Living our Best Life

Mountain Lioness, Rascal, and I are roaming around in the Blue Ridge Mountains for the next month. We are enjoying the pleasant weather at an elevation of 3,000 feet.

Mornings start slowly. I wake up to the calm and peaceful presence of Mountain Lioness beside me. Rascal starts to wake up from his cozy spot under the enormous king-size comforter. After Rascal gets out of bed, we go for a walk. When we return, I prepare breakfast for all of us. Rascal and Mountain Lioness each get their can of wet food while I have coffee, whole grain toast, turkey sausage, and a hard-boiled egg. After breakfast, Rascal usually returns to bed and tunnels under the blankets and pillows that I just carefully arranged.

Mountain Lioness, Rascal, and I strive to do nothing most days. The cat and dog are already experts at this lifestyle. I’m quickly catching on.

I haven’t written much during this trip. I spent the last two months at the farm of my best friends Erica and Chris in Virginia. Out of respect for their privacy, I haven’t shared any details or photos from our time there. In the coming years, I believe I’ll look back fondly on the time I spent with Erica and Chris this summer as the most special part of my retirement in the past eleven years.

Hot air balloons being heated by propane.

Trying to figure out where to live in the future has been challenging. Looking at all the homes for sale in the tri-city area of Bristol, Kingsport, and Johnson City overwhelmed me. The idea of returning to Florida to the crowds, heavy traffic, and tropical heat and humidity is not appealing.

For now, I’ve chosen the path of least resistance, continuing to live in the motor coach. While trying to figure out where to live in the Tennessee/Virginia area or returning to Florida, I realized I could continue living in the motor home indefinitely (Captain Obvious here) and go wherever I wanted. I’ve always treated the RV as a 3-4 month trip with some destination in mind. Now I’m seeing the RV as my home for the first time.

This trip is open-ended. We’re trying to figure out where we want to go next and when we’ll head back home. Usually, I wake up one morning and decide I have had enough time on the road. I will return to the Sage House in Florida sometime in the fall or winter. I must return because my driver’s license expires at the end of the year.

My home in Florida is lovely, or I wouldn’t have lived there for 45 years. Back in 1979, the area was quiet, peaceful, moderately populated, and traffic was light. During the last ten years, the area has become severely congested. Traffic is horrendous. Constant noise comes from ambulances, trucks, loud cars, motorcycles, helicopters, and jet aircraft. People continue to pour into the state. I don’t blame them. I moved here three weeks after graduating college. The Sage House is relatively inexpensive except for insurance and maintenance costs. The place still seems worth keeping for the winter months. October through March in central Florida along the Gulf Coast is a great place to winter.

My favorite part of the day is still when we go to bed. I always seem to get a good night’s sleep in the motorhome. I usually go to sleep when night falls and wake up when the morning light streams in the bedroom windows. I sleep from dusk to dawn. I say to Rascal, “Go to bed,” and he jumps up onto the bed and burrows under the comforter and sheets for the night.

Mountain Lioness then ventures out and lays beside my head, purring loudly. She doesn’t care much for the dog and prefers to stay in her own room when we are home in Florida. Mountain Lioness and I reconnected during this tour. Since Rascal arrived, Mountain Lioness has primarily lived in the second bedroom of the Sage Home. Several weeks passed before she would join us in bed. Now, they share a somewhat comfortable coexistence.

When dawn breaks, we go through the same morning ritual all over again. Mountain Lioness has been with me for 12 years, including nine years in the RV. At first, it was her and Paso Robles who had been together for seven years. She has been with me for over 800 nights in the coach named after her.

We live on an easy street. I am comfortable in the RV. With the slides extended, I have around 480 square feet of living area, about half the size of my house. With a well laid out floor plan, the space is all you need to live comfortably. I even bought fake plants and lights to make the coach feel more like home.

