RVing – Wandering Dawgs

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

July 19, 2026Posted in Birds, Photography, Road Trip, RVing, WildlifeTagged Adventures, Campgrounds with a view, fifth wheel camping, Lens-Artists, Photo Challenge, RVing65 Comments

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.

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.

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.

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

Sunday Stills – Stormy RV Trip

January 29, 2026Posted in Nature, Photography, RVingTagged Photo Challenge, RVing, snow, storm, Sunday Stills22 Comments

Terri’s latest Sunday Stills challenge is Storm. She titled her post “Riders on the #Storm” and took us along on a some of her stormy road trips.

Terri’s challenge reminded me of a cross country RV trip we took towing our 5th wheel trailer. We left home in early April, 2007. Our plan was to drive north to Wisconsin and then travel west on I-90, visit Olympic National Park and then drive south along the coast on Highway 101 to see the Pacific coast in Washington, Oregon and California. What we didn’t plan on was driving through snow during the first part of our journey.

We started seeing snow flurries in Illinois. When we got to a campground in Wisconsin the snow was really coming down. The featured image is of our dog Blondie in the snow for the first time.

We left Wisconsin and started west on the interstate. We ran into a huge snow storm in Minnesota. The road was icy and driving on it was terrifying. We decided not to try to go any further when we saw a sign for a motel at the next exit. We parked in the motel parking lot hoping they would let us stay for the night with our dog Blondie. The desk clerk was very kind and let us have a room near the parking lot exit so we could take Blondie in and out without disturbing the other guests. Luckily they had a restaurant and we were able to have a hot dinner. We kept our eye on the weather and the road conditions all night. The next morning the roads were predicted to reopen later in the morning. The hotel staff was very helpful and let us have a late check out while we waited for the roads to open.

Snow covered trees beside the interstate in Minnesota

A farm in the snow beside the interstate in Minnesota

When the roads were opened back up we hit the road and continued west. We arrived safely at a state park.The rangers checked us in and since we were the only campers there and we could have any site we wanted. The water was frozen but there was electricity so we were good. We had quite an adventure camping in the snow in this beautiful park.

We had the park to ourselves at Blue Mounds State Park in Luverne, Minnesota

The next day we continued our westward trek. The weather was clear the next few days as we wandered around South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana without any problems. Our final stop in Montana was another snowy adventure. Everything was fine when we went to sleep that night. The next day we woke up to several inches of snow. We were headed west with more snow moving towards us from the east so we got out of there as fast as we could and arrived safely at our next destination in Washington.

We woke up to snow in the campground Garrison, Montana

We were grateful to have survived the storms and were able to enjoy nice traveling weather for the next two months as we continued our west coast adventures.

Many thanks to Terri for her Sunday Stills challenge Riders on the #Storm

Every Day is a Gift

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #374 – On the Move!

November 18, 2025November 22, 2025Posted in Photography, TravelTagged Cruising, ferry, Lens-Artists, On the Move, Photo Challenge, Photography, RVing, Train Ride, Viking Ocean Cruise51 Comments

Truck and camper in Denali National Park, Alaska

John has a fun challenge for us this week – On the Move. He asks “How do you travel? Where do you go?”

I started my blog in 2013 as a way for our friends and family to follow us along on our four month RV journey to Alaska and back. The featured image is of our truck and fifth wheel in our campsite in Denali National Park in Alaska.

From 2006 to 2019 we spent many days on the move as we wandered around the United States and Canada in our trusty Chevy Silverado towing our home on wheels. We traveled from campground to campground, state to state, and through a few Canadian provinces. Sometimes we would be away from home for a week or two, other times for a month or more.

We towed our fifth wheel on interstates and back roads and sometimes took it on a ferry to get where we needed to go. I captured the first image in the following gallery as we waited our turn to board the small ferry to cross the Yukon River from Dawson City, Yukon. We also towed our camper on the Alaskan ferry from Skagway to Haines and on a Texas ferry on the way to Galveston.

We watched this truck and trailer board the ferry to cross the Yukon River from Dawson City, Yukon

During our RV travels we would often take excursions on different types of transportation. In Alaska we took a ride on the Alaska Railroad, rode a bus in Denali National Park, took wildlife cruises from Haines and from Seward, and landed on a glacier in a small plane.

Our driver with the bus he drove on the road through the Denali Wilderness in Denali National Park, Alaska

In 2019 we made the decision to park the RV and take different kinds of trips. We went on our first ever ocean cruise 2022. We were hooked.

The Viking Sea was our home for two weeks as we sailed around the Caribbean on our first cruise.

We had some fun modes of transportation in some of the ports. We rode on a Wacky Roller bus in Dominica, an open-air Safari bus in Tortola, Henry drove us around St. Martin in a Talon 4-wheeler, and the Monster Bus in Costa Rica took us into the rain forest.

Henry drove is around St. Martin in one of these Talons

No matter how we move from place to place we always enjoy seeing new places, meeting people, and enjoying the scenery along the way.

Thanks to Egidio for taking us back to challenge #31: Landscapes last week. Your responses took us around the world with your wonderful landscapes of mountains, valleys, oceans, and so much more.

I hope you will join in for this week’s challenge. Be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and include a link back to John’s post Lens-Artists #374 – On the Move!.

Be sure to check back on Saturday, November 22 at noon eastern time when Patti will be hosting the challenge.

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

Every Day is a Gift