The Final Wistful Wanderers Blog

Yes, our faithful readers, our blog has come to a close. It’s been a wonderful journey – literally going on down the road and writing about our travels. When we retired and started this dream life, we projected about a ten-year duration of living in an RV and seeing the country.

Thanks to our good health, a reliable and comfortable motor home and all the careful driving and planning (primarily done by Doug) our life has gone smoothly and happily as planned.

As of today, we have covered over 50,000 miles in our motor home and stayed at 327 campgrounds. We towed our car behind us almost all of those miles. We also put many more miles on our reliable CRV (more than 80,000 miles) that took us on roads our large home couldn’t go and provided local transportation for us to groceries, laundry and other errands.

It is now easier to name the states we have not visited on these travels: Kansas – mostly didn’t get there because of weather. Vermont, New Hampshire, Delaware and Rhode Island – always intended to spend time in these states but on our northeastern travels we were often focused on getting to Maine and spending time in Acadia. Louisiana would have been fun but somehow, we got sidetracked. We did spend time there in our pop-up trailer. We never wanted to do the long trek to Alaska, but we look forward to a cruise there some day. Hawaii and its volcanoes and flowers call to me so maybe a trip there is in our future.

That means we visited 42 states!

Over the past ten years, we have had many volunteer opportunities. Most notably we spent seven winter seasons at Kartchner Caverns in southeastern Arizona. We have served in several positions over these years: Gatehouse Attendant, Trailer for Cave Tours, and Portal Attendant. Doug drove the Tram. I did Front Desk, Interpretive Desk and Junior Ranger Programs. Both of us most enjoyed doing the Cave Tours. We also worked on many of the special events held at the park.

In Florida, we spent three months in a mangrove forest at Oleta River State Park. I did gatehouse and Doug was on trash patrol and woodworking.

We had an interesting few months on the Snake River at Ice Harbor Lock and Dam in the Tri-City area of Washington. We ran the Visitor Center/Museum and lived at Charbonneau Army Corps of Engineers Park. We both did tours of the Center as well as the Lock and Dam.

We got back to the Snake River in Idaho where we did interpretive programming at Hells Gate State Park. Our programs were diverse – bats, Smokey Bear, Junior Ranger Scavenger Hunts, Food on Lewis and Clark’s Journey, Crafts from Nature’s Bounty and more.

The Willamette Valley in Oregon captured us a few times – first was a summer at Champoeg State Park overseeing the visitor center and gift shop. Farmer Doug tended the 1860’s Kitchen Garden.

After this coming summer we will have spent two lovely summers at Thompson’s Mills State Park in Shedd, Oregon between Albany and Eugene. The 150-year-old grist mill provided lots of opportunities for us to show visitors how it works and to share its history.

And we even got to do tours of a lighthouse! Cape Meares State Park near Tillamook, Oregon had us living right on the dunes of Cape Lookout Beach and our scenic drive along the coast brought us to the shortest lighthouse in Oregon. Giving about 20 tours a day there was fun, and we learned a new history.

The last few years have seen changes – big changes in the way we travel and the way we budget our travels. Since Covid-19, campgrounds and RV parks are much more crowded, making it necessary to plan far in advance. No longer just drifting down the highway and making a last-minute decision to stop for a night or two.

The costs for the same camping sites have in some cases tripled. Often this means we book at least a week-long stay to save money. We love to see the increased interest in our National and State Parks, but our visits there now include traffic jams, long waits to see the sights, decreased available times and sometimes we can’t get in at all.

We have recently become even more concerned about these national and state treasures. Our friends who volunteer in these parks and the rangers we know there have encountered drastic cuts in staffing which are resulting in curtailed services. We count ourselves lucky to have been able to schedule special things like cave tours, ranger talks and tours, and a myriad of amazing experiences all over the country. As we hear of parks closed several days a week, limited admissions, eliminated interpretive opportunities, we feel bad for the rest of the world who will undoubtedly miss out. So as happy as we are that we were there at the right time, we are distressed to think of future generations who may miss these wonders.

