5th Month Ponderings...

Just another day on the road... But today is a celebratory day! We've been on this road trip/adventure for 5 months today. The first 4 months seem to fly by. This last month has seemed slow. I'm sure part of that is we were parked in one spot for a month. Although looking back now, that seemed to go by quickly. Not sure what has caused the "slow down".

As mentioned before, some days I can see us doing this beyond a year. Other days... I'm ready to go back to Texas (GTT). And even other days I read about people who have been on the road for multiple years and have been boondocking most of that time. I love that spirit! I *want* to be like that! But in reality, NOT really! If you admire and are intrigued with someone's ability to live in a way that you've never lived does that mean you are meant to live that way? That is the question!

D and I had another discussion yesterday evening about this whole full-time RV lifestyle. Unlike many other full-timers, we went in knowing we were probably going to do it for a specific time, a year or when our budgeted amount was gone, with the open ended option of continuing or moving on to something else. So while it is "living" for us, at the same time it's kinda like a vacation in that we are doing touristy things and seeing new-to-us areas. So I get into the vacation mode of thinking... then I have to make breakfast, lunch and supper. In our previous "vacations", there was someone else doing the cooking and cleaning. So that was a true vacation for me! So I sometimes struggle with vacation-mode vs. living while traveling mode.

Of course, it's a perspective/mind-set thing. Most full-timers go into it with the mind-set of this is our life. We are going to live in an RV and travel freely... when we want to, where we want to. Kim from Creating the Life has said it this way, "We will live this lifestyle as long as we are both happy doing it." I like that attitude. And it helps me! We aren't unhappy living this adventure... I just miss some things about our previous lifestyle. And that's "normal" right?

So today we celebrated with a run... Week 6 Day 2 of the Couch-2-5k program.

My new sneaks...

And we will celebrate with green peanut butter banana smoothies after our run. And then we will rehang the last two valances that we removed in order to paint the living room slide. And then we will get ready to travel again tomorrow! Onward ho! To New York!

Menu plan

We have a few "carry-overs" from last week!

Grilled Chicken with peaches
Egg noodles and green beans

Grilled burgers with cheese and topped with an egg
Roasted potato salad

Skillet Hash with Spinach (Repeat! We loved this!)

Grilled brats
Roasted potato salad

Fiesta Lime Rice

Taco Salad

Let my soul rise up to meet you as the day rises to meet the sun...

 Sunrise: from the inside in Gordonville, TX

 Sunrise: Albuquerque NM

 Sunset: Bakersfield CA

Sunset: Caldwell ID

 Sunset: Twin Falls ID

Sunrise: Loveland CO

Sunset: Golden CO

 Sunset: Littleton CO

 Sunset: Ogallala NE

Sunset: Greenwood NE

 Sunset: Sandusky OH

 Sunrise: Sandusky OH

As you may have noticed... there are more photos of sunsets than sunrises... I'm awake for sunrises... just not out taking photos!

Thursday 13: Favorites

1. Favorite state visited so far (besides Texas cause that would be a given): Indiana

2. Favorite campground stayed at so far: No campground has had it "all" but probably the campground that had most of the things I like is Petaluma KOA in CA.

3. Favorite pizza: Arte Pizzeria in Loveland CO

4. Favorite burger: Tie between Culver's and 523 Tap and Grill in Elkhart IN

5. Favorite thing about this lifestyle: It's stretching me! and I love being able to see part of the US I've never seen before.

6. Favorite thing to wear for travel days: for warm travel days: running shorts, t-shirt and flip flops; for cooler days: my PPP bloomers, t-shirt and flip flops

7. Favorite bike ride: Monterrey CA!

8. Favorite book I've read on this journey: Living with Less (maybe because I'm living it!)

9. Favorite meal to make in the RV: anything requiring one pan!

10. Favorite phrase we've adopted: It's 10 degrees warmer/cooler out here, when stepping out of our home!

11. Favorite campground treat: Snickers ice cream bars

12. Favorite touristy thing we've done: San Francisco tour

13. Favorite item we have purchased since being on the road: our grill!

We run for biscuits...

We run so we can eat... and because we have lots of time!

I've challenged myself several times to the Couch 25K running program. It takes you from lying on the couch to running a 5k in 9 weeks... or so. I started it the first time about 10 years ago. And restarted it many times since then. I wouldn't stick with it.

UNTIL the summer of 2010 in Central Texas. I decided to challenge myself again and run thru Texas summer heat! Of course I ran early in the morning when the temperatures were a cool 80 degrees. And I did it! I ran (no walking) a 5k with my husband just in our neighborhood. Then I did an actual race. And I got 3rd place in my age group... of course there were 5 in my age group. And the last 2 were WALKING!

On of our discussions on this road trip involved making sure this year on the road wasn't a "waste". We have all this time and all these new cool places to walk, run, bike and I wanted to take advantage of it. So we decided to start the c25k program again.

After I started it I found out that an online friend had been doing it (again for her too) and she is now in week 9 of the program! Go Jamie!

I've been running off and on (not far) ever since I ran that 5k in October 2010. So I knew that I could probably skip the first week or so of the program. So we decided to start with week 2. We had beautiful places to run while we were in Bristol Indiana... canopied forests, nice soft trails and thru our very spacious campground. Week 2 went great; Week 3 started and I still felt energized and like I could run more. So for our 2nd run that week we skipped to Week 4 of the program (got that?). It was just the right challenge.

So this week we started Week 5 (3rd week of running for us). We were supposed to run yesterday (run days are Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday), but with travel we decided to hold off till today.

And we run for biscuits! I normally don't like McDonald's... but I do love their breakfast biscuits and coffee (and something called a McRib but we won't go there)! And there's a McDonald's right across the road from our campground...

Travel day...

Haven't had one of these in a while! And it was great getting back on the road after a month-long stay! D got back into the hang of pulling our home and we had some great conversation! We tend to get into a philosophical mood and conversation when traveling. Sometimes we use 365 Thought Provoking Questions, other times we come up with our own.

So we are settling in here in Sandusky, Ohio. Very nice campground, very empty. We are close to the highway, but we don't mind the highway hum.

D's already gone down to check out the pool... uh, it's 75 degrees (air temperature)! I can just imagine how cold that water is! This is Fall weather! And I love Fall!

Menu plan

Since we've hit the road on this year-long adventure, we've had really no routine. Which is good... and bad. I love routine. I like a daily routine and a weekly routine. When we lived in a stick and bricks, I would do laundry on the same days, buy groceries each week on the same day, etc. We do have a daily routine on the road... but a weekly one? Not so much. It all depends on travel days and those vary.

We get back on the road tomorrow after a month-long stay in Northern Indiana... where Mondays are the wash days for the Amish! So I'm washing today! And getting groceries cause we are low on a lot of things. The next 2 days will be travel days and we normally don't unhitch so I need to have enough groceries to at least see us thru those days. But I planned a full week's menu. I don't assign meals to certain days although I know the easiest meals will be on travel days. I normally plan for 6 suppers a week. We will either go out for dinner one night, or we have lots of leftovers, or we do a simple breakfast meal for dinner.

On the MENU this week:
Perogies with Bacon and Onion (thanks to my B-I-L, Dan - his spesh-ee-ality)
Some kinda veggie or salad

Shrimp Fried Rice

Skillet Hash w/Spinach
Cornbread

Taco Salad

Grilled Chicken with Peaches
Green Beans
Egg Noodles

Grilled Burgers with cheese and egg
Some kinda veggie or salad