The Cook & The Coach Blog

Day Trip to Mount Rainer National Park

9/18/2017

Spontaneity is the best kind of adventure

We were camping about an hour west of the SW entrance to Mount Rainer National Park for 4 days. We hadn't really talked about going to check the park out prior to being at our campground. After talking to one of the rangers at our RV Park Thursday evening we decided to make the trip Friday morning and put our work stuff on hold.

The drive into the park and towards the area that we hiked was pretty amazing in itself. We made a couple stops at some overlooks.

We pulled off at the first pull out that had a really good view of the mountain. That is Eli telling us that he wants to climb that mountain! After that we came to Narada Falls. It took a little bit of a hike to get to the overlook but was worth it. The falls were probably a few hundred feet tall and flowed down into a gorge that ran down the mountain.

After that stop we made our way up to the area called Paradise. We stopped a picnic area just down from the lodge and had some lunch. Salads have been our go to travel lunch. They are so easy to pack up and we know what we are getting versus leaving ourselves open to museum and park cafes, which who knows if I'll be able to find any gluten free options.

Now that we were fueled up, we made our way up a bit further to the official Paradise Visitor Center and Lodge. Looking at the map our initial plan was just to do about a 1 mile round trip hike out to Alta Vista. We made it that far and then decided to keep going... then keep going!!! Our 1 mile hike turned into about 4 total. We made it all the way out to Panorama Point which was totally worth it. The view were incredible and absolutely breathtaking!

Alta Vista Trail

The first 1/8 of the hike where Eli wanted to walk

What the other 3.5 miles looked like

Catching my breath

Panorama @ Panorama Point

Almost 4 miles later....we snacked on coffee, ice cream and protein bars and Eli was wiped out!! We did check out the gift shop and I think for the first time in our 9 year marriage we bought matching shirts!

Matching shirts... how do they look?

This unexpected trip was such a treat. We aren't really the hiking outdoorsy type but really enjoyed this adventure. Who knows... we might end up becoming more of true campers as our adventures continue!

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Our Routine... A Day in the Life!

9/5/2017

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We try our best to share our life with you guys....and I know social media makes it seem like it's all glamour, beaches, fun stuff all the time and no work It's not. I promise.

BUT there's a big difference between what our days looked like last year compared to now.

Now...we choose what our days look like. As coaches, as business partners and life changers with Beachbody...we STILL wake up with an alarm around 6 or 6:30, because we WANT TO...with goals of getting up even earlier.

We drink 20 oz of water...make COFFEE ️...then drink coffee!
Pull out our stack of books and devotionals to read. I journal a little and then post to our social media sharing inspiration and things we learned...so it can encourage others
Eli wakes up...we snuggle a little and then he plays with some toys and eats his breakfast
We plan our day...set our priorities....decide what needs to get done. We check in with our private support group and encourage them or share a tip
Dan makes us breakfast
One of us takes Eli to the park or the library or run some errands and the other gets some heads down, ALONE work time.
I do some mentoring calls with coaches or work on trainings for our team or build our business by building relationships and connecting with people!
We post to social media again
We work out...the time changes every day but it always happens if it's in the calendar
We drink Shakeology
We ROCK our day and simply strive to SERVE those around us

Some days we work a lot...some days we don't....sometimes we work on the weekend...and we stop when we'd like!! Sometimes we work at the beach or a coffeeshop or at home in the RV...the location doesn't matter.

Total control.

Messy hair.

Yoga pants...no showers...no pants...no shoes...no problem. HA!! Every day is a new day to make a choice. To set some new goals. To grow.

It's a NEW day to connect with people that want to join a movement...and want to spread the message of health and life to their friends and family!! If you want more CONTROL of your life...more flexibility or more control of your health and you love to serve people and help them, we'd love to chat with YOU!! ️

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Our First Winter As Snowbirds

5/18/2017

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As you may have noticed our travel blog posts have been few an far between. It's not that we haven't been traveling or doing anything fun but when I have time to sit down and write, doing stuff for our business seems to take precedent over travel stuff.

