Full-Time DreamCatchers

Sweet Sixteen

We just wanted to share Shadow’s 16th Birthday with everyone. She has given us so much pleasure and so many unforgettable moments in our lives. It’s hard to believe Shadow came to us sixteen-years ago as the tiny little two-and-a-half pound, eight-week old fuzz-ball you can see here. She’s still a cutie! Cheryl baked Shadow [...]

Hoodsport, WA

We arrived today in Hoodsport, Washington, a beautiful little (really little) town in Washington State that sits on the Hood Canal, a 600 foot deep fjord that is home to the giant Pacific Octopus and renowned Hoodsport shrimp and some of the best oysters in the country. Wow. We didn’t know that until we got [...]

25th Anniversary

How do you like our bike jerseys? I bought Cheryl her nice new “Wedding Gown” and my “Tux” for this special occasion – our 25th! We were married on the Queen Mary and just had to come back to celebrate our 25th there. What a great ship. I even took my Beautiful Bride to a [...]

Cycling Long Beach around the Queen Mary

City of Rocks, NM

We are currently camping at City of Rocks State Park in New Mexico. Still in New Mexico?! you say? Yep, that’s right. For some reason, we just can’t seem to get out of this state (well, except for a couple of weeks in extreme West Texas). There were a lot of things we wanted to [...]

Florida’s Highest Waterfall

Today we visited Florida’s Highest Waterfall in Falling Waters State Park located near Chipley, FL in the northwestern panhandle of the state. Wait a minute – did I just say FLORIDA’S highest waterfall? Yes, I did. Who knew, right? The state of Florida is about as close to sea level as one can get without [...]

Chuck, Chiisai & Shadow at Falling Waters State Park

Saving & Sharing Your Travel Photos

July 12th, 2011

Cheryl

Save Those Photos!

What do you do with all of your travel photos when you’re on the road? Do you have a way to keep your memories safe in case disaster strikes (a stolen camera, laptop or accident involving your RV) or an easy method for sharing your photos & experiences with far-away family and friends?

These are questions we didn’t ask ourselves until we became full-time RVers and it wasn’t long after we hit the road that we realized we needed a better way of handling all the pictures we were accumulating.

We’ve been using SmugMug photo hosting for a few years now and are really pleased with the site and service. In fact, you can find all of our travel photos (and more!) at our photo site, Chippewa Marine Photography, on SmugMug.

There are other photo hosting sites on the web, many with no fee, but we didn’t find the others to be adequate for our particular needs. We especially appreciate SmugMug’s unlimited number of uploads and the large file sizes accepted! With the amount of photos you can accumulate traveling this beautiful country of ours – and with today’s constantly improving digital cameras and ever increasing picture sizes – these are must-have features for us. The hosting fees are reasonable and a small price to pay for the peace of mind and convenience we need as full-time RVers.

Regardless of who you choose to host your photos with, or how, we encourage you to store and share your photos somewhere other than your RV. You’ll be happy to have your years of memories intact if the unthinkable ever happens and on the bright side – it’s an easy way to share your adventures with others!

If you’re interested in trying out SmugMug for yourself, use this SmugMug $5 off coupon link, the button above, or just enter the SmugMug Coupon Code 4e00bDrkJb8I in the Coupon field at the end of your trial:

Cheap(er) Gas This Summer at Walmart

June 29th, 2011

Cheryl

Walmart 10-cent gas discount June 29 to September 30, 2011

Today, Walmart announced a 90-day Rollback at the pump to give customers a savings of 10-cents a gallon on all fuel, gas and diesel, at participating Murphy USA and Walmart gas stations from June 29 through September 30, 2011. Great news, right?

Before you drive to your nearest Walmart to fill-up, just make sure you understand the following:

1. The discount applies to gas purchases made ONLY when using a reloadable Walmart Gift Card, Walmart MoneyCard® or Walmart credit card.

2. If you are in FLORIDA, Walmart Credit Card users will receive a 10-cent statement rebate when you use your Walmart credit card at a participating station. If you use a Walmart Gift Card or Walmart MoneyCard®, you will receive a 5-cent discount at the pump.

3. In ALABAMA, only Walmart Credit Card users will receive a 10-cent statement rebate when you use your Walmart credit card at a participating station.

