Looking Back at 2019
This year we made a decision that CHANGED THE DIRECTION of our life. I am not sure that anyone else would really notice the change, but it has been a fundamental change in the way we think and plan our life. I find it interesting to look back at certain decisions made along the way that have had the most dramatic impact on shaping our life and this one has left a mark. This year we bought our first RV. It is possible my husband saw the bigger picture of where this would lead, but I really had no idea the change this would make in our lives and how I want to spend my time.
My husband and I are a couple of forty something year olds that are living a fairly typical life. We met later in life and therefore do not have children, so of course we treat our two dogs like our kids. We are in the prime of our careers and “enjoy” working hard in the corporate world. Our careers tend to drive our goals and decisions. I am an accountant and my husband is a restaurant operations consultant. We have been very fortunate in life and are even lucky when it comes to family. We have a big, crazy, loud, and amazing family that want to spend time together. While I consider us to be fortunate and lucky in life, our lives are busy and often very stressful. It is easy to get lost in the crazy, the career expectations, life goals, and general happiness. Our careers are important to us, which makes it is easy to forget to focus on living life. Most everyone knows this balancing act … “WORKING TO LIVE” verse “LIVING TO WORK”. All of this is likely why buying our RV has had such a dramatic impact on our life and my mindset. The RV has made it possible to easily get away and explore together on the weekends, each time a new experience.
We have found our TRUE HAPPY PLACE AT STATE PARKS. There are so many things that we enjoy about our visits: the uniqueness of each park, hiking trails, canoeing & kayaking, and campfires. I love to drink wine by a campfire on a chilly evening. We learn more about the state and country as we explore each park, as we find a little bit of history everywhere we stop. So far, my two favorite Florida State Parks have been ANASTASIA STATE PARK and O’LENO STATE PARK. I think Anastasia is everyone’s favorite for obvious reasons, the campgrounds are private & forested, beach access to the state park beach, kayaking in the inlet, walking distance to the amphitheater, and it is a quick ten-minute drive to downtown historic St Augustine. O’Leno was a happy accident for us, one of the parks we booked because they had an opening with short notice. We did not know a lot about the park or the area, but enjoyed the campgrounds, the hiking near the Sante Fe River, the suspension bridge, and the proximity to the other springs in the area. Although these were my favorites, I could talk forever about the parks we have visited, the beauty of Florida, the different natural environments, and on and on. Every time we visit a park that we love, we talk about wanting to go back but then remember how many places we still want to visit. We have the Florida State Park Passport and now have a goal to visit all of them one trip at a time! These quick weekend trips have opened our eyes to all the things that Florida has to offer so close to where we live.
Although most of our trips have been to state parks, we enjoy staying in the RV so much that we are using it every chance we can find. We stayed in a KOA near St Petersburg & Madeira Beach, so that we could spend the day exploring the coast of Florida. We stayed at CORAL SKY AMPHITHEATER for the weekend when we went down to West Palm for a weekend of Zac Brown Band Concerts. And of course we have taken advantage of staying at FORT WILDERNESS CAMPGROUNDS during Christmastime at Disney to enjoy the creative decorations of both Disney and other campers. There are endless possible future adventures of all kinds and the more we see the more we want to explore.
Two things happened immediately as we embarked on this new adventure, first we fell in love with it and second we realized that campgrounds in Florida book up quickly and this was going to take ADVANCE PLANNING. We started booking campgrounds where we could find openings and started booking the more popular campgrounds further out (some as much as 11 months in advance). We tried at 8am exactly eleven months in advance the second the reservations opened for Bahia Honda State Park until we were lucky enough to reserve a site. For the dates we wanted to book more quickly, we booked what we could find and stalked places we wanted to stay for last minute cancelations. Now we are just continuously booking our trips almost a year out as the campsites open up for reservations.
The popularity of the campsites has forced us to be very INTENTIONAL in our planning of our trips. Since we are planning and booking the trips in advance, we actually go on the trips and do not let the distractions of life get in the way. We go outside and explore, spend time together, and enjoy our weekends. We are focusing on our time together, the things we enjoy, and exploring new areas of Florida and the country. I have taken up BLOGGING AND DOCUMENTING our travels. My husband has been focusing on his PHOTOGRAPHY and manages the website. I think it has made our relationship stronger and added in more fun. We have found that it triggers our excitement to explore the country, to get outside, to find new places, and to just go… It has expanded the things we want to do, even though we cannot do them all in the RV. We are now booking our longer vacations intentionally to explore our beautiful country. We went to MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK and explored ALASKA this year. We have a week booked in BAHIA HONDA STATE PARK next year and we are already looking at exploring places like BAXTER STATE PARK, YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, and ZION NATIONAL PARK. This one decision has opened a whole new world of exploring and we are both loving the possibilities. I am looking forward to the next year and new TRAVEL ADVENTURES.
