We arrived in Ada, Oklahoma on Sunday – this will be our home for the next two months while we visit family and get married. We’ve enjoyed spending some time with Michael’s mom and pop while we catch up on ALL of our laundry. We had a whole bunch of clothes and linens saved up for when we got here as it was so difficult to do laundry when we were at Choke Canyon.
Upon arrival and setting up in our shady spot – we get great late afternoon shade which is very nice as we move in to the summer months soon – we headed over the 3 or so miles to visit his folks. It was great having time to catch up and pick up mail and packages that we’d had sent there. Now that my job is done we’ve had time to be over there often this week and even took the dogs one afternoon so they could go run and play in their fenced in backyard. Our pups get daily walks sometimes even twice daily – but when we can let them go over there and run off leash and play it’s so good for them and we love watching them play together and run free. I also loved getting the chance to cook for his folks this week – we made some hamburgery stroganoff in the Ninja Foodi for them. I’m planning on a chicken taco salad for this coming week to make for them – we love this recipe.
Michael’s mom and I ordered the wedding cake this week and picked out a few decorations for the wedding day. It’s also been exciting as my wedding dress came in – nothing too formal but pretty and can be worn again. We aren’t planning on anything large or formal – just a few family members outside in the yard and then grilling some food afterwards. Michael’s brother is performing the ceremony for us which makes it even more special.
As I type this on Saturday afternoon the weather has been wonderful today. We woke up to 59 degree weather today and it didn’t make it much above the mid-60’s for temps today. It’s been such an amazing change from the 90’s we’ve been in for a while in Texas. We’ve even been able to have the windows open and enjoy some fresh air. We took advantage this week of having his folks nearby to store some food as we needed to defrost our refrigerator and freezer as well. It’s been a productive week so far for us and we have more plans for productivity this coming week.
Flower along our walking route New towel from Michael’s mom – very appropriate since we dance a lot in the kitchen Bella and Moki seem happy and relaxed lately.
Currently writing this from Cedar Hill State Park in Cedar Hill, Texas. We have been here almost a week now after a few days in McKinney Falls State Park in Austin. We were able to take care of a few things we needed to do and start on to our next adventures. It’s been a busy few weeks for us – we got engaged on almost two weeks ago, moving on from where had been home for 3 months, and just trying to reacclimate. We learned this week that my contract job that I’ve been doing remotely since October is ending this Friday. This gives us a great chance to get back to Oklahoma, take care of some things we need to do, plan a wedding for June 18, and in general relax with family.
We had a final date night in Three Rivers at the Agave Jalisco restaurant that has some of the best Mexican food we’ve had. We followed that with a drink at the little bar/restaurant across the street from there – the bartender makes a super tasty Whiskey Sour. Our time in Choke Canyon is where we started trying to implement date nights to have time out together which was very necessary for me. Working remotely I’m in the RV or our campsite with no in person contact and while Michael is fine not seeing people for days – I enjoy a bit of social interaction to keep me going.
We had a bit of a scare last weekend Moki, one of our two pups, started to act very lethargic and just not himself. We’ve been battling allergies and skin issues for a few weeks – for the third time in several months – and it eventually moves to his ears. He finally let me put some drops in his ear and I wonder if it messed up his equilibrium while it worked the ick out. By mid-day Saturday he started perking up – eating and drinking – and acting more peppy in general. When we walked at lunch today you’d have never known we were so worried over the weekend – he was full of energy today and trying to lead Michael instead of the other way around.
We’ve enjoyed having access to restaurants and a bigger variety of food choices in the stores here. We had Mother’s Day Brunch at Panera – one of my favorites and Chinese food from Panda – one we both enjoy a bunch for takeout in a hurry. We’ve also grilled a skirt steak for tostadas and some pork chops since we got here. But, we are anxious to get back to Oklahoma to see family again and spend time with them. We are so happy we’re going to have two months there with them to enjoy and visit. We’ve also enjoyed having more tv channels and reliable internet service for our viewing as well as gaming hobbies. I’m planning to work on finishing my medical coding class after my job ends Friday as I’ll have more time for things like that. I’ve been having fun being able to hang out with some of my online friends in games as well as streaming on Twitch.
