Change is constant. Change is good. Change is inevitable. Especially when traveling full time in an RV!

You may have read my blog, “Alaska – On, Off, Back on Again,” that I posted a few weeks ago. Before covid, we had planned to go to Alaska this coming summer. Then, because of the pandemic and the Canadian border closing, we were forced to change our plans. With the recent approval of a third vaccine by Johnson & Johnson, I was re-energized about the possibility that the Canadian border might be open by the end of May, which would be the perfect time to head to Alaska for the summer. Carl was a little wary of the idea, but got caught up in my excitement. Within a couple of days, we realigned and rescheduled our travel plans through California and Oregon to be near the border above Bellingham, Washington by May 16.

As I started to plan our driving route and itinerary so we could make camping reservations at Denali National Park, signs of a slow re-awakening from the pandemic were evident on various websites. I began to realize that maybe this summer was not the best time to go. On the one hand, there would be less traffic and easier accessibility to various locations and activities. On the other hand, many things would still be at reduced capacity or not entirely open, and our trip through Canada might be restricted. Carl voiced the doubts I was starting to have, expressing a desire to go to Canada and Alaska when everything was more open and back to some semblance of normalcy. I reluctantly agreed. Not even a week after I posted my Alaska blog, the trip was OFF … AGAIN!

We are fortunate to have the flexibility to change our plans on a whim, but sometimes it leaves an impression that our decision-making capabilities have deteriorated. Alaska has not been the only decision we’ve toyed with recently. Carl has waffled a few times on upgrading our 2003 Ford F250 pickup to a newer model. And, just in the past day or two, we have been negotiating a realignment of our upcoming travel plans to Rancho Oso RV & Camping Resort near Santa Barbara because others have reported there is no cell phone or TV signal there, and Carl doesn’t want to miss the Masters golf tournament! Priorities, priorities.

This is what we know today: We are postponing our trip to Alaska for next summer after Rachel graduates, assuming the world is past the pandemic. We are tabling the truck decision until we get back to North Carolina in November. And we are still jumping through the hoops to change our location so we can watch the Masters April 8-12. We are adding in Sequoia National Park for a day or so before going to Yosemite, and we plan to camp on the Oregon Coast at the beginning of May. We might make it to Glacier National Park in June—and maybe even the Tetons—but we have yet to decide our route back to North Carolina, where we plan to be in November.

The good news is we are beginning to make new friends, and some of them might be traveling to Alaska next summer as well. Meeting up with them in different locations will be an added bonus to this trip of a lifetime.

Stay tuned for future RIVETING travel decisions. It definitely keeps US on the edge of our seats.

Eighteen thousand miles. Nineteen states. Hundreds of gallons of fuel. The year 2020 in our rearview. Were there hiccups, oopsies, mishaps, problems as we began our U.S. tour? YES! But all were minor and manageable, with a few maybe even laughable. Here’s a recap…

One of our followers (thanks, Mom!) recently shared her experience with viewing the photos in our blogs. It was more cumbersome than I intended it to be. With a little bit of research, an add-on to a plug-in, and the aid of technical support with some settings, I have been able to convert all of the picture galleries into slideshows. Now, when you see a grouping of three or more photos in our blogs, you should be able to click on any one of them, it will enlarge, and then it will either automatically slide through the rest of the photos or you can click on the arrows to manually slide through them.

If you notice anything with our website or blogs that would make your experience more user friendly, please feel free to contact me (rivetingjourney@gmail.com)! Just remember that I’m not a professional website developer, but I enjoy the challenge of trying to solve problems. Sometimes I succeed; sometimes I don’t (it might be above my pay grade!).

Thank you for following along on our full-time RV travels. New posts are coming soon ~ hopefully, Yellowstone in a few days with Olympic National Park in a week or two!

Installing the two 6v Trojan Golf Cart batteries, which are heavy as heck, is a chore at best. I had to put the battery box on the tongue, grab the strap and hook up a battery, hoist it up and over the weight bars adjustment towers and maneuver into the box.  After that, do it again.

After hooking up all the loose wires from the solar set up, I flipped the switch and watched as the meter came to life and shortly started showing amps and volts going into my batteries. SUCCESS for sure.

Now that we’ve passed the hat of our company to the new owners (as of 3/27/2020), this is our first full week of “retirement.” I write this with quotations because, technically, Carl is retired but I don’t feel quite old enough to officially retire. I’ll call this the beginning of my extended sabbatical from working life.

I’m not counting this past Saturday and Sunday, so today—Wednesday—is day 3 of retirement life. How are we faring so far?