The grain really is amber when RVing in Kansas…

We really enjoyed RVing to Kansas City and also to Abilene, Kansas.

We rolled into Kansas City starving at 8:30 pm. We were ooo-ing and ahh-ing at the beautiful houses and neighborhoods on our way to a family restaurant called Stroud’s.

Stroud’s Restaurant is known for their  family style fried chicken. The chicken was good but we all agreed that there were two things that really made us want to come back and eat there again.

First was our waitress Elaine. She was terrific!

Second was that they bring you a basket of hot cinnamon buns to your table. We thought we’d died and gone to heaven these cinnamon buns were so delicious!

RVing in Kansas City…Seeing Old Friends

While RVing in Kansas City, we visited with our friends Maddie, Luke and Gretchen. It was wonderful to see our friends who had moved last year from Cape Cod to Kansas City.

Gretchen is a fabulous cook and it was so nice to sit in a kitchen and chat with an old friend.  They are really enjoying Kansas City and we can see why. It is a beautiful, friendly city with tons of fun things to do and lots of parks.

RVing in Kansas and World War 1

We went to the World War I Museum.  We had traveled tot he Somme battle field several years ago when the boys were 5 and 7 so we felt we truly needed a refresher course on the causes  and settings of the “War To End All Wars.”  There were several exhibits on the situation in the U.S., Europe and its various colonies in the decade before the War broke out.

We  learned all about the causes, participants, uniforms, artillery, ships and airplanes used in World War 1.  We also learned that it was never called WWI until after WWII had begun….it was called “The Great War”.

The museum was excellent and we all enjoyed reading the exhibits and viewing the video presentations. We were engrossed in the exhibits  for over three hours but we could easily see spending the day there!

It is very fitting that Truman, a WWI veteran, has a Presidential library less than 30  minutes away!

Rving and Legos…of Course

And then we spent six fun hours at Legoland Discovery Center. Eli says Legoland was amazing, especially miniland as it was a replica of a
miniature Kansas City and also had a full set of miniatures from the Wizard of Oz!We would go there again! It had a soft play area and we
spent hours building a great wall of Lego!

Rving to Harry Truman’s House

We also drove over to Independence Missouri and visited the Harry Truman home and Presidential Library.  The Truman Home was awesome and we all liked it better than the Eisenhower home.

The guide was enthusiastic about the the tour and we  could almost feel the ghosts of Harry and Bess sitting in their kitchen. The Truman Library was fantastic and we learned a lot about Harry Truman’s work ethic,  boyhood and war service as well as the issues he faced ending World War 2 and the Korean Conflict.

Truman was quite a leader on the battlefield and politically.

Rving with Ike

Then we went RVing through beautiful ‘amber waves of grain’ highways to Abilene, boyhood home of five star General, Supreme Commander of the European Allied Forces and President Eisenhower.

Alex especially liked the Eisenhower museum as it had significant detail and exhibits on WWII and the 1950s. We all like Ike!

The drive along route 70 to Colorado was beautiful…long but beautiful.

We are looking forward to exploring more of Kansas next trip.

How about you??

RVing full time

If you’re RVing with kids, it requires ALOT of planning. After all, you can’t just “show up” at Yellowstone National Park on the fourth of July weekend and expect for them to have a full hookup RV site for you ready and waiting for you.

So as much as RVing full time is all about spontaneity, getting away from the “structured life” , and “location independence”…when push comes to shove, you’ll need to do some research, planning and preparation.

The Most Important RVing Full Time Tip

The most important thing when RVing, aside from making sure you have enough gas to get to your destination, is far and away the choices you make for RV parks.

And the best way to make sure the RV parks you are thinking if staying at are not complete dumps, we recommend checking RV park reviews on the Internet prior to booking.

Another great way to get information on RV parks is to ask your friends and have them make recommendations as well.

You can also go to RV forums and ask questions on these RVing sites as well. Campers love sharing their wealth of information! If they enjoyed a campground, then ask them which particular area of that campground would they recommend that you stay in.

Great Full Time RVing RV Park Reviews

If you are like us a bit and are more prone to flying by the seat of your pants, go online and read the reviews.

One site in particular that I used constantly was www.rvparkreviews.com. Another great RVing full time review site we love to use is yelp.com.

