Summer 2021 is arriving with tangible optimism across the country, a striking difference from the national mood when I last wrote during the early weeks of the pandemic lockdown. We will be leaving soon for our annual Colorado vacation, and so much has changed since our last cross-country motorhome trip.

First, an update on my parents, since a number of readers have been asking: My father passed away peacefully in early December, not long after his 95th birthday. COVID-19 restrictions kept his funeral service limited to just 10 people outdoors on a cold and windy St. Louis afternoon. But the rabbi delivered a touching eulogy that beautifully encapsulated his rich life, and his WWII Army service was memorialized with full military honors that included an American flag presented to my mother. She is in remission from lymphoma after chemotherapy last year, still living in a retirement community that is finally opening up to visitors and social activities. I will get to hug her for the first time in over 15 months when we visit St. Louis on our way west.

My father’s death brought a lot of things into focus for me, with that familiar “life’s too short” warning about the uncertainties of the future. Virginia and I had already been making many adjustments to working remotely, and Zoom videoconferencing fatigue was taking its toll. To inject some variety in our remote work life, we had started working from different scenic locations thanks to Rocky, our motorhome since late 2016. Unfortunately, Rocky suffered a series of component and system failures throughout 2020, sometimes forcing cancellation of travel plans and adding more uncertainty to each trip.

All this triggered us to re-evaluate whether Rocky, with 50,000 miles on his odometer, was still our long-term solution for this combination of work and vacation travel. And within a few weeks, we found ourselves contemplating Rocky’s retirement as we considered ordering a new motorhome that would be more tailored to our current traveