hello & howdy
i’ve been super busy this week! i bought a scamp fiberglass travel trailer
but i decided i didn’t want to tow anything so i traded it in for a class-c rv.
the class-c gets really bad gas mileage and everytime i need to leave my dispersed dry-camping site in the national forest to go adventuring it’s sort of become a pain in my tuchus.
so what could i do?
i had to buy a 16 foot casita!
since trixie my kia soul cannot tow anything, i had to sell her and buy a larger vehicle with a towing capacity of 6k pounds. i like to be on the safe side.
you should have seen me trying to park each of my new toys in my narrow driveway! after several failed attempts i decided to use an rv storage place a few miles down the road when i’m not on the road.
ALL of that in just the last week!
here we have the inside of of the SCAMP. there are several different layouts. this is the model i prefer and here’s the inside layout:
on and on my mind careens towards a bright future.
or it could be a doomed one. i can’t tell yet.
still with me?
all joking aside, the idea of heading out on the road in a small travel trailer for 6 months or a year post-retirement thrills me!
classroom explorer portraits
while i was out boondocking on BLM lands, the kids finished up their explorer portraits.
bird by bird
meanwhile at the sketchbook table this was happening.
while i draw with my gouache, i watch youtube videos about full-time, traveling, casita dwellers on my roku player.
Woooohoooo! Rock on, MAM. 😘
Your post sounds exactly like a running dialogue that I’ve been having for three years! Car is paid off, and solid, but can’t really tow anything. I just can’t quite deal with the idea of trading in a paid off car that I like just to get another used car that is mechanically unknown. Option two – Class C – not cheap and it’s not like you’re going to drive it around to see things once you arrive at the campground, so then you’d have to rent cars just to get to the grocery. Class B (RoadTrek), driveable around town, but a 15+ year old model will run $35,000, which is a lot of money for a hobby. Sigh – I may just get a tent and the Air BnB app on my phone for when I’ve hit my tent limit (historically, that is two nights.) But yes, I am quitting my job of 34 years in January! Which frees up the mind for all sorts of possibility – and the nomad wanderlust is the antithesis of the day job routine with bright fluorescent lighting instead of sunshine, and a freezing air conditioner instead of wind in the mane. I’ll be keeping you posted, my friend.
I love the way you live, Mary Ann! I’m positive that you’re going to have a very bright future, indeed! xoxo
inundated with report cards that are DUE TOMORROW so just a quick howdy & hello cute peeps! love hearing from you and knowing your stories, dreams, and kind thoughts. xo
What fun, can’t wait to hear all your adventures. As a kid my parents always owned a caravan and I have very happy memories. Since my dad was a lorry driver he was ace at towing and backing it up. I would be with you. Takes a lot of spunk.
Hi Mary Ann,
I laughed out loud at this post. It is a VERY familiar sequence of thoughts.
Your bird drawings..are you drawing from photos or live? I am so impressed with them. The portraits done by your students are just awesome!!!
I told you in my last comment that me and my better half were traveling from Amsterdam to Bucharest for 5 weeks which we buttressed with a week in Amsterdam and a week in Romania (the latter with a private guide; 1 euro = 4.62 R)…the whole trip was fabulous despite having to change ships 3 times because the Danube is so low from the terrible drought in Europe – no rain for 4 months. The river is so low that the “hunger stones” made centuries ago are emerging…basically the message is “if you see the writing on this stone, prepare to weep”.
I have to say, despite all the loveliness that we floated through, that Romania stole the show entirely. It is a remarkable county with a complex and very difficult history. Hiring a private guide was a very good decision on our part as we learned far more than we would have by ourselves. Also, she drove her own car as driving is not for the foreign, even if courageous, heart – thus we ventured into places we would never have gone (like going over the Carpathian mountains). Eastern Europe is interesting, beautiful and can also act as a cautionary tale to those of us who remain blithely ignorant of how good we have it here. Serbia and Croatia for instance are in dreadful condition post their civil war and genocide…whole towns mostly vacant and once beautiful buildings riddled with bullet holes and left abandoned. No jobs. Hungary and Bulgaria are faring better but it is still hard going for all of them. I doubt that a single person in these countries doubts that Russia interfered in the election – Russia is a scary big brother for all of these countries and that became a quite palpable awareness and understanding for these two travelers.
