Thank you for joining us on our amazing journey! We hope you enjoy the stories and pictures from our travels. This Full-Time RV lifestyle — mixing volunteering with seeing the sites our beautiful nation is wonderful for us.
We’re happy to hear your thoughts. There is a comment box at the bottom of each page. Thanks for visiting with us,
Judith & Mark
We are booked to return to Ottawa NWR in May for the peak of the warbler migration and festival in 2023. Then we will be volunteering at the Elizabeth A. Morton NWR near the eastern tip of Long Island for the summer. Google Map After that we plan to visit family in the Cleveland area until the weather starts to change.
Our Latest Post:
Spring 2023 – Arizona to Ohio — May 2023
Winter in Arizona 2023— March 2023
Ohio to Arizona 2022 — October 2022
Whale Watching out of Gloucester MA — Sept 2022
Wedding in Gloucester MA – Beau and Lucy — Sept 2022
Alaska Cruise — Part 2 — August 2022
Alaska Cruise – Part 1— August 2022
Volunteering at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge — June 2022
Spring 2022 – Arizona to Ohio — April 2022
Covid Winter in Arizona – 2022 — February 2022
Bosque delApache – Part 2 — It’s all about the birds! — December 2021
Bosque del Apache is going to the birds! — October 2021
Utah with friends and arrival at Bosque del Apache — August 2021
Crescent City, Redwoods N.P., Lassen Volcanic N.P. — July 2021
Tule Lake, CA — July 2021
Upper Klamath Lake & Wood River Wetland— June 2021
Black Butte Ranch & Crater Lake— June 2021
Oregon Coast – Cape Perpetua Scenic Area — May 4, 2021
Portland – Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden — April 28, 2021
Portland – Winter into Spring 2021— April 2021
October in Oregon — October 2020
Summer in Ohio – On to Oregon — September 2020
2020 — January thru June — June 2020
Happy Holidays 2019 — A Recap of our past year – December 2019
Bosque del Apache – Part 2 – 2019 — November 2019
Bosque del Apache & Balloon Fiesta 2019 — October 2019
Visiting Friends & Family – Summer 2019— August 2019 (W Va, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Toledo, Ft. Wayne, Chicago, Wahoo, Kanab)
N Carolina Adventures – Part 2 — June 2019
N Carolina Adventures – Part 1 — May 2019
Traveling to Pocosin Lakes NWR – Family & Friends— February 2019
Volunteering at Petrified Forest National Park— November 2018
Canyon de Chelly, Hubble Trading Post, & Monument Valley— September 12, 2018
Olympic Peninsula, family and friends— July 20, 2018
Seattle, and vicinity — July 5, 2018
Jasper National Park of Canada — July 1, 2018
Banff National Park of Canada — June 24, 2018
Waterton Lakes N.P. (CA) & Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology — June 22,2018
Glacier National Park — June 16, 2018
Grand Staircase Escalante – North Rim – trip to Glacier – June 10, 2018
Page, AZ – Lake Powell – Antelope Canyon – June 6, 2018
Bosque del Apache – End of another season – June 1, 2018
Beautiful Bosque del Apache — Birds & Friends – May 2018
Christmas, Quartzsite, and Boondocking — Plus some repairs – March 2018
Arches & Canyonlands National Parks – November 14, 2017
Dead Horse Point State Park – November 8, 2017
Mesa Verde National Park – November 3, 2017
Petrified Forest – Painted Desert – October 15, 2017
Rock Art Ranch – October 14, 2017
Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta – October 12, 2017
Grand Tetons and Yellowstone – September 29, 2017
Devils Tower – Little Bighorn – September 19, 2017
More fun in South Dakota – September 17, 2017
Around Mt Rushmore – September 15, 2017
Trip to Mt. Rushmore – September 9, 2017
Grand Portage – Final Days – September 4, 2017
A Visit from Debbie – August, 2017
A Wedding in Youngstown. – July 21, 2017
Ft. William F.N. Pow-Wow and other adventures – July 2, 2017
First days at Grand Portage – Part 2 – 6/15/2017
Grand Portage – First Days – 6/11/2017
Heading to Minnesota – May 15, 2017
Wrapping up in Texas – May 7, 2017
Smith Oaks Rookery – High Island, TX – March 9, 2017
Feb. in Texas – February 28, 2017
Florida: Friends & Family – January 28, 2017
Off to Florida – January 1, 2017
Around the Refuge – Friends and birds – November 22, 2016
Gila Cliff Dwellings, Silver City, City of Rocks, & Rockhound State Park – 10-5-2016
Very Large Array, etc. – 9-20-2016
Bosque del Apache – 9-12-2016
Albuquerque, NM – September 5, 2016
Summer is coming to an end – August 27, 2016
Adventures around Sedona – July 20, 2016
Palatki – Part 2 – July 10, 2016
Palatki Heritage Site – Sedona Arizona – June 16, 2016
Sedona Arizona – May 12, 2016
Yuma Arizona – April 28, 2016
Boondocking in the desert & San Diego— April 22, 2016
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park – April 13, 2016
Death Valley – April 5, 2016
The End – And a Beginning – April 2, 2016
Two Scorpions, A Snake, and a Beautiful Lake
Arizona Desert Museum, Sonoran Lights, and a Mishap – February 6, 2016
Tonto National Monument & Besh Ba Gowah – January 29, 2016
Taliesin West and Phoenix Botanical Garden – January 26, 2016
Arizona Excursions – Part 3 – January 19, 2016
Arizona Excursions – Part 2 – January 11, 2016
Arizona Excursions – 12-24-2015
New Orleans – World War II Museum
Winter Haven & Destin, Florida – 10/25 – 11/8/2015
St. Augustine, FL – October 22, 2015
Charleston, SC – October 19, 2015
Mark “mostly retired” on September 30. Judith retired on Friday, 10/16/2015. For each of us, our co-workers gave us a delightful send-off and good wishes for our new adventure.
