2/15 Ramblings

It's been roughly eight months since I have been living entirely on the road, so time for some reflection. 

• I've driven over 17,000 miles through 23 states--probably too many miles in that period of time.  One of my goals on this trip has been to "travel slow" but I think that I am still traveling too fast.  I need to focus on spending more time in places.
• I don't need to be sightseeing every day because I am living on the road, not just traveling.  I am perfectly comfortable sitting at "home" even for several days in a row just watching TV, being online, and working at my part-time online job.  I would be doing the same in a "sticks and bricks" home.
• I've been to a dozen national parks and probably two dozen state parks in various places.  I really enjoy seeing scenery, animals, and plants, and have made a serious effort to learn the names of the things I have seen.  I think this has been pretty successful, even though I still have a lot to learn. 
• Having a good camera to record my trip so I can remember where I have been is important to me, and I need a new camera.  I broke my old camera in Wisconsin and bought a new one on the spur of the moment, not noticing that it had no viewfinder.  I am getting tired of not being able to see what I am aiming at in bright light. 
• Driving is tiring, but not as stressful as it was at first.  I can go almost anywhere I want to in this big rig, at least with a little planning.  Shopping centers and stores with big parking lots are not much of a problem.  I am getting very good at backing up into a campsite at one try, assuming it has no tricky trees or rocks.
• The hardest things about this life are getting a good haircut and receiving mail and packages.  I am always getting haircuts from strangers, so I never know how they will turn out.  Mail and packages are tricky, but I can get things held for delivery at a  UPS or Fed-Ex location.  Just need to predict where I will be, get the location of a delivery site, arrange for delivery there, and pick it up a couple of weeks later. 

Future plans?  I see only health problems or an accident stopping me from continuing to live on the road like this.  I hope I have at least five years that I can still do this. 

More immediate plans?  After I leave Florida in April, I plan a couple of weeks driving up the east coast to Virginia Beach and then heading northwest to Ohio and Michigan.  After that will likely visit Ontario and then head west to North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, and eventually California.  Next winter will probably be spent in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.