By Valerie Coffey
I have to apologize. The link provided by Google+ to view yesterday’s album of our favorite photos from our first year of full-time travel did not work directly from email on all platforms.
Unfortunately, the link provided by Google+ was correct…but Google+ is notorious for being glitchy.
So if I can entice loyal readers to click twice, the Google+ link appears to work properly from our site on WordPress. So here it is…take 2!
https://rvluckyorwhat.com/2015/11/30/our-favorite-photos-from-one-year-of-full-time-rving/#more-1650
Sincere apologies. I learned something today…don’t post any photo albums on Google+!
See you in the warm places,
Valerie
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Re:
Our Favorite Photos From One Year of Full-Time RVing
November 30, 2015
By Valerie Coffey
What does a year-plus of full-time traveling by RV around the US get you? 10,000 pictures and video totaling 60 GB of files!
Granted, we have two of us taking pictures — a LOT of pictures — using mostly a Samsung Galaxy S5 cell phone and a Canon EOS D60, occasionally a GoPro Hero4, and various other DSLR cameras.
And we are solidly amateurs dabbling in photography. But here on Google+ is a sampling of 31 photos that are my personal favorites from our amazing year, representing every region of the country, every month of our travels, and boatloads of smiles.
By Valerie Coffey
You can’t see it, but I’m sporting a huge smile here and bursting with excitement to see my first mountain goat! And such a beautiful one at sunset on the spectacular Highline Trail in Glacier National Park in Montana!
What does a year-plus of full-time traveling by RV around the US get you? 10,000 pictures and video totaling 60 GB of files!
Granted, we have two of us taking pictures — a LOT of pictures — using mostly a Samsung Galaxy S5 cell phone and a Canon EOS D60, occasionally a GoPro Hero4, and various other DSLR cameras.
And we are solidly amateurs dabbling in photography. But here on Google+ is a sampling of 31 photos that are my personal favorites from our amazing year, representing every region of the country, every month of our travels, and boatloads of smiles.
Click on the Google+ box below.
https://plus.google.com/107839670759502214880/posts/VfSRGDAAtK2
By Mitch
Before we purchased our new RV to begin our journey as full-time RVers, experienced RVing friends warned us that a new motorhome would be fraught with problems and that we would be better off buying a used one that was already broken in by someone else. So we first narrowed down the type of unit and features we wanted and the manufacturers we liked, then we looked very aggressively both locally and on the internet for a used unit that met our requirements.
Unfortunately, after many months of unsuccessful searching, we were butting up against the time frame we needed to begin our travels. We just couldn’t find a used coach that offered the layout and features we were looking for at a reasonable price point. So we broadened our search and look at new units as well.
When we found the unit we wanted in Florida (we were living in Massachusetts at the time), we put down a deposit, flew to Florida, drove the coach around some before we made the purchase; it seemed pretty good. I (Mitch) had previously rented privately-owned RVs for weeks at a time while vacationing so I was pretty familiar with using many of the subsystems in big coaches. But we knew to try and address every problem before we took final delivery of the vehicle.
The dealer hosted us at a beachside RV park nearby our first night. When we returned to the dealership the next day, we had a “punch list” of 24 items that we found that were nonfunctioning or defective in the unit. In a few cases, we just had questions about operation that neither we nor the dealer could answer. The dealership agreed to resolve everything before we took delivery, but they required a month to do so. We flew home to Massachusetts.
Five weeks later, in July 2014, the dealer had replaced all the parts in question and resolved (nearly) everything on our punch list. We took a one-way flight to Florida and drove the coach back home.
Val and Mitch taking delivery of the Thor Tuscany in Florida, July 2014
After three days and two nights on the road and in RV parks on the way home to Massachusetts, we amassed a punch list of ten more items. None of them were critical, but we hoped to get a few of them fixed while in New England the month before we started our year-long journey. But no dealers had room in their schedule to help us.
Our blog at RVLuckyOrWhat is a labor of love, but we always thought it could possibly be more than just a way to record our travels. The information we’ve learned can be useful to RVers and RV travel dreamers everywhere.
Recently, we found a company we believe in that has made a difference to us in our travels. How often can you say that? As such, Mitch and Val at RVLuckyOrWhat are proud to announce our first cross-marketing affiliation with Wholesale Warranties!
We reached out to Wholesale Warranties to ask if they wanted to affiliate with us, full-time RVers who are blogging and recording our experiences. We’re going to talk about them anyway, so we thought they should know. And they agreed to talk about us too, because we represent the essence of their customers — people who just want to get on the road and go!