It’s a week early but it really is almost the end of our 3 months here in Choke Canyon State Park. Michael and I have been together a bit over 2 years now and from the beginning we’ve always felt like we’ve known each other much longer than we really have (in the good way – it’s a connection we’ve had between us). We’ve very much felt like we’ve been here much longer yet felt like we just got here. So much has wrapped up here between selling the house, relationships, and really starting our full time adventures. This has truly been a great place to start RV living for us. There are some things we won’t miss here – spotty tv, radio or internet connection, the need to drive 40 miles in one of two directions to be able to get all of what we need – groceries, haircuts, gas that’s 40 cents a gallon cheaper than it is in Three Rivers, mail pick up. The quiet, the loop we get to walk the puppies on at least once a day where we see birds, bunnies, armadillos and deer, having our own private little camping area where we see hardly anyone – those are definitely things we will miss and remember for a long time to come.
Michael has enjoyed park hosting but his here has been unique compared to other parks. He as actually sent off an email to try to park host next January through March again in South Texas at a different park. It will be around more people but is right on the ocean. I’ve had big things on the job front and have an interview Monday for a full time permanent position at the company I’ve been contracting with for the last 6 months. I’m crossing my fingers – it would also be fully remote which is ideal for me. It will also take me very much out of my comfort zone – pushing me in ways I haven’t before. Thankfully my manager for the last 6 months is also on the interview panel and knows how hard I’ve worked. In a meeting with him earlier this week he praised my work highly – and was very appreciative of how hard I’ve worked and how much attention to detail I’ve paid on everything I’ve done.
We’ve started making plans for the next several months and are looking forward to the new journey we are starting to form. We leave here May 2 and travel to Austin (McKinney Falls) for 3 nights – we have a few things to do there I’m having lunch with the people I work with and a massage (hey I’ve worked hard I’ve earned it). Michael is using a zipline tour package I got him two years ago on Father’s day. It’s a 3 hour zipline tour in Austin he’d been wanting to do. From there we go to Cedar Hill for 10 days. Cedar Hill – one of our most favorite state park stays. We know we get a gazillion over the air channels, great internet reception and near every store and restaurant we love (it’s like 5 miles from the entrance to the state park). The spot we have we’ve stayed in before – it’s shady and kind of private and our favorite so far there. May 15 we head to Oklahoma for a couple months. We’ve got some legal things to do there and want to have some time with family before we leave. I’m actually flying out in June to New York for a weekend to see my family – most I haven’t seen in almost 7 years I’m very excited for this opportunity. When we leave Oklahoma we go to Branson, Missouri for a few days then travel up through Missouri, Nebraska and Wyoming to spend 8 days in Billings Montana where we will be over my 50th birthday. I’ve driven through MO, NE and WY – but I’ve never been to Montana or through Idaho where we’re going to drive through a corner to get to Spokane Washington. We have a few nights there before we head to south Washington for 2 weeks at an Army COE park. When we leave there we travel about 120 miles to a state park in Oregon where we spend another two weeks. From there we head to the coast – the Pacific Ocean – I’ve never been before and am so excited. We have reservations about 15 minutes from the ocean for a week over labor day in Oregon.
We haven’t booked past that though have general ideas where we want to go from there – we’re looking at the Redwoods and maybe by Sequoia National park. Hoping to hit a show in Vegas and possibly even the Grand Canyon. We may even get to a state park that looks amazing in Arizona – we were supposed to be there last year for my birthday until we had brakes almost catch fire coming down the mountains in New Mexico and had to rearrange our plans. Our goal is to be back in Oklahoma by the first of November for the holidays. Below is a map of our planned trip so far. You are only allowed to put so many destinations in so not all are in this but it’s the general route we are taking.
Friday morning and we were rounding in to the final few weeks at our Park Host Job in Choke Canyon State Park. We woke to drizzle coming down and had a moment of panic to get our internet hotspot into the RV. Normally we store the hotspot inside however something about the internet connectivity in this particular area and inside the camper makes it difficult to get a decent signal. It shows several to almost full bars on the hotspot but for some reason the signal strength to our laptops is terrible. On a weird whim we tried using it by putting it in the screened canopy outside and the connection difference is HUGE. We’ll clock 0.5 to 1 mb download inside and with it outside we get 15 to 20 mb download speeds.
