Reflections...

Biking from Waveland to Bay St. Louis Riding a bike in the rain is mostly nobody’s idea of a good time. But I’m being perfectly honest when I say riding our e-bikes to Bay St. Louis in Mississippi was an absolutely stellar experience, even on a rainy day. And it’s a great example of how a simple perspective shift changes how we think about life’s storms. Yes, we got cold and wet. But also, we knew it wouldn’t be for long. At the end of the ride hot showers and comfy recliners

Our Favorite and Not-So-Favorite One-Night Stops Getting from one fabulous destination to the next, sometimes you need a place to stay for just a night or two. RVers have several options to cover those in-transition spots. Some are free, some are sketchy, and some are well worth driving out of your way for. With just the two of us, life on the road can be lonely sometimes. So, beyond providing a basic parking spot, our favorite one- or two-night option gives us a chance to me

A Sneak Peek from Turning Your Inner Bullies Into Allies So You Can Love Like Jesus From chapter five: Why Can't I Get It All Together? Redefine the Control Bully During our sailing years, I had one overriding goal, and it wasn’t to avoid shipwreck. It was just this: I didn’t want to be the story someone else told over dinner. Every time we anchored, launched the dinghy or kayak, maneuvered through a busy harbor, or furled the mainsail, I kept one eye on the task at hand whil

Worlds We May Never Experience We so appreciate YouTubers who bring us into worlds we’ve never experienced, places we’ve never been, activities we may never do, and some we just might try because now we know how. (Sure we do.) Like millions of other people, we get a kick out of vicarious living when we watch a guy chop huge chunks of snow for a supposedly cozy shelter. We discuss the reasons anyone might want to spend a night in an offshore duck blind with a blizzard coming i

I Couldn’t Believe What I Was Seeing I rounded the front end of the truck and stopped in shock. What was Roger doing in the middle of the road with his shirt off?! It only took a moment for the penny to drop. Oh, no. We Knew Better We are pros. We spent fifteen months as full-time RVers, for heaven’s sake. No more “rookie mistakes” for us. Famous last words. While living in Alabama, with a new rig and short work weeks we often camped at nearby spots in Alabama and Tennessee.

How We Build Our Expectations and Travel Calendar RV life can be so exciting, especially in the planning and anticipation. So we’ve been discussing where to go in 2026. Over time, it seems the process of deciding where to go shapes us as much as our actual experiences. Beyond that, keeping our expectations flexible and realistic helps us stay calm when things work out differently than we planned. (I'm talking much more about me here than Roger.) Choosing Priorities Our calend

But Not in My Heart Slam! The boom holding the mainsail swung sharply across the boat from right to left. Unplanned, but not unforeseen. We were about an hour out from Channel Islands Harbor and the storm we’d been watching all day had finally hit. And we were ready. Roger and our guest for the day, Kristen, stood on the cabin steps under the dodger, out of the rain that began pouring down. I braced my feet and held tightly to the wheel as the boat heeled and pulled against t

But I Looked There Three Times! Snow was in the forecast. Big snow. Record-breaking snow. And I wanted to be prepared with my best ski jacket, a light purple number with a matching fleece inner jacket. But that jacket was in storage, not in the RV. Organized Storage (NOT) Last fall we packed up our house in Alabama, preparing to move into our fifth wheel. With plenty of moving experience under our belts, you might have thought by now I’d have a foolproof system to keep track

Systems Gone Wrong I was so careful while packing up our house in Alabama. We were about to go full-time on the road again in our fifth wheel. So with the luxury of time, I labeled boxes, took pictures of the contents, and staged long-term storage boxes separately from boxes that would travel with us. I did everything right, I thought. All to no avail. An Ever-Shifting Plan Our end goal, after RVing as long as we want or can, is to live near family in Oklahoma. So it made sen