We packed up our trailer “Lucy” and pulled out of Woodside Lake Park, stopping by ALT to let Judith’s co-workers see our new home, and headed south out of Cleveland just before the first snow of the season (just a dusting) hit Cleveland.
Wrapping up in Cleveland – September 3, 2015
Our first trip – the plan – August 19, 2015
Our first destination – Casa Grande Ruins National Monument
Preparing for Full-Time Travel
Our New Adventure – Can you spell “RV”
Technical Details — All the geeky details about calculating truck capacities, composting toilet, solar installation, etc.
Hi, we met you guys at VbarV and talked about volunteering at Casa Grande.
We will be passing through the area on February the third and we’re hoping to stop by and meet with you and talk with your Volunteer Coordinator about opportunities. Will this be possible and also could we arrange a night’s stay at one of your RV sites?
Enjoyed talking with you and hope to see you then.
Love your updates and still miss you here at the ruins even tho we have a great bunch of folks to work with. I think I sent an Email to Judith about why I haven’t given you the Alaska adventure info???
Great info. Lucky me I ran across your website by accident (stumbleupon).
I have saved it for later!
Hello!
Thanks for sharing your travels! How was the volunteering at the Petrified Forest? We will be volunteering there as well. Did you have an RV there? Could you share your overall experience and accommodations?
Liz,
Yes we had an RV and stayed in one of the six RV volunteer sites; the sites are comparable to many commercial campgrounds, they are not large but totally functional.
Petrified Forest is an amazing place with amazing stories… Painted Desert & Painted Desert Inn, Puerco Pueblo & Newspaper Rock, Blue Mesa, and of course the Petrified Forest itself. Much of the park is available to unsupervised hiking, it is National Wilderness Area.
The park requires a background/security check before they allow you to have keys to any of the buildings. This seems reasonable, however you need keys to do almost all of your job (open the visitor’s center, open the Painted Desert Inn, travel from one end of the park to the other after closing time) and it took a LONG time to get this. Plus, communication among staff was a problem, so for my wife they had the necessary level of clearance but it took another month to get her the keys — by then we were down to our last four weeks before leaving.
While the Interpretation staff is very welcoming of Volunteers, Park Management seemed to prefer to ignore us. We had been there over two months before we met the Park Manager, and then only because we went up and introduced ourselves as he was walking past. This has not been our experience at other NPS sites (National Monuments) and Wildlife Refuges. Maybe it is just PFO or maybe it reflects the larger size of a National Park, however it was disappointing. (We don’t need constant “strokes” from management, but a little acknowledgement that we at least exist and are providing a service would be nice.)
Overall, it was a mixed experience. Stay on top of your volunteer coordinator about the security clearance & keys, maybe that will make it a better experience for you.
Ask Sammy (If still with him.) to write his feelings about something he really thinks is cool?
Mark and Judith! I was so glad to see your blog email. Sorry I didn’t get to see you on your last weekend at the refuge but I am SO happy I got to meet both of you! I am still playing Wordle and I plan on sending you any questions I have on gardening 🙂 Hope the eye is better, Mark!
Can’t wait to see you two next year at the wildlife refuge!! <3
The whale watching photos are so great! I will enjoy showing the kids later. Best wishes to you, Sarah and the family