Back to today – we hurried and got the hotspot inside and I took the pups for an early outing in case it rained for a while as Michael went to his post at the gate at 6 am. As the pups and I were a bit rain soaked after their outing I sat up hit the start on the coffee early and just listened to the news with my blanket on my lap. UNTIL – 7:30 everything blinked, the microwave beeped like it does when the power flickers and we had no power. The batteries were working as the lights it runs were on. I called up to Michael at the gate and as I told him power was out here he calmly says “well that’s probably because there is an electrical pole across the street on fire”. My thought was is that all lol. He called 911 and eventually the fire trucks showed up he said it was quite a sight to see them shooting water from the hoses on to an electrical pole. He came back got the generator running (it decided to be stubborn – if you are traveling with one be sure to start it every month or so) and I made sure to charge my laptop for work so I could keep working despite the lack of power. After about an hour and a half on generator power with a few fans going to circulate the humid sticky air it decided to quit. He came back after a bit and got it running for us again. At lunch time I had him stay here with the running generator – he’d been going a bit crazy this morning – while I took the pups for their lunchtime walk. As I walked the pups I could see the electrical company get to the pole that had been on fire this morning so I was hopeful we’d have power soon. We also knew that in one of the buildings near us is the Dam Operations for the City of Corpus Christi and they would probably prioritize this area a bit. By about 1:30 thankfully we had power and could run the A/C again to get some of that stickiness out of the air and I could finish the workday in comfort.
Fire truck and electric pole that had been on fire
I’m so grateful in times like that of his calmness when a “crisis” arises. There’s been a few times in our relationship where there have been situations that have happened i.e. a flat tire in Grand Junction a few hours before we were supposed to check out, the brakes almost catching fire coming down a mountain in New Mexico to name a few. In previous relationships these occurrences would have been life or death, end of the world situations – not with him. He takes it all in stride and just makes it easier for me to not panic as well.
We were grateful we’d planned a date night for dinner – the physical exhaustion from the humid heat this morning, him lifting and tinkering to get the generator running – neither of us felt like cooking tonight. As Michael says – these things like today – those are our adventures. The memories we’ll have years from now that we can say – remember that day the power went out in Choke Canyon….
So, we’ve decided to merge some things together. As we’ve merged our life together more it made sense to us to merge these Blog posts with our GnomadicLife Facebook and Twitter accounts (we’ll be starting an Instagram account this week as well). If you haven’t followed us on those sites the links will all be updated on this site this week. We have spent this week planning for future adventures and making reservations like crazy people.
We have been park hosting for 2 months now and have entered our final month of our stay here in Choke Canyon State Park. We have learned a lot about ourselves, park hosting and about what we want a bit more out of future park hosting options. We do know we’d like to do more work like this starting in 2023 but have some travel plans we’d like to accomplish first. It’s been a very different park hosting gig than I believe some our – we’re in a part of a State Park that is for Day Use only. After 10 pm the only other people in the park is the State Park Police officer and his family (their house is in this part of the park). The only interaction we have is with the boaters and people coming in to fish so we are quite often isolated and secluded from the rest of the world (and we’ve loved it). We have enjoyed camping in so many State Parks it feels good to be able to be in a position to give back a little to making it enjoyable for others as well. Michael has done a wonderful job of helping the park out here and works hard at making this a great place for people to access the boat ramp and fish cleaning areas. I work remotely full-time still so while I don’t contribute to the actual park I feel as his partner and in supporting him (I’ve been known to make some pretty decent breakfast burritos for him to have for his early morning work sessions) that I’ve been a part of helping too.
In our next post we’ll be sharing some of our future plans – we have camping reservations booked through a few days after Labor Day – and will recap more about some of the things we’ve learned here in this adventure. In the meantime we’ll be updating this site and our Social Media accounts so that everything is linked together. Safe Travels!
It’s been an adjustment for us having Michael working really early 4 days a week – while I’ve been working since October I don’t start until 8 am but he’s up Friday – Monday to work 6 – 12 noon. We’ve been finding our way in navigating spending time together – when it was just me working we had all weekend to sleep in, walk the pups, and just generally do whatever we wanted. Now our weekends involve him up at 5 am – at which point I usually wake up at some point shortly after – and when he’s done we take advantage of the time to drive to Beeville (eventually we’ll check out Kenedy another bigger town about the same distance away as Beeville) where they have an HEB and a Walmart for more serious grocery shopping. The little market here is great in a pinch but as is common in most small towns they are very pricey. We still get to spend time together and are blessed in that – we’re just finding our way in a new schedule and adjust accordingly.