We last left off with us back in MInnesota for the Ryder Cup... yeah we are about 6 months behind! So here's my goal for the next year of travel, put out a blog post at least every other week. Do you ever have that thing in your life where you just can't seem to get out in front off, that there is always more and more. Maybe it's the laundry if you are a mom of numerous kiddos, or dishes if you live in an RV. Anyways, these travel posts are that for us so in order to get "caught up" I'm going to dump about 6 months of travel into this one post, so bear with me.

Where have we been in the last 6 months?

Lincoln, NE
Kansas City, MO & KS
Lowell, AR
Eureka Springs, AR
Lake Tawakoni, TX (Just east of Dallas)
Dallas, TX
Livingston, TX
Austin, TX
Columbus, TX (just west of Houston)
Minneapolis, MN
Des Moines, IA
Redwood Falls, MN
Galveston, TX
Kemah, TX
Conroe, TX
Hammond, LA
Pensacola, FL
Crystal River, FL
Orlando/Clermont, FL
Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg, FL
Vero Beach, FL
Space Coast, FL
Back to Orlando
Sarasota, FL
Tampa Bay, FL
Sunshine Key, FL
Miami, FL

As you can see we tried our hardest to stay warm for the winter and have for the most part. We've learned that Florida winters are a little nicer than Texas! Other than being back in MN we only had one night where temps got below freezing, so I would say we did pretty well.

Some of the highlights over the past 6 months...

Getting to see some really good friends in Kansas City
Eureka Springs - Such a fun town
Thanksgiving in Austin, TX with some really good friends and THEE BEST BBQ I'ver ever had at Franklin's
Passing my Texas Driver's License Test
Christmas back in Minnesota and Iowa
Galveston Area
Meeting quite a few other Fulltime Traveling Families in Orlando
Swimming with Manatees in Crystal River - sorry no photos
Florida Beaches
The Keys
Most of all... Traveling with Laura's sister and family. We've been on the road with them since the middle of December! Eli's had cousins to play with and it's just been great to spend some quality time with them.

Kansas City

Eureka Springs, AR

Austin, TX

Christmas in MN, Iowa and our RV

Galveston and Kemah, TX

Orlando, FL

The Keys

The Rest of Florida

Traveling with Family

Well there you go, our last 6 months of life in a kick photo slideshow! We are now on our way back to the Midwest and eventually out to the West Coast later this summer/fall.

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One Year RV-versary!

4/4/2017

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Today marks one year since we moved into our motorhome and hit the road! This was the first time we were all hooked up and ready to roll out! We had just finished up most of our renovations...and were ready to head south. We left on a Sunday and made it to our first scheduled stop outside Augusta, Georgia by Wednesday.

Nothing like 1,300 miles traveled in 4 days to start our adventure!

Where Have We Been?

Over the past year we have logged a total of about 15,000 miles on our motorhome alone. We've visited 33 states!!! Everything from Bar Harbor, Maine to Austin, TX and Minneapolis, MN to Orlando, FL and a lot of stuff in between. We've also hit up a lot of touristy spots like Niagara Falls, Washington DC, Brooklyn Bridge and NYC, Boston's Freedom Trail and Acadia National Park.

We've spent a fair amount of time at beaches...Laura really likes the beach.

Ok fine... we all really like the beach!

A few of our favorites have been Gulf Shores, Siesta Key, Kiawah, Sullivan's Island, Cape Cod and Ogunquit! A few duds were Atlantic City and Galveston!

We've hit up a lot of Thai restaurants and coffee shops. Laura has had her fair share of almond milk lattes. So far the winner is Bluestone Lane's in NYC!!! Oh and get the avocado toast there too!

We've mainly stayed in a lot of RV Resorts just due to amenities and ease of booking and getting in and out. We bought a zone pass with Thousand Trails in June of last so we've spent a fair amount to time in their parks. We've done some state parks, a couple Walmarts, and a lake front boondocking spot at Laura's brother's house.

What Have We Learned?

"Fulltime RVing does not mean a fultime vacation!"

After a few months in vacation mode we learned that vacations are expensive. So after going through a chunk of our savings account we decided to slow down and stick to a budget! We've maybe missed out on eating out at some fun a few less days at beaches but it's allowed us to live within our means and keep the adventure going.

With that we've learned that we operate best with at least a tentative schedule in place. This allows us both some time to do some work, time alone with Eli and lots of time together as a family.