Between the two of them, these are two of the most popular RV campsite review sites online and has hundreds of RV park reviews available to you.

Sometimes people give recommendations for neat things to do in the area, which will help you in deciding what to do once you get there.

If for some reason, you cannot find a good RV campground on either of those sites, simply search for the campground name followed by “reviews” and more often than not, you’ll get really good information to make your RV campsite choice easier.

RV Park Review Watch Outs

Now keep in mind that when you are looking up rv park reviews, there are always going to be people with nothng better to do who somehow find the time to write bad reviews. So if you see twenty great reviews and one really bad one, then there’s not need to stay away from that RV park.

If you see multiple bad reviews however, then you may want to find another RV park.

When we were RVing full time in Springfield, Illinois, our RV park choices were a bit slim. We Googled reviews and couldn’t find many RV parks that would fit our fifth wheel except one, the KOA in Springfield.

In the review online however there were four reviews, two good and two not so good ones.

But after reading all four RV reviews, the objections they had seemed so minor, we booked it anyway. We ended up staying at that RV park for five days and had a great time.

So if the objections are relatively minor, then chances are the RV park is just fine, especially if the pictures look good.

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This whitewater trip down the Snake River was just one of the memories that will always last with our children

“We all have a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.”.

-Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

There are two things I have always wanted to do in my life along with having a happy family life and a solid career in the satellite business.

I have always yearned to travel, uninterrupted across the world with a backpack (and no reservations) and I have always wanted to do a full time RVing trip across the United States.

Truth be told, it was our family friend, Mrs. Chapin who first inspired me to do the full time Rving trip.

My Inspiration to RV Full Time

In the mid 1970’s Mrs Chapin took a pop-up trailer and drove with her two boys, twelve and fourteen, across the northern US  to reach Seattle to visit her cousins. They were gone almost the entire summer.

Mr. Chapin flew out to Seattle to meet them and drive home with them. It was a trip they would never forget and apparently I never did either.

The Chapins had two children and I am the eighth child from a family of nine. There was no way we could not travel as a family in that way. In fact, I can’t imagine a camper that would fit us all or imagine my self-employed parents ever able to leave their business concerns for more than two days.

I always marveled at the Chapin’s freedom, the interesting sights they saw and what they learned about our country.

RVing Full Time and Me

For years, I yearned to see what ‘purple mountains majesty’ really meant and what the heck was a ‘fruited plan?’  I longed see cowboys, railroads, the land of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the rivers of Mark Twain..all things we have seen on this full time RV trip.

I read incessantly, mostly children’s biographies, carried encyclopedias to the dinner table and was bascially a pest to my older siblings and parents in my quest to know about everything.

Knowing my thirst for travel, my parents took me on my first real road trip during the summer when I was 12.

Just my parents and I flew to North Carolina to pick up a school bus and my dad drove it home. We still talk about that trip and all its wonderful details!

To this day, we still reminisce about the hot dogs we ate, the nice man at the service station, seeing Washington, DC for the very first time (me) and then Pennsylvania and ending with the aquarium in Mystic Connecticut.

I will always treasure that quality time with my parents.

It inspired in me a love for travel, boosted my interest in history and national landmarks and inspired me to later live in Washington, DC.  It was a huge thing for my parents to take this trip, this time away from their business and other children and a very large expense for them at the time.

Yet, I remember this trip much more keenly and recall it more than any event of my youth…

The Real Influence of RVing Full Time

Now as we take our own children RVing full time on a cross country trip, I wonder what they will remember most in 30 years and what parts of this trip they will latch onto and how it will shape their lives. What experiences from this trip will inspire them and possibly even alter the course of their lives?

How will their lives be changed?

It will be interesting to see exactly what they remember most, what they learn, what they will take away from it all.

My hope is that they will remember it as one of the great adventures of their lives and that it inspires them to do great things as a result of at least some of the things they learned along the way.

Only time will tell…

What things have inspired you and have altered the course of your life?

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Awesome! Go celebrate. Pop that bottle of Veuve Clicquot you’ve been saving way in the back of the fridge.

When you wake up from your hangover, its time to get to work….you now need to decide on a few things on your RV full time trip.