We’ve gone the last 2 Friday nights to a nice little bar/restaurant in Three Rivers – Live Oak Sports Bar and Grill (though we’ve never seen any sports on just country music which suits us). The first week we didn’t realize they had a separation between the restaurant and the bar area and had dinner first then went to the bar for a drink. This week we went right to the bar where we could order dinner and a drink and visit with others as well. The same bartender was working and she remembered us – it feels good to be establishing some connections that aren’t just online for us.
Thursday night we walked down to the dam that is here. To walk to the dam and back to our RV is about 1.25 miles. We’re trying to get a few good walks in at least a week for both our health and the puppies. The dam here is maintained by the City of Corpus Christi which is about 80 miles south of us. The reservoir with the dam actually feeds the water for Corpus. We see the city guys driving by several times as they maintain and keep things safe with the dam. Their office is down the maintenance road we live on in the park. It’s weird being a part of the park but not actively seeing other campers. Michael sees the boaters coming and going when he’s working the gate and from our site we can hear them drive by (to much brush between the road and our RV to see them). Last night as we got back to the park at the end of the sunset we drove to the dam to see the tail end of it from there – it’s a great view. I think in a week or two we’ll have a picnic for dinner at sunset. We can sit on the tailgate with dinner and watch and maybe even get some neat photos.
Sign near the dam at Choke CanyonNorthern Crested Caracara – aka Mexican EagleChoke Canyon Reservoir
We arrived here at Choke Canyon State Park on Tuesday afternoon and immediately met two of the park rangers here who were very, very kind to us. Cody who was one of the two people Michael interviewed with met us and took Michael on a tour of the South Shore Unit where we are staying as well as the Calliham unit where the camping is in this State Park. The South Shore Unit is day use only with a picnic area and a very large boat launch area. Part of Michael’s duties here include hanging out at the gate headquarters to ensure people are paying their day use fees or at least checking in with their park pass information so the park can receive credit for those entrance fees. Just having that presence there in the early morning hours when the serious fisher-people are coming in, may help the park with some revenue that can help with improvements to the park. He also will be cleaning the restrooms and the fish cleaning stations in this part of the park. For 24 hours a week (4 days 6 hours each day) we have a full hook up campsite in a part of the park where the only other person in here at night time is the park police officer and his family and us. It’s quiet, remote, a bit isolated and beautiful.
We’ve seen so much wildlife in the first week we’ve been here. Within a few hours of being here we’d seen road runners, deer, bunnies, cranes, various other bird species and Michael has seen one of the Javelina wild boars. We’ve seen some wildlife around before but never this many in one place. There is also a chance of gators and mountain lions though as far as we know neither have been seen in a while.
The closes town – Three Rivers – is very small. The population of Three Rivers is around 1800 people – the only fast food places are a Subway in a gas station and a Dairy Queen. There are about 5 Mexican restaurants and a few bars as well. We ended up going to one of the bar/restaurants on Friday night and enjoyed visiting with a few locals and some time out among other people. While Michael has some interaction in person with people with what he’s doing for work – during the work week I’m fairly isolated in the RV with the dogs and Michael when he’s not working. I interact with others virtually for work and on Twitch when I’m streaming but it’s not the same as seeing people in person and having that connection.
Now that some of the cold weather has moved out, it was a bit chilly here this week, though we didn’t get the ice and snow they did more north of us in Texas – we had the windows open today and even had a fire in our propane firepit tonight. It was a lovely night for a fire and a bit of time just relaxing the two of us. We took the dogs on a walk to the boat launch Sunday night – it’s about 1.75 miles there and back for us to walk and was good for both us and the pups.
As the title says we’re now full time RV’ers and so excited for this amazing adventure. We finished packing up the house and put it on the market a week or so ago. It was an a stressful time getting to this point but so exciting to finally be there. As we were getting things ready to put the house on the market, we moved our RV for a few months (around Thanksgiving) to an RV park in Oklahoma near family. We went between the RV and the house a few times while we were packing up and to celebrate holidays, which was exhausting at times but worth it to have a bit of a break and a place to be with family for the holidays. We had a busy final few weeks at the house packing everything up, cleaners, landscapers, movers etc. We also made sure to eat one last time at some of our favorite restaurants in Austin. We spent our last night in Austin at a hotel as all the furniture was out by end of day but it was too late to drive to our RV home. After one last pass by the house to pick up the stuff we wanted to take to our traveling home, we headed for Oklahoma.
