Reflections of our RV Life and Friendships

One of the things that Bob and I have enjoyed upon embarking on our new lifestyle is something that we never anticipated: meeting people that we would form lasting friendships with. We certainly meet a lot of new people in our ventures, and the probability of staying in touch isn’t a lot as everyone is going in different directions and has their own itinerary they follow. That isn’t the case when we met Robert and Jane, last January (2009), in Quartzsite, AZ They were vendors there and I was helping out at another vendor booth. The four of us really hit it off and enjoyed spending time together and we agreed to stay in touch.

You might wonder where this story is going – while we were in South Dakota over the summer, they stopped to see us as they were traveling through on their way back home to California. Then when Bob and I were leaving San Francisco we thought we’d see if they lived near the route we were traveling on our way to Texas. As it turned out, they were leaving Houston, TX, which was where we were heading to, on their way back home to California. They didn’t live far from where we would be traveling and they would be home by the time we got there. It was great that we were able to stop and visit for a few days.

It is sad to think we would have missed out on the opportunity to meet such nice people if we hadn’t decided to workamp full-time. I guess the reason for my story is that, we are grateful and blessed to have been able to meet Robert and Jane, and know that we have a friendship that will last for the rest of our lives.

My other point is, that Bob and I have met so many nice people in our travels, that any skepticism of living in our RV full-time and workamping has cemented our decision that we made the right choice in what we are doing. It is hard to believe that we have been on the road for a year and a half already. God willing, we are looking for many more years and miles to go yet.

We will post again soon.

With Lots of Love,

Bob, Sharon & Toby

California Bound

With the hot air balloons and New Mexico behind us we are heading to South San Francisco, CA for training for our next work assignments.  We are going to See’s Candies for training in operating a kiosk, or a holiday gift center, in Texas for the holiday season.  Normally they like to fly you to San Francisco for training, but due to the fact we really didn’t have anyplace to park our RV or a babysitter for Toby, we decided to drive there.  We stayed at Candlestick RV Park, right across from Candlestick Stadium.  While the park itself was pretty safe, the neighborhood probably wasn’t the best, but it was our choice to drive there due to our limitations.

Unfortunately, we don’t have any photos of our time in San Francisco.  Our training was only for 3 days and our time was spent mostly on that without much time for site seeing.  See’s is a fantastic company to work for and they really were generous to everyone that attended the training.  We really didn’t know much about the company.  See’s is actually owned by the Berkshire-Hathaway company which is owned by Warren Buffet, but is still run the way the original family had operated it.  We must also personally endorse the candy.  Neither Bob or I had ever had See’s candy before, and we will both attest to how great it is.  They even have a variety of sugar-free candy also.

Bob and I definitely want to go back to San Francisco and be able spend some free time  farther north where we will be able to visit Alcatraz, see the Golden Gate Bridge and many other places San Francisco is known for.  We will be leaving San Francisco on 22nd then head towards Los Angeles where will stop and visit with friends before putting down roots in Texas for a couple months.

Love,

Bob, Sharon & Toby

Balloons Over Albuquerque!

We finished our summer work assignments and left South Dakota at the end of September.  Bob and I so much enjoyed our time in South Dakota.  As I have said before, it is such a beautiful area that we both love, and it is for that reason we agreed to go back for the summer of 2010 season.  From the Black Hills we headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico where we had the opportunity to attend the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.  We met some really nice people, and neither of us had ever seen hot air balloons up close.  You were even able to go out on the launch fields as they were airing up and launching the balloons.  There were over 500 balloons launching almost every day.  The wind determined whether balloons could go up or not.  Launches were scheduled early sunrise and daytime.  They even did what they called a night glow, where the balloonists would light up their balloons at night.  There were also fireworks scheduled quite a few of the nights.  The colors of the balloons were so amazing, along with the many different shapes and sizes.  Given the time and opportunity we would definitely go again.  We have made a photo album of our favorites, we hope you enjoy them.

View Full Album

Until next time, we send our Love

Bob, Sharon & Toby