How We Got Started

So, did we just hop in the RV and go?  Not exactly.  Traveling, especially full-time, requires a lot of planning and preparation. The Jack Kerouac style of traveling might appeal to a certain sub-group of people. In fact, my gypsy soul wishes it were a little more like a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type of experience.  But the reality is, you have to spend a decent amount of time laying the groundwork to be able to enjoy these “free-spirited” adventures on the road.

Let me explain why. Imagine you just finished your fist 2 weeks on the road. You were lucky enough to reserve a campsite in your desired location. And it was pretty reasonably priced too!  You’re plan after that was to wing it.  If all else fails, maybe your “plan” is to either boondock somewhere on BLM (Bureau of Land Management)spot, or just pull into the nearest Walmart parking lot for a few nights while you search online for another campsite.  Well, you will probably soon learn how difficult finding and booking desirable campsites can be on the fly. And unless your goal is to explore the many Walmart parking lots across the United States, (or spend a ton of money on private rv resorts),planning is a key.

In fact, even if you successfully map out a route (that includes gas and rest breaks), book overnight stays in advance, and start out without any problems with you RV, you still might run into unexpected snafus.  So, beyond being organized, you’ll need to the ability to cope and adapt. A flexible schedule, positive attitude and a (more or less) resilient mentality is needed. Because, shit happens. Sometimes pivots become essential and you’ll need to adapt and form a new course of action.  Easier said than done, of course.  But, that’s life.

Why we took the Leap to travel fulltime

An idea was born when I realized we would soon become empty nesters. The phrase “Empty Nest Syndrome” sent me into a doom loop. For the past 21 + years, I was mainly a stay-at-home mother. Other than my part-time career as a family portrait photographer (specializing in babies and children) and my current job as a Travel Advisor, I had been laser focused on my two daughters. (Incidentally, before I had children of my own, I was an elementary school teacher.) So, by and large, rearing children has in many ways been what I have done for the bulk of my adult life. As much as I would have loved continuing to manage my adult kids lives, they wanted and deserved independence. Moreover, they were capable and competent. To manage how I would cope with these changes, we (…well ok, mainly I) had the urge to redesign our lives as bit. It’s been said that ideas are born out of necessity, but my proposals usually start brewing from a deep place of anxiety. (True story.) Either way, I had come up with an idea that I felt was necessary. So, I guess that theory is still valid.

What was I going to do during this “kid-free” phase of life? How would I fill the void of motherhood while my adult children design their own lives? Where did we want to live? What did we want to do for fun? Who did we want to spend time with besides our children and each other? I had some answers swirling around in my head, but there were still many unknowns. One thing I knew for sure was, I didn’t want to stay put.

I remember exactly when I came up with this full-time travel scheme. We were enroute to Utah for a weekend trip, and were discussing if and where we should buy our next house. We went back and forth a bit before I said, why don’t we just take some time and travel in our RV fulltime to figure it out? Matt, an outdoorsy type of guy, seemed to like this idea. But, it took some time to convince him that I was serious and would be happy living in our 5th wheel. But, since living fulltime in our RV was a choice (NOT a necessity), I knew I was ready to embark on this venture.

Luckily, my husband had already been working remotely, and during our short (and longer) trips in the RV, he also figured out how to work from the camper. We also had 4 years of RV camping trips under our belt. Matt had already learned a lot about the RV life logistics. Most importantly, he was also very handy. The groundwork was already there. But, could we put it into effect? Did we have the bravery to leave the traditional household behind?

I knew if I stayed put in Colorado, I would probably pine away for the return of my girls (When is their next break? Should I plan a family trip?); Make excuses to visit them (Who wants a free lunch? Laundry service anyone? When is parents weekend?); Or just scour the online stores in search of gifts to send them (because who doesn’t need a care package from time to time?). No holiday was too small not to celebrate with a gift delivered from me, and sometimes I would include their friends on these gifts. (I would think to myself…Oh, you know what they could use…a pair of shamrock sunglasses & matching green crop tops for their college St. Patrick’s Day parties. Add to cart, click and send!) I already had one out of the nest, and that is largely how I coped with her absence during the past 2 years. The cycle had to end. I was due for a change. And so was our bank account.