As always thank you for your humor filled and delightful posts,
Nancy Jane
Hahaha, you had me going there for a minute! Wow, your class is so talented! I started watching Gone with the Wynns a few years back as they traveled all over the US and then they moved on to sailing and got me hooked watching sailing videos. So much so that we bought a pontoon and spend our summers floatin our boat 🙂 We have a camper which I love but I’m really jonesing for a truck camper so we can go wherever we want and call it home!
Hooray for you! I have been looking for a casita but can’t find one affordable for me. My good friend recently sold her home and lives full time in a class A Rv, and will be traveling as soon as she retires next week! I am now looking at the Retro travel trailer which are not cheap but soooo cute. Happy trails to you😀
Please share pics of your art space in that trailer! Can’t wait to see them – always dreamed of having a trailer art studio, the ultimate portable getaway!
LOVE IT!!!! You know I went back into the classroom last year, but we are selling the MI house and heading out indefinitely in our vintage camper after this school year! Can’t wait to see you on the road!!!
i too have been thinking about this kind of travel. used to go with my parents and then my husband and kids every year but have gone in recently for the airbnb so that i can have real bathrooms and showers. my latest thought is of a converted van (raised top and all) so that i can travel when and where i want but still be able to afford the luxury of a hotel when i get burned out on the camping. that plus i can drive it myself. those big campers are more than i want to learn how to maneuver. or park and level…
So thrilled for you Mary Ann! I grew up in an RV’ing family and have considered getting something small for a few years now. Still haven’t made the jump!
You MUST visit the West coast of Michigan. Start with Sleeping Bear Dunes and Traverse City then wander up the coast to the Mackinac Bridge and cross up into our glorious Upper Peninsula. Check out Tahquamenon Falls and Pictured Rocks. You would seriously love our state!
BTW I’ve been following you for many years, but mostly just lurking. So…hi! *Waves*
Head back out and pick up the class-c rv AND a little run-around-town scooter to strap onto the back of the RV. Problem solved.
Gosh Mary Ann…I can’t believe this..you are such an inspiration to me as I try to figure out the where and what of my future. I refuse to dream small and I see to my utter delight that you don’t either! You go girl!!
haha You had me there for a minute. Remind me…5th grade? It was my favorite grade to teach, for history and loved explorers. Those portraits are dynamite. Finally, since I’m doing a bird theme for my 2019 calendar, “Tweet,” (you can check it out on my blog, dianemoline.com, if you don’t have anything else to do) so I am deeply into painting and drawing and collaging birds. All in all, I loved this post!
I laughed and laughed at your Rv story because it is the exact progression my dad did! But he threw in a Winnebago for good measure and took each one across the country and then came home and traded in it for his next obsession! He did take him more than a week of course and would go down and then decide he had to go bigger…went on for several years! Grand adventures for all concerned. One of my favorite memories with him is a trip to Yellowstone in one of the Winnebagos with my nephew. We seem to hit every single rain storm along the way, the roof started to leak and he would put down buckets and just pull over when they got full and yell dump it quick, we’ve got miles to go! Enjoy every single minute of every adventure!
Wow, you have been a busy shopper! My husband have been going back and forth about buying an RV or a trailer. Rented a trailer and didn’t like it, both from towing and needing a super flat place to park once you get somewhere. We have a big truck so no problem towing anything. Next we will receive rent an RV and check them out.
RV traveling is so awesome…this past summer, my husband and I (along with our 3 cats!) took a 7 week adventure to Alaska and back, by way of the Canadian Rockies from our home in southern Michigan. We left in the middle of July and returned by the beginning of September. Our motto: the journey is the destination. It was perfection!
Love the RV story. Read it to my husband. We pull a 29 foot Elkridge 5th wheel.
When are you retiring? I have a couple of years until I leave teaching. Can’t wait!
Lisa
How thrilling! You will get the hang of it in no time and love it all. We had a Scamp years ago. Loved it. They are so easy and you’ll be ready to go in a flash. I still dream of having another one one of these days. My friend Sherry Tobin Haney has one that she painted to look like a lady bug. It’s the cutest
Oh my gosh, I’ve been looking at these all weekend. You’ll need to show us the inside!