A Mini-Escape

Recently we toyed with several ideas on our winter escape from the Pacific NW. Our whole goal is to live in Oregon when the weather is nice, and roll down south when it starts to get too cold. Our first idea was to head to Florida and stay a month or two flitting between several nice snowbird resorts down there. However, we spent several weeks in Florida this past June on a non-RV trip, so we were open to a change of scenery. Plus the price of gas scared us from crossing the country. (Although, we filled up our motorhome gas tank on July 3rd and the price of fuel was $4.29 per gallon. This week, we filled up for $3.33 per gallon. Almost a whole dollar cheaper!)

We honed in on Southern California instead. After searching online, we found several nice-looking RV parks near the coast in San Diego. We figured we could play it by ear and stay in San Diego as long as we felt like it and then head back to Oregon when the timing felt right.

Just like the old days when we were full-timing! One of our favorite parts about being full-timers was coming and going as we pleased.

But those tentative winter plans to head south have come to a screeching halt. We’re going to have an addition to our little family! We’ve got a baby on the way so by the time winter rolls around, I’ll be visiting the doctor on a regular basis, which leaves little time for long RV jaunts.

So now what do we do?

Well, we started making more autumn travel plans for one. Just to places within a few hours drive from Portland. Our first trip is scheduled for this upcoming weekend at Fort Stevens State Park on the Oregon Coast. The weather forecast is not looking good. It’s rain, rain, rain. But, what can you do, it is Oregon.

We’re also going to do more “stay-cations” in Portland. For instance, we could visit museums and try out some new restaurants. We actually have this long “to do” list of things to do and see in and around Portland. However, it seems that whenever we get the chance, we usually skip town instead of exploring the things closest to us. So, we’ll do some local sightseeing, and more research and planning for 2009/10 trips.

We’re also going to research satellite internet options for the rig. Although our Aircard has treated us relatively well, it doesn’t work everywhere. Which means, we are limited in where we can travel. It’s never a nice surprise to get to our destination and find out we have no internet. I’ll be sure to share our findings.