One two three...go!

If you RV you might have experienced this feeling. If you are not an RV'er what I am about to talk about might ring true to you when you vacation at a new place.  You book this destination and now that it's all said and done you have this slight anxiety;  did I book the right destination, a place that I will enjoy fully, with no regrets?  When we left our last location in Napa and decided to commit to our current place, being a caretaker at the Sikes Adobe Historic Farmstead in Escondido,  CA,  this is the exact feeling I had!  Would this place be a good fit for our desires, the experience we seek, the kind of memory we want to create?  I am the planner and the person in our relationship that seeks out new places to visit, for the most part. In the past I was the one finding vacation destinations and the best deals, the best prices for our budget.  Over time I noticed that once we would get to that spot that I booked, I still wasn't done comparing...

10 months ago we left Colorado and started our adventure.  We had no idea nor plans for how long our travel journey would last. Boy did time fly!  Joe and I counted the other day:  19 destinations now lay behind us and thousands of miles traveled.  Are you the type "A" kind of personality that has to plan all the details of your vacation before ever arriving?   Or are you the "B"  type that just wants to kick back and not do a whole lot and see what the day brings? In our case I am the "A" type while my dear hubby 😘 is the "B". Yes I was the vacation planner to the T!  I had a list, places to see, excursions listed, night life options to choose from.  Yes they all made it to the list.  No we didn't have a strict  itinerary.   The list just meant that we didn't spend hours Googling things.  They were already there, on that piece of paper and all we had to do was pick an option....

A new business venture! If it wasn't for friends believing in us! In Joe and my case, our good friend Keith is the believer and driving force that is behind my new Facebook page: "Tiny Home Makeovers By Ulrike ". Keith was the reason we stayed in Las Cruces, New Mexico for 2 months.  We property sat for him.   We also had the privilege to meet him in person for a few days and we all just clicked and became friends effortlessly.  Keith (in above picture with baseball cap) was impressed as soon as he walked into our 5th wheel. Then there were posts made on   "The RV Bunch".   People really reacted to pictures of our renovations. You put all of this positivity together and the result was...: " Hey let's see if we can turn our love for overhauling, my passion for decorating and beautifying spaces into a business?!" With that being said, I will share with you my very first video that I just made today. It's ...

So here we are in this surreal time, Corona virus time, that is. For the ones of you who subscribe to my blog (well and if you haven't done so yet, get on board!) you know that we moved to our current southern California location not too long ago. About 2 weeks into the lift off of Corona time! Deciding on this job at this location here in Escondido, CA seemed like a good solution for us: We'd be close to family and a few friends. That was the biggest bonus. A 30 minute drive and we are at the beach! But really, the property we help take care of sits beautifully located in close proximity to all amenities.         The Sikes.Adobe So now we are about 7 weeks into life of social distancing.  A term I had never heard before this all went down. The new norm is going to the grocery store and laundromat with facemasks. Not just regular ones I should add, no we have the fancy N95 deluxe models covering our faces, leaving beautiful imprints on our skin for...

Workamping  At one point or another, whether you are an RV'er or not, you might have heard of the term workamper or camphost. If you are NOT familiar with either one, let me briefly shet light into this mystical word, because I am nice or because its Thursday! Often when you live a full time RV life you need or want to find a way to either offset your cost for living expenses or to entertain yourself  or socialize or all of the above!  Often when you camphost, you work at a campground and you help check in guest, do basic maintenance work,  some cleaning, sell firewood and shower coins etc. in exchange for full hookup.  The lovely internet provides tons of options to look for jobs all over the world and that's how we found our camphost job in Napa Valley. We were looking forward to meeting lots of people,  hanging out with the other camphosts, while sharing stories with each other of how RV life really is. And then life h...

Coming from  Colorado Springs, we are no strangers to fires, and we are not talking romantic camp fires here. Looking back, it seems like fires have become the norm in recent years, unfortunately. I remember the 2012 Waldo Canyon fire too well that destroyed over 18.000 acres of beautiful land and almost wiped out an entire neighborhood of 346 homes in my home town of Colorado Springs, CO. https://youtu.be/-WydTS3WprM https://www.kktv.com/content/news/Neighbors-gather-five-years-after-homes-burned-in-Waldo-Canyon-Fire-430996283.html Only a short year later Black Forest, situated on the outskirts of Colorado Springs, was largely burned down after it lost over 14.000 acres of heavily pined land, and 486 homes plus the lives of 2 people. https://youtu.be/iHNKSp_qIDo Joe and recently arrived in beautiful Northern California, Napa Valley to be exact, where we are camp hosting for 4 months. But that subject will be another blog! For some reason it didnt ...

Bale Grist Mill *****************   This working mill was build in 1846. It is open Saturdays and Sundays 10 - 5. Tours of the mill (Saturday and Sunday)- 10:00AM to 4:00 PM The park is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day ADDRESS 3369 Saint Helena Hwy N Saint Helena, California 94574 See link below for more info: https://napaoutdoors.org/parks/bale-grist-mill-state-historic-park/ To watch a video of this beautiful old mill click on the link below: https://youtu.be/TFq7RoK7WP4