In February 2000, our house in Marathon, FL was sold, the business had sold, and we hit the road for a 1 year break to figure out what we were going to do when we grew up.  For the first time, we were houseless, but not homeless.   We had no idea what awaited us down the road.   Our first lesson learned, don’t leave Florida before April 1, unless you like cold weather. 

After spending a cold, rainy, & snowy week in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, we came back from a hike & found on our door a note left by a Park Ranger.  Uh-oh!  What did we do wrong?  Turns out, she was wondering if we were interested in being Campground Hosts later in the spring.  We looked at each other & said, “Why not?”  And that is how our new “career” began.

We were hosts in Smokemont Campground during April & May, and then we headed west.  We visited lots of National Parks during the summer.  We fly-fished in Ennis, MT and hiked in snow in July at Glacier National Park.  For some real R&R, we accepted the hospitality of good friends, Otto & Rosemary, and set up our rig at their “Mountain Springs Ranch,” in Boulder, WY.   In October we found ourselves back on the east coast on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.