Inspired

I was inspired by the movie Julie & Julia, so I decided to start a blog to share the trials and tribulations, joys and challenges, and some humorous observations as I travel around the western United States in a 60 foot rig – 40’ 2017 Jayco North Point 5th wheel (affectionately called a “5er” or “fiver” by the RVer world) plus an additional 20’ of GMC Sierra Denali 3500 pickup – alone. A woman alone, that is. I’ve found that, since I don’t have anyone anymore to share those little ‘moments along the way,’ I’d share them with you.

I began this full time RV life with my husband, Dennis, 2 years ago – actually 2 years on May 1, if you count living in an RV in the driveway of the S&B (sticks & bricks) home we were in the midst of selling. In addition to selling the house, we also held estate sales and ran ads in the local Craig’s List for the majority of our worldly possessions. Taking a big leap of faith that all would work out once we hit the road. We didn’t want to have to keep the house clean with us living in it, so we moved into our newly acquired fiver, affectionately named EarthShip One or ESO for short, sitting in our driveway.
A little over a year after moving into ESO, I became a solo RVer…. As we had expected, just didn’t know the timing of it, gastric cancer took my Dennis away from me. The diagnosis of the Big C was the single reason we sold the house and went on the road – to make the rest of his life more exciting and fun than sitting around waiting to die.
Since Dennis transitioned to the other side, I’ve found that I have no one to share my moment to moment thoughts about what I’m seeing. I’ve discovered that Siri can help me remember those moment-to moment discoveries by saying “Hey Siri, make a note….” Incredible!
So… as we traveled around that first year, Dennis taught me some things about the RV – how to hook it up, how to dump the tanks (how fun is that!?), etc. But he didn’t teach me everything I needed to know – oh no. I think we were both in denial that he would ever die, so I only got the skinny surface of what was to come. And I can’t really blame us, because remember, this was a brand new RV. We didn’t think ANYTHING could go wrong with it! Little did we know what vibrations of the road can do to a thinly walled box on a frame…