Life on the road '05: prologue

Some people launch forth boldly into the unknown, eager to explore and discover. My ambitions were more modest: I started my fulltiming adventures by visiting good friends.

The first two months of my travels were spent in the northeast, within a couple of days' drive of my former home in New Jersey. First Cape Cod, then the Finger Lakes of New York, and then Maine...always with friends around me.

I had left in a hurry, with Gertie loaded to the gills—overloaded, to tell the truth. I knew I needed time to unwind from the frenzy of packing, selling my home and moving...and time to get Gertie organized and livable again. Staying with friends would give me that time. Then, refreshed and with Gertie in good shape, I'd head west.

This is the story of those first months of full-time RV living: what I experienced, and what I learned.

1. Weekend at Scusset Beach

3. Dawn in Eastport

5. A night on the beach

Catching up: five months on the road