We have been living in Athena for a year and full time traveling for over 6 months. RV life definitely has its challenges (unless you are Elsa). Every grocery store you go to has a different layout, finding the nearest CVS to get prescriptions, finding some some place to get a haircut (unless you are Lee), managing mail & packages or finding a Costco! Then the daily life in the trailer… we have a small washer/dryer combo unit so it takes 3 hours to do a small load of laundry, there is no dishwasher (which Lee has finally come to grips with), you mop a spot of the floor in the trailer and wait for it to dry and then everyone moves to the clean area to mop the other side. We constantly have to monitor tanks to empty and flush, monitor propane to make sure you don’t run out, checking closets/drawers, cabinets for fallen items after travel day. On travel days we have to put everything away as an RV is a rolling earthquake, securing everything in cabinets, wrapping the coffee machine and putting it on the sofa, and taking down any decor is essential for a drama free travel day. And then, every time we hitch up the trailer to the truck we check and cross our fingers that lights are working, that wires have not been chewed by critters, that brakes all work. Oh.. and then driving over the pass in the Rocky mountains hauling 17,000 lbs! We thank our travel angels daily.

But when we get to our destination….it’s the little moments…. it’s sitting at a roof top pub enjoying a cocktail with a view of the mountains or hiking a long trail up to get an amazing peaceful view. Sometimes finding a little hole in the wall winery and learning about the wine in that region. Seeing some of our National Parks, historic places or small towns that we might have never seen otherwise is so much fun. Those moments that we get to check off things from our bucket list is an amazing feeling. However, the best moments are spending time with long time friends and family and meeting new people.

After saying good-bye to family and new friends we met in Colorado we headed west to Utah to visit a long time friend. Having lunch with him and then sitting on the front porch eating ice cream while we caught up on life was one of those little moments. While in Utah we took a day to check out Fremont Indian State Park. It’s a place we have never heard of, but is worth a day of your time. This historic park is full of artifacts, petroglyphs and pictographs left behind by the Fremont Indians over 1000 years ago. We spent the day hiking around the park and didn’t know exactly what we would be getting into, a little rock scrambling. Lara got her ankle caught in the rocks going up and Lee finally had to come down and almost had to remove her hiking boot to get free. Eventually we made it to the top and started the hike down.

Once again we had to say good-bye and we headed to Wyoming to visit a friend of Lee’s. We only spent a couple days to visit and have dinner, but it was a good visit.

Next we headed south to Nebraska where we spent a couple days to visit Lee’s cousin and family. While were there, we relaxed, caught up on life, and relived childhood memories. Lee also had some of the best smoked ribs he had ever eaten cooked by his cousin’s daughter. Another one of those little moments that reminds you to enjoy life. Hugs and more good-bye’s as we headed to South Dakota to check off another bucket list item…. Mt. Rushmore!

Standing in front of Mt. Rushmore, learning the history of how, why and what it entailed was pretty amazing. We learned about the granite that it was carved in and that the surrounding granite on either side is not stable enough for carvings. In fact, Jefferson’s face was originally started to the left of Washington, but when they realized the poor quality of the rock, they had to blast it away and start over on the right side. It took about 14 years to build with zero worker fatalities. Mt. Rushmore was named for a New York attorney, who was visiting the monument and asked what the name was of the peak was and his tour guide joked that it was named for him. The name stuck.

We were only in South Dakota for a few days and we quickly realized that it is a state we will put on our list to come back and spend time exploring. It’s a beautiful state with so much to see. It is one of the 4 states we have never been to in all our travels, so we got to put another pin in our map!

When we left South Dakota, we headed east to see what other adventures await us….

this is why we chose this lifestyle for this moment in time.