We've also learned that we don't need nearly as many clothes as we originally packed up. We tend to wear the same stuff over and over... mainly workout clothes and yoga pants! There are a handful of other things that we've brought along that we've hardly used... like a tent, veggie spiralizer, extra camping chairs, bosu ball....to name a few.

Another thing we learned early on was that we all reach our breaking point after about 6 hours of driving on travel days. 4 hours max is what we prefer! With travel, we also learned that it's not ideal to show up at a new park after dusk... short, wooden posts in campgrounds tend to hide a lot easier!

We've been semi-stationary for the past 6 months, 2 1/2 months in Texas and 3 1/2 months in Florida. We love that we've been able to stay warm for the winter but definitely miss traveling. We traveled around both Texas and Florida but the scenery hasn't changed all that much. So there is a balance between quenching our travel/adventure needs and not moving as fast...so we can manage our finances.

What Lies Ahead?

Currently: we are in Florida and will be here for another month. Then our adventure will take us north and west. We will slowly make our way back up to Iowa and Minnesota around the 4th of July to spend some time with family. It will also be convenient since we will be dropping Eli off with grandparents while we head down to New Orleans for our annual Beachbody Coach Summit the middle of July.

After that conference, the plan is to start heading across the northern part of the country. We hope to hit up Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks on our way out to Washington state. We always appreciate advice on places we NEED to visit so if you know of anything between Minnesota and Washington, let us know.

Our plan is to be out to Washington by early September and hangout in the Pacific Northwest for a couple months before we start heading down the west coast as the weather cools. At this time, we think we'll spend at least another winter as snowbirds but we aren't exactly sure where we will be... maybe Southern California... maybe Arizona... we'll see!

That's about all we have "planned out" so far. After that we'll potentially talk about settling down but that isn't for sure either!! What we do know: God is faithful and is providing SO MANY amazing experiences & relationships through this journey. He is ultimately our guide...so if we feel led to change our course...we will!!

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Back to Minnesota for the Ryder Cup

2/9/2017

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This cross country adventure was on our schedule even before we hit the road. For those of you that don't know a bit of my (Dan) past, I used to work as a golf professional. The course I worked at just so happened to be Hazeltine National Golf Club which was also the site of the 2016 Ryder Cup. I left my job at that club in October of 2013 after working there for 10 years.

Hazeltine was a second home for me. The members and staff were like family. So when the biggest golf tournament in the world is being hosted by said club and members it was a no brainer to make the trip back.

One of the fun things about making a trip half way across the country, we started in Maine, is you will likely come across some friends and family. Our first stop was just south of Sryacuse, New York where we were blessed to spend some time with Dan and Christa Hamon and their 3 boys. Once again we were able turn Instagram friends into real life friends! They have such an amazing family and their boys played so well with Eli. We can't wait for our paths to cross again.

After New York we made it to the Cleveland area where I was able to meet up with a golf pro friend. That was a super short stay, and we were off to Elkhart, Indiana where we returned to the dealership we purchased our RV. We had some routine maintenance done there since we had logged almost 12,000 miles on our RV since purchasing it. Crazy, we've done that much traveling in that short period of time.

We had an interesting adventure at our next stop in the Amana Colonies. We are learning that a lot of RV parks are located on flood plains, I guess its cheap land. This was our first experience where we nearly got flooded out! It was a little scary to wake up to all of the water surrounding us.

The closest to what it looked like before the rain. This was actually after the water receded.

The water at it's highest point. The creek it all came from was all the way behind the building you can see in the distance.

We were hoping to spend some time exploring the Amana area but instead decided to just move onto Laura's aunt's house. We parked in front of their house for a few days so that we could spend some time with them and Laura's grandma. It was great to see her and have Eli spend some time with her. He really liked her magnifying glass and her stash of ice cream!

After our time in Iowa, we made our way back to Minneapolis for the Ryder Cup! Seven years after I first learned that Hazeltine would be hosting the biggest golf event in the world, we were there! On top of the amazing golf event it was also a homecoming for me coming back to Hazeltine, a club I spent countless hours at for 10 years and met so many amazing people. Oh and top of that it was a week where I got to spend some quality time with my family! It was pretty special, let's juts say!