And our last few years have been a bit repetitive. This makes writing a blog about our travels a struggle to keep it fresh and interesting. We have spent the last seven winters volunteering at Kartchner Caverns in southeastern Arizona. While our summers have seemed diverse and fun for us, our travel has been basically the same route from Arizona to some place in the Pacific Northwest. This translates in writing to boring.

We have other reasons to make some life changes. Driving the motorhome is tiring and our travel days are a stressor for Doug and myself. Thanks to Doug’s inscrutable planning, excellent driving skills and his ability to completely focus on the road, we have been safe. As the roads we travel become more crowded, we find it less enjoyable. And we got into this lifestyle to enjoy ourselves!

So, here’s what we’ve done:
This past November, after difficult deliberations on our part, we made a huge decision to “retire” from Kartchner Caverns. It was hard to do this. We love our experiences of introducing that beautiful cave to visitors. Our tours brought us joy and great satisfaction. In our past work life, neither of us found that kind of joy and satisfaction in our jobs. But it was time for us to go on to the next phase of our lives.

We left our beautiful site at Kartchner in Benson, AZ; said goodbye to the cave; and promised our friends there we would continue to socialize with them. A few years ago, we explored the possibility of spending our winters in this same area but in an RV resort. The perfect spot opened up for us just when we needed it.

In November we moved into SKP Saguaro RV Co-op Resort, an Escapees park just on the other side of Benson. We were in a rental site for just a month, and soon we were able to become leaseholders. Our first leased site was a bare gravel lot with wonderful neighbors. And then, just a month after that we were in the right position to change to a lot with a casita with our motor home right next to it.

This casita is the first “sticks and bricks” home we have had in almost 10 years. We have a lifetime lease on this lot, so we have a permanent place to return to whenever we need it. Our casita was one of the first built in this park and it has a wonderful view of the Dragoon Mountains.

We wasted no time to make it our own. It was a flurry of picking out paint, cabinets, a countertop, floors and some simple furnishings. It’s a pretty little place – an open room that has a futon, a modified kitchen area (no ranges allowed), a desk, a dining table and a full bathroom with a decent sized closet. It gives us a little extra space but most exciting of all, we can have company stay with us without crowding into the RV and sharing a bathroom.

We already had plans for this summer, and we are going through with them – a relaxing month in Florence, Oregon and then three months of what might be our last volunteer gig – returning to Thompson’s Mills State Park to give tours of the 150-year-old grist mill.

And we will retrace our route once again at the end of the summer and return to Arizona to our home base. Due to changes happening in South Dakota that affect full time RVers, we are in the process of changing our residence to Arizona. This change adds to our living costs, but it feels like the right way to go.

Life is good in our new park – a very busy, active and friendly place. Since it is a Co-Op, we are all expected to contribute to the workings of the park. And Doug and I got involved right away. Doug is Secretary of the Budget Committee, is a member of the Technology Committee which has him helping members with their devices and he also contributes his time and expertise to the local park TV channel that we all access. I have joined the Welcome Committee – just being friendly and welcoming short-term, first-time visitors about one day a month. And I just took on the role of Co-Chair of the Volunteer Coordinating Committee. I do Qi Gong in the mornings and often spend time with some wonderful women who craft in the afternoons.

There is always something to do here – movie nights, speakers, hiking and walking, dances, music jam sessions and plenty of food and socializing events. We still get to hang out with our Kartchner friends, and we love having family nearby. It’s a full schedule in a happy place. We couldn’t ask for more.
If we find a similar resort in the Oregon area, we might commit to a summer rental there. But travel will be by car or plane. We plan to sell our beautiful Tiffin Class A Diesel Motorhome. We will probably replace it with something stationary on our casita lot. But that’s a decision for the future. For now, it’s just nice to look forward to this next phase of our lives. And we can look back at the memories of our journey around this beautiful country.

If you find yourself looking for an adventure in Southeast Arizona during the winter months, stay with us in our cozy casita. We would love to share this part of the desert and all it has to offer. We aren’t saying good-bye to traveling – just doing it a little differently so that means we may get to your neck of the woods.

Hope to see you as we move through this life – stay safe. Remember life is a journey and “the journey is home.”