We’re having a fun and busy week with family! But I haven’t forgotten about you. (Cat photo for attention!)
I wrote an article for Outdoorsy magazine on best practices when you’re overnighting at Walmart.
If you’re interested, give it a read, or share it with someone else who might like to. And thanks!
We’ve now been in Fort Collins for about a week and a half, and we’re happy to be stretching our legs a bit after a month or so of RV travel. It’s always nice to settle in…not having to pack up regularly and having full hookups (that we don’t have to pay for) are major perks that make giving up regular travel easier.
Of course, we aren’t the type to sit still! We’ve already visited local music and gaming stores, sampled homemade ice cream and gelato, and today, we visited Longmont, CO’s great downtown and explored a bookstore, music store and a dedicated gluten-free bakery and cafe. (It’s definitely a town we will return to. The cafe was fabulous, and there’s a homemade ice cream place we haven’t tried yet!)
We’re truly enjoying being so close to great food and services with a view of the Rockies in the background. Today the kittens went to the vet…we’ve got a couple of infections to treat and have a couple of medications to give out daily. Squeak was cool as a cucumber the entire time, and there’s really not much cuter than a cat carrier full of kittens and mom.
The campground work is off to a good start, and we’ve got some great employees to work with. It’s a beautiful campground, and I’m especially excited about the nature walk, which I typically walk twice a day. Here are some of the gorgeous photos from my walks around the campground.
We’re hoping to make quick trips to Boulder and Denver, as well as Colorado Springs, while we are here for the summer. We’d also love to book some gigs on our days off.
Want to host us for a night? Have ideas on where we need to visit? Let us know.
And if you enjoyed this, perhaps you’d also enjoy hearing about our adventures settling in Orlando or visiting Austin. We’ve also got a fun post on Disney for adults. Thanks for reading!
Well, it’s almost arrived. Time to pack up and finish our to-do list before we hit the road.
We will be moving at a quick pace, taking a week or so to get to New Mexico, but we’re hoping to take it easy once we get there, exploring and playing a few gigs.
I’ve heard that the State Parks in New Mexico are beautiful and easy to get a space in, so we will be putting that rumor to the test too.
Florida has been great to us. From Disney to visits with friends and family and from our comfy campsite to our new cat, Squeak, life has been fun and full of adventures.
We’ll keep reporting in with new updates along the way. For the latest, you can follow us on social media, including our Facebook page.
I hope you all enjoy your weekend! Ours will be full of hard work and preparation. Happy Friday!
If you’re considering a visit to the Outer Banks, either by RV or otherwise, you’ll want to read my guide with the highlights. Everything from the best donuts to the best beaches and historic sites is covered in my blog for Outdoorsy here.
Have a great day, and happy reading!
We’ve been staying in the Orlando area for almost two months now, and in settling down for a while, there are a lot of perks. We’re enjoying full hookups and access to high-speed internet (we never thought we’d be so thankful to have Comcast), and we’ve been 
befriending a lot of cats, including one who has adopted us that we’ve nicknamed Squeak due to her adorable squeak instead of a meow.
We’ve gotten tons of Disney parks time in, seeing the Halloween decorations in the Magic Kingdom, enjoying the Food and Wine Festival and experiencing the holiday magic throughout the parks. Probably the biggest highlight was our gift from Ross’ parents – dinner at San Angel Inn, Mexico at Epcot followed by a reserved seat for the Candlelight Processional with Jodi Benson (the voice of Ariel, the Little Mermaid) as the narrator.
Jamie has also auditioned twice for roles at Disney – once for Finding Nemo: The Musical and once to be an improv performer. No luck thus far, but it doesn’t hurt to try! The absolute dream would be a role as a musical director or performance coach, but we hope this gets me noticed at least.
We’ve also done a wee bit of performing (an open mic here, a few church services) and have been booking future gigs like our lives depend on it – which they kind of do! And we’ve got a new website up for teaching online music lessons! New students can save big with our “holiday special” if you book before the end of December.
We’re also enjoying the opportunity to visit with family and friends. So far we got to see our friend and performer Judy Pancoast and we’ll be seeing Ross’ sister Emily and her husband Ryan for Christmas. We also plan to visit with some of our friends from the Outer Banks while they’re in town early next year, and we’ll be reaching out to my grandparents and aunt for a visit soon too. And there’s the chance for other family and friends visiting in early 2018 too! So all of that is really wonderful. If you’ll be in town by the end of February, please let us know!
I’ve been loving being a paid blogger for Outdoorsy, and my most recent article documents why I think ice cream should be a popular RV and road trip activity. In a similar vein, an opportunity to apply to manage the social media for Cancun.com has taken the world by storm, and it sounds so perfect for Ross and I (as a team) that we have applied for it. If you want to help us pay off our debts and spend six months living and working in Mexico, we’d greatly appreciate you voting for us here. No need to sign up for anything and voting is super easy – just click the button! And if you really want to help in an extra, above and beyond way, you can actually vote for us DAILY. Sharing our link and our story with your friends and family helps us get additional votes too!
Happy Hanukkah if you’re celebrating, and if you’re celebrating Christmas, we wish you a merry one. Lots of love and peace to all of you this holiday season, and thank you for your support and for following along on this journey with us!
Well, I was thinking I should update you all on our adventures in Iowa. This past Friday Ross and I had an amazing adventure in Minneapolis. After getting the boring stuff, like prescriptions and mailing things, out of the way, we headed to the Mall of America before enjoying an amazing AIP-approved dinner and an original show with friends. (Incidentally, my friend is a Smithie like me, and although we worked with each other a few times in college, I didn’t know her well. This trip is proving to be a wonderful way to meet new people and strengthen existing connections!)
Saturday we left their gorgeous home to explore downtown Minneapolis. We had tons of ideas but the focal point became a historic tour of the Old Stone Arch, ruins and the land bordering the Mississippi here. There are also amazing free things to do in this city – Art museum! Zoo! Botanical Gardens! – but the walking tour was perfect for this gorgeous, cool fall day. 
Afterwards, we headed to Pumphouse Creamery because they offer coconut milk ice cream and lots of gluten-free options, and although you should follow my ice cream blog for the full story, suffice to say that we had an absolutely phenomenal experience we will be shouting about for a long time. We even took some with us!
Our last plan was to head to Build a Bear in the MOA. Ross had gotten me a $100 gift certificate for my birthday, and he’d received one for $50 from his mom so he could build something too. I got to be a child for a few hours (I was able to build a bear and a bunny) and I seriously had the most wonderful time. It was so fun that when they offered me a $50 gift certificate for only $25, I said yes!
After grabbing dinner (we kept it under $20, yayyy!) we grabbed coffee for Ross who had a two hour drive ahead of him.
It was an uneventful drive. Well, until we were four miles from our destination. Ross turned off his high beams as a car approached – just as a deer decided to launch itself into our car. 90 minutes later we were towed back to our friend’s house, and now we wait to see what’s next. We have great coverage but we do wonder if they will want to total the car given it has over 200,000 miles. And if they repair it, I imagine it could easily take a week or two, so we may be spending Thanksgiving in Iowa after all. (So much for avoiding the 20’s as we head south!)
Whatever happens, we are extraordinarily thankful that we are safe and that we have a comfortable, free place to stay with friends. Our RV steps aren’t working right so we will try to fix them while we are here. Stay tuned for more adventures with Ross and Jamie!
  
Crafting The Life You Want: A Practice in Living 