We received a special email message the other day from the the folks at Florida Outdoors RV Center saying that they have compiled a list of their 50 favorite RV blogs, and that our blog is on the list.
Now that’s a heartwarming email to wake up to!
Photography and writing have become a passion for us since we hit the road full-time.
Compiling any kind of “Best Of” list is time consuming and sweat inducing, to say the least, and my hat is off to Brandon Esparza who took it upon himself to run all over the web hunting down RV blogs, read them all, and then pick out his favorite ones.
Getting the morning started right —
Home is where the heart is!
Before we started full-time RVing in 2007, the blogging world was just getting going, and not that many travelers had websites.
How fabulously far the online world has come!! Nowadays, almost every full-timer has a blog, and they are as varied and distinctive as the special travelers who create them.
Compiling a “Best Of” list is daunting, as everyone out here has great stories to tell and excellent tips to pass on.
This list from Florida Outdoors RV Center includes a wonderfully wide variety of blogs from younger folks to older folks, from singles to families, from people in small, simple rigs to those in big, fancy ones.
Just seven months into this crazy full-time traveling lifestyle in December, 2007,
we parked in the Quartzsite, Arizona, desert with a million other RVers!
Each blog offers a unique perspective on the full-time RV lifestyle. I am really proud that our site appears in such great company.
Brandon made his selection based on several criteria, including content, design, popularity, and activity within the online RV community, and for these last two I want to say “thank you” to all of you, our readers.
Our popup tent trailer was “The Luvnest” and the name has carried on
through two full-time trailers!
By returning to our site on a regular basis to see what we’ve been up to, and by sharing our many stories and links with your online friends, and by subscribing to our RSS feed and email newsletter, you have given our site a far greater reach than I ever would have imagined.
I know a few of you found us early on and have been following our adventures from our first days on the road, and I am both humbled to have sustained your interest this long and utterly delighted that you enjoy traveling along with us in spirit!
Sunrise in Phoenix Arizona just a few days ago…
I also know that many of you have gone on, after reading our pages, to embark on your own full-time travels and create your own thoughtful blogs where you share your experiences and insights. It is really satisfying to know that our blog played a small part in helping you fulfill your dreams!
One of the most special rewards of creating this site has been that it has become a springboard for communication. Not only has it kept us in touch with people as close as our immediate friends and family, but it has put us in touch with others as far distant as Afghanistan where three years ago a marine corresponded with me at length about which kind of truck to buy once he got home and could live his full-time RV dream. What a surprise it was when, a year after that, another marine emailed that he was “writing from a tent in Afghanistan” to touch base about the costs of RVing and cruising, as he strove to keep alive his dreams of casting off for new horizons once his military duties ended.
It is really gratifying to know that our adventures on the road bring both pleasure and inspiration, and I can’t tell you what it means to be able to put something from our hearts out there into the online world and receive such positive feedback through your comments on our blog posts, Facebook, Google+ and email.
We found magic in Guanajuato!
I’m actually a really reserved person, and this cocktail party style of online social media conversation is a bit out of my comfort zone. However, the friends we have made through our online connections have been wonderful!
It is my sincerest hope that our blog will continue to paint a vivid picture of what our life on the road is like, and that it will help future adventurers plan and prepare for a new phase of life that is a little unconventional and a whole lot of fun.
Check out this new list of top RV blogs, get inspired to go traveling, and when you are in Florida, have a look at the rigs at the Florida Outdoors RV Center — we will!