The Ryder Cup itself was pretty epic! Europe has pretty much dominated the Ryder Cup winning 5 of the last 6 matches going back to 2002. There was excitement for the US team but also apprehension around whether they could get a win on their home turf.

The venue itself was incredible! The infrastructure that was built to host this event was amazing, over million square feet of platforms were erected to hold everything from merchandise tents, corporate hospitality and concessions. The golf course was pristine! The stage was all set for a great event and it didn't disappoint.

The US team got off to a great start and never really looked back. There was a moment in there Saturday midday, whether or not the lead that the Americans had built was going to disappear. They rallied Saturday afternoon and dominated on Sunday to bring home the cup! If you want all the details you can head over to the full scoring here.

So while I was chasing around a golf course, Laura found some pretty amazing ways to keep Eli entertained! Here are just a few pics from their time at a local apple orchard with his cousins. They also made a trip to the zoo which I think he really missed!

It was a pretty incredible week back in Minnesota! We saw family and friends! I also got to witness an epic golf event at a course I used to call home! Until next time Minnesota!

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New England Adventures - Part 2

1/2/2017

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This is post is dedicated to the second half of our travels through New England! We did a lot of up here and so if you missed our first post, that was all about Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The second half of our time in New England was up in New Hampshire and Maine! Let's just say we loved it!

Lake Winnipesaukee at sunset

After we left Mass and the Cape Cod area we headed north to the Lake Winnipesaukee area for a week roughly. We had gotten some recommendations to go check this area out, so we listened! It didn't disappoint. We were camped out right by Wolfeboro which was a super cute little town.

We noticed that our ice cream consumption increased quite a bit when we were in New England. There were cute little ice cream shops everywhere we went. I think it also helped that Eli learned how to say "ice cream" so therefore he was asking for it all the time.

We also were told we needed to drive the Kancamagus Highway through White Mountain National Forest. Eli and I made the drive one day leaving Laura behind to do some work. Yeah believe it or not we do actually work a bit from the road. It was a super pretty drive... from the car. Unfortunately Eli fell asleep as we turned onto the highway so we didn't get to stop and explore all that much.

From New Hampshire we moved onto Bar Harbor! Yup, pretty much loved this area and all of Maine! It was also fun because we were able to meet up with Laura's cousin who was also a new coach on our team for a couple days since she and her husband moved out there this past summer. The campground we stayed at was amazing! It sat right on one of the canal in between the mainland and Mount Desert Island. It was amazing to see thew change in water level with high and low tide.

Like Niagara Falls, Acadia National Park was on our list of places we needed to visit. We spent a couple days exploring the island that the park was on. One of the first nights there we took a drive around Southwest Harbor. This was definitely the slower side of the island but still fun. We caught the Bass Harbor Lighthouse right at sunset and was just breathtaking.

After our lighthouse visit we decided to finally indulge in lobster rolls. We had been holding out until we could actually get a "Maine" Lobster Roll. So good! The place we went actually had gluten free buns too, so I could partake!

The rest of our time in the area we spent exploring Bar Harbor and Acadia on the busy side which included Cadillac Mountain. Let's just say we have contemplated spending an entire summer out here based on our experience.

That was a busy and fun weekend in the Bar Harbor area! From there we down the coast a bit and continued to explore but at a slightly slower pace. We explored everything from Portland all the way down to Ogunquit. One of the most common questions we get asked...

"What's been your favorite place you've traveled?"

Both of us both usually respond with the time and places we visited during the two weeks we spent in this part of Maine. Not only was it beautiful but the people were fantastic, there was some amazing food in Portland, there were beaches, the temps were perfect, and we got to explore at a slower pace.

A lot of our trips revolve around coffee and food. We found this super fun wall on the side of a coffee, books, and beer store in Saco.

Our campground was only a mile or two from the Ogunquit Beach so we made sure to take a couple trips over to it and hang out. A super fun simple beach, Eli loved it!

Another awesome find that we stumbled across was the Marginal Way walk. It was simply just a path that followed the coast right around Ogunquit.

We also hit up brunch and an ice cream shop in Ogunquit. Once again more ice cream!

