Hitting The Road Full Time
Good Bye To Good Friends
It’s amazing what one year can hold. The possibilities. The apprehensiveness. The hopes and dreams. The trepidation. The memories. The tears.
The good as well as bad.
It was one year ago, to this very day, that we drove away from our house one last time. Starting our full time adventure.
Saying “See Ya Later” to friends.
We’ve had our ups and our downs. That’s putting it mildly.
Winnebago Tour And Our Tour Master
Like not taking possession of the 2013 Winnebago Tour that we had custom ordered. I’ll spare you all the details in this post. You can read all about that fiasco here.
And the loss of our dear sweet Angel in August. She is still missed to this day. Always in our hearts.
We Lost Our Dear Sweet Angel
Being stuck in Wisconsin for over a month was not fun. We were only passing through for a couple days. Then David had a kidney stone attack and ended up having to have 2 kidney stone surgeries. Looking on the positive side, the hospital, Meriter Hospital in Madison, WI was lovely. Not that we want to go back and visit any time soon.
That’s life on the road. You never know where you’ll end up. There’s generally no time line. You just go with the flow. It still doesn’t make it any easier when you are stuck somewhere though.
Becoming Florida Residents
We quickly became Florida residents. Getting fully out of New York with their high taxes was an easy decision for us.
We’ve made new friends on the road that we know we will go and visit. Ronnie, Ginger and Annette at the RV Ranch of Keene, inviting us to their family Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.
And Geri and Art, camp hosts extraordinaire, at Camp Red Bay, aka The Tiffin Service Center.
David And Ronnie
Brenda And Ginger
David, Annette And Brenda
Geri And Art
Segs4Vets.org At The Alamo, San Antonio, TX
Flying With Friends In Denver, CO
We met up with Segs4Vets to help them out with their induction ceremony.
And while in Denver, CO we met up with some online friends that also fly quadcopters and got some flying in around the park.
We’ve stayed in some interesting campgrounds. Some nice and some, let’s just say, we won’t be back anytime soon. Whitey’s Fish Camp was one of them. However, it was the only campground around the area in Florida where we had to be to change our residency. So one night was all we needed. Thank goodness.
Big Pine Campground In Custer, SD
Whitey’s Fish Camp In Orange Park, FL
The Badlands National Park, SD
Chimney Rock National Historic Site, Scotts Bluff, NE
Caney Creek RV Park, Harriman, TN
Country Roads RV Park, Wisconsin Dells, WI
We met up with some rv friends, Tricia and Keith of Geeky Explorers, and in turn met new friends, Don, Christine, Oliver and Kerry.
Our New 2014 Tiffin Allegro Bus 45LP
We finally had a new coach built and are now enjoying every minute of it! Thanks to Tiffin for that.
Good-Bye To The 2008 Tour Master
Hello To The New 2014 Tiffin Allegro Bus 45LP
So in March we said Good-Bye to our old 2008 Tour Master T40B and Hello to our new 2014 Tiffin Allegro Bus 45LP.
Who knew we’d be calling Camp Red Bay, aka The Tiffin service center campground, our home for a few months time. We did unfortunately have to go back there once we picked up the new coach. We were having fan clutch issues and Tiffin was working on the fix.
Side note: We have a new proto-type fan clutch now and it’s working wonderfully. The new buses will be getting the new fan clutch in July we were told.
Camp Red Bay (Tiffin Service Center) In Red Bay, AL
The Gang At Camp Red Bay
If you are interested, and haven’t already perused the entries of our build process, here’s a link to the entire build of our new 45LP Allegro Bus. From start to finish with time lapse video.
You do get to know your neighbors well at Camp Red Bay and it’s easy to make life long friends, as we did for sure. Jim and Beverly, Tom and Sue, Marc and Josee and Marty and Diane just to name a few.
Not to mention it’s nice to be able to compare notes with someone that has the same coach as you.
We have seen some spectacular sites this year. Some National treasures and some awesome driving roads.
Mount Rushmore, SD
Crazy Horse Monument, SD
Custer State Park, Custer, SD
The Black Hills And Needles Highway, SD
Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, Albuquerque, NM
The Badlands, SD
Just breath taking!
We’ve seen our share of gorgeous sunsets too.
Amana Colonies, Iowa
Moon Rise At The Amana Colonies, Iowa
Sunset Over A Walmart In Aurora, CO
Sunset Over Indiana
Looking back at all these photos and memories makes us want to keep on driving. We’re currently in our home town of Rochester, NY at Southwoods RV Resort. Visiting with family and friends. Getting the very important doctors appointments all caught up. And looking forward to getting back out there. Making new memories.
