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julielovephoto · 5 years ago

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Life on the Road: Year 3

It has been 3 years since we left home and I wanted to take this time to reflect on this past year. We spent our summer workamping at Mackinaw Mill Creek Camping in Mackinaw City, Michigan. I worked in the office and Michael worked at the Mackinaw Club Golf Course, Park Store, as well as outside maintenance. We loved exploring the area from Mackinac Island to the Upper Peninsula. We also made lots of new friends! We tagged along with Becky, Virginia, Wendy, and Laurie to Fort Fright at Colonial Michilimackinac and had a blast! I also got the pleasure to photograph the lovely Kimberly at Historic Mill Creek Discovery Park for a pre-wedding photoshoot! We departed in mid-October just as the fall colors were turning shades of red and yellow.

Our winter gig will take us to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon working for the official non-profit the Grand Canyon Conservancy. This exciting 2000 mile leg of our adventure will take us along parts of the historic route 66. From Michigan, our first stop to explore was Nashville, Tennessee and then onto the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, Oklahoma. We also were able to visit Michael’s sister, Sandy at this point in our trip. From there we continued on to Amarillo, Texas and stayed 2 nights at Big Texan RV Ranch. We loved exploring VW Slug Bug Ranch as well as Cadillac Ranch…we even got to do our own graffiti! We also visited the Jack Sisemore RV Museum and loved on all of the vintage campers.

At this juncture in our trip I-40 became unkind with strong headwinds and we had to pull off to let the truck cool down. Fearing that something was wrong with the transmission, we had the truck and camper towed to the nearest town in Edgewood, New Mexico. Unfortunately, we would have to wait until morning to have the truck looked at. The folks at East Mountain Auto and RV Repair were super helpful and we were back on the road in no time! No serious issues; just a simple transmission service.

With only one hiccup, we finished our trip and arrived at our new home inside the Grand Canyon National Park. The following day we were already getting acquainted; touring the area as well as meeting many of our new co-workers. In the last 4 months, we have come to love how the Grand Canyon draws you in. We have explored both Bright Angel and South Kaibab trails…even made it down to the bottom of the Canyon! We had a blast with Amy, Dave, Kori, and Chad at Bright Angel Campground as well as Phantom Ranch. I never imagined I would see the Colorado River up close…can’t wait to do this again!

The Southwest has so much to offer that we have decided to stay until October…So far we have explored parts of Phoenix and Tucson; thanks to Susan and Chuck who kindly opened their home to us! Not sure what the rest of 2020 is going to bring, but we are super excited to be here and love our life on the road!

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