Here’s a few key points you’ll need to consider:

1. Timeframe

This is the biggest decision you’ll make after making the actual decision to full time RV. So ask yourself:

• Is this full time RV trip forever?

• Is it just a summer excursion?

• Is it just for a full year then back to reality?

Whatever it is, this is the biggest decision you’ll need to make when full timing.

Why? Because this decision will affect all others in planning your full time RV trip. It will affect where you go, what you can see and what RV parks you can stay in, just to name a few.

2. RV Campsite Length of Stay

Once you decide how long you’re full time RVing, then consider how long you want to stay at each spot.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you like to set up, do a quick tour of the local area and get out within a couple of days?

• Do you like to unpack, stay a while and call it home for a week or two and get to know the area as a local?

3. RV Accessories

Time frame will also determine which RV accessories you’ll need as well.

Do you need to get your RV supplies along the way in each location or do you need to pack them ahead of time?

4. RV Driving Time

A major factor many full time RV families don’t think of is driving time between destinations. For us, we decided that we didn’t want to have to drive more than 5 hours driving per day. We stuck to that in all our planning and we’re glad we did.

5. Special Events

Next, factor in any special events that you have to get to at a certain time and day. This will seriously affect your schedule. Perhaps Uncle Ed’s 90th birthday in Dubuque is a must be at event you cannot miss. If so, factor it into the time frame and schedule.

For us, whad a U2 concert in Chicago we had to get to by the first week in July. We had to rush our way through the Eastern U.S. to make sure got there in time.

6. Trips Back Home

Maybe you need to plan a trip home for a “visit” in the middle of your trip. Before our full time RV trip, we planned a return home for November for business meetings and a family function.

Also, plan on unplanned events in your schedule. We needed to come home in September because my father became ill. This was an unplanned return home, but a vitally important one.

7. Fluff Time

Lastly, think of any unplanned “off the itinerary’ stops you may want to make. For example, we were in upstate New York and saw the Fuller Glass Museum, but couldn’t stop because our RV schedule wouldn’t allow it. We regret that we couldn’t hit this museum due to the fact that the schedule was so tight. This is a big mistake many full timers make.

So make sure you build in some “fluff time’ into the itinerary and always plan on unexpected stops to enhance your full time RV experience.

Doing this will keep the family fresh and make your full time RV trip so much more enjoyable.

So learn from our mistakes and a few of our good decisions when you’re planning your full time RV trip.

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So are you ready to go full time RVing? Post your comments below!

"The O's" all together again in Wisconsin

“The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country I am homesick for the other.”

– Grandfather’s Journey, Written and Illustrated by Allen Say

To me, the children’s book Grandfather’s Journey is simply haunting.

It’s about longing for two places at once and the feelings one gets having lived in two countries.  I oftentimes feel this way while full time RVing…

In a nutshell, Grandfather’s Journey is a story of a Japanese man who is fascinated by California and moves there for a long time and then is homesick for his family, friends and the hills of his childhood and moves back to Japan.

However, as time goes by and he is homesick for California.

His heart, it seems is in two places as he loves them both…

My “Nono” (grandfather in Italian) had no such longing for two places. He was solid in his love for his small village of Sagamore in Cape Cod Massachusetts.  He had no desire to travel to Italy, the country of his parents.  It was family and friends that made up the fabric of his life.

As for friends, Nono told me that if you were lucky enough, you may have one or two true friends in your life but it was unlikely that you would ever have more true friends than fingers on one hand…

I believed this wholeheartedly for my entire young adult life and then I moved away from home for several years, made two true friends in college (Karen) and one in graduate school (Annette) and then I settled in Chicago.

My great friends Karen and husband Andy chillaxin in the full time RV in Galena

Amidst the heartbreak that marked my stay in Chicago, it was there that I met the kind of true friends that great writers immortalize in songs and stories.  I met friends that stood by me in days of sadness and celebrated any successes and joys. I met friends who I knew that I could (and still can) call in the middle of the night and friends that would drive six hours to see me for two if I happened to be in a neighboring city.

Karen and full time RVers Alex and Eli

I met friends that would come to my aid if I called, when I called, no matter where I was or more importantly no matter where they were in place or situation…it even happened when we were RVing full time in Wisconsin.