It was a strange first week of full time as we were still in Oklahoma. We made sure to visit family and handle medical stuff before we began to embark on our adventure. On January 26 we headed to Cedar Hill where we’ve been so many times before and love. We spent 2 nights there before heading to where we are now in Bastrop State Park. We have 4 nights here in a place we enjoy and have spent time at before. It’s been nice to unwind, relax and enjoy a weekend while we prep to head to our very first Park Hosting job. Tuesday we will be on our way to a state park we have never been to for a 3 month stint where Michael will be a park host. We are excited for this adventure and can’t wait to share this part of the adventure with y’all.
This week camping in the extreme heat has had me thinking about the way we cook especially in the RV. Earlier this week Michael was grilling chicken wings outside on the propane grill and I was using the stove inside to saute zucchini and squash as a side dish. We have a thermometer in the RV to keep track of the temps – we put it in the line of sight of our camera when we leave the pups to run errands so we can keep an eye in case off any issues. When I had the stove on with the propane inside the temperature in the RV went up about 5 degrees. We knew how much the oven heated the RV but actually seeing the temperature change just in cooking a simple side dish was a bit of a surprise. This had me thinking about some of the tools we have gotten over the last year and a half to make life a bit more enjoyable.
One of the tools last year we bought a Ninja Foodi to not have to use the oven for some of our cooking. Last night in about 20 minutes time we made a homemade chicken pot pie with the saute, pressure cooker, and broil features on it. It didn’t heat up the RV as much as using the oven/stove combined that it would have required. We’ve also discovered you can pressure cook a pound or two of ground beef in about 5 minutes to thaw it out from frozen to use in cooking. The slow cooker feature doesn’t work as well as our crock pot one at the house and when we go on the road full time we’ll be bringing that one with us for things we want to prepare in it (stews and roasts mainly).
Another tool we got last year was an electric skillet. It’s been amazing to cook a variety of foods in. I can cook a package of bacon in no time without heating up the camper. You can also cook the eggs in there right afterwards. We’ve made a variety of foods in there and it’s a tool that can be used indoors and outdoors for cooking. I made taco meat this trip in it – didn’t need to heat up the RV. We’ve also made several batches of bacon, sausages, eggs etc for breakfasts and breakfast meals we prepped ahead of time.
My final tool for this blog – we’ll revisit this soon with more tool tips – is the ice maker. We don’t have a ton of counter space in our current RV however I do not begrudge the space that this ice maker uses. Not having ice trays that take too long to freeze in a very small freezer space is the best for us. We thought we were being smart in bringing this little ice maker in – until we joined some RV groups and discovered how many others feel the same way we do about them. When we pull in to a new site one of the first things I do is turn that on – by the time we’re done setting up we have a small batch of ice ready and waiting for us to use in our drinks.
When we started the trip to get meds and go to New Mexico we didn’t have any idea how long we’ll be on the road for this time. Our trips have been getting progressively longer and this trip is no exception. I’ve mentioned when we were coming here that we had decided to stay here instead of going to Lake Arrowhead state park to just keep a longer stay here. We have thoroughly been glad we did this. We actually yesterday morning extended through until Friday morning putting us in this site for 11 days. Officially the longest time we’ve been in any campsite in our 16 months together camping. When we return to the house this trip will be at 1 day less than exactly a month on the road.
This length of being out and being in one site for a longer period of time has given us a very real sense of what it will be like to live on the road full time. It’s given us a chance to problem solve when things go wrong and a chance to have longer term stays in places. We have discussed that other than traveling to get somewhere that when we are on the road full time our stays will most likely be longer term 2 or more weeks at a time. This state park has given us a great chance to try out that longer stay in one place. To be fair we’ve been here before and we know that everything we could possibly need for resupplying or in case of emergency is nearby us. So this was a great place to test out this longer stay in one place as we’ve wanted to do.
There will be some slow downs and the blog will go to once a week for a bit with some catch up stuff over a few weeks as we head back to the house to start packing things up there. We are planning to leave the house again the beginning of September as we head for a week in Custer South Dakota with mom and pop. We’ve had reservations for a while now and had planned we’d be on the road full time by that point. However, we’re making things work and we’ll be posting all kinds of fun from South Dakota and wherever we head from there. We are hoping to be able to travel a month or so while things are finishing up on a legal front for us with the hopes that by October or November we’ll be on the road full time.
GnomadicLife 