4. If you are in OKLAHOMA, or MINNESOTA, you’re completely out of luck as the offer is NOT valid in those states.

(Complete Rollback Details)

I wonder why Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Minnesota residents and travelers are treated differently. Any ideas? Still, this is a good deal and every little bit helps these days, especially for us RVers.

How I Spent My Birthday

January 2nd, 2011

Chuck

As you can see by the pics, it is nice weather again here if FL. I had to take my new bike (one of Cheryl’s presents to me for my 72nd) for a short 20 mile ride. The bike rides like a dream – super light. We also took in a movie (Little Fockers) and had Chinese afterwards, can’t beat that for an old man!

We don’t like to go out on New Year’s Eve because it’s just not us. We watch the Ball drop on TV and just like to be together with our kid, Shadow. I think Shadow’s hearing is going down because she didn’t seem to hear a lot of the fireworks going off near the house.

Cheryl is still organizing and cleaning and I’m trying to help a little. Having a house is just not much fun :-( !!!

To those of you up north this winter – Stay warm. 22 degrees scares me :-o !

Cheryl made my favorite cake: chocolate with white icing. Shadow helped me blow out the candles.

Cheryl decorated my Eze with lights!

My new Trek!

On Top of Crazy Horse Mountain

October 5th, 2010

Cheryl

Tom Wilson, Shadow, and Chuck on the arm of Crazy Horse

Today we stood on the arm of Crazy Horse Mountain in Custer, SD. Our guide was Tom Wilson who works at the Crazy Horse Memorial. He was a joy to talk and spend time with, as is everyone we’ve ever met while visiting the site of the largest mountain carving in the world, begun by Korczak Ziolkowski 60 years ago and now continued by his wife, Ruth, and 7 of their 10 children and now including 6 grandchildren and 1 great grand-daughter!

It’s been two years since we last stood here – on a cold and drizzly Sunday morning as we attended a Sunshine Service (ironic, huh?) led by Fred Tully, former Director of Development and long time friend of the Memorial and the Ziolkowski family. That day we felt a special connection to the mountain, as Chuck described in his blog post that day. Today was just as powerful. Tom was part of the reason, as we bonded over our mutual feelings about the Crazy Horse project, the Ziolkowski family, Native American experiences, and our own personal connections to it all. And the mountain did the rest. Korzcak said many times he felt Crazy Horse was on the mountain with him. And many say about Korcazk himself, “He still walks here.” Both are true. It’s a powerful feeling that you’re not alone when you’re on this mountain.

It was a beautiful, clear, and warm day today – perfect for a trip up the mountain – and Tom gave us a really great tour, with lots of information on what is currently happening on the mountain. Since we were last here, the progress has been amazing. The arm has been cleaned of a lot of rock blasting debris, flattened, and a layer of gravel laid out on top. The safety fencing lining the outreached ‘arm’ has been moved in a bit, and it isn’t as easy to touch the face of Crazy Horse as it was before. When we looked out over the front of the mountain, facing the visitors’ center, we could see the different ‘benches’ much more distinctly than we could before. Tom explained that 9 of the 11 benches have been cut.

Tom pointing out the progress on the mountain to Cheryl and Shadow

While we were on the mountain we watched the crew drilling into the lowest bench, preparing for the next blast to take place on October 11th (Columbus Day to most of the U.S., but Native American Day for us Indians, the Crazy Horse Memorial, South Dakota, and all those who empathize with the Native American viewpoint regarding Columbus and his ‘discovery’ of America).

We would have loved to stay on the mountain all day, but eventually we made our way down after taking a few pictures and videos, picking up a few ‘blast fragment’ rocks to keep, and stowing our hard hats. As we drove out, we were passed by a bulldozer driven by Casimir, who has been working on the mountain right beside his dad, Korzcak, ever since he was a little boy. What a nice way to cap off a very special day.

Casimir Ziolkowski on Crazy Horse Mountain (Photo Credit: Seth A. McConnell / Rapid City Journal)

Watching TV On The Road

September 30th, 2010

Cheryl

Recently I read a blog post at Gypsy Journal discussing which was better – Dish or Direct TV – for watching television while traveling as a full-time RVer. It got me thinking about what we do, and why, so I decided to blog about it here.