And on a moments notice on a sleepy Sunday morning, they were there for us. Thanks Missy and Tom!

Tom and Missy to the rescue to fix the broken awning. Thanks guys!

Chicago, and its surrounding area, is a bittersweet place for me to return to and yet when I am thinking of the Midwest, of my friends, their families, the familiar landmarks, way of life, I do long for the chance to go there.

Unlike Grandfather’s Journey, it is not “the mountains and rivers” that draw me back. It is the bonds of true friendship, our shared memories, the promise of more, and the feeling I get when I am around a true kindred spirit.

So when we decided to do this full time RVing trip, my priority was to make sure we hit all the spots in the Midwest where my friends had settled so that we could reconnect and so my children and husband could meet them again.

It is such a joy for me to see my boys sharing their love of all things Harry Potter with Karen; begging  Uncle Andy for a firehouse story, hugging Karen’s mom Dalia or listening to Karen’s sister Ronna and  husband David laughing with them over Dalia’s birthday lunch.

Dalia giving Eli his massage (after Eli gave one to her)!

Watching our boys talk with my friend Mike, playing in the lake with Dyllan and Zoe and calling my friends Mellissa, Jill and me by our old “O” nicknames (Missy O!, JillyO!, and JennyO!) was truly heartwarming.

Me and old friend Mike Turnbull

Eli and Zoe messing aroud in Wisconsin

As we drove over the Mississippi for the final time, I was feeling deeply sad, Alex gently reminded me that I need to learn to use Skype and use it every week so I can see my Midwest friends more. It was a push into the virtual world of the 21st century by my 10 year old.

Ales, Dyllan and Eli the Wisconsin Swamis

I have since made many true friends in my career and upon my return to the Cape and no longer believe that the “five finger rule” applies to my life but can imagine that it may in others.  For my part, I take immense comfort in having such good friends at home and in faraway places. I always have a place to go!

And that is that’s one of the reasons why we went RVing full time and chose this route of travel, because I missed my dear Midwest friends!    And like Grandfather’s Journey, the funny thing is that when you are with people that you care deeply about, you feel as if you are home.

But don’t worry Mom, we are coming back….

If you want to go RVing full time in the big rig, you gotta know your mission and your time frame!

So, you want to go full time RVing?

In our first post in this series we discussed the importance of being flexible and your mindset for living in an RV full time.

So here we get to the next important step in the process of planning your full time RV trip, mission and time frame.

What’s Your RVing Mission?

It may seem kind of obvious, but without this you’re going to wander around aimlessly as you try to plan your full time RV trip. You full time RV mission could be any number of things, but the most important thing in this step is to figure out what you want to accomplish with your family.

So what do you really want to see? Some ideas to answer this question include:

• National Parks in every state?

• Baseball fields across the US?

• Historical sites?

• Amusement parks?

• Antique shows?

• Museums?

• Natural wonders?

• Craft Fairs?

• Your 72 cousins spread across the country?

• The 4^th grade curriculum of the western movement?

• All of the restaurants that you’ve seen featured on “ Diners, Drive-ins and Dives”?

It could be any of these goals (or more) or a combination of them all. Whatever it is, start there.

Map It Out

Start by creating a list of your “must  see’s” and plot them on a map.  Now, for each member of your family this could mean a different  genre.

If your husband is a history buff (like mine), historical sites and battlefields were top priority to him, as were the baseball fields; you know that he had to get his MLB fix too!

For me, the history was ever so important:  I just HAD to see Laura Ingalls Wilder’s house, the Henry Ford Museum, and Abe Lincoln’s house too.

For our family, we tried to build much of the trip around the kid’s school curriculum that way we could tie lessons plans into real life exposure.

Get Some Travel Books

This is a good point to get some travel books on both full time RVing and travel in the US and Canada. You may stumble upon some other areas of interest to add to your itinerary.

Some of our favorites:

• 1,000 Places to See Before You Die

• Life: Heaven on Earth: 100 Places to See in Your Lifetime

• Frommer’s Exploring America by RV

• Off the Beaten Path: A Travel Guide to More Than 1000 Scenic and Interesting Places Still Uncrowded and Inviting

• Live Your Road Trip Dream: Travel for a Year for the Cost of Staying Home

• Road Trip America: A State-By-State Tour Guide to Offbeat Destinations

Whatever it is for your family, start there and then you can connect the dots to develop your route.

