When my new bride Martha and I decided to take up RVing we were just married and couldn’t afford a big rig, and besides we drove a little 4-cylinder Dodge truck so we weren’t going to be able to tow much weight.

 1990 Palomino Pop-Up Camper
We decided to go the pop-up camper route and finally found a 1990 Palomino that was reasonably priced.  Martha and I enjoyed the local trips we took in and around Cheyenne where I was serving with the Air Force. 

    Vedauwoo Rock Formations

Happy Jack road west of the city led to some pretty cool camping spots like the Vedauwoo Rock formations near Laramie.  And trout fishing at Granite Springs Reservoir was a lot of fun, but we were limited to spring & summer camping due to the “soft sides” of our little camper.  And little it was with just enough room for two people who were pretty close. Martha and I were “happy campers” but she would have been much happier in something bigger.

 
        1999 Palomino Travel Trailer
So after 9 years of towing that little Palomino pop-up camper around Wyoming & Northern Colorado we decided that we could afford and certainly enjoy a bigger RV.  After looking around for a few months, we ended up buying another Palomino, but this time it was a 1999 26-foot travel trailer that I could tow with our full-size pickup. 

A lot more room and a whole lot more fun!  We could even take another couple with us on trips and because of the heater and insulation, we weren’t restricted to spring & summer.  This RV was good to go all year.

As usual, Martha was right.  A bigger RV was a lot better and without a doubt, a lot more fun.  We even drug that sucker all the way to California up Highway 1 and into the beautiful Columbia River Gorge in Oregon.

          Columbia River Gorge

Some fun, we were really hooked on RVing.  For the next 10 years there weren’t many states west of the Mississippi that we didn’t visit.  One of our favorite palaces to camp was in the Big Thompson Canyon not far from Ft. Collins, Colorado.  Great scenery, and outstanding trout fishing, did I mention we loved eating trout.  There’s nothing like the taste of fresh caught wild rainbow trout.

    Big Thompson River Campground

A friend of ours that is now a realtor in Farmington, New Mexico, Leslie Granger, created a fantastic trout recipe, trout pinondine.  Instead of using almonds to crust the trout that she cooks under the broiler, she uses pine nuts instead, and boy is it ever good.

Well, it came time to decide what we were going to do after I retired.  We loved RVing so much that we made the decision to go full time, or become “full timers” as they say in the old-timer RV circles.  Taos had now become our home and after we did some shopping on line, we decided to take a short trip down to Rocky Mountain in Albuquerque and check out some Winnebago Class A motorhomes they had in stock, and they had a bunch.

 

2009 Winnebago Journey our "Condo on Wheels"

Martha was both excited and intimidated by the size of the motorhomes.  She was concerned that she wouldn’t be able to drive it, and that I would have to do all the driving.  But with the slide-outs in the motorhomes that were available for us to see, she loved the extra room and conveniences.  The full size refrigerator and queen size walk around bed really surprised her.  So we settled on a used 2009 Winnebago Journey.

Lake at Banff, Canada

                Highway to Key West

                     Key West Beach

We’re full-time snowbirds now.  As far as Banff, Canada in the summer, and as far south as Key West in the winter.  What a life, just Martha and me in our condo on wheels.

And by the way, when it comes to RVing, size does matter.  Martha was right, bigger is better.  Much better!