April 2021: As this is the first post about our travels, I need to include a bit of our background story. Alice and I met back in 2019 and married August of 2019 with plans to travel, camp and hike. We started off with plans to do all three at the same time.

When we married, she lived in WV and I in OH and she moved to OH as her home was occupied with tenants planning on buying her home. My home in OH needed some upgrades and repairs before Alice and I could enjoy the home, so, in order to quickly have a place we could enjoy, we decided to purchase a huge 5th wheel and a pickup truck and begin our travels, camping and hiking immediately; that is full time RVing and living in the Big Sky with the OH home acting as home base. We were all prepared for our first trip when many local governments decided that it was best to close everything down to stop the spread of COVID. All of our campgrounds at which we had reservations, emailed or called to let us know that they were closed. So, our first trip was cancelled. For several weeks we hiked numerous trails near our home in OH while we waited for campgrounds to reopen.

Well, would you not know it, the tenants decided to move out of Alice’s house and not buy it so we moved from OH to her place in WV and we made the WV home our home base. Of course, she had just changed all of her identity papers to OH. After numerous trips with Bertha, our massive Chevy Silverado 3500 truck, we got all of Alice’s stuff back to WV and most of my stuff that I use frequently. OH still houses 30 plus years of my “junk.” By the way, trying to move your identity papers to a new state during a pandemic shutdown is NOT recommended.

Anyway, things were open enough that we were able to take off in June for our first camping trip. We traveled slow, about 250 miles a day, and spent two nights at every stop. I had never towed anything and a 39 foot, 4 inch long, 13 foot high monster is not something with which to learn. Finally made it to the campground up north following several white knuckle driving days and hours of entertainment for other campers while they watched me trying to negotiate the tight turns in the campgrounds and/or backing Big Sky into sites that, by the physics would accommodate Big Sky, but by my senses, the apparent 1 inch clearance roundabout the monster, aggravated my mild generalized anxiety disorder. After three weeks, we returned to WV and the first attempt at parking Big Sky at the house there; Big Sky had been parked at the OH house until the first trip. The “main road” in front of the WV house is slightly wider, at least an inch but less than a foot, than most driveways throughout the US, and the twists and turns of this main road are tight enough to give pause to even a Smart Car. Well, I got it to the house and had the son-in-law, who drives trucks for a living, back the monster onto the cement pad poured just for her. Alice and I gave ourselves several weeks to recover before we headed out on trip number two to upstate NY, which had finally opened up to camping. Again, we went slow with two nights at every stop. After two weeks of NY we headed back to WV with a repeat of the final few feet EXCEPT, we entered the “main road” from the other direction and the dip in the road, turning right this time, took out the ladder to the roof and decent sized chunk Big Sky’s bumper.

After two days, my white knuckles returned to their normal color and Alice and I began discussing the trips, camping and hiking and what our goals and desires would be going forward. No more white knuckle moves or sleepless nights before a move; we would sell Big Sky and keep our eyes open for a small Class C. Sold Big Sky on consignment but we took a bath. We then started watching Facebook, RV trader and various RV dealerships for a 25-27 foot Class C. Since we would no longer be living in the RV, a much smaller living space would accommodate the two of us and our Shitz-Tsu for the month or two we would be traveling, camping and hiking, with a month or so break at the WV house between trips. Would you not know it, but a 32 foot Class C fell into our lap; great price, the dealer took Bertha in trade and the loan and paperwork went so smooth we knew it was God. FL here we come!

Yup we headed to FL after the 2020 holidays and spent almost 3 months in the Florida sun. Got our daily walks in, wearing T-shirts and shorts, while everyone back in WV watched several ice storms roll through, with some occasional snow. We did not do a TOAD so we had no way to get around while in FL so after three weeks, we got us a rental car; much better. Did minimal sight seeing while still getting in our daily walks but no serious hiking. Stayed in three different campgrounds while in FL and anytime we needed anything or wanted to do anything, we had to unhook and stow our equipment and once we got to where we were going, find a spot long and wide enough in which to park our 32 foot Shiloh then back to the campsite and get everything back out and hook everything back up. White knuckles occurred again as a symptom of our physical moves, but they were rare and the sleepless nights prior to a move did not happen. Backing in was not a breeze, but I no longer provided entertainment to anyone. Several times I hit the campsite dead center on the first try. With warmer weather beginning we headed back to WV. This time, no damage due to the dip in the road and I backed Shiloh onto the pad myself.

After two days, Alice and I began again discussing the trips, camping, hiking and our future travels and what our goals and desires are going forward. Shiloh was perfect for camping and hiking, but not so much for traveling. Should we sell Shiloh? These discussions went on for days and in the meantime, we both went about our daily chores and entertainment, like reading our emails. After a few weeks being home, I got an email from the RV dealer from whom we purchased Big Sky wanting to know if we would like to sell Big Sky back to them as demand was through the roof and no new new units were being built, all due to COVID. Well, they bought Shiloh and we actually made a tiny profit! So we now have a plan. Our travels will be separate from camping and hiking. We will travel for the next 2-4 years to see what we want to see with some light hiking, but no camping. Any camping would be local, that is within WV, and we would use a tent. Therefore, we now need something to support this new mode of travel.

Hence the Tahoe, our Pearl, as seen in the pic at the top. Extremely comfortable for distance travel, extremely roomy for our travel stuff, big enough to sleep in if there are no hotels available for that night and Pearl has a towing package for our eventual pop up camper for when we want to get back into camping. We are now getting ready for our first trip with Pearl; a meandering ride up through MN then on to the OR coast and back to WV via UT. Stayed tuned for our adventures as they continue.