Our Coach
Where ever the road may lead you, we wish you safe travels and happy memories.
I will continue to travel vicariously through you…waiting for more fabulous pics and vids! Love yas!!!
Wonderful summary. So happy for you guys. Hoping we see you out West to continue our adventures.
Thanks Jay. We hope to get out west soon.
Love your blog and all your helpful hints and mods! We just bought a small DP and can’t wait to get out there. We are not going full time but working our way slowly into the lifestyle! Your vids and blogs are so helpful! Thanks again and fair winds on your future travels! Michelle and Joe
Thanks Michelle! We enjoy writing up the blogs and sharing our adventures. Good luck with your journeys!
I hope your new home is working out as well as you had hoped.
Thanks for sharing all of your adventures with us through your site.
Jerry Williamson
Tiffin Motor Homes
Thank you Jerry. And thanks to the team at Tiffin for all you have done. Our new 45LP home has been wonderful.
I do love seeing all your adventures. And am so happy life has given you the opportunities to have these adventures. To many more! Love you guys!
Awww thanks Deb! We certainly appreciate how lucky we are that we are able to work online and travel this wonderful country of ours.
ahhh, I know where you were with the Winnebago fiasco…..that is where we are today. Our first coach was a Winnebago Adventurer and now we have the Allegro bus…not as new as yours, but we love it. We must have left camp Red Bay just before you arrived.
We are back in Indiana and at C.W. because this is where all John’s specialists are. Soon, we will leave and start our travels once more….What a way to begin our third year. .
Looking forward to reading of your next year on the road.
Sorry that Winnebago was a bad experience for you as well. I hope your enjoying your bus as much as we are.
We were at Camp RB from late January until mid-May. Sorry we didn’t meet up. We hope to not be back their for a while and stay on the road enjoying ourselves.
We hope you enjoy your 3rd year on the road as we enjoy our 2nd (of FT at least).
Great reading your post. I visit your sight about three times a day. Happy trails to you. We met you at Lake Haven Retreat in Indy. My brother Gary was at a minsters retreat and we pulled our camper to meet him and his wife Phyllis there. When his meetings were over we went to his house to camp in Goshen IN. You guys are a hoot to hang out with. It was fun to watch David fly his gyro copter. Hope our paths cross again.
Dave and Peggy Roberts
Hi David and Peggy. I know David enjoys flying his quadcopter and now he has a second one! It’s an expensive hobby but boy it sure is fun! Keep your eyes to the sky and if you see a quadcopter in the skies, just maybe that is us and we can meet up again.
Congratulations on your year anniversary. We celebrated our 1 year on board our new Phaeton June 8. Recognized some of your pictures, we lived in Jacksonville, FL & your right Whitey’s is terrible. Sorry you stayed there. We are The Big Pine Campground in Custer, SD now enjoying the sites in this area, Badlands yesterday. Enjoy your travels & congrats!
As far as Whitey’s, yes, it was terrible. However it was the closest place to where we needed to be. The next closest was over 45 minutes away and that was a pain in the butt for a one night thing.
We loved staying at Big Pine Campground in Custer. The people that run it are wonderful and it’s the best commercial campground with full hook ups that makes you feel like you’re in a state park. Make sure you drive the wildlife loop in Custer State Park. And the surrounding small towns are great to explore. Enjoy!
Hey Guys!
Love the blog entries, and the awesome pictures. I would love to get eyes on this amazing paint scheme you have created. Hope all continues to go well for you, and many safe travels.
I would like to know what the problem is with Whitey’s, they seem to look ok on their website and have had that on our place to go list. Would love to hear the problems…… Thanks!
Hi Tony. The problem that we had with Whitey’s is that they are really not big rig friendly. They only had a couple spots that would fit us. You’re parked on a very grassy and sandy area so if it rains, as it did the night before we arrived, everything is wet and puddles everywhere. Not good for a big rig as we did sink a little bit on the site.
Whitey’s itself is a big biker bar type place so on the weekends it fills up with very noisy bikers partying til all hours of the night. They do warn about that on their site.
Most of the rv’s that are their are very old, permanent and not well maintained.
If you like to play beer pong, just outside your coach, til the wee early morning, then this is the place for you. Just not our type of of place.
Thanks for the heads up. It’s off my list now