Dina and Mike at the beginning, while we were getting all situated on Lake Conroe near Houston.

Fourth of July in our nation’s capital. Our trip started 2/1/13, this picture is 7/4/14. About 17 months after The Lower 48 in 48 Tour was embarked upon, we are still happy and committed to the end goal.

Cessna and Piper. They have their own page on this website, so click around for more cuteness. Many thanks to Golden Beginnings Golden Retriever Rescue in Houston, Texas, for taking a chance on us when we mentioned we wanted a petite golden… because we were planning to move into a bus soon. (Lots of people looked at us real funny during our 7-year planning stage for this Tour). You helped us connect with Piper, and our family was in tact. One year later, we fell in love with Cessna. Even though the petite requirement was somehow overlooked, our family became complete in an instant.

The Monaco

Mike and I married in 2003, and spent the last 10 years in The Woodlands, Texas. He was an Air Traffic Controller at Houston Center for 24 years, and I was a Certified Professional Organizer with my own business.

Seven years before his retirement date of 12/31/12, we had a 15 minute pillow talk about what we were going to do when he retired. We were DINKS, so we didn’t have to worry about being tied to a specific location in consideration of any children. We both love to travel and we both love to camp. We also had to find some sort of system that would allow us to travel with our dogs. After analyzing several different scenarios, we hatched the extreme idea that we would sell our house, most all of its contents, his boat and our cars… and buy a motorcoach in which to tour the country. We figured a logical timeline would be one month in each of the lower 48 states… 48 months on the road. 4 years. Most everyone declared us crazy. My tennis buddies starting betting pools on how long we would actually last.

We put the plan in motion during 2012: had and estate sale, closed on our house and bought a 2006 Monaco Signature Series (45′, quad slide). His retirement was processed, I shut down my business. We had a few months of “adjustment period” near home on Lake Conroe to get ourselves perfectly situated. After some upgrades to the interior of the coach, and some repairs to the mechanical system, we were ready to go. On February 1, 2013 (on our ten year anniversary), we started our adventure with our two rescue Golden Retrievers, Piper and Cessna. Month One: February 2013. State One: Louisiana.