Another super fun little spot that we were super close to was a cute little town called Kennebunkport. We spent an afternoon driving around this town, mainly driving around. One place stumbled upon was the home of President George H.W. Bush. I knew that his home was somewhere in the area but when we drove past Walker's Point, it jumped out to me that there would be a security guard station at the entrance to a home out there. So we stopped a little turnaround spot and did a little googling and sure enough, it was his house. We ended up doubling back and stopped really quick on the side of the road and snapepd a few pics of his compound and also a monument for him.

That day ended with a peaceful time on the beach. There was a fun playground that we found and we just let Eli play. It's days like that one that I have to pinch myself. We love this life and it has been such a blessing for all of us!

Eli's advanced version of downward dog!

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The Process to Become Texans

12/5/2016

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It's hard to believe it has be 8 months since we left our home in Minnesota. So far our travels have taken us to 35 states and we have logged over 13,000 miles on our motorhome. Yeah we've seen a lot and moved a lot. It's been fantastic so far and we have really loved every bit of it. We've made some new friends along the way and have immersed ourselves into the RV community that is out there.

Poor CT and VT! See you someday!

One of the reasons I wanted to write up this blog post because I know a lot of people that do what we do or intend to have questions about the relocation process is like. There is some good information out there and there is some bad information out there. We found all of it.

One of the good pieces of information that we came across early on was through Escapees. Escapees is the company/service we use to get our mail forwarded. They are based out of Livingston, Texas with a few other locations around the country. It was through them that I was able to setup a time to chat with a domicile lawyer named Miri Wakuta that works with Loring & Associates. As an escapees member we were able to setup a free consultation back in February where she guided us through the process of what it takes to switch our domicile from MN to TX. That benefit alone is worth the price of your escapees membership.

The big thing that she stressed and this isn't legal advice but intent was a huge part of proving your new domicile. The more evidence you have to prove you intend to live in Texas or whatever location is key to establish your domicile. She mentioned things like joining Escapees and getting a Texas address but other things that would prove intent could be things like registering vehicles, using doctors and other services in that state, and actually living there.

Step 1: Get a Texas Address! - Done

The next step in the process for us to was going to be to register our vehicles. This was a little bit of curveball for us. When we set off in April our first stop was Augusta, Georgia so that I could attend The Masters golf tournament. We didn't think our next steps through too well, because after Georgia we started heading towards Texas to get vehicles registered. We made it as far as New Orleans before we realized we didn't have our new titles for vehicles yet. We purchased our motorhome in February and our Jeep in March and the titles were still hung in the MN DPS. One more curveball to add to that mess was that both titles would have to be mailed out to our old MN address, and because they are legal documents they can't be forwarded, so they get sent back to the state. Then once they get them back I could apply to have them reissued to our new Texas address. Needless to say we weren't going to wait around in Texas until the middle of summer to get all of that taken care of, we had a lot of the country to see!

So we headed back east and up the East coast with a couple stops back in the Midwest between April and October. If you want to follow all of that you can go HERE.

By the middle of October we were on our way to Texas with titles in hand. This is where we really started researching what we needed to do and what the steps were to get everything switched over.

We started here with an Escapees document that does a pretty good job laying everything out and the locations you need to go to take care of stuff. To me that is all kinds of complicated. So here are the easy steps that we took plus some info on taking the driving tests I had to take to get the proper license in the state of Texas. More on that later!

Step 2: Get insurance that is valid in Texas
We did this prior to getting to Livingston, TX. We chose to get our insurance through National General which is who Good Sam contracts out to provide "Good Sam" insurance. We found the prices were actually better than what we were paying using our old insurance and coverage was very similiar. Wish we would have switched earlier.

Step 3: Get vehicles inspected
We did this at Soda Auto Repair in Livingston. It cost us $7 per vehicle to get this done. It only took 10 minutes. The inspection just looks at whether lights, brakes, wipers, etc work. There is no emissions check in Polk County.

Step 4: Register vehicles in Texas
This involved going to the County Tax Accessors office in Livingston. To get our vehicles registered we just needed copies of our titles, inspection certificates, proof of insurance and I think I had to show them my MN drivers license. You wil also need to tell them the weight of your RV. I snapped a pic of the vehicle tag that is inside my coach and states the GVWR. I think the cutoff is 26,000 pounds if you are more, you pay more. Oh and a check, no credit cards! We paid right around $600 to get our motorhome and Jeep re-registered.

