*Welcome

Thank you for joining us on our amazing journey!  We hope you enjoy the stories and pictures from our travels.  This Full-Time RV lifestyle — mixing volunteering with seeing the sites our beautiful nation is wonderful for us.

We’re happy to hear your thoughts.  There is a comment box at the bottom of each page.  Thanks for visiting with us,

Judith & Mark

Where we plan to go:

We are booked to return to Ottawa NWR in May for the peak of the warbler migration and festival in 2023. Then we will be volunteering at the Elizabeth A. Morton NWR near the eastern tip of Long Island for the summer. Google Map  After that we plan to visit family in the Cleveland area until the weather starts to change.

Our Latest Post:

 

Spring 2023 – Arizona to OhioMay 2023

Winter in Arizona 2023March 2023

Ohio to Arizona 2022 — October 2022

Whale Watching out of Gloucester MA — Sept 2022

Wedding in Gloucester MA – Beau and LucySept 2022

Alaska Cruise — Part 2August 2022

Alaska Cruise – Part 1— August 2022

Volunteering at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge — June 2022

Spring 2022 – Arizona to Ohio — April 2022

Covid Winter in Arizona – 2022 — February 2022

Bosque delApache – Part 2 — It’s all about the birds! — December 2021

Bosque del Apache is going to the birds! — October 2021

Utah with friends and arrival at Bosque del Apache   — August 2021

Crescent City, Redwoods N.P., Lassen Volcanic N.P. — July 2021

Tule Lake, CA   — July 2021

Upper Klamath Lake & Wood River Wetland— June 2021

Black Butte Ranch & Crater Lake— June 2021

Oregon Coast – Cape Perpetua Scenic Area  — May 4, 2021

Portland – Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden — April 28, 2021

Portland – Winter into Spring 2021— April 2021

October in Oregon — October 2020

Summer in Ohio – On to Oregon — September 2020

2020 — January thru June — June 2020

Happy Holidays 2019 — A Recap of our past year – December 2019

Bosque del Apache – Part 2 – 2019 — November 2019

Bosque del Apache & Balloon Fiesta 2019 — October 2019

Visiting Friends & Family – Summer 2019— August 2019     (W Va, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Toledo, Ft. Wayne, Chicago, Wahoo, Kanab)

N Carolina Adventures – Part 2June 2019

N Carolina Adventures – Part 1 —  May 2019

Traveling to Pocosin Lakes NWR – Family & Friends—  February 2019

Volunteering at Petrified Forest National Park—  November 2018

Canyon de Chelly, Hubble Trading Post, & Monument Valley—  September 12, 2018

Olympic Peninsula, family and friends— July 20, 2018

Seattle, and vicinity —  July 5, 2018

Jasper National Park of Canada  —  July 1, 2018

Banff National Park of Canada — June 24, 2018

Waterton Lakes N.P. (CA) & Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology  —  June 22,2018

Glacier National Park  — June 16, 2018

Grand Staircase Escalante – North Rim – trip to Glacier – June 10, 2018

Page, AZ – Lake Powell – Antelope Canyon  –  June 6, 2018

Bosque del Apache – End of another season  – June 1, 2018

Beautiful Bosque del Apache — Birds & Friends  –  May 2018

Christmas, Quartzsite, and Boondocking — Plus some repairs  –  March 2018

 

Arches & Canyonlands National Parks  –  November 14, 2017

Dead Horse Point State Park  –  November 8, 2017

Mesa Verde National Park  –  November 3, 2017

Petrified Forest – Painted Desert  –  October 15, 2017

Rock Art Ranch  –  October 14, 2017

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta  –  October 12, 2017

Grand Tetons and Yellowstone  –  September 29, 2017

Devils Tower – Little Bighorn  –  September 19, 2017

More fun in South Dakota  –  September 17, 2017

Around Mt Rushmore  –  September 15, 2017

Trip to Mt. Rushmore  –  September 9, 2017

Grand Portage – Final Days  –  September 4, 2017

A Visit from Debbie  –  August, 2017

A Wedding in Youngstown.  –  July 21, 2017

Ft. William F.N. Pow-Wow and other adventures  –  July 2, 2017

First days at Grand Portage – Part 2  –  6/15/2017

Grand Portage – First Days  –  6/11/2017

Heading to Minnesota  –  May 15, 2017

Wrapping up in Texas  –  May 7, 2017

Smith Oaks Rookery – High Island, TX  –  March 9, 2017

Feb. in Texas  –  February 28, 2017

Florida: Friends & Family  –  January 28, 2017

Off to Florida  –  January 1, 2017

 

Around the Refuge – Friends and birds  –  November 22, 2016

Gila Cliff Dwellings, Silver City, City of Rocks, & Rockhound State Park  –  10-5-2016

