GoJoe: Meeting the Dreams Team

Every once in awhile you get to meet some of your heroes - folks you have admired from afar because of their energy, enthusiasm, and tenacity in pursuing a dream. Such was the case this week when we arrived in Welaka, Florida, and met up with Howard and Linda Payne, shown on the right in the above photo. Howard and Linda have a website and blog, rv-dreams.com, that inspire and inform thousands of RVers. Several years ago, while in their early forties, they decided to give up their very successful conventional lives and hit the road in an RV. Since then they've traveled the country and lived in their well-appointed 5th wheel trailer, their only home. At the same time, they have put together an amazing website that is chock full of well-organized and useful information. And Howard's daily blog about their adventures has legions of dedicated followers.

They're spending the winter at tiny, out-of-the-way "Welaka Resort" in northern Florida, and that's where we caught up with them. On the left in the photo are Mark and Sue, friends of the Payne's who were also staying at Welaka. Mark and Sue are from Louisiana and invited us and the Paynes over to their motorhome from some delicious home-cooked gumbo. That was some really fine eating. Mark and Sue regaled us with stories of some of the temporary work assignments they've experienced while living on the road including a Minnesota sugar beet harvest, a stint at an Iowa theme park, and working the holiday rush at an amazon.com distribution center in Kansas.

Welaka Resort sits on the eastern shore of the wide St. John's River. They have a superb open-air bar and deck right on the water. It's a tradition to go down to the riverside deck each evening and enjoy the sun setting over the river. Here's what we saw the evening we were there.