy RV Trip. We were grateful to have survived the storms and were able to have many adventures the rest of the trip. I’ll never forget the thrill of walking on a short trail behind our campsite in Cape Disappointment state Park in Washington to discover a beautiful Pacific Ocean beach at the end of the trail. The featured image is a view from that walk on the beach.

View from the beach behind our campsite at Cape Disappointment State Park, Washington

The adventures continued as we drove south along the Pacific Coast on U.S. Highway 101. Whenever there was a scenic view with a parking area we pulled over to take in the spectacular views. We camped in several places in Oregon and northern California with many adventures at each location.

Harbor Seals in Oregon

One year we met our daughter’s family at Itasca State Park in Minnesota to explore the headwaters of the Mississippi River with them. One night after we walked across the headwaters we all watched the sunset over Lake Itasca.

Son in Law and Grandson at sunset at Lake Itasca

Some of our most memorable adventures were in what I call the drive through places because many travelers travel as fast as they can on their way to another destination. We had fun camping in the Winterset City campground in Iowa to search for all of the Bridges of Madison County and the birthplace of John Wayne.

Roseman Covered Bridge, Winterset, Iowa

Watching the Lonesome Dove miniseries for about the third time gave us the idea for a Lonesome Dove Cattle Trail, Gulf Coast, Cajun Country, Whooping Crane, Bluebonnet and Brisket Tour. Yes, we did all of those things! Surprisingly, the most viewed post on my blog is Starting the Lonesome Dove Cattle Trail.

Mustang Island State Park, Texas
Blondie with Texas Bluebonnets

Every once in a while we stumbled upon a campground in an out of the way place with a spectacular view right from our campsite. Even better was watching wildlife while relaxing in our chair.

Sangre de Cristo Mountains as seen from San Luis State Park
Watching a Blue Heron from our campsite at Mississippi River State Park, Arkansas
Hawk in a tree behind our campsite in Big Cypress Preserve, Florida
Morning Sky over the Mississippi River in Missouri

The more we traveled the more we discovered incredible beauty every where we went. We started slowing down so we could enjoy the many interesting places along the way. No matter where we were, the people we met were friendly and helpful. Although our RV days are over we still enjoy traveling and enjoying each journey.

Thank you so much to everyone who responded to my challenge two weeks ago. You showed us some creative and fun images of Subjects that start with the letter B.

Many thanks to Ann-Christine for this week’s challenge. If you would like to join the challenge please be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and include a link back to her post Lens-Artists #405: Adventures.

Be sure to check back on Saturday, July 25 at noon eastern time when Anne will be hosting the challenge.

I will be having some personal medical events going on this week and may not be able to respond to your comments right away. Please be assured I appreciate all of your visits and all of your comments.

You can keep up with all of our challenges by subscribing to the Lens-Artists team members websites: Tina, Patti, Ann-Christine, John, Sofia, Anne, Egidio, Ritva, Beth.

For information on how to join the Lens-Artists challenge please click here.

Every Day is a Gift

54 thoughts on “Lens Artists Photo Challenge #405 – 13 years of RV Adventures”

  6. There are some amazing shots in this post, thank you Beth, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading your tale. My favourite shot is the Harbor Seals in Oregon – partly because I’ve never seen them before, but mostly because of the chap on the far right. He’s laying on his back, so relaxed, with a look of pure contentment. He made me smile. Great timing on your part. Perfect challenge post! pp

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    1. Thanks Egidio! I really enjoyed taking a trip down memory lane for this post. There were so many amazing locations I had a hard time choosing just 10 photos. I started getting interested in photography when we took our first trip in 2006.

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  12. What beautiful photos and wonderful adventures Beth. I also traveled to many of the National Parks in the 90s, and it was the when I fell in love with nature. The pacific coast park and lake in Minnesota are two areas I didn’t see.

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    1. Pamela, thank you so much! Yes, getting the RV window replaces wasn’t the way we wanted our first trip to start out but it all worked out fine. Thank you for your kind words about my medical needs.

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  15. Ah! So many gorgeous photos of your RV travels! We are currently on a 4 1/2-month RV trip and we’re loving that each day we’re experiencing new adventures. It’s great! Now, I’m hoping we never run into a really bad storm or have a window blow out! :o)

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      1. Yes, I post a few things about our travels. I’m stumped though…we just recently visited Cape Disappointment and my photo of the lighthouse looks different from yours. Are there more than one with that name? The Cape Disappointment lighthouse that we visited has a black stripe (badly needing a paint job). Hmmm….

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  16. What a great way to see the countryside and coast. I can only imagine the pleasure of taking your ‘home’ with you so you can stop anywhere and still have the comforts of home.

    Seeing a hawk up close would be one of my favourites, but the sunset is amazing too.

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  17. Great trip and memories Beth. We did a similar cross country trip in 2013 for our 50th wedding anniversary. It was wonderful. I remember when we got to Maine, people in the campground were amazed that we drove all the way from California!

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      1. On that trip, we noticed that there weren’t as many campgrounds on the East coast and people didn’t travel in trailers like we do on the West coast. And middle America doesn’t understand mountains!

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  21. I am guessing you’ve shared only a small fraction of the many adventures you must have had touring the country in this way! The US is made for such adventures, with its scale and the variety in its landscapes! You’ve shown me how much of the country we still have to discover despite our many visits – hopefully we’ll be back one day.

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  23. A window blew out!?! Wow! Crazy!

    I enjoyed reading about your adventures and the pictures that went along with them all. The seals are my favorite. They all look like they are chillin’!
    Thanks for all the fun today!

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  25. Beautiful post Beth, especially loved your “out of the way” places that most of us never get to see! And I laughed (sorry) at the window blow-out – it’s always something isn’t it?! Bet you look back on that and smile that it was just another moment in your many adventures! Good luck this week please let us know how it goes.

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    1. Thanks Tina! Yes, the window blowing out was an adventure we hadn’t planned on. It took several phone calls and a minor change in our route but it all worked out. I’ll keep you posted on how everything goes this week.

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