Lessons Learned During Our Kick Off Retirement Trip

We just arrived home from our grand retirement RV trip and life has never been sweeter. We fell in love with RV'ing all over again on this trip, and discovered we really do like being in our rig for long periods of time, particularly on the days when we move from one place to another. It's exciting to break down, hook up to our SUV, and prepare to discover a whole new place. Moving day, as we call our transitional days, is really, really fun!


We learned a lot as well. We learned that we do best if we wake up early, 6:00 AM in our case, in order to have ample time to wake up over coffee and get a run in before starting our "real" day. 


In the wine country town of Paso Robles our morning runs took us through vine covered hills like this:

In the coastal county of Santa Barbara our morning runs took us along ocean bluffs with views like this:

Either way, a pretty incredible way to start the day. We felt the air, we smelled it and we saw beautiful things. We got to that sweet spot where your heart is pumping, your breathing is steady, your head is clear, and life feels completely amazing. It also pretty much guarantees the rest of our day is going to be great as well, because we've cleared the clutter from our heads. 


And yet, everyday we had to force ourselves to ignore our lazy selves, put down our coffee cups, and pick up our running shoes. You would think after all these years we would have our workout routine down pat, but alas no, we have to re-commit ourselves to being active every single morning. Most times we succeed, because over the years we've learned that if we commit to doing that which is difficult, the rest of our day becomes very easy by comparison. As opposed to the opposite, which is exactly what occurs if we give in to our lazy selves and skip our morning routine.


On the days we didn't run we hiked. We followed beautiful trails along the coast of Cambria, and up into the mountains overlooking Morro Bay. We met other hikers, and sometimes their dogs. We exchanged brief words of encouragement, verbal pats on the back if you will, as we did so. "Just a little more uphill and you're there," or "What a pretty dog!" We experienced the simple joy of PB&J sandwiches, apples and ice cold water in the midst of a challenging hike. And the simple pleasure of switching out of our hiking shoes and back into our sandals when we finished.

At the top of Cerro Alta Summit, overlooking  Morro Bay.

The beginning of the spectacular Moonshadow Beach trail in Camria

We also explored. We drove all 16 narrow, windy, twisty little miles of Santa Rosa Creek Road in Cambria, discovering the wonderful home farm bakery location of Linn's Fruit Bin along the way. And their wonderful olallieberry pies! The Circle Bar B Ranch and it's cowboy dinner theater. We didn't manage to get tickets this time around, but next time for sure! And the road the ranch is on is supposed to be the same one the Reagan's used to get to their Santa Barbara hideaway, so even more to explore next time we're in the area.


We visited oodles and oodles of wineries in Paso Robles and the Santa Ynez Valley, enjoying each one's unique wines, perspective and countryside setting. 


We spent a wonderful three days with our camping club in Goleta at Refugio State Beach, re-appreciating all over again how our lives our enhanced by having met these wonderful folk. There's just something about people that RV. Perhaps it's the knowledge that we are all vulnerable to mishaps and breakdowns while on the road, but RV people tend to be some of the nicest and most generous people we've ever met.


We weren't particularly eager to head for home on our last day out, the mark of a great trip. In fact, we would have preferred to have simply moved on to another new town with our trailer! We absolutely loved being on the road, and we are eager to get out again next week, and then again in July for what will be our longest RV trip so far - 24 days.


In the meantime, we are renewed, incredibly excited about our new life, and more determined than ever to live each day as fully and meaningfully as possible.