What do an Architect and Special Education Teacher have in common? The love of the open road and business venture. Jeremy and Lynn Jeffers, a semi-retired traveling duo, are ready to take their ‘Encore voyage’ into the next chapter of their lives.
Life reinvented
For our entire married life (40 years), we packed picnic lunches, put the dog in the pickup, and headed out to explore new terrain. When we saw our first Class B, we knew that we could go nearly anywhere in a luxurious ‘tent on wheels’. We are reinventing ourselves and focusing on our desire to travel and experience more.
Satellites and shooting stars. One of the best nights ever!
Early on in our travels, we made our way to Craters of the Moon National Monument. We didn’t realize it was a Dark Sky Preserve until we settled in at the campground. It was a new moon, and the sky was pitch black! As the sun set, we were disappointed that a “cloud” seemed to be settling into the area. We later realized that “cloud” was the Milky Way! We threw open the back doors of the van, laid in bed eating Oreo cookies and holding hands, and marveled at the constellations.
It’s been a learning curve.
We’ve needed to learn to let people know where we’re headed! We are so free in our Pleasure-Way that sometimes no one knows where we are! Once, when we ventured to the top of Bay Horse Mountain in Idaho, we realized that we were in a previous earthquake zone and that no one knew where we were! The good news is that we were comfortable and had plenty of food and water with us at the time! We figured we’d survive just fine. As a bonus, we had the top of the mountain to ourselves, and watched an eagle soaring below us!
“We are reinventing ourselves and focusing on our desire to travel and experience more. We call this phase of our lives the Encore Voyage.”
Lynn Jeffers
Oh yes, our Pleasure-Way has a name.
Our van is named ‘Movanna’… because she’s so much “mo than just a van!” She’s a lear jet on wheels. Our PW is the vehicle that has turned “living in a van down by the river” into a life goal!
What we’ve learned.
- To slow our roll. If we only travel 50 miles in a day, that’s ok!
- We really do enjoy each other’s company. (absolutely critical to this lifestyle.)
- We need so much less than we originally thought. We travel much the same as we would on an airline without checking luggage.
- We love the sound of the rain on the tin roof.
- The more we see, the more curious we become.
- That if we leave the windows cracked open slightly at night, the smells and the cool night air are the best way to sleep.
- Bourbon tastes better out of an old tin cup.
- That there are good people everywhere. Pay it forward!
RV tips we want to share with you.
- Jeremy has his RV tasks, and I have mine. He does table and window shades. I do clothes and dishes. He does outdoor, I do indoor. We now work together like clockwork.
- Wine bottles fit nicely, tight and upright, in a magazine file box.
- Cabinet doors and zippers are LOUD in the morning. Get things set out before going to bed if one of you wants to sleep!
- Leave campgrounds and boondocking sites cleaner than when you arrived.
- Having dual tires is a gift. Jeremy says that at least three of them are making contact with some of the narrow back roads we’ve been on!
- Throw the coffee grounds away before you pack up the coffee maker.
- Every item in the van has a home. Put it away. Every. Single. Time.
- Develop a checklist and use it. Just when we think we’ve done everything, we forget to do something.
- Our Dyson pet vacuum has been a lifesaver in keeping things clean. Buy an extra charger to leave in the van.
- If you don’t pay attention, you could drive into a buffalo at 10 miles per hour…just let them go around!
Our list
Years ago, Jeremy and I started something that we call “Our List.” It’s not a bucket list, per se, as there’s no thinking about kicking the bucket! If either one of us begins a sentence with, “I wanna…” – it goes on our list. The list includes places to visit (New England in the fall) and activities to complete (Ride the Rocky Mountaineer train) We will spend the rest of our lives trying to cross items off the list! Movanna is helping us to check items off the list one after another.
We’re off on our next adventure!
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