The idea of being a snowbird isn’t a new concept. People have been doing it for years. For decades, Northerners have been leaving their winter homes, and trading them in for the sunny, warmer climates of the south during the winter months.
The idea of becoming snowbirds came to us long before we even lived in a colder climate. Jon and I always envisioned ourselves establishing two separate homes that we could jump back and forth between. So when we moved to north Idaho, it was only a matter of time before we began implementing this very concept.
But instead of having two homes, we decided that (at least for now) we would travel in an RV before deciding on anything definite. After all, RVing is kind of our second-nature. It feels just as much like a home to us than anything else could.
Ironically, as we were putting plans together to leave Idaho soon after 2019 turned over to a new year, our winter had been fairly mild. That is…until we decided on an actual date to leave. As luck would have it, it ended up snowing 30 inches just three days before we hit the road. Aside from making our parents nervous, the sudden change of weather wasn’t going to keep us from packing up and heading to warmer weather.
We winterized our house. Our new-to-us RV was packed (sort of). Since we were leaving in the middle of winter, we couldn’t yet de-winterize our camper. We couldn’t even open up our slide outs for fear that the mechanics wouldn’t work properly in such cold weather. Food and pantry items were carefully packed in coolers and boxes, and there they stayed for about two days until we could get our camper into temps warm enough to de-winterize and actually start using our home on wheels.
January 14, 2020, exactly three years and two days after we hit the road the first time, we ended up pulling out of the driveway of our Idahome and started a new adventure.
Our first night back on the road wasn’t glamorous by any means. We stayed in a cheap hotel with the dogs; enjoying regular amenities for one more night before we traded it in for short showers, less than ideal organization, and manually lit cooking ovens. Snowbirding definitely didn’t start out the way we had imagined it would.
Our destination? Florida. A goat farm in Tallahassee called Goat House Farm, to be more specific. Click the link to read all about our very first time volunteering as Workampers on this farm three years ago. I’ll be sharing all about this year’s experience – but that’ll be for another post.
Our typical route to Florida would have take us directly east. However, due to bad weather, we had to go wherever the sunshine took us. We ended up detouring southwest first as we rerouted our trip through Oregon and California before we could begin heading east through Arizona and New Mexico. There’s a ton to share from our extended trip to the east coast, so stay tuned for more posts sharing about some of our favorite places along the way.
Thanks for following along on our journeys! Want to know more about snowbirding? Come find us on Instagram and stay connected on the day-to-day happenings as well. =)