Inspiring travel stories, tips, and guides from a couple exploring the world one destination at a time.
Last Updated: July 17, 2026
After a busy summer in San Diego catching up on house repairs, RV service, and a string of medical procedures, we were finally ready to hit the road again. Our route took us north through Nevada and Utah before crossing into Wyoming’s Star Valley — a part of the country we had visited years ago but were thrilled to rediscover. Fall colors were just beginning to show their brilliance, and the mountain air felt like a reward after months at sea level.
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: July 13, 2026
Ajo sits at the western edge of the Tohono O’odham Nation, about 40 miles north of the Mexican border and roughly 2.5 hours from Tucson. It’s one of the closest towns to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and in late May 2020 it was one of the few places in southern Arizona with an available RV spot — most parks in the area were full, partly because of workers constructing the border wall nearby.
The name has two competing explanations. In Spanish, ajo means garlic — and some early Spanish explorers apparently found wild garlic growing in the area. But the Tohono O’odham people have a similar-sounding word, o’oho, meaning paint: they obtained red pigment from mineral deposits in this region for centuries before any Spanish explorer arrived. Take your pick.
