This year makes me think of the opening lines of the Charles Dickens classic A Tale of Two Cities. It really was the best and worst of times. We started the year going to RV rallies, making friends, strengthening existing nomadic friendships and going on an epic trip through Southern California. We started 2020 with such high hopes for travel across the US. We just knew that we would travel to the Pacific Northwest after we worked at Yellowstone. I also hit a milestone birthday, 50. Everything was looking rosy until this thing COVID-19 hit.

We were in Las Vegas when the shut downs started happening. We heard from friends that they were being asked to leave campgrounds due to closures. We started to get scared. We were very lucky that when the shut down happened that we were at Desert Eagle Fam Camp on Nellis Air Force Base. The base command understood that a large percentage of the folks staying there were full time RVers. While we were restricted from parts of the base, he never closed the Fam Camp. We ended up staying there for three months.

We once again worked at Yellowstone National Park at Bridge Bay Campground. The season started late due to COVID. The campground was never empty from the day we opened until the day we close. It seems we got a lot closer with our co-workers this year than last. We survived a very trying season. While most people were just trying to have a nice vacation, this season we had more folks who were angry and cranky and wanted to take it out on us. We also had a higher percentage of folks who just bought an RV and decided to come to Yellowstone. There were too many dumb accidents like folks driving off with the steps down or their awning out. The biggest positive for us was we spent a lot of time hiking. We explored so many parts of the park that we had not been to before. We stayed off the popular hiking trails opting for out of the way spots where we could hike miles without seeing another person.

We made a decision earlier in the year that we would continue to full time RV but we would stay in one place for longer periods of time. We decided that if we were going to be stationary that we might as well find a part time job. That is how we ended up in Mission, TX. We have a part time job where we trade 24 hours work per week (12 per person) for site and utilities. We are very happy we ended up in such a fun park. We are close to services and shops for curbside services and have all amenities such as good OTA channels and strong internet signal along with great weather. What else could we ask for?

We are not sure what 2021 will bring. We do know that we plan on being on the East Coast for the majority of 2021. We have a summer job in Connecticut. If we learned nothing else about 2020, we are resilient. We will slow down our travel when necessary. What we won’t do it give up living our dream for full time travel.