Parked at Rainbow's End Campground and one of the last photos of our MN license plates.

Step 5: Get Drivers License
This process wasn't too bad. I read horror stories from people needing to provide all kinds of documentation and it wasn't bad at all since we had passports. We just had to show them our vehicle registration, our escapees card which was proof of our Texas address. Then we showed them current passports, social security cards, and our MN drivers licenses. If you don't have a passport then I believe you need to provide a birth certificate. The cost for each drivers license was $25.

Applying for a Texas Class B Non-CDL License

This is one area where I got a lot of bad information. I think part of it was due to the fact that the DMV in Livingston didn't have a standardized practice for how they treated RVer's even though they saw a lot of them. I read stories of people needing to parallel park their rigs, taking multiple sections of the CDL test, air brake testing, etc.

Talking with the employees at the DMV in Livingston it sounds like they finally have a system for dealing with RVers so hopefully the information I give you is all you need.

There was a lot of information out there on who needs to take this test. People were saying because we drive recreationally versus commercially we don't need this special endorsement on our license. Not true!

I know for a fact that anyone driving an motorhome over 26,000 pounds for a dry weight needs to take this test. I'm pretty certain anyone with a combined weight between truck and trailer over 26,000 pounds also needs to take this test. I don't want to be one of the blogs out there handing out bad info so I'll stick to the motorhome side of things.

The process of getting this endorsement involved taking a written test that was solely based on Section 14 in the Texas CDL Handbook. It was a lot of questions about the size of vehicle you are driving and permits needed. I remember there being something about road flares vs flags. There was some stuff about farm vehicles. The test is 20 questions and you need to get 14 correct to pass. I read through that section of the handbook a couple times and took some online practice tests and was able to pass on my first try. There is also an app that has some CDL practice tests. I wasn't able to find any practice tests specific to section 14 so I just took it as good knowledge to know about driving a big rig.

I took this test at the same time that I applied for my license. After I passed I was then issued basically a trainer's permit/license for this endorsement until I was able to take the road test. Also I had to pay an additional $11 to upgrade from a standard license. After passing the written test I was able to setup an appointment to take my driving test which the earliest they could get me in was 1 week from the time of my written test. So we extended our stay at Rainbow's End park and hung out in Livingston a little longer. I've read this is about average for what they are booked out on driver's tests.

The Driving Test
I showed up about 10 minutes early and parked in the large lot south of the DMV building. The instructor later had me move my rig to the shoulder of N. Washington Ave facing south. They didn't ask me how I got the rig there, which was a small concern since technically I wasn't licensed to drive it. The pretrip inspection included testing the brake lights, turn signals, headlights, wipers, and horn. Even though I have air brakes they didn't ask for any of those tests. After that, Talia who was super friendly hopped in and read through a document and we were off.

We started heading south through town, looped back on highway 59, exited onto a frontage road, came back to Washington Ave heading south. Did a lane change then turned left and headed north on highway 146 for about 1 mile. We turned onto a side street where she hopped out and instructed me to pull forward about 100 feet and back up straight down the street until where I dropped her off. No turning, no parallel parking!!! After that we made our way back to their office and were done! It took 25-30 minutes max. Nothing tricky! Didn't get asked about road signage which is another thing I read you would have to do. Not a bad thing to pay attention to, but wasn't part of my test.

Overall they are mainly looking to make sure you use your signals, mirrors, and understand how to move your vehicle between lanes and take a corner.

Hope that helps a few of you that are considering going through the process! If you have any questions feel free to reach out via email or the comments below and I'll do my best help.

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New England Adventures - Part 1

11/19/2016

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After our quick trip through KY, WV, PA and NY we landed in southeast Massachusetts for a couple of weeks. This was super refreshing since we spent basically from the end of June through the middle of November moving every 3-4 days. We love traveling but moving that often takes it toll. We were excited to just slow down and get back into a bit of a routine. We also spent some time exploring the area.

Dinner at our campground

Some pool fun at our campground!

One spot that we absolutely fell in love with was the Sandwich area. We spent a couple of afternoon/evenings out there. Here are some pics from the boardwalk that took you out to the beach. It was amazing to see how much the tide went up and down in these coastal areas.

