Year: 2007 | Live Work Dream

Fulltime RV Family Discusses Life on the Road

September 4, 2023December 14, 2007 by Rene

Last Saturday while waiting for the Space Shuttle to take off, a friendly camper introduced herself to me. Her name was Kim Cunningham, and she is a fulltiming mother and wife with three children who are traveling across America right now, in search of their next endeavor.

Kim (41), her husband Regis (47), daughter Jessica (15), son Regis III (9), and Seb (6), sold their principal home in Cody, Wyoming last May. Regis is a real estate investor who for the last 25 years has taken marginal homes, fixed them up, and turned them into money making opportunities. Kim was a Creative Memories consultant for 13 years, while working together with Regis to manage their properties. This year, they had planned to leave Cody, buy another fixer-upper in Pennsylvania and settle down for a while, but when in Pennsylvania, circumstances didn’t turn out as they’d hoped, so they decided to stay on the road and keep looking.

How does a family with three kids, four dogs and one cat do it?

Where Is Utopia? Finding the Ideal Community

December 12, 2007 by Rene

Since June, we’ve been searching for the ideal place to live and start a business. We are talking to locals in towns across America, interviewing and taking notes, trying to get a feel for places that might come close to what we consider “perfect.”

But is all this work just a waste of energy? Are we searching for a utopia that doesn’t exist?

Tell us: What factors make up your ideal community?

As we tack on the miles, we keep seeking these answers.

Oh, Tanned and Bombed

December 11, 2007 by Rene

Santa visits fulltime RV travelers in Jetty Park, Cape Canaveral Florida

Floriduh . . . It’s A Given

May 21, 2020December 10, 2007 by Rene

Belgium Wisconsin got snow dumped on them this week while we enjoyed the sun in Port Canaveral. Pictures taken in Belgium, WI and Port Canaveral, FL.

Traveling Through Time

December 9, 2007 by Jim

We’ve finally made it to White Rabbit Acres organic farm in Vero Beach for our extended workamping stay after spending too much time waiting for the space shuttle to lift off.

We did have fun – and lots of margaritas – with our new friends in Port Canaveral. But our longer than expected stay just proves that time flies like, well … it seems to fly better than the Space Shuttle Atlantis right now anyway.

We didn’t even have time to catch everyone up on our stay in St. Augustine. René wrote about our visit to the Fountain of Youth, but the oldest city in the U.S offers much more history than that small artesian well which now rests some twelve feet below a room of dioramas depicting Ponce de León with his newfound Seminole friends.

[Show as slideshow]

I’m not just talking about the first Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museum, nor the umpteenth Thomas Kinkade Gallery. For starters, the Castillo de San Marcos is much more prominent and majestic. Walking its grounds, I couldn’t help but think of all the bloody battles that took place on the same spot so long ago.

St. Augustine, Florida; Low Density, Affordable Coastal Living

December 10, 2007December 9, 2007 by Rene

Thoughts and impressions about our visit to St. Augustine, Florida

So much for seeing the launch up close…

December 18, 2018December 8, 2007 by Jim

Another launch delay makes Jim and Rene consider leaving Jetty Park in the morning to get to their workamping arrangement in Vero Beach early enough to head back out and see the shuttle head skyward. Includes photos of the sun rise over the beach in St. Augustine.

Drinking Up at the Fountain of Youth in St. Augstine

November 15, 2017December 8, 2007 by Rene

St. Augustine’s Fountain of Youth is a dog friendly roadside attraction that we visited on our RV road trip sabbatical

We are snowbirds now. Or are we?

December 7, 2007December 7, 2007 by Jim

Due to some false LH2 ECO sensor readings, the STS-122 mission launch was scrubbed yesterday delaying Space Shuttle Atlantis from taking off until Saturday afternoon at the earliest.

We intend to stay one more day here in Jetty Park in hope that the countdown will continue as planned. If not, we will head on to our obligations at the farm in Vero Beach about an hour south. The view of takeoff won’t be nearly as spectacular there, but we’ve postponed our workamping stay long enough already.

In the meantime, here are some scenes from our first day in Florida …

[Show as slideshow]

And here is something I realized after our first night at Mike Roess Gold Head Branch Florida State Park …

T-11 and Holding

December 5, 2007 by Jim

Jim and Rene touch down at Jetty Park in Port Canaveral, FL about ten miles south of John F. Kennedy Space Center to view the Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch on December 06, 2007.

Takin’ A Gander at Gators in the Okefenokee Outback

December 2, 2007December 2, 2007 by Rene

Jim’s right; I had never heard of Okefenokee or the Pogo comic strip. Hard to believe that even after 12 years together, 24/7, we still don’t know everything about each other.

Okefenokee wasn’t on our trip route, but when he told me about it, I knew that I liked the word; Okefenokee. It sticks in your brain like glue, like a mosquito to your skin, like swamp mud on your boots. Doubtful that we’d ever be in that part of the U.S. anytime in the next 100 years, we headed away from the Carolina coast, right into lower south east Georgia’s swampland.

We went looking for gators, and came back with our first adventure feature presentation …

Tweaking the NextGEN Gallery Plugin

December 2, 2007 by Jim

Fair Warning: This one gets rather technical. But if a PHP Neophyte like me I can figure it out, anyone who has installed their own WordPress blog should be able to handle it.

New Amazon Kindle Lightens The Book Load.

September 4, 2023December 1, 2007 by Jim

Here’s a nifty new product that should lighten the load of any fellow avid readers out there who have packed up their library with them and brought it along in their rig: The new Amazon Kindle Wireless Reading Device.

If you’re like us, you had a hard time deciding which favorite books to bring with you on the road. Or, you are often leaving books at campgrounds and purchasing new ones along the way.

Either way, there is likely still a stack of books taking up valuable storage space in your RV. Well, this lightweight portable e-book reader may be just the trick to lighten your load and save you money on books and newspapers. Best of all, no computer or internet connection is required!

I don’t mean to sound like an Amazon marketing exec. I just think this is really cool. Having spent the past twenty odd years of my life in the printing industry, I’ve followed the development of electronic paper for a while now and think it is fascinating. And I remember the original Newton MessagePad from Apple, and it’s troubled launch.

Live Work Dream Expenses November 2007

September 14, 2015November 30, 2007 by Rene

Our RV road trip sabbatical budget and expense report for November 2007, just prior to Workamping gig in Florida for winter.

Where’s All The Boondocking?

November 29, 2007 by Jim

We’re always on the lookout for remote off-the-grid state and national parks where we can boondock, but have had a hard time finding any since we left Wisconsin’s tornado country.

It seems like there was never a problem finding cool places to boondock out West. We often went without hookups in California, Utah and Colorado. But even here in the middle of the Okefenokee Swamp we have water, power, paved roads and a few neighbors.