Today was a travel day as we packed up our site in TC and made our way north over the Mackinac Bridge to the Straits State Park. This was one site on Ray’s favorite list, but it proved challenging to get backed into our site. But the struggle was well worth it – this is a beautiful park right on the lake with a great view of the bridge.

So I have always had a wandering adventuresome spirit, which you might expect from a woman who met her husband while on a dive trip to the Caribbean, but why set off on a national park adventure? Why sell off our home, car, boat, and even my beloved baby grand piano to become travel trailer nomads? The inspiration came from an article I read about an ideal map to visit all the national parks. From there, we started making retirement plans that included buying a 26 foot travel trailer and hitting the road.

Since then I’ve been inspired by the stories of people I meet in person and online, who are living their best life on the road. Like the 70-something woman I met today as we were dumping before leaving TC. She lives out of her motor home, traveling the country visiting relatives and wintering in an Arizona town called Quartzsite. She said it’s RV heaven there – free camping on BLM land. I may just have to add that to the itinerary!

Another cool thing I heard about was to visit Custer SD when they are doing the buffalo round-up. Since SD is becoming my new listed state of residence, perhaps I’ll have to add that one to the list too.