Plans, Plans, And More Plans!

Pretty predictably, when we are out traveling and having a wonderful time such as we are now along California's Central Coast, we get deeply inspired to keep going and do even more.

Before I get to that, however, here is a photo collage of the Morro Bay leg of our current RV trip. It was spectacularly beautiful, and we had every kind of weather during our week there - heat, smoke, fog, cold, and drizzle. 

We preferred anything but those first two! We can dress for cold, fog, and drizzle, no problem. Dealing with the first two, not so much in that we don't think of the beaches here as being for sunbathing and swimming. We think of them as being for kayaking in and walking along. This leg, while we didn't get around to kayaking, we did do miles and miles and miles of walking. In adding it all up in fact, we've done over 50 miles of walking so far, and seen amazing wildlife as a result - cute otters (aahh!), pelican, oyster catchers, seagulls, weasel (so cool!), and even a praying mantis. That coupled with some truly amazing food - clam chowder, fish n chips, authentic Mexican and French, wonderful local coffee - has made for a magical trip. 

So, we've been talking and talking about how we want to approach RV'ing going forward. At issue is that our current travel trailer, a 2012 TrailManor 2417 Sport, is beginning to show it's age after 25,000 towing miles and 500 nights aboard. In addition, it is uber-petite and as we approach our 60's (me) and mid-60's (hubby), we desire a few more creature comforts even as we really don't want anything much bigger. Our current travel trailer has a low profile which makes it super easy to tow, and it fits easily into one section of our three car garage, allowing space to park our two cars, plus eliminating any need for storage costs.

Our current travel trailer as it 'parks' in our garage.
Photo courtesy of Google Maps, hence the poor quality!

So we stopped in at a local dealer yesterday, and we think we're going to buy a new travel trailer. And then spend two months touring the Pacific Northwest in 2021. And we are very excited about both items!

The new TrailManor travel trailer we have our eye on is one foot larger than the one we have now, meaning we can still store it in our garage once collapsed. However, that one additional foot gives us quite a few additional amenities that we have decided we really, really want - 1) a larger fridge that includes a small freezer (ice cubes! popsicles!), 2) an auto-hot water heater feature, meaning we'll finally have hot water on demand (our current trailer hot water heater has to be manually lit, and it's enough of a hassle to do so that we generally don't 😞 ), one additional cupboard and one additional drawer, both of which are major storage expansions from our current set up, and a larger dining area and table, meaning we can easily host another couple at dinner, significant in that we regularly travel with our best friends, and generally eat in their trailer because ours is too small for four people.

Assuming we move forward with our purchase (about 90% assured at this point), we are planning to spend 60 days up in the Pacific Northwest, from June through July, hopefully ahead of wildfire season. Dealing with the possible disruption of wildfires is somewhat annoying, but dealing with the smoke is the real deal breaker in that if affects our ability to be outside and active, so we'd just as soon avoid. The tradeoff is we may experience more rain once we get out of California, but as long as it's not a deluge, we can pretty much carry on as normal.

So the plan is to take 10 days to get up to the Washington state border via the inland Hwy. 5, spend the next 30 days traveling around western Washington, then take 20 days to return home via the Oregon and California coastal routes, meaning Highways 1 and 101. 

Our best friends have indicated they want to come along, so it should be a fantastic adventure. And, nicely, it gives me something to look forward to and to plan for in the ensuing eight months in that I don't think life is going to be moving back to warp speed anytime soon. Fingers crossed for a vaccine, but until then we'll continue to focus on COVID-friendly RV travel.

How about you? Are you making any new life plans as a result of COVID?