Living The RV Life – Week 1

Happy July! As of July 1, 2019, my family and I have embarked on a new chapter, living, working and enjoying life while living full-time in an RV.

As I mentioned in my most recent newsletter, we have moved out of the sticks and bricks house that we were living in for the past nine years, and are now learning to live with one another in a much smaller space. The month of June turned out to be pretty crazy, even more so than I was actually expecting it to be. Between moving my daughter home from college, packing up the things we wanted to keep and moving that to storage, then moving all the stuff we needed to keep with us into the RV, having an estate sale to get rid of all the other stuff, and doing all the last-minute tasks with the rental house, to say I was exhausted by the end of the month would be an understatement.

But now here we are, the beginning of July and we’re on the road.

Day one was eventful in that we also have a slightly neurotic cat traveling with us. On the advice of an assoicate at a local pet store, we tried giving her a CBD/Hemp oil for anxiety. Needless to say, it didn’t work very well. After about an hour of her yowling, we let her out to roam around. That seemed to help a bit. We just have to be careful to keep her out from under the driver’s feet.

When we departed Monroe Washington in the morning, we left behind the rain, clouds, and cool temperatures, and headed east. Our first stop was an overnight in Moses Lake Washington, where we were greeted with sunshine, warmer temperatures, and blue skies, until that evening when thunderstorms and a lot of rain decided to make an appearance. Fortunately for all of us, we didn’t have to go out or do anything, but rest and enjoy the evening. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see much of Moses Lake, though it looks like a nice place to visit. Perhaps we’ll make it back through here someday again.

Our next stop was Coeur d’Alene Idaho, where we stayed for 3 days. Driving the interstate over from Washington made that trip pretty easy going. The cat finally figured out her places to sleep or look out the window, yet she still found her voice to let us know what she was thinking. If only we could understand what she was actually saying. Maybe it was “oh, look, cows.” Or “hey, look at that scenery.” I at least like to think that’s what she was commenting on.

We celebrated Independence day with other Idahoans, in downtown Coeur d’Alene. Exploring shops, food, local artists, and of course fireworks. Never having been here before, I found it to be a unique and charming city. A mix of vintage America and a community that is embracing the arts too. There were a lot of outdoor sculptures throughout the city, including this guy.

We had some amazing food too. A fisherman’s market, where I had a Shrimp Po Boy, almost as good as what I’d get in Louisiana, small batch ice cream, in unique flavors like orange & cardamom, and a dinner at a local tap house, where they had some amazingly good salads and a garbanzo bean cake with roasted tomato and a balsamic reduction.

This is definitely a place I want to come back and visit again. There was so much more to see and do and just not enough time.

Next up is Missoula Montana. We’ll be there for a week, so I’m sure I’ll have plenty more to share.