What's with the long name?

Welcome to my website, I appreciate you taking the time to check me out and get to know a bit more about me. My name is Vicky and I am from the Midwest; Michigan to be more specific and that is where my heart will always be, but I am a traveler deep down my soul. That sort of explains the name I go by; Midwest is where I am from so it will always be in my heart no matter where I am I love Michigan, I just don’t like the cold anymore. So I like to travel to warm place. Now, to the second part of my name; Traveler. A traveler is a word that has been used to describe someone or a group of people, travels from one place to another. From the definitions in the Oxford dictionary a traveler is describe as: “Traveller is used especially to talk about traveling people of Irish origin, but is also used as a word for all traveling people, including people from the Romani community.” I feel that somewhere in my Irish roots I was came from an Irish Traveller. I am not truly at peace unless I am out on the open road exploring.

When I was younger, my Dad would pack us all in a vehicle and we would travel to Florida to Disney World or around Michigan and the surrounding states. We started out with staying a hotels, then moved to a pop up camper just staying at the Wilderness campground at Disney, then later we upgraded to a Truck camper. I loved the Truck camper! Mom would put us in our pajamas and we would spend the night in the camper and when Dad got out of work the next morning we would take off for Florida, to the happiest place on earth…..… at least to a kid! Later in life the happiest place on earth is somewhere, that is not work! He and my Mom took turns driving and we would stay at campgrounds between Michigan and Florida. All the while my 2 brothers and myself watched from the bed above the cab of the truck, enjoying the great view. This was the best experience of my life!

Later in my 20’s I would go camping with my friends family at a small lake in northern Michigan for a couple weeks during the summer. Being in my 20’s and broke, I didn’t get to enjoy the RV life with them so tent camping it was, which in your 20’s that is not a hard thing to do, at least not hard on your body. I couldn’t wait until summer came each year so we could get to the lake and kick back and enjoy the fishing and hiking the trails.

In the last 5 years or so I have been camping all over Michigan and out west. It is so easy to do now that it is just me and my 2 dogs. I would either stay in my tent or sleep in my Jeep. I had a 2015 Jeep Renegade that I could sleep in the back when I put the back seats down. This was perfect because it was the perfect size for me and my 2 dogs. In the West you can camp pretty much for free, there is so many places on the Bureau of Land Management you can camp. This is called dispersed camping, some of the National Park land you can do this too, but camping in Michigan is pretty much campgrounds or people you know. Either way you're out camping!

Now that I am no longer in my 20’s, I am looking to get off the ground and having a designated sleeping area without having to pack up the back seat of my Jeep. So I am moving to a camper. The unfortunate thing about this is that I have a Jeep Compass that I just purchased in August, that only has a 2,000 lb capacity so I am looking at teardrop campers or something similar I have been researching these for the last couple months and I think the one I will be going with is from Intech RV Flyer Pursue. It has an open sleeping area that can also be used as “toy hauler” area and it also has an outdoor kitchen. I was going to go with the Chase, which is a bit smaller than the Pursue, but after I thought about all the stuff I would need to buy for cooking, I decided to go with the Pursue.

Currently I am planning a big trip to Arizona, hopefully at the end of March or first part of April out to explore Utah. Then after that my big move back to Arizona, but more on that later…..

Again, I would like to thank you for stopping by and getting to know me, my plan with this site, it to share my travel stories, pass on my tips, hints, and mistakes and just share my travel experiences. I love to teach and tell stories so sharing my travels will be like your all there with me! Once I figure out what schedule will be I hope to have a least one blog and video a week and once I get more members I can move to live stream so we can all share our travels throughout the US. For now I will say goodnight and wish you all a happy week and don’t forget what my favorite fellow traveler Rick Steves says, “Fear is for people who don’t get out very much.”