How it all began…

Hasn’t every boy harbored a wanderlust for adventures like those in books? Where sights, sounds, smells, and people came off the page in a way that the reader felt like “he’d” experienced it.  I’m one of those boys.  Was then. Still am now.

Writers like John Paris, Charles Kuralt, Colin Fletcher, and others stirred up a desire to meet daily life in a way that demands reflection and experience. Experience.  As a verb tense. “To observe certain events; undergo a certain feeling or process; or perform certain actions that may alter one or contribute to one’s knowledge, opinions, or skills” according to wiktionary.org

It seemed like my life experience heros always had a vehicle.  Some had a truck, some had a Jeep (or even a Land Cruiser), Charles had an RV.  This first RV I can remember really wanting was back in 1985 when I spent a day working out of Guy Spiller’s 1976 GMC motorhome.  Now that was an experience machine!

My dream of a traveling vehicle was rekindled last September 2008 when I spent the better part of a week working out of a bona fide rock-n-roll touring bus.  Now that’s travel!

a little before midnight near Rocky Mount NC

This past September, pretty much a year to the day since my tour bus experience, we went to “America’s Largest RV Show” in Hershey, PA.  It’s wasn’t our plan to buy an RV… we just went to see if there were any that interested us.  Shortly afterwards we’d researched, debated, “rationalized”, and ordered our adventure machine.  Little did we know that one week after we placed the order or lives would be turned upside down, backwards, and westwards as we’d accepted a job offer/transfer/promotion for my wife and agreed to ditch life as we know it on the east coast of the USA and move to Southern California.

After a quick discussion as to whether we should cancel the motorhome order and forfeit the deposit we decided to go ahead with the purchase and use our traveling machine to explore where our new home will be as well as take every advantage to explore the western half of the USA.

So, off we go.  Not quite like some of my boyhood heros did in a ragged pick-up or Land Cruiser or Jeep but in 2010’s version of the vintage GMC, a sleek fiberglass thing built on an unlikely chassis that seems to draw attention.

So, come with us!  Sit down, buckle-up, and enjoy the ride.  (Or stand on top barefooted and roof surf down the back roads if that is more your style!)

J