After you have done this then its time to figure out your time frame…

Determine Your Time Frame

What is the duration of your trip?  Is it a summer?  A year?  Decide how long you have and how much time you want to allocate to each general area of the trip.  For example one month in the Northeast, go for a full year cross country or by September you want to be in Seattle.

Write it down and decide how long you’ll be away.

• Decide how long you want to stay at each spot 

Do you like to set up, do a quickie of the area, see the sites and get out within a couple of days?  Or do you like to unpack, call it home for a week or two and enjoy the surroundings as a local?

• RV driving considerations

Its very important to take into account the amount of driving that you want to do in between destinations.  We knew that we never wanted more than a 6 or 7 hour driving day.  Others don’t mind a 12 hour day behind the wheel if it gets them to the next location.

• Events to plan around?

Also are there any events that you have to get to be a certain time?  For example, we want to be at Uncle Lou’s family reunion in Nebraska by July 4^th or we want to see the Rose Bowl parade in January in California?

Or maybe you want to plan a trip home for a “visit” in the middle of your trip.

For us, we planned a trip home for November and December.  As a family, having never been away from home for this duration of time, we wanted a scheduled-in time to go home and see our family and friends.  The holidays seemed the perfect time to go home for a visit, catch up, regroup, and avoid the winter roads.

Lots of things to consider when planning an RV trip full time.

Comment below and tell us what you think. Or at the very least please “Share” this article on Facebook or Twitter by pressing the button on the left!

I tell EVERYONE who will listen about how Pittsburgh is a beautiful city. Its clean with tons of character, history and a great skyline and now I can tell about the best dinner I ever ate…in Pittsburgh!

It was just last year (at my behest) that Ralph and I celebrated our 11th “Steel Anniversary” last year in the City of Steel.

Ummm… for those of you NOT versed in traditional anniversary gift lore, steel is the recommended gift for the 11th anniversary…just Google it if you don’t believe me!

Well we found ourselves in Pittsburgh again as I had a customer meeting there and we wanted our boys to see a city we enjoyed so much.

Add the Red Sox playing the Pirates this weekend in town and all this just happened to occur during our anniversary weekend…

Beautiful PNC Park

This anniversary year for us is #12 and the recommended traditional gift is silk and the recommended modern gift is pearl or a trip to Asia.

Hmmmm……for this #12 anniversary present and given our full time RV trek across the USA, I’m thinking that Hawaii would be a good extension of our trip.

For one thing, Pearl ( get it?) Harbor is in Hawaii and that would be like going to Asia. I mean, can’t Hawaiians “see Asia out their back window?”

(I HAD to write that!!!)

Anyway, I digress…

We celebrated our 12th anniversary with my parents and the boys at a fabulous restaurant called Elements in downtown Pittsburgh, recommended by our friend, neighbor and most importantly restaurant picking genius, Tim LaCasse. Thank you Tim!!!!!

I will always remember this anniversary night at Elements Cuisine where I truly had the best meal of my life.

Alex drinking tea at Elements

It was such a fantastic meal that I was hard pressed to let Ralph have a bite. I had the Ricotta Gnocchi with Lamb Bolognese, absolutely amazing…and to top off the meal we all ordered dessert.

Alex and I had the tempura chocolate cherries…Alex was moaning over how good it was and for a full two days after that dinner, although we had to get back on the road on our RV full time journey, both our boys begged to go back to Elements Cusine to eat again. It is amazing that Elements is also the place where both of our children actually ate cows tongue and liked it.

Now that is a memorable on its own merit never mind that hismis the very first restaurant where they have begged to return.

Elements whetted my children’s appetite for excellent food and encouraged them to try new foods. We talked about different flavors all night long and the next day too.

Although you wouldn’t think a really nice night out to dinner could be a learning experience for kids, it was. It was a great education in “fine food”, thoughtful conversation and a huge treat too.

So if we don’t get to Pearl Harbor…

…at least we did celebrate at the best restaurant in Pittsburgh.

