The kids are grown and have their own families now and do their own traveling and vacations. Yet I still yearn for the great outdoors and all that it has to offer such as camping, fishing, sightseeing and just traveling around this wonderful country. I realize that in order to enjoy these things, I must become a solo traveler.
What to do? How to do it? Where to begin?
A lot of water had passed under the proverbial bridge since I had gone camping. Once I retired, I quickly became bored with the retirement lifestyle and decided that traveling might satisfy that boredom. I did a lot of research and decided to visit Ecuador; a small country on the Pacific Ocean in South America. I made several trips to Ecuador and enjoyed the country, it’s people, European architecture and history. I even considered moving there. (You can read about these travels on my blog – WanderingWithBill.com)
Side note: When in the U.S. Air Force, I was lucky enough to visit most of Europe, the Middle East and the Far East, but had never been to South America, thus the decision to visit Ecuador.
I was now ready for enjoying North America. I remembered my younger days of camping in tents and being uncomfortable in the rain, the mud, the cold and the heat in summer and decided that an RV would be best to provide me some of the creature comforts we all become so attached to. I purchased a 26′ motor home and off I went. I enjoyed that for a time, but soon discovered that traveling alone in this type vehicle was just not to my liking. Oh sure, it had all the comforts of home, but that’s not what I needed. It was too big for me as a solo traveler, too difficult to park in certain areas and most importantly, I was unable to access certain terrain of back country and BLM Lands where I enjoyed camping off-grid and… it was quite expensive to operate.
I sold the motor home and purchased a cargo van and converted it to a much smaller RV. Once the conversion was complete, I hit the road to check out my new camper and happily realized that this is everything I need.
Desert Sunset
I left my home in Georgia in January with the Sonoran Desert in Arizona as my destination. My goal was to join in with the thousands of other travelers that are often referred to as “snow birds” and live on BLM Land in the desert for the winter. BLM (Bureau of Land Management) Land belongs to the Federal Government and it’s free for our use. Free appeals to me.
Sonoran Desert
I arrived in the Arizona desert having experienced only good luck on my trip there. However, being focused on reaching my destination, I forgot about the journey. I think back to all the wonderful sights, history and other beautiful things I neglected along the way by traveling on the Interstate highways. I missed the “real America” and found myself somewhat saddened by it all. I promised myself that next time I will travel the back roads and the dirt roads and visit the small towns and villages to more fully appreciate all that our great nation has to offer.
Saguaro Cactus
“If you liked this article, please follow me. I’ll be bringing you more good quality content in the weeks to come.”
Until next time…