For our television viewing on the road, we use the Winegard antenna that came with our 5th wheel. Actually, it’s not the original antenna, but a replacement. Back in 2008, I managed to do what almost all RVers manage to do at least once: leave the antenna up while we were traveling (“antenna down?” is now on our breaking camp check-list) and it was mangled beyond recognition when we parked in front of a friend’s house near Chicago (darn those tree-lined streets!). Anyway, when we replaced the original antenna, we went ahead and upgraded to the Digital HDTV version and added the Wingman – a little attachable antenna that is supposed to boost reception.

Winegard Sensar RV Digital HDTV Antenna with Wingman

The Winegard antenna receives any over-the-air signals being broadcast near us. With the recent requirement for broadcast stations to change-over to digital, digital stations are about all we get anymore as analog is found in only the most remote locations, and usually that remoteness means no signal at all. Our television and antenna can also receive HD (High Definition) signals when broadcast, which is nice. This is more common in areas in the range of larger metropolitan areas.

What does all this mean for television reception and our viewing habits? It means that if we get a channel, then great. If we don’t, we have DVDs, and better yet – books! Redbox ($1 video rentals) is another option and is nice on occasion for recently released movies, if there is a Redbox location in the area. Also, if there is good Internet reception (either our Verizon air card or local WiFi) we might watch a favorite TV show via the computer through direct streaming (this can eat our meager data limits fast (5 Gb month), so we’re frugal or wait for free WiFi).

We like to think we can actually do without much TV. Back in 2003, we went four months without any television at all while on an extended RV trip from Florida to the Pacific Northwest and back. We didn’t miss it until we came home and had cable television again. Then we realized how much time we were wasting sitting in front of the TV mindlessly changing channels and decided to start recording select programs we enjoyed and just watch them and the news. We generally continue doing this today. It’s so much nicer to watch a program and be able to fast-forward through commercials. Not only is it more enjoyable, but saves time too! Did you know the average 30-minute sit-com is only about 19 minutes long minus the commercials? I wonder how many years of our lives we save by skipping commercials? Plenty, I’m sure.

Now that we’re full-timers, television is something we don’t really want to be completely without (local and national news and weather comes in handy), but we just can’t see the expense of satellite TV and the seeming headache we’ve read about with dealing with DirectTV or Dish Network. And from what we’ve seen of the reception at campgrounds that use satellite for their ‘cable’ TV, it’s not that great and very dependent upon weather. In some cases, we’ve actually unplugged the campground provided cable because our antenna got more channels and/or better reception!

We know we’re in the minority as far as full-time RVers go, but a simple over-the-air antenna works fine for us right now. How about you?

Chuck Thinks Back On Two Years As A Full-Time RVer

September 22nd, 2010

Chuck

When we left Florida in August 2008 our first destination was Crazy Horse Memorial, SD. Our Full-Time RVing experience had begun. After camping in 26 states and traveling over 37,000 miles we have come almost full circle. We are back at Crazy Horse.

We are now in our third year on the road Full-Timing. There are too many highlights to put all of them down now, but here are some of mine. Meeting Ruth Ziolkowski has to be right at the top. Walking on the arm of Crazy Horse with Cheryl, Shadow and the ashes of Chiisai was next. After Crazy Horse we headed east to New Jersey and my 50th high school re-union. From there we went south to Washington, D.C. and Cheryl ran her first marathon (the Marine Corps Marathon). Cheryl ran for Team Running Strong.

We met Billy Mills who runs Team Running Strong.

While in D.C. we also met an Iwo Jima surviver at the Iwo Jima Memorial. He was very impressed with Shadow’s Marine Corps Dress Blues.

From D.C. we headed for Truth or Consequences, NM where we did our first work camping. We skinny-dipped under the stars in hot springs when it was only 19 degrees. We celebrated our 25th anniversary where we got married on the HRMS Queen Mary. Shadow won Best-Dressed Pet at the Las Vegas Santa Run (over 8,700 Santas did the run). We have biked, hiked and visited more National Parks than I can list. We have also met a lot of nice people along the way. Most recently, it was kind of strange we were camping on an Air Force Base and found out R. Lee Ermey (The Gunny) was going to be at the BX for photos and autographs. Hard to believe hundreds of Air Force men and women stood in line to see a U.S. Marine Corps Gunny. We stood in line too and got a picture of the Gunny holding Shadow in her Dress Blues.

I am making a list of biggest, shortest, tallest, deepest, etc. places we have seen.

Full-Timing has been everything I expected and then some.

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