When my wife and I were young and poor with two kids and a true wanderlust, it came to us that the solution to all our problems might be getting a couple of pup tents and, throwing an incredible amount of stuff on a '65 VW beetle's luggage rack, having nice vacations at very low cost. It worked quite well and we took the family many places, staying in National Parks and Forests, State Parks, et cetera. As the kids grew, so did the amount of stuff necessary to camp comfortably. By time the kids entered their teen years, we had moved up to a Ford Crown Victoria with a utility trailer to haul all of us and our stuff all over the country.

As the kids got well into their teens, the camping out lost its appeal and we, meanwhile, were starting to notice the aches and pains that come with middle age - even the cots weren't

improving our sleep all that much. It seemed our camping days were ending. Then we discovered the great comfort and convenience of using a travel trailer! Our first was a 17' Starcraft towed behind the reliable old Crown Vic. When that car finally gave up the ghost, we got a Dodge Ramcharger truck to tow the trailer and had wonderful times visiting all over the continent, making the exciting trip up the Alaska Highway. That was the trip that killed the trailer and we moved up to a twenty footer. That didn't last very long at all, with both the truck and the trailer being totalled in a rather nasty wreck. (Luckily there were no injuries, just incredible body damage to my vehicles. The driver that caused me to crash drove merrily off down the highway; I'm not even sure he was aware of the trail of destruction he left behind.)

Deciding that towing wasn't the best thing for us anyway, we replaced the rig with an Airstream 190B motorhome and enjoyed the added convenience of a toilet inside the vehicle we were riding in. It was also easy to park. The only disadvantage of this small unit was that one of us slept on the gaucho (a kind of fold-out sofa-bed) while the other had to clamber up over the cockpit to sleep on a 3/4 bed with two feet of clearance between the bed and the roof. A few years of this and we were ready for a slightly larger motorhome.

The Airstream got traded in on a 25' Winnebago Warrior. It did very well indeed, but we discovered that the extra length did make parking a problem. The solution was to get a

Jeep Wrangler to tow behind the motorhome to drive for our birding and sight-seeing adventures. We drove it all over the place too, and again to Alaska, this time driving back as well.

Then came retirement and we decided it would be fun to be "snowbirds" during the worst of the winter months and, so the first winter after my wife retired, we headed off to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas for January and February, 2000. We had planned to stay through March, but the little Winnebago was uncomfortably small for semi-permanent living. We worked our way slowly back North, stopping at RV dealers, shopping for a larger RV along the way.

Now we travel in a 34' Monaco Dynasty diesel motorhome with all the comforts of home - and more. We still tow a Jeep for local side-trips although it too has grown - first into a Grand Cherokee Overland and now a Chevy TrailBlazer. We find that this larger rig, while exceedingly comfortable when parked, is a chore to drive; so our driving days only last a few hours while we cover two or three hundred miles.

For the next several years we spent our winters shopping for a winter home; 2001 visiting warm Florida, spending time with friends and family in various cities, birding the Everglades, and enjoying the fine weather. January - April, 2002 were enjoyed in windy and warm Arizona with a few weeks at the famous RV show in Quartzsite as well as with family and friends. January - April, 2003 we went back to the Valley in Texas, 2004 back to Arizona, 2005 back to Florida and, having finally decided on South Texas, spent January - April, 2006 in the RGV shopping for a park to call home. We tentatively settled on Tropic Star RV Resort in Pharr, Texas and returned there in 2007 from January - March.

Again, we were very pleased with that choice and it will become our winter home. Well, sometimes! 2008 was spent back in Arizona after all because of family visits and Mensa convention.

This is a photo of our wall map that shows where we have been in our various campers over the years. Not bad for a couple of kids, no? We only put pins where we have spent more than a day, so central Texas, northern Colorado, southeastern Montana, Nevada and the Southeast are not quite as neglected as it appears. In Canada, most of Nova Scotia and all of Prince Edward Island, Labrador, and Newfoundland as well as the Northwest Territories extend beyond the limits of this map so they don't show—but we've been. And, just to tell the truth and shame the devil, note that Barrow, Nome, Kotzebue, and the Aleutian Islands in Alaska were sans motorhome side trips by air from Fairbanks, Anchorage, or Seward - and Hawaii, of course, was completely without the comforts of the motorhome.

As with everything in life, it's all trade-offs. Arizona's clean, dry air makes for comfortable breathing, but it is cooler and more windy as well as expensive and the longest drive from home. Florida is a shorter drive from home, and has more and better shopping, but it is quite humid, more expensive for just about everything, and traffic congestion plagues the entire state. The Rio Grande Valley of Texas is warmest, not very humid, and least expensive, though dining out experiences are limited and shopping is pretty basic, though improving.