2022 In Review

This was our first full year of full-time living in our RV, and it was amazing! Our friends and family are asking us if we're still glad we sold everything to live in 500 square feet, and the answer is YES! We used 2022 as a test year, not getting too far from Denver, just in case we found we didn't like it. Now, we know we can really hit the road and see the country.

Check out the map below to see the places we went, and click the small, gray, horizontal line below the map to scroll through the details of our journey. We started in Tucson (marked with the star) and ended in Lake Havasu City.

We started in Arizona, visiting Monica's dad and stepmom. Then we headed to Amarillo so Monica could work in the office for a couple weeks. On the way, we stayed in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and we really enjoyed White Sands National Park.

Margot and Lacey walking on the white sands of the park

After some time in Amarillo, we decided to check out some spots in the Dallas area. Margot went to Peru for a couple weeks, and Monica was able to see her friend Nyree while she was holding down the fort in Sunnyvale. We spent our first anniversary in Grapevine at a nice resort. We even went to the Fort Worth Rodeo, which was really fun.

Margot on Lewisville Lake next to our campsite (love those waders!)

We spent another couple of weeks in Amarillo, and we were really enjoying it. Margot made lots of new pickleball buddies, and we met our new friends Cim and Daniel when we camped at Lake Meredith National Recreation Area.

After that fun in Texas, we headed up to Colorado. First, we stayed in the Denver area so Monica could put in some more office time. That was nice, because we got to spend lots of time with friends and family. We camped at all of our favorite spots before heading off to mom's new house in Muscatine, Iowa.

Mom's house was awesome! The house was roomy and comfortable, and there was a cement pad with full hookups on the side of the house where we could put the motor home. Perfect! Lacey even had a grassy place to play. We met and hung out with lots of new friends and family in the area, which made those weeks very special. We even stayed at one of our favorite new parks at Shady Creek, just down the road from mom's house.

After leaving mom's, we spent an awesome week in La Crosse, Wisconsin. We were really enjoying the Mississippi River. We'd been on it in the boat in Muscatine, and La Crosse has islands that make it easy to kayak in it. Margot had a great time in the river in her kayak, even though the 360-camera decided to stay at the bottom of the river somewhere (we bought a new one but lost that kayaking footage). We had to leave Wisconsin too soon, but we had a great overnight stay in Minnesota where we really enjoyed a quick visit to Pipestone National Monument.

The Mississippi River was mellow, but it still claimed the camera

We met Mike and Heather in Rapid City, South Dakota, and we saw all there was to see. It was a whirlwind! But we had a blast. The trip didn't last nearly long enough.

Needing to get back to the Denver area for some more office time, we took a leisurely meander through Wyoming. Who knew we'd love it so much? We spent time on some amazing lakes, and we really enjoyed the pace and vibe of Wyoming. We'll definitely be back to explore still more of the state.

That left the summer for some really great experiences in our home state. We were in Kremmling, Colorado for a few weeks, and then in Granby. We had visits from Allie, Helen, Gwendyl, Xander, and Zoe -- perfect! Every day was filled with smiles and laughter, and we never wanted it to end. It had to end, of course, but then we capped off our visits with some more time in Denver. We even stayed at Bear Creek Lake Park, a nice campground in town that we'd never visited. We'll definitely check that place out again.

We beached in some amazing places in 2022

Margot's birthday was a blast. We went to a Rockies game with Allie and Emily, took a tour of downtown Denver on a rickshaw, and then played minigolf indoors with a visit from Kathy. Too fun!

The Rockies lost but it was still a great time

Keeping up with our life of leisurely traveling, we left Colorado for the winter by staying for a while in Pueblo (we finally did the Pikes Peak Cog Railway!) and then Walsenburg. The stay at Lathrop State Park was special because we hosted a RVing Women gathering over one of the weekends. It was a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun. Movie night was the best!

Margot made it to the top for some great views of the Spanish Peaks

Three weeks in Bloomfield, New Mexico, was very relaxing. Navajo Lake was amazing, and so were the rest of the lakes nearby. We toured a lot of different national parks and other sites to see kivas and great houses, including going on the last tour of the season of Cliff House at Mesa Verde. We had a busy time with sightseeing.

It really felt like we were heading south when we finally got to Monument Valley, but that was the coldest place of the fall and the only place we'd see snow as the year wound down. We rented a Jeep, and some friends from TrailDamage.com came out to Jeep with us. That was really spectacular. The views from our KOA campground were just insane. We were there until November 6th, but the park closed down for the season on October 31st. That meant we had the whole park to ourselves for a while. Truly an awesome experience.

We were surrounded with scenery like this!

We drove the short distance to Hurricane, Utah (pronounced like Hurriken), spending a couple hours on Lake Powell on the way. When we got to Hurricane, we both immediately realized we may have found a contender for a "retirement" location. Eventually, we will both be too old to drive our big motor home around and we'll need to settle down. Hurricane gets very hot in the summer, but we really loved it. The park had so many trees, and it was gorgeous. Sue and Toni even came to visit on their way through the area. We really didn't want to leave (Zion was amazing!).

We'd love to come back to this campground

But then we were next to Lake Mead for a few weeks, and we spent Thanksgiving at The Plaza downtown on Fremont Street. Boulder City is a great spot, and we hoped to come back again. Just a few miles from Hoover Dam, we got to see some amazing sights. Allie came to stay for a week, and we were doing something practically every day. Too fun!

Walking The Strip is always a blast (we walked and walked!)

We wrapped up 2022 at Lake Havasu City, Arizona. We stayed at a resort on the island, and we were able to moor the boat in the water while we were there. The lake was really nice, and so was the town (it was bigger than we remembered, and it had everything we needed). The weather was warmer, and we were looking forward to our 2023 winter even farther south. It was a great place to spend Christmas.

Our boat was right at home at our resort's marina

What an amazing year! We added a few new states to our list of places we've been, and we saw some amazing sights. We can't wait for 2023 -- happy new year, everyone!