Roadrunner Reflections: Months of Friends - June to August 2017

Sometimes we just shake our heads at how much we enjoy this time of our lives.  We are most fortunate and we know it.  We don't take it for granted.  This is a bonus and we know it.  Among the biggest blessing of this lifestyle is the many people we encounter week after week.

We heard it said a couple of weeks ago when Scott remarked, "We see way more friends and family now than when we lived in our house in Florida".

The same is true for us.

We left Virginia Beach in June and drove a day and a half before we got to Maynardvile TN.  While there we visited with Joan and Mike and their kids.  Michelle and Jeremy are both working and they have a high schooler (Noah) and one in graduate school (Kayla).  We also got to see neighbors Helen and Bill and Mark and Lisa.  It was a good visit.

Next made our way to Kentucky.  While there, we connected with our daughter Kelly's friend who used to live in Virginia Beach.  It was good to see Becca and her daughter Parker.  We got to see airplanes from a viewing area at the end of the runway in Cincinnati.  We had a picnic lunch then drove in tandem over to the Creation Museum in Kentucky.  We had never met Parker and hadn't seen Becca in years.

After our time there, we drove on to Alum Creek State Park outside of Columbus Ohio.  We planned it so that our time there would coincide with Jeff his son Caleb's summer league baseball tournament.  They travelled with the team from home in Fairfax VA, where we lived before we launched into this lifestyle.  That was fun to see them!

After Ohio we continued north to Lansing Michigan for our Habitat for Care-A-Vanner build.  We were twice blessed there with family and friends.  Great-niece Kayla (from Tennessee) was moving into her apartment to start her graduate studies at Michigan State.  She and her family (Michelle, Jeremy, Noah) were there to help her move in.  Great timing - during the same week as our Habitat build.

Also while in Lansing, RV friends Marge and George camped with us at the Ingham County Fairgrounds.  They were in Michigan and made it a point to come over to where we were so we could see them for a couple of days.  We met them in Key West in our second year of full-timing and have crossed paths many times since.  It great to see them.

After Lansing, we drove east to Port Huron, MI.  From there we drove over to see Bill and Marg (Meghan's parents).  We saw them last winter in Lakeland FL.  It was great to go over to Petrolia again.  Bill and I played a round of golf with Pam and Marg in carts and then had a nice lunch at the clubhouse.
While in  Port Huron, we drove our car south toward Detroit and met friends Lisa and Rod for dinner on the picturesque St. Clair River.  Always good to see those two!

We had another Habitat build scheduled and drove over to Sioux Falls SD for it.  We always like going to Sioux Falls because longtime friends Steve and Therressa live there.  We got to see them a few times during our two weeks in town for the build.
We also got to see Bonar and Christa. We had dinner together one night and ice cream down at the Sioux Falls Park another day.  Hopefully we'll see them again where they winter in Fort Myers FL.
We met fellow Care-A-Vanners Dave and Jo Ann for the first time.  Interesting enough, I had corresponded with Brenda since she is the national Care-A-Vanner registration POC.  And we met her and Kit for the first time.
Years ago I got an email from Carole who follows the Roadrunner Chronicles.  She asked a question about full-timing and saw my post on 'Come help us on the Sioux Falls Care-A-Vanner build' and signed up with husband Scott.  That was pretty cool to meet these folks.

From Sioux Falls, we ended up in Seneca, Kansas for the eclipse viewing.  Friends from years ago in Fairfax VA, Mark and Alisanne, saw our travels on FaceBook and he asked us to join them for the eclipse at their beautiful cabin in Blue Springs, Nebraska.  It was great to meet up with them for lunch followed by time at their cabin.  We also got to see their daughters Carissa and Stephanie (and their kids) at the lake.  What a great time!
Before we got to Seneca, Bruce saw the blog and sent me an email indicating he and wife Jacque were RVers and lived in Seneca.  We were able to meet them for the first time and have dinner together to share stories.  It was fun.

Now here we are in Albuquerque with Reid and Amy.  Cousin Linda and husband Jim are not far away in Corrales and we hope to see them while here.
Tomorrow we are going to Santa Fe for a day trip and will see RV friends Steve and Karen and do the tourist thing in town and probably grab some lunch.

I hesitated about going through all this kind of thing but I wrote this for a couple of reasons:
- I want to look back and be able to remember the good folks we saw and met during our travels this summer, and
- I also wanted to give folks an idea of one of the main reasons we like this lifestyle so much.  We keep running into people and meeting new friends.  Not to mention all the other stuff that goes on during this adventure...

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!