Inspiring travel stories, tips, and guides from a couple exploring the world one destination at a time.
Holidays for us have been about visiting and celebrating with family and friends. Life on the road has made that a little bit difficult because most of our immediate family live in cold winter climates not suitable to visit in the motorhome. With COVID, visiting anyone wasn’t a good idea. We have a property in San Diego that has been rented, and in dire need of some TLC, so we spent some time there in social isolation, making repairs until our next adventure.
Last Updated: July 17, 2026
Repairs have a way of accumulating when you live on the road. Emergencies get dealt with immediately — a blown tire, a generator failure, a slideout that won’t retract — but everything else gets quietly added to a list that only grows longer with each mile. By the time we returned to our San Diego home base in summer 2020, that list had become formidable: house plumbing, flooring, landscaping, an aging fountain, RV repairs still waiting from our time in Nappanee and Tucson, and a growing stack of overdue medical appointments for both of us. Three months of work, doctor visits, and Home Depot runs later, we were finally caught up. Mostly.
Last Updated: July 17, 2026
Life on the road has been one of the most remarkable chapters of our lives. Over the past four years, we traveled across much of the United States and parts of Canada in our Newmar Dutch Star motorhome, immersing ourselves in each region in a way that no hotel stay or vacation schedule could replicate. We explored remote national parks, tiny historic towns, sweeping coastlines, and everything in between — unhurried, on our own terms, with Jake riding shotgun for every mile. Now, in the summer of 2020, we find ourselves at a turning point: transitioning from full-time life on the road to spending a few months each year back in San Diego, while keeping the adventures very much alive.
Last Updated: July 17, 2026
Escondido is about 30 miles north of downtown San Diego and one of San Diego County’s oldest cities. Located roughly 15 miles inland from the Pacific coast, it enjoys a warmer, sunnier climate than coastal neighborhoods — far less of the May-gray and June-gloom marine layer that blankets the shoreline for much of late spring and early summer. Its rugged hillsides and Mediterranean climate support thriving avocado and citrus groves, and the area has long been a haven for those seeking more space and sunshine than the coast allows. During our RV travels in the summer of 2020, we spent time here getting repairs done on our Newmar motorhome and reconnecting with family — and in the process, rediscovered just how much this inland gem has to offer.
Last Updated: July 13, 2026
DeAnza Springs Resort is in eastern San Diego County. At an elevation of 2,600 feet it’s considered high desert with warm days and cool nights. DeAnza is on 500 acres adjacent to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, offering endless miles of remote hiking trails. It was a perfect getaway from the COVID-19 madness after leaving Ajo and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
Last Updated: June 18, 2026
The Coast Redwoods are the tallest living trees and among the oldest living things on Earth. The tallest known Coast Redwood stands 379.1 feet — about 37 stories high. Both Coast Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) and Giant Sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) belong to the cypress family, and the giant sequoias, which we saw at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, are the biggest trees in the world by overall volume.
