Category Archives: Life in General

4 years down

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May 2, 2021, marked the completion of four years of full-timing in our trailer. This is us heading away, on May 2, 2017, from our home of 23 years prior:

We didn’t really have any goals for these 4 years other than seeing what is out there! We stopped to see family when we were near, we came back numerous times for birthdays, holidays, etc. We didn’t know where our travels would take us, which was the most fun. Our 4-year ‘anniversary’ was spent with my sister and her family in Bishop, but there were no celebrations. Here is view of Bishop from the hills:

I have been keeping statistics of our trailer since we purchased it in Jan 2013. I track every trip via Google Maps, keep track of mileage and nights spent in locations (the app MapMyRide is most helpful with this). I also track every fuelup of our current truck and previous truck. This allows me to belch out some numbers to bore you with.

YearTrailer MilesNights in TrailerTruck Miles
20171009824017311
20181096932720437
20191128436325327
2020545536614271
202112941224959
Total39100141882305

2017 and 2021 were partial years but we really piled on the miles that first year. 2017, we went to Texas to establish our domicile, continued on to a wedding in North Carolina, and completed the circle by coming back a northern route. We hit 21 states on that loop. Our average nightly stay per location was pretty low, something we would remedy. That year our grandson had his first birthday, which we were able to get to. Sadly, Roxie’s cousin died but we were able to assist his daughter in straightening out his affairs. This would have been hard to do if not retired. This was also the time where our black tank leaked and it took 43 days without our trailer to get it fixed

In 2018 we got our trailer back from repairs then headed to my mother’s. She was getting out of rehab after a hip replacement and we were going to help her at home. We met our friends George and Marcia (www.yinfeng.info) and travelled to Banff and Jasper NP in Canada. We then headed to CA to leave for a trip to Hawaii, getting ready for the 2nd birthday of our grandson. Fate intervened and we went back to my mother’s just before she passed away. We, along with my sister and her family, put her affairs in order. We still did over 10K in miles that year.

Back to Texas in 2019. Roxie had a medical procedure to do in Austin and I was looking to get a new truck. The 2017 truck did fine but we really missed having 4 full doors so we got on there. We were in the Austin area for almost 4 months doing all this, and more. While we were in Texas we wondered what we should do after leaving there. Roxie had joined a group on Facebook that discussed RVing to Alaska. They were having a get together near Anchorage for the 4th of July. We signed up, giving us a target date to get there and we were off! Alaska was great but we headed back to CA and helped Roxie’s sister with some personal issues.

COVID was the theme for 2020. We were traveling around CA until mid-March and WHAM! Shutdowns began. We hunkered down at our son’s place until mid-June and had to get out. We headed to the Oregon and Washington coasts to keep cool during the summer. Around mid-September we headed to Idaho and the weather ended up chasing us down to Nevada. All-in-all we were not that impacted by COVID other than some campground bathrooms were closed. Also two of the things we like to do, dine-out and watch movies, were much more difficult. We made it back to CA for the holidays.

The birth of our third grandchild, second granddaughter, started off 2021. We next headed to Arizona and Nevada, checking out possible locations to move. Arizona was not very locked down at this time, Nevada only slightly more.

Just under 40K actual trailer miles, more than double that in truck miles, 33 states, 4 provinces, 1418 nights in the trailer (just 43 nights shy of a perfect record)!

We will probably be slowing down our travels as we are looking for a home now but we won’t completely stop!

Delayed in Alaska

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When we headed to Homer there was a wildfire burning on the Kenai Peninsula and we came through some of the smoke on the way. But after a week, we had very minimal smoke on the way to our next stop, Seward.