As affiliates, we are pleased to recommend and refer readers to this reputable company we like, and they in turn will help promote our site and message. We do not intend to inundate readers with information they don’t care about. We will continue to share our story just as we always have, and help keep you all RV dreamin’!
Who is Wholesale Warrranties?
Hello from the Love Shack!
Here is a full list of our blog posts, in chronological order from the beginning. Enjoy!
Aug. 20, 2014 Hello, World! It’s the Mitch and Val Roadshow Tour!
The problems we encountered upon taking delivery of the Love Shack in Florida and driving her home, and the beginning of the adventure. It’s gettin’ real!
Aug. 26, 2014 Feeling “High in Utah” and Coming “Home to Nevada
Our first stop on the “tour,”Park City, Utah, is high in elevation and a cute place to shop and eat.
By Valerie Coffey
We had to go to New Orleans for one dream of mine to come true.
Do you remember your childhood dreams? Did you dream of getting married to a royal (or never being married)? Having a big family (or not)? Having a nice home with a garden and a white picket fence? Having a nice car? A successful career? How about being an astronaut, fireman, supermodel, or actor? Some people dream of being a talented cook and opening a restaurant.
Not me. It’s a dream of mine to sing like a rock star in front of a crowd of enthusiastic fans.
Some dreams you have to work so hard for, that they are a special kind of reward when they happen. But like many dreams, being a rock star is a far-fetched one. The “American Idol” ideal takes so much talent and great gobs of luck, that I never for a second tried to pursue it. Besides, when American Idol started, I was 34, eight years past the cutoff age.
Someone I can relate to: the first American Idol winner, Kelly Clarkson, performing at the MGM Grand Vegas VIP New Years Eve event.
But sometimes you get a sampling of a dream come true, even without trying.
By Valerie C. Coffey
We left our sticks & bricks home in Massachusetts forever on August 14, 2014, driving away in our brand new Thor Tuscany 45-foot motorcoach for a year or more traveling the US.
Taking delivery of our new Thor Tuscany in June 2014.
We sold our homes, sold a lifetime of belongings, dropped of the kids at college, continued our jobs on the road, and have had the kick-ass adventure of a lifetime this past year, and have seen so much of the US! We have learned so much!
People commonly ask us — What’s the best thing you’ve seen? — an impossible thing to answer, because it’s entirely personal, based on our pre-RVing experiences, values, prevailing weather and our mood at the time. In one year, we have hit 42 states and have driven 25,000 miles in the RV with an additional 15,000 in the Hyundai Veloster tow car.
We have stayed at well over 100 different sites, including luxury RV resorts, campgrounds, RV parks that resemble parking lots, state parks, and national parks. We have managed to completely avoid an overnight stay in the parking lot of a 24-hr WalMart!
But we do have some answers!!
What is THE BEST THING we’ve seen??
By Valerie Coffey
Our longest and best hike in our RV travels so far: 13 miles on the Highline Trail in Glacier National Park — a victory photo with a nicely healing scar one month later on July 3. As for what happened to my face, that would be a case of perpetual goofiness — a permanent condition.
We have had some misadventures in our ten months as full-time RVers:
There was the first day we drove off in our brand new 2014 Thor Tuscany motor coach, leaving behind our empty Sticks & Bricks home in Massachusetts forever. Only a few hours from home, Mitch was making an acute left turn in our 45-foot monster plus the tow car, just as the green light turned yellow…then red. It takes time for 60-+ feet to clear a tight left turn, and Mitch was being very careful, going slowly.
As the cross-traffic received a green light, an impatient driver in a Jeep Wrangler on the cross street to the left pulled two vehicle lengths ahead of the stop line, right up into the side of the Tuscany. Then she refused to move until the police arrived, trapping our toad in the middle of an intersection at rush hour in the NY-NJ-PA tri-state area. This bad decision on her part created a delay that gave me time to take pictures! The police cited her on the spot, and her insurance covered the body work to replace our left compartment doors and repaint them several months later.
First day of our full-time travels, this happened.
Then there was the time we were crossing the Continental Divide in Wyoming, on a Saturday night in December around 11 pm. We had two of our college kids aboard, and were trying to get over the mountains to beat an impending snow storm and pick up our stranded college freshman on winter break in Salt Lake City.
The Beast blew a fuel line and strewed about 30 gallons of diesel fuel across southeastern Wyoming before we could find a safe place to park and ride out the storm (read the whole story here). We managed to get her fixed before Christmas Day, but the kids may never go anywhere with us in the RV again, and we all probably have PTSD that can be triggered at the slightest whiff of diesel fuel. Snowstorm 1, Love Shack 0.
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