The blog is back by popular demand. I wanted to make one final post on this RV Adventures blog to sum up our last year. We have been traveling for fifteen months and had a lot of great days with a few bad ones mixed in. I guess that is life for everyone.
We have really enjoyed our time here in Dripping Springs catching up with family and friends. We seem to get the same questions over and over so I thought I would end this blog with some of the answers.
What was your favorite thing about the adventure? My favorite thing was seeing so many family and friends along the way. We saw people we hadn't seen in 30 years, reconnected with family and solidified a new friendship that will stand the test of time.
What was your favorite place? This is a hard question to answer. We saw a lifetime of vacations in one year. Peg is pretty definitive about Mesa Verde being her favorite National Park. I loved finally being able to see Washington DC and Niagara Falls, but if I was picking my favorite state I would say Oregon or North Carolina. We both agree that the Grand Tetons were spectacular.
What was the worst thing? RV life is not as cheap as we had hoped. RV Parks are not like camping and the rates are much higher than we expected. We couldn't just pull our 40 foot monstrocity into the local state park. And there are a lot of hidden expenses - laundry ($3 - $8 per load); holding tank chemicals and vet bills just to name a few. We also didn't realize how much work it would be figuring out where we wanted to go, how to get there, and where to stay when we got there. Three blowouts taking out large chunks of the rig causing us to sleep in parking lots ranks right up there with worst thing.
What was the biggest surprise? We are still amazed at how comfortable we are in our 40 foot trailer. The simple life is definitely for us. And the animals never skipped a beat.
OK so after a year traveling across America what do you think? This question took me by surprise. I think overall we learned that people everywhere are predominately nice and friendly; that the whole country is not Austin, Texas - people live on a lot less in most other places; and highway construction, cows and cornfields are EVERYWHERE! There is a lot of open space out there.
What have you learned? Well this is a very long list. First we learned we can do anything we put our minds to. We also learned we had no idea how much we didn't know about RV life when we started. We learned the value of tire pressure; Good Sam Club; a helping hand and the G.P.S. I learned I really miss my kids and friends and it is way too easy to lose touch. We also learned a thing or two about the importance of patience to a relationship.
Who is the better driver? Oh NOOOOO. We are not answering that one!
Well it turns out that I have enjoyed blogging so much during this past year that I have decided to continue through our Panama adventure. For those of you that don't know our long term plan is to see the United States (i.e. 44 states in fifteen months) and then make a move to Panama - the one in Central America not Florida. Three years ago we bought a 1/2 acre lot in the development Los Islotes on the southwest corner of the Azuero Peninsula. We have decided to begin this adventure by renting a house in the east coast town of Pedasi so that we can attend the Buena Vida Spanish Immersion school. This will serve two purposes; learn Spanish and make sure we love Panamanian living as much as we think we will before building a house and moving all of our earthly belongings. We are ready to begin this next adventure so I have created another blog http://bairnhesspanama.blogspot.com . So if you want to continue with us go to this link and submit your email address in the sign-in box to get the emails.
Thanks to everyone for being a part of our RV Adventures.
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