I needed something for myself-a new purpose. And a little excitement. This new adventure would allow us to see the United States, visit new towns and cities, return to some beloved stomping grounds, reunite with friends and family, meet new people, and have some new experiences as well. I wanted to visit the beautiful seascapes, deserts and mountain towns that covered our country. I also hoped to also photograph some quirky and unexpected roadside attractions and learn why they existed. I was hopeful that this experience would reignite my creative side that had fallen dormant after I retired my portrait business. I had always planned to document and share our experiences with friends and family. But, then I thought, why not share our knowledge and experiences to a broader audience. And that’s how the birth this blog, Postcards from the Road came to life.

Beth Melberg

A Productive Start!

Our adventure began soon after my youngest graduated from high school and moved into to her off campus house in Boulder with her sister and roommate.

The first 2 places we camped were nearby our previous home in Fort Collins, as well as close to Boulder. We stayed nearby to help move the girls in, get them settled and also help plan a 21st birthday celebration for my oldest.

One of those locations was Horsetooth Reservoir State Park, which is located in Fort Collins, CO. The other was called St. Vrain State Park in Firestone, CO (which is the closest state park to RV camp at near Boulder.). We’d camped and boated at Horsetooth a lot and were familiar with that location. We enjoyed our time there a lot. St. Vrain was fine for what we needed to accomplish, but less desirable in regards to the location in our opinion. Still, it was clean and safe and served it purpose for us. In case you live in Colorado and are interested in checkin these 2 state parks out, here are links to the websites below:

https://www.larimer.gov/naturalresources/parks/horsetooth-reservoir

https://cpw.state.co.us/state-parks/st-vrain-state-park

During those stays, I didn’t document much. We were still busy helping with moving stuff out of our old home in Fort Collins (as well as my oldest daughter’s old apartment in Boulder) and into a storage unit in Windsor, CO (until we were able to help move the items from storage into my 2 daughters new rental home in Boulder). So we were pretty busy and mainly just crashed in our camper at the end of each day. There might be a photo of each site on the “Places” portfolio folder you can view though. Not too exciting of a start, but we wanted to stay close to the girls to help in any way we could before we really embarked on our journey. But, that was pretty much how and where we spent our first 2 and a half weeks of our journey. So, no regrets!

Beth Melberg

Dillon, Colorado…our official 1st Stop!

We decided to start our full-time journey in a town we’ve been to many times before…Dillon, Colorado! We wanted to stay somewhat closeby since my youngest daughter was about to start her freshman year by participating in a very cool pre-arrival program for enrolled freshman called CU in the Rockies, a program led by Outdoor Pursuits at University of Colorado Boulder. Annabelle has a decent amount of experience camping and hiking, and has even rock climbed before so we weren’t concerned about her outdoor abilities. But, this was her first backpacking trip. And since anything can happen out in the wilderness, we felt we should be within driving distance in case of an emergency.

We chose Dillon for that reason, but also because we love all that Dillon and the surrounding area has to offer. Plus, we have some friends that live there so that was a total bonus!

For those unfamiliar with Dillon, it is a mountain town close to Frisco, Silverthorne, Arapahoe Basin, Keystone, Copper Mountain and Breckenridge. We spent about 3 weeks up there and enjoyed a variety of activities icluding hikes, biking the path from our campsite on Heaton Bay, meeting friends for coffee and happy hours at great local pubs and bars, paddle boarding and pontoon boating on Lake Dillon, sitting on the beach in Frisco, listening to live music and catching a concert at The Dillon Ampitheater, and firepit nights at our campsite at Heaton Bay (with and without friends). We actually rode the bike path on our E-Bikes a few times to the towns of Keystone and Breckenridge. And spent the better part of the day playing tourist in those mountain towns, riding the gondalas, shopping, eating, and having some libations too. We considered riding the alpine coaster in Breckenridge one day but we would have missed the gondala back down where our bikes were locked up, so we opted out. (Next time though!)

I know most people tend to visit the Colorado mountains during the snowy season to enjoy all of the winter activities (skiing, snowboarding, snow tubing, ice fishing, snow mobiling, ice skating, dog sledding, etc), but the best time of year to be in the mountains is summertime if you ask me. The weather is perfect! We loved our stay so much that we decided to book a campsite at a private rv resort in Breckenridge for 2 months summer 2025 in advance.