Coffee
No decent day starts without coffee. I’m sitting here in front of the camper, on a warm March Sunday Morning, enjoying my first cup of coffee. Coffee is such a simple pleasure. I love to sip on it and feel the warm liquid flow into my body while I check my favorite news apps and listen to a podcast. Yes, I do both at the same time.
This rolls into my mental walk through of what I need to do that day. On some days a particular problem or task pops into my brain and I fall into a trance. Cathy calls them a DAZ. During these moments I brainstorm solutions to said task or issue. This is my favorite time of all. I love these moments of letting my mind wonder through solutions or plans from simple to outlandish. It all starts with coffee.
By cup two I’m looking at my calendar, on work days, or opening up Jetpack to blog on a Sunday morning. Cathy will tell you that I’m particular about things. But I’m down right snobbish about a few things. Beer, key lime pie and coffee. I’ve been thinking of adding a menu item on the site for lists or ranking and keeping a list or a top 25 list of our favorite coffee shops, breweries, restaurants and campgrounds. What do y’all think?
Full timing
It’s a cloudy day with lot’s of rain expected. It’s already 74 degrees and I’m enjoying the cool breeze. I’m not enjoying the huge UGA flag on the camper in front of me but it’s a nice morning sipping coffee, blogging and watching the dark clouds flow by.
Growing up we had a private family campground so it was a great experience. In my adult life, until about 4 years ago, I mostly camped on major holidays. You know when traditionally the manufacturing sector used to shut down for a week and the campgrounds would flood with people. Let’s face it, especially the 4th of July has been a redneck holiday. I don’t use the term redneck to describe hard working salt of the earth people. I use it to describe that certain kind of self centered person that seem like they are trying extra hard to be assholes. You have them everywhere in every state and country.
What I like most about full timing is getting to enjoy camping all the time. 99% of people camping are as friendly as they come. We have technically been full time for a year now and have rarely encountered any assholes. My first thought was that we would winter somewhere different each winter but now that plan has changed. The folks here at Blue Heron Escape winter with each other every year and we have made friends that we will miss when we leave.
The snowbird crowd are treated like locals because they are for half the year. It feels like home here already. That being said my wanderlust is eating away at me from being in one spot for so long. It’s like the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. I’m itching to get on the road but I like it here more each day.
We have definitely found that a week isn’t enough in most places and we can stay a month for what two weeks cost us. When you look at it in the context of we have plenty of time to explore. We don’t have to visit 50 places a year. Then staying a month in an area and really seeing the sites becomes more appealing. I really thought when we started this that we would move every week or two.
Now as I plan for June, yes I’m late booking, I see we could camp between Louisville and Cincinnati and be less than an hour from each. For those of you that don’t know. Cincinnati has some of the best breweries in the country. Louisville has some of the coolest places to visit. The Louisville Slugger Museum, The Ali Center etc. Now toss in that it puts us right in the middle of The bourbon Trail and why not stay a month. That’s a lot to see.
Even though I’m a planner and I actually enjoy planning. One thing I haven’t done is to actually plan our itinerary for these trips. We have been in such chaos until we got here that it was just hard to know where and how long we would be somewhere. Now I’m looking for a good tool to plan these trips in more detail, including budget for gas, attractions etc. I will do a post all about my search, choices and recommendations around this tool. I will stay the my initial research seems that most tools are centered around air travel, rental cars and hotels or they are centered of discovering attractions. None are centered on seeing these from an RV. RV apps are centered on campgrounds. Anyway, as I said I will do a full post on this adventure.
Budgets
I’ve never been one to follow a budget. I’ve always been able to occasionally list out my bills, usually when I want to buy something, and make sure I’m on the right side. I have friends who make a follow budgets. Some overspend and some make a dollar go further than you think possible. I wish I was better at this and I’m making an effort. Why now after 43 years of adulthood do I want to do this?
Well it’s this simple. Most people plan for vacation and make sure they have enough money for the things they want to do. Well, we might still work full time jobs, but this full time life is about adventure. Seeing and doing things in the areas we visit. A good example. There was a songwriter festival we found and said, wow let’s do that! Oh, wait, it’s almost $500/person to get in. You can’t have too many unplanned $1,000 expenditures on your journey. Not to mention truck and camper maintenance.
Yep, it’s becoming obvious that I’m going to have to get good at budgeting and following it. If we really want to visit Bush Gardens we might need to stay in that cheap ass, shady campground for a bit. Until this blog becomes world famous and people comp us to come experience their business, it comes out of our pockets.
Fitness
Is fitness a challenge when full timing? I guess it depends on the person. Most all the snowbirds here walk the campground daily and find ways to stay busy. If you are retired this may be easier. I have the same issue I had at home. My work is sitting in front of a screen all day. We used to go to Orange Theory four to five times a week. It was a routine. With the chaotic year we have had. Routine has been lacking until we settled for the winter. I did have a plan but we didn’t really execute on it.
I don’t think this is any different than when you live in one spot. In the end it’s all about making yourself do it. My plan is to use Apple Fitness but you have to do this outside with people watching and not everyone is comfortable with that. To me it’s no different than being at the gym. I’ve also found that fitness is a great use for my Oculus. You can get cardio and play a game at the same time. 45 minutes of Beat Saber is a good cardio workout and fun at the same time. You will also be the talk of the campground.
Cathy recently joined Planet Fitness again. We really miss the community and full body workout of Orange Theory and you don’t get that a Planet Fitness. You do however, have somewhere to go that is in pretty much every town. Neither of us have reached that level where we feel bad if we miss our workout like we did when going to OT but we have at least started to make an effort again.
I will occasionally do a post on lessons learned around fitness. With more people full timing due to remote working opportunities. Campgrounds are really missing an opportunity here. Providing equipment and classes could be an extra draw to a campground or resort. This could also be a job opportunity for full timers. Offering fitness/yoga classes could be a great way to stay in shape and get paid to do it.
Rainy days and Mondays
It’s a pretty song but neither has ever really gotten me down. Rainy days are great for reading, blogging, both with the afore mentioned coffee. They are also great for snuggling with your partner and binge-watching a show. As much as we try to explore the area we stay in. Everyone needs a lazy day. I wondered if we would go stir crazy in a camper if it rained a lot, but it’s really no different than being in your house, well unless you have a big room with a pool table.
As grey and cloudy as it is here currently we still have no rain so I guess I’ll go take walk or run around the campground while I can and then come back and work on planning that trip north and make a budget. After all I’m already hyped up on all this coffee.