Hats off to Justin and his crew of food wizards at Elements for the best meal I have ever had! Cheers!

OK all you hosers…we are neighbors with Canada right? And what do neighbors do…”hey neighbor, can I borrow a half a stick of butter?”…of course they share FOOD!

We are only showing Bob and Doug McKenzie above because, although they are very funny, this is usually all most Americans really know about Canada…which is really kinda sad.

Well, we at Full Time RV Family have truly discovered that there is much more to know about Canada…and not only is it all about the people…but its also about THE FOOD!

Before we traveled in an RV full time to Canada , I was under the impression that there was no real difference in the types of food in Canada And the food in the US.

I’m sorry to say, I was mistaken and the food companies are pulling one over one us!

Mike’s Hard Blueberry Lemonade.,.since when did Canada get the lock on blueberry flavor??? Mmmmmm Canadian blueberry….

Ketchup potato chips…wake up Heinz, these should’ve been invented in Pittsburgh, PA…

Real Canadian bacon (It is not ham, y’know)

Malt Loaf.. An awesome hearty alternative to an English muffin!

And Ralph’s favorite…Tortiere, traditional French Canadian fabulous meat pie consisting of pork beef pastry with spiciest including nutmeg and cloves.

And the candy!!……Eli covered most of it however a quick overview of the types of candy we brought back to do a taste test with Nonnie and Bumpa while in Pittsburgh.

Aero bars..regular and mint…Alex and Ralph’s favorite..a chocolate bar filled with puffs of air so light it melts in your mouth…take a look:

Smarties ( M&M…like but with Nestle chocolate and better colors)….

Kinder eggs…chocolate eggs with toys inside…beats the Happy Meal any day of the week because it has less calories and better toys!

*****THE WINNER!!! The Wonderbar..the clear favorite with Jen, Eli, Nonnie and Bumpa.

Coffee crisp. A coffee flavored wafer bar, very good!!!

Aunt Sarah’s Simply Delicious Bar…this was just ok, a dark toffee bar with peanut chips. Eli was the only one who liked it…

URGENT Note to those traveling south from Canada from the Full Time RV Family…. BRING US THE WONDERBAR!!!

OK…that’s the Full Time RV Family scoop on Canadian food.

We are looking forward to crossing the border in Montana in August though….

Alex, Eli and Dad kiss the Stanley Cup - although no 2011 Bruins names were on it yet!

The irony is that we will always remember the fabulous time we had during our visit to the greater Toronto area and this has nothing to do with any tourist attraction or museum. In fact, we only visited one museum during our six days here. In the end our trip here was all about visiting our friends.

We were greeted at our RV campsite on our very first night by my old friends Krista and Dave Lewis.

Our first "RV house guests" Dave and Krista Lewis

They came with wine and cheese and welcomed us warmly to Canada. Their two boys are a few years older than ours and I have always gleaned good advice and tips from Krista on raising sons.  It was so nice after all these years to have Krista and Dave meet my family.  We were excited to meet their boys and arranged a dinner for our last night in Canada.

The very next day we left our RV for a weekend at our cousin’s cottage.  It was wonderful to spend a full weekend with my childhood friend and cousin Sandy, her husband Grant and their two terrific sons Kobe and Tyler. We all bonded instantly and it was so moving to watch our children play together as if they had always known each other.

Cousins Kobe and Tyler laugh it up with Eli

To see Sandy interact with our boys and to watch Grant take all the boys endlessly around the lake in his boat, expertly coaching them to waterski and knee board  and listening to the cheers and encouragement from their cousins Kobe and Ty are memories I will always treasure.

We had such a fantastic time with them, we stayed another full day.

Eli and Tyler

Sure, we could’ve gone up in the CN Tower but would’ve missed playing with our cousins.  We gave our kids a choice…” Go to the CN Tower or play with your cousins after school”. They picked playing with their cousins hands down, no contest.  I think the only reason we actually got to see the Hockey Hall of Fame is because the cousins had to go to school on Monday.

Elis pays tribute to the Boston Bruins at The Hockey Hall of Fame

We then traveled north to see our dear friends Tony and Carol in scenic Chalet country near Lake Huron.