We were also only about 20 minutes from Plymouth rock which as maybe a little underwhelming but still a fun spot to check out and see where some of the first pilgrims landed back in the 1600's.

We were staying at a campground called Gateway to Cape Cod while in Massachusetts so it just made sense that we needed to explore the Cape. We were about a 2 hour drive from Provincetown which is the town all the way out at the end of the cape. We spent one morning out there. The town had a similar feel to Key West, beachy and laid back! The downtown area was a fun and easy walk with fun stores and restaurants. Since buying chockey type touristy stuff doesn't really fit our model of downsizing we opted to pass on the shopping and check out the local library. Glad we did because it was pretty cool with a big ship inside of it.

On our way back towards our campground drove up to the national seashore park ranger station which had some incredible views. We even got to see some whales swimming on the ocean side of the cape from this lookout. Since we love beaches we also found a super fun beach, Coast Guard Beach. We hung out there for awhile and played in the sand and waves. We also saw some seals swimming just off the shore.

A trip to New England wouldn't be complete without a tour of Boston. We spent one long day in the city but could have easily done more. There was so much to see and lots of fun areas of town. The main attraction we took in was walking the Freedom Trail. If you aren't familiar there, is a line of red bricks laid into the sidewalks/streets that lead you through town on a 2.5 mile long walk. There are 16 historical sites along the way. We managed to make it to 15 of them and saw the 16th from afar. We were tired!

Of course we had to check out the Otis House! We thought these were relatives of Laura's, her maiden name is Otis, but it turns out her relatives lived in Maine, not Boston! We found this out after we spent $25 for the tour! Gah!!!

What would a trip to Boston be without a trip to Cheers! It was actually semi dissappointing in that the bar that they used for the show was actually upstairs. There was a line to sit in Norm's stool so I opted for a pic outside!

We also got a recommendation from a few people to check out Newport Beach in Rhode Island. I'm glad we listened and checked it out. It was totally worth it! We did the cliff walk along the beach which was incredible to see the homes along the way.

That was the two weeks we spent in the Cape Cod and Boston area! So much to see and 2 weeks wasn't enough time to see it all. So many cool places and both of us agreed that we could see ourselves spending the summer in this area. We will have another blog post up shortly with our trip up into New Hampshire and Maine! We liked that area even more!

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August Travels (Kentucky, W. Virginia, Pittsburgh, Niagara, and More)

10/21/2016

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It was a strange feeling after our Beachbody Coach Summit in Nashville. In years past that event comes to an end and we go back to Minnesota and go back to our normal lives. So it was strange when this year we just packed up the RV and moved on to our next location. Slowly this full time traveling thing is starting to feel like the norm.

One place that was definitely on our radar that we wanted to check out was Niagara Falls. From Nashville we plotted our course to get there and it took us through Kentucky. We did just an overnight stay at a little park in Renfro Valley. It was actually a cute park that hosts a bunch of country music concerts.

A mid-walk dance party

This little hill kept him busy for a solid 10 minutes

Woke up to some serious fog

After Kentucky we had heard great things about West Virginia and how beautiful it was. Our original plan was to stay at a state park or Army Corps of Engineers park called Bulltown Campground for 4 days. It was up in the mountains and right on a lake, everything looked fantastic. Well... we didn't think about cell phone coverage. We didn't have any on our ATT phones or our Verizon hotspot. Had we known that we could have planned for us to be unplugged but unfortunately we had some business commitments that we needed to be a part of which meant we needed to find some service. So our 4 day stay turned into 1 night.

Not a bad view from our campground in WV

Our only communication to the outside world! Who knew payphones still existed?

It actually didn't turn out to be so bad that we left West Virginia. Our plan was to drive up to Pittsburgh for a quarterly Beachbody event anyways that Saturday so it did save us some mileage and time in the car. The spot we moved to was a fun little park with a lot of full-timers a little southeast of Pittsburgh. We spent a decent amount of time at the playground in the park and met some pretty cool people, even some fellow Beachbody coaches.

