After months of preparing, practicing and training, Julie and I set the date. Our cross country adventure would begin on January 6th. We started living full time in our RV on September 13, 2018. As newbies, we wanted to stay close to Monterey and camp in familiar territory for the remainder of the year. We also wanted to spend the holidays and our birthdays with our family and friends before embarking.
Just before we left, we invited family and friends to a Bon Voyage party at Gianni’s Pizza in Monterey. What a beautiful experience! Many of the same folks who attended our wedding in 2000 were in attendance including our aunt Celeste Williams and our uncle Peter Hiller. Celeste and Peter welcomed me to the Monterey Peninsula in 1988 and there presence 30 years later gave the occasion a wonderfully symmetrical balance.
We had been staying at the Elk’s Lodge in Monterey. As part of our preparations for going full time in our RV, we joined the Elk’s whose nationwide network of Lodges provided RV facilities during our travels. The Monterey Lodge is located on a hillside overlooking the bay with Santa Cruz in the distance. The Lodge Members are a very friendly array of folks each with their own bit of Monterey history to share. This was our third stay at the Lodge. We had met many other camping Elk’s members in our various stays all of whom were quite friendly and supportive of the full-timers lifestyle.
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n the morning of January 6th, we packed up our Fleetwood Bounder “Stevie” and set a course for our first stop on our cross country adventure. Our dogs, Libby & Lola, we’re in their favorite traveling position: sharing a pillow under the passenger seat. They were a bit nervous and confused for the first month on the road. By November, they had found their groove and were happy pups. As we pulled out of the Elk’s Lodge, I looked over at Julie and the girls and declared, “Next stop: Morro Bay!”