"The Chair" goes to Chalet Country in Ontario, Canada

What a beautiful place and what fabulous people.  They had an outstanding rock garden that the boys and I explored for two hours, we walked around the Blue Mountains for some awesome views and we dipped our toes in Lake Huron too!  After we ate our first beaver tail  (see Alex’s review on RVing in Canada for kids).

Eli explores the rock garden at Auntie Charlies and Uncle Tonys

Uncle Tony took the boys off to the ” three pools”  (indoor, outdoor and billards) while Carol and I walked on the shores or Lake Huron…beautiful! We had a dinner of a delicious Tortiere (French Canadian Meat pie), real Canadian bacon (not that ham stuff we US folk get in our grocery store) and Ontario strawberries..

Uncle Tony feasts on Tortiere, Candian backbacon and delicious Malbec!

We learned all sorts of fascinating Cultural things about Canada and, as you can tell, all enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Eli and Auntie Charlie take a walk together

Our last night, we went to Krista’s home for dinner.  I came very close to tears when I saw our friend Len who drove from the five hours from Ottawa to Toronto just to have dinner with us and meet our boys for the first time.  I had not seen Len in almost two years since his retirement party (SOB!!) and had missed him greatly.

All of us with the newly minted Boston Bruins fan, Len Lawson

Well, to say that we had a fantastic dinner is an understatement at best.  We arrived at Krista’s (sadly Dave was on a business trip) at 3 pm and rolled out of her home, reluctantly, at 10 pm. We couldn’t stop talking. We found out to our delight that Len will be in The West during the same time that we are there and so made plans to get together then as well as plans to come visit Len in his historic Ottawa hometown during the winter to visit and skate on the canals.

Krista is an talented hostess and cook. Having two boys herself, Krista had asked our two  what their favorite meals was and came up an extensive menu of steak, lamb, potatoes, green beans, Caesar salad, corn and berries with whipped cream.  Alex and Eli were so happy to eat their favorite foods and  I am still full as I write this.  Her sons Owen and Matthew were very kind to our two boys. After all the years of hearing about them,  it was heartwarming to see these two much older boys  letting Alex and Eli play their drums and guitars and talking with them.

Owen, Matthew, Krista, Alex and Eli after our delicious meal!

These “never to be forgotten” experiences would not have happened if we had let the museums be our goal for this trip.    And so, I learned again the most important rule about RVing full time:

It is all about the people.

RVing is less about all the things you see and much more about the people you meet and the bonds of friendship you forge along the way.  The rest of the museums and destinations will all still be here when we return next year to see all our friends and family.

The whole fam-damily (nearly) at Auntie Mary and Uncle Skippy’s house!

 
 

Alex and Eli saying goodbye to Nonnie and Bump

Jen and Ralph also scheduled breakfasts, lunches and dinners with our soon to be dearly missed friends and this was capped by three wonderful  parties: one at the Waters home with all our Burns family relatives, one by our neighbors The LaCasses and The Sheehy’s (on the beach!) and lastly by my parents the Sorenti’s who hosted almost our entire family.

All of these wonderful loved ones cooked and  served while we relaxed and enjoyed their company. THANK YOU ALL!!  We love you!

June 12, 2011

We left our  our home with a tearful send off by our family and dear friends. While I am looking forward to our trip, I wish we could caravan with our loved ones. They are counting on  us to deliver news and updates to them regularly and we will not disappoint.

And SURPRISE !! Our friends Rich and Laurie met us at the Westborough exit off of the Mass Pike to say good bye. They met us with cards, chocolate and pictures and a step stool for the boys.

Friends Rich and Laurie drove all the way out to Westboro to "intercept" the Full Time RV Family!

Then on to Cooperstown, NY. We arrived safely and set up the RV at the Campground in record time so that we could have dinner, and a much anticipated playdate, with our friends from CCA, the Lancey’s.  We had a terrific time and it was the perfect ending to a bittersweet day of leaving our family and friends to follow this road trip dream.  None of us wanted to leave the Lancey home when we finally pulled out of there at 10 pm! Thank you friends for a wonderful time for the warm hospitality, the terrific dinner, great conversation, book tapes and firewood!  We very much appreciate your kindness.

Tomorrow its on to the Baseball Hall of Fame…..

The future hall of famer Eli Sorenti-Burns