We spent a great day in Pittsburgh. Our morning was filled with our Beachbody event where we got to hear some amazing stories from fellow coaches. Laura and Eli got to meet Autumn Calabrese, the trainer behind 21 Day Fix and Country Heat. After our event we walked around downtown a bit. It happened to be Regatta weekend and we were in the neighborhood so we checked out some of the boat races.

After our 4 day stay in the Pittsburgh area we made our way up to Niagara area. We stayed at a great campground literally right Lake Ontario. Our view was looking out at that lake. Here's one at sunset, pretty incredible!

I was a little worried Niagara Falls was going to be underwhelming. Let's just say it wasn't. Such a cool spot and awe inspiring to see that kind of power in nature. We only walked around on the US side of the falls but walked all way from the horseshoe falls down to the US falls and up on the observation deck that hangs out over the river.

We did drive the road that runs parallel to the river and falls on the Canadian side. It definitely looked like you would get better views of all the falls from that side! Now we know!

Our travels went international at this point too. We decided to make a day trip up to Toronto. We had heard great things about the city. We wish we would have done a bit more homework ahead of time and it would have been fun to spend more time there. We spent most of our time in the distillery district. It had some fun restaurants, coffee shops, and boutique style shops.

One mistake we made due to poor planning was walking to Cherry Beach Park. Let's just say Canadian beaches don't really compare to others we have visited. We wish we would have went and checked out some market areas of town instead. I wish we had more time but we tried to get out of downtown before rush hour. We left downtown around 3:00 and our 2 hour drive turned into 3. Who knows how bad it would have been had we stayed another hour or two.

Canadian Beach on Lake Ontario

We did all of that in just over a week! Are you tired just reading about all of that? Yeah it was pretty exhausting moving that fast and doing as much as we were doing. We had one more stop in central upstate New York before we would settle into a campground in southern Massachusetts for 2 weeks. We did pretty well in keeping the whirlwind going. We spent some time in Rome, NY, a petting zoo, washed the RV, and spent an afternoon checking out a local lake town. I almost forgot we also celebrated Eli's 2nd birthday!

We had such a good time during this part of our trip. This is really why we wanted to go on this adventure. To be together as a family, see places that are popular spots and quite a few that are off the beaten path.

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Road Trip with Nana

9/17/2016

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We left Minneapolis on July 21st with 3 of us and after 36 hour pit stop in Des Moines we had four in our RV. Laura's mom, aka Nana, joined us on our trip to Nashville. She was coming along with us to babysit Eli during our annual Beachbody Summit event that was taking place the following weekend.

We had a couple pit stops between Des Moines and our final destination. The first one was Hannibal, MO. This was such a fun little town right on the Mississippi River. We were originally only planning on staying one night, however due to some plumbing repairs that we had to do we stayed a second night. This gave us a little time to explore the city. It also gave me a chance to work on some plumbing skills in 100+ degree weather. It was hot!

From Hannibal we moved onto the Gun Creek Recreation area by Benton, IL. Other than our first campsite being on too big of slope to level out our RV safely, this campground was fantastic. Big, roomy campsites that were right on a lake. Oh and it was cheap! Definitely a great spot and if pass through southern Illinois again we will for sure make a stop here.

After one night in Illinois we made our final drive to Nashville. It was only a 4 hour drive roughly. We happened to time out our arrival exactly as a thunderstorm was rolling in and knocked out all the power in the park we were staying. Not a huge issue other than needing to run the generator on our RV for an hour or so. It was hot and humid and our AC's needed to be cranked up!

We made it to Nashville! Now to prepare for our coaches to arrive and learn, sweat, and have some fun with them.

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Day Trip to Mount Rainer National Park

Our Routine... A Day in the Life!

Our First Winter As Snowbirds

Where have we been in the last 6 months?

Kansas City

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Austin, TX

Christmas in MN, Iowa and our RV

Galveston and Kemah, TX

Orlando, FL

The Keys

The Rest of Florida

Traveling with Family

One Year RV-versary!

Where Have We Been?

What Have We Learned?

What Lies Ahead?

Back to Minnesota for the Ryder Cup

New England Adventures - Part 2

The Process to Become Texans

Applying for a Texas Class B Non-CDL License

New England Adventures - Part 1

August Travels (Kentucky, W. Virginia, Pittsburgh, Niagara, and More)

Road Trip with Nana

The Cook & The Coach

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