Very Large Array, etc.  –  9-20-2016

Bosque del Apache  –  9-12-2016

Albuquerque, NM  –  September 5, 2016

Summer is coming to an end  –  August 27, 2016

Adventures around Sedona  –  July 20, 2016

Palatki – Part 2  –  July 10, 2016

Palatki Heritage Site – Sedona Arizona  –  June 16, 2016

Sedona Arizona  –  May 12, 2016

Yuma Arizona  –  April 28, 2016

Boondocking in the desert & San Diego—  April 22, 2016

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park   –  April 13, 2016

Death Valley  –  April 5, 2016

The End – And a Beginning   –  April 2, 2016

Two Scorpions, A Snake, and a Beautiful Lake   

St. Anthony’s Monastery

Arizona Desert Museum, Sonoran Lights, and a Mishap  –  February 6, 2016

Tonto National Monument & Besh Ba Gowah  –  January 29, 2016

Casa Grande pictures

Taliesin West and Phoenix Botanical Garden  –  January 26, 2016

Arizona Excursions – Part 3  –  January 19, 2016

Arizona Excursions – Part 2  –  January 11, 2016

 

Arizona Excursions – 12-24-2015

Texas to Arizona – 12/1/2015

New Orleans 11/9/2015

New Orleans – World War II Museum

Our New Adventure – Part Four

Winter Haven & Destin, Florida  –  10/25 – 11/8/2015

St. Augustine, FL  –  October 22, 2015

Charleston, SC  –  October 19, 2015

Our New Adventure — Part One

Mark “mostly retired” on September 30.  Judith retired on Friday, 10/16/2015.  For each of us, our co-workers gave us a delightful send-off and good wishes for our new adventure.

We packed up our trailer “Lucy” and pulled out of Woodside Lake Park, stopping by ALT to let Judith’s co-workers see our new home, and headed south out of Cleveland just before the first snow of the season (just a dusting) hit Cleveland.

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Our first trip – the plan  –  August 19, 2015

Our first destination – Casa Grande Ruins National Monument

Preparing for Full-Time Travel

 Woodside Lake Park

Our New Adventure – Can you spell “RV”

Our Previous Travels:

Chautauqua: IMAG0002

Oregon:           DSC_2609 (Medium)

 

Sedona:         Chicken-Point-Panorama

London:    

Tower of London
Tower of London

Western England:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
The Cotswolds

Technical Details   —  All the geeky details about calculating truck capacities, composting toilet, solar installation, etc.

8 thoughts on “*Welcome

  1. Hi, we met you guys at VbarV and talked about volunteering at Casa Grande.
    We will be passing through the area on February the third and we’re hoping to stop by and meet with you and talk with your Volunteer Coordinator about opportunities. Will this be possible and also could we arrange a night’s stay at one of your RV sites?
    Enjoyed talking with you and hope to see you then.

  2. Love your updates and still miss you here at the ruins even tho we have a great bunch of folks to work with. I think I sent an Email to Judith about why I haven’t given you the Alaska adventure info???

  3. Hello!

    Thanks for sharing your travels! How was the volunteering at the Petrified Forest? We will be volunteering there as well. Did you have an RV there? Could you share your overall experience and accommodations?

    1. Liz,

      Yes we had an RV and stayed in one of the six RV volunteer sites; the sites are comparable to many commercial campgrounds, they are not large but totally functional.

      Petrified Forest is an amazing place with amazing stories… Painted Desert & Painted Desert Inn, Puerco Pueblo & Newspaper Rock, Blue Mesa, and of course the Petrified Forest itself. Much of the park is available to unsupervised hiking, it is National Wilderness Area.

      The park requires a background/security check before they allow you to have keys to any of the buildings. This seems reasonable, however you need keys to do almost all of your job (open the visitor’s center, open the Painted Desert Inn, travel from one end of the park to the other after closing time) and it took a LONG time to get this. Plus, communication among staff was a problem, so for my wife they had the necessary level of clearance but it took another month to get her the keys — by then we were down to our last four weeks before leaving.

      While the Interpretation staff is very welcoming of Volunteers, Park Management seemed to prefer to ignore us. We had been there over two months before we met the Park Manager, and then only because we went up and introduced ourselves as he was walking past. This has not been our experience at other NPS sites (National Monuments) and Wildlife Refuges. Maybe it is just PFO or maybe it reflects the larger size of a National Park, however it was disappointing. (We don’t need constant “strokes” from management, but a little acknowledgement that we at least exist and are providing a service would be nice.)

      Overall, it was a mixed experience. Stay on top of your volunteer coordinator about the security clearance & keys, maybe that will make it a better experience for you.

  4. Mark and Judith! I was so glad to see your blog email. Sorry I didn’t get to see you on your last weekend at the refuge but I am SO happy I got to meet both of you! I am still playing Wordle and I plan on sending you any questions I have on gardening 🙂 Hope the eye is better, Mark!
    Can’t wait to see you two next year at the wildlife refuge!! <3

  5. The whale watching photos are so great! I will enjoy showing the kids later. Best wishes to you, Sarah and the family

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