We stayed there for 4 nights at the KOA. I know there are spots downtown, near the water, but they were only $20 or so cheaper but only electric and water. Plus you had some more ‘permanent campers there. Right by our spot was an eagle that made a nest in the only tree at the KOA:

We scheduled a boat trip to visit Kenai Fjords NP and some wildlife on the way. Naturally the day we went out was rainy and with rough seas. This meant Roxie got seasick in the 6′ swells. She didn’t have a very good time. She was able to be alert enough to see some of the wildlife and glaciers:

We took a day trip from there to Whittier. We were able to go through the tunnel shortly after the train came through:

Unlike Skagway, Whittier only had 1 cruise ship but it dominated the skyline:

Whittier was built by the US military as a base and they built the tunnel for trains. Here is one of the buildings they left behind. They decided not to tear down this one due to costs since it was built to withstand earthquakes and is filled with asbestos:

Leaving Seward, we headed back to Palmer. We had a medical issue to take care of. One of the primary reasons to head to Austin this year was to get a Spinal Cord Stimulator (SCS) for Roxie. This will block her nerve pain electronically. However, shortly after we left Austin she had a problem charging it. Her SCS has a rechargeable battery that connects inductively through her skin. She take a flat paddle and lines it up parallel to her internal battery. The problem is that she has to really jam her hand into her side at an odd angle to get any type of charge to the battery and it takes a very long time.

She has been struggling with this for almost 2 months. We got in contact with the representative of the device’s manufacturer (Abbott) and scheduled a time to meet with her in Anchorage. We were able to also meet with an MD that does the SCS procedure. They discovered that her battery had shifted location and was no longer in a vertical orientation but was in such a way that she could not get the paddle parallel with any consistency. Hence the difficulty.

We started the procedure to get the battery replaced with a non-rechargeable one. We needed to get insurance approval but we had some time. We had reservations for Denali NP and then on to Fairbanks.

We headed on to Denali. We stayed at a very nice spot at Riley Creek campground. We had booked a bus tour (the Kantishna Experience) which was 11 hours long for the round trip. It was a cloudy day with a bit of rain. We were only able to see small bits of the mountain for moments at a time. We did see a fair amount of animals: Caribou, Dall sheep, black bears, moose and various other small ones.

On another day at Denali NP, we went to see the sled dogs. Denali still uses sled dogs in the winter for NPS transportation as the majority of the park is a wilderness area. Here is Roxie and I with new friends:

On the 1964 trip, I remember visiting a bunch of sled dogs and all the barking. I was able to find a picture of my encounter back then:

In the background of this picture you can see a name on a doghouse. The name is Niski. On the walls of the building on the grounds, they have all the doghouse names. They take them off when they find a home for a retired sled dog and normally give the new family the sign. However they do put up replicas in the building.

I took this photo to the rangers there and asked them about it. According to their records, there was a Niski that was in a litter from 1961. This would have made the age correct. Looking for the sign:

My memory was pretty accurate. It was a lot of fun to track this down. I asked my sister about all of this and all she remembered is that she wanted to take a dog home back in 1964.

Next was Fairbanks for a week. We should know about the SCS status soon and we had our anniversary coming up (39 years).

I also remember, vaguely, from 1964 that we rode a paddlewheel boat. I remember looking down from the top deck and seeing a salmon wheel. In keeping with the re-creation of 1964, we also took a paddlewheel trip.

Roxie was a bit fearful that she might get seasick, I assured her she would not. She didn’t. The tour is a very enjoyable journey. They have a demo of a floatplane taking off and landing. They show a sled dog team take a lap around a track. They also take you to a remake of a Chena Indian village where local native americans show you the life and techniques of times ago. Here are some fox pelts:

I talked to the trip narrator and let him know about the 1964 trip. I wondered what paddlewheel was used then. He told me this one:

Still floating.

Before we left Fairbanks we still did not know that status of the SCS replacement but decided to head back to the Anchorage area in anticipation of good news. He stopped for 2 nights in Talkeetna and rode the Hurricane Turn train.

We also saw some salmon heading up the river to spawn

We got back to Palmer (for the 3rd time) and found out Roxie got the go ahead for the procedure. Alas, we can’t get the procedure scheduled for 2 weeks after we got here, which means being here for 3 weeks total. But this is part of life on the road. You have to become a local at times.

However, we can see this from our campsite:

Next entry hopefully talks about being on the road again (Go Willie!).