I Was Just Trying to Make Things Interesting If you know Roger, you know he likes to label himself “The Resource.” And he has the t-shirt to prove it. The t-shirt he gave me? It says, “I never question Roger’s choices because I’m one of them.” And that's a perfect introduction to share what I learned about faith and trust in the episode below. It Was Just a Joke—Wasn’t It? Back in 2022 as we drove away from our beloved Southern California mountain cabin, headed for 15 months

How Could We Not Notice? The first time it happened, we brainstormed how to keep it from happening again. To no avail. We were camping in Louisiana, the same place we had power issues (read about it here: https://www.juliergreenwalt.com/post/the-pop-we-didn-t-want-to-hear ) . Rain was pouring down as we ran to the truck and jumped in. About eight or ten miles down the road, we pulled into a Walgreens parking lot to pick up a prescription. But who was this guy and what was he

Hope Springs Eternal (Even When Slightly Unrealistic) You can’t help but hope you’ll be the one to beat the odds. Whether it’s winning the lottery or finding miraculous healing, most of us dream of being the recipient of a miracle. And some of us even buy a lottery ticket or two. So when Roger and I read the sign, “Over 33,623 found by visitors since becoming a state park in 1972,” we couldn’t help hoping we’d be the ones to score a selfie holding up the 33,624 th  diamond fo

Up Close, But Not TOO Personal I so wanted to see an alligator up close. Well, maybe not THAT close. And maybe an alligator-proof barrier between me and the gator would be a good idea. Early December provided surprisingly great weather for biking, walking, and hopefully reptile sightings at Sam Houston Jones State Park in Lake Charles, Louisiana. But with the cool nights already upon us, was it too late in the season to spot a gator swimming or sunning in the swamp? The park

It never crossed our minds that this one-night stand would be our first encounter with a faulty power post.

...with a Christmas Message from Us “Roger, he’s telling us something is wrong!” “No, no, he just likes my boat,” Roger responded confidently. “No, he’s saying we need to pull over. Take the next exit,” I insisted. And good thing Roger gave in—this time. As we slowed on the off ramp, a wheel from our boat trailer passed us and turned the corner. “Wow, God, look what happened to your boat trailer,” Roger quipped. Our anticipated sailing day was over before it started. Instead

What Do Wetsuits, Kayaks, and Dinghys Have in Common? Wetsuits, kayaks, and dinghys all look great on Instagram. Swimming with the fish, paddling along a beautiful island coastline, buzzing among anchored boats in a quiet harbor—all things we wanted to do. So for our sailboat excursions we really wanted all three. We could just see ourselves sharing exciting adventures and exploring new vistas. At the very least, these three things would give us something to do besides lounge

Insect Hitchhikers Tick…tick.  Tick-tick-tick. Tick. No, it wasn’t a bomb, and it wasn’t the cute clock in the corner. Roger and I looked at each other, thinking, Really? How many more can there be?!!  We recognized that annoying ticking. It was yet another Asian lady beetle bumping against the ceiling near the light. When will it end? Since camping near Montgomery, Alabama, in November, we’ve been swatting these little beasts daily. They’re wannabe ladybugs, as evidenced whe

Being hospitable in small spaces is part of the fun in full-time RV life. Sure, we’ve got the whole outdoors to be hospitable in, but when the weather doesn’t cooperate, what can you do to accommodate friends and family comfortably inside a travel trailer? When your friends exclaim, “It’s so cozy!” they usually mean, “It’s smaller than I thought.” Kind of like “bless her heart” doesn’t always mean what it sounds like in the South. More Space than a Cruise Ship Cabin Still, at

How do you make a home when you’re constantly pulling up stakes and moving on, when you have different neighbors, churches, stores, and restaurants every week? What do you do to feel “rooted” and comfortable wherever you are? I remember our first night at a busy campground in Southern California when we set out on our 2022-23 RV journey. I was awake for hours as my mind raced: Are we crazy? Can we really do this?? What did we forget? And most importantly, Are we gonna be able

As promised, this week's posts is an in-depth review of the Hypershell exoskeleton device Roger recently purchased.