“What is your favorite place?” is one of the most frequent of the questions I get about fulltime RVing. After 23 years of living the fulltime RVing lifestyle this question is so hard to answer. We have enjoyed something about every place! Number one and two are definitely in favorite order; after that they can be rearranged depending on my mood! And, depending on my mood and our recent travels it could be totally different!
1. MONTEREY PENINSULA, CALIFORNIA-this also happens to be our home base and where we lived before embarking on full time RVing. Our primary doctors, dentist, ophthalmologists, etc. are there but this is not why it is #1 on the list. I love the feeling of both small town and city on the peninsula, I love the bay which sparkles and is rich in wild life. The climate suits me too—pretty much 65-70 degrees year round. And, of course, good food like artichokes, calamari and produce fresh from the fields in nearby Salinas! We’ve been live-on volunteers and active with the track rental program at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for a bunch of years and love it also. GET is Track Rental Supervisor and I am a Sound Tester and Course Marshal.
Before we moved to Monterey I fell in love with the area while taking a travel Geography class. It was so long ago that it was a cassette-directed class but I got to explore this historic and beautiful first capital of California. A few years later when my boss at Pacific Bell asked if I was interested in a transfer to Monterey I answered immediately: “well, I’ll check with Gary but the answer is YES!” So, three weeks later it became our home.
Me, doing my class homework in front of California’s First Theatre.
2. SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO has been hands down a favorite place since first stopping overnight in 1995. We liked it so much that when we saw a Workamper News ad for hosts the following summer we immediately replied to Tom and Lisa at Rancheros de Santa Fe Campground and ended up returning as hosts for at least four years! Let’s see, the magical sky, the Southwest architecture, the mountains, the weather including the summer monsoon rains, the feeling of small town and city AND the New Mexican food are just a few of the reasons it sits solidly at #2 on my list“
“Christmas” on the side-red and green chile and hot puffy sopapillias with honey!
Oh my oh my…I am having a hard time settling on my next three! OK, here goes:
3. ALASKA no, not a certain area although we loved volunteering at Alaska State Park’s Chena River State Recreation Areas in Fairbanks. Denali National Park was awesome, Anchorage was special and I had the best halibut fish n chips ever on the spit in Homer! The LLONNGG drive up (and back) the Alaska Highway is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We felt we were in America’s last frontier.
Near the Arctic Circle at 1:00 am on Summer Solstice
Camp Host site at Chena River State Recreation Area, Fairbanks
Since we couldn’t do the inside Passage in our fifth wheel we took an Alaskan Cruise a few years ago. We checked another state capitol off our list and visited the unique Ketchikan. No words can describe pristine beauty of the glaciers!
4. MORRO BAY, CALIFORNIA – the beach, the quaint town, Dungeness crab fresh from a huge hot steaming pot, Morro Rock hiding in morning fog, finding shells and sand dollars while walking the beach …I feel so comfortable there!
5. NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA just may be on almost everyone’s favorite list! Of course, the food is a big factor: Red Beans and Rice, beignets, po’boys (I love shrimp the most), Crawfish or shrimp etouffee, King Cakes. The architecture, riding the trolley, the Mississippi River, tugboats and steamboats, the World War II Museum and, it goes without saying, Mardi Gras, Jackson Square and Bourbon Street!
Christmas in New Orleans.
It was a challenge to narrow it to five but I did it!
Some other places I really really like - in no particular order:
Maine – the whole state!
Natchitoches, Louisiana
Galveston, Texas
All of the national parks
Savannah, Georgia
Charleston, South Carolina
Port Aransas, Texas
Memphis, Tennessee
Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies
California in general
North Dakota, especially Minot – my home state and where my roots are planted
The more I travel the more places I find to love…we’ll keep going!