Rascal is hitting his stride. We are in a good routine for him now. There has been only one accident in 70 days, which was at the beginning (update, make that two) of the trip. He walks to the coach door to let me know he needs to go out. He usually pulls his dog bed next to where I am sitting. I think he is sleeping, but often, when I look down at him, I see him looking up at me. We are communicating much better. He will be three years old on September 1st. We’ve lived together since October 31st 2021. We are each other’s most constant companion.

This dog is incredibly muscular. His short fur makes his rippling muscles clearly visible. He looks muscular because, well, he is very muscular.

Rascal running at his happy and joyful speed.

Rascal is the fastest dog I have ever seen. Whippets can reach speeds of 35 mph, but their lightning-quick acceleration makes them incredible sprinters. Rascal only weighs 30 lbs, while greyhounds weigh twice as much. The lighter weight makes Whippets the fastest dog for the first 20 yards.

Rascal has four different speeds. The first speed is his happy and joyful romp, as seen in the video above. Speed level two is when he gets the zoomies and runs in circles for five minutes. Speed level three is when he is playing with other dogs. Rascal grabs the toys and starts running with them while the other dogs try in vain to catch him. After three years, I have yet to see him caught.

Level four is incredible to watch; it’s his Prey Speed. When Rascal sees a squirrel, he reaches the back fence of my yard, 70 feet away, in less than a second. He’s not really running at Prey Speed, but more like springing and leaping like a deer, bounding across the backyard. Squirrels are quick, too. Rascal has not caught a squirrel.

I also always looked forward to going to bed at night during my eighteen long-distance bicycle vacations from 1996 to 2014. These trips typically involved cycling 600 miles over ten days. Climbing into a warm bed after a full day of cycling was always wonderful. However, waking up at 4 a.m. to prepare for the next ride was challenging.

In the beginning of my adventure cycling vacations, the extreme challenge and thrill of the ride and exploring new places was sufficient to keep me motivated. However, the scenery’s allure and the tour’s thrill weren’t enough as time passed. The trips started to feel lonely without someone to share them with.

Now, I feel the same way about RV travel. At first, the challenge of the road trips and seeing all the beauty across America motivated me to go. However, like the cycling tours, eventually, the trip was not enough without someone to share the experiences with.

So here I am, essentially living in the motorhome to escape the Florida heat. I try to remember that I upgraded from the Winnebago View Class C to the Tiffin Phaeton Class A to escape the Florida summers. Well, here I am. Wherever you go, there you are.

I’ve had a long and blessed life. After surviving a bout with COVID-19 that landed me in a hospital back in March of 2021, I had a followup visit with my primary care doctor. She has been my doctor for over 30 years. She was impressed that I was recovering so well and told me that I had lived a long and full life. I  think she meant it as a compliment. She didn’t have a great bedside manner. She wasn’t wrong.

I’ve lived a long life. I am in my seventh decade, with countless memories from growing up in Pittsburgh, attending college in Grove City, and moving to Florida right after graduation. After a 34-year career as an electrical engineer, I have been retired and traveling for ten years. I am a fortunate and lucky man.

I still remember the first year of my retirement in 2014 when I used to watch “Aerial America,” a show produced by the Smithsonian that featured an episode for each state in America. The show included breathtaking drone footage of the states while a narrator discussed the interesting history of the state. The cinematography was stunning, inspiring me to drive through all those states. I could only dream about taking those drives then. Now, I have driven through 46 states. Looking back, I realize the road trips were a fulfilling way to spend ten years. Now, I’m contemplating what to do next.

There is no great lesson learned here, and I haven’t found the meaning of life. Knowing that I did it is enough.

After two frightening eye surgeries in April and May, where I lost my vision for a few days, I learned again that all you have in life is your health and your loved ones. Everything else is just stuff.

So here I am again, wandering around the country with a cat and dog. Life is good.

I am at peace. My aim is to reach the end in harmony with myself, my loved ones, my conscience, and with God.

The Impossible Dream, Man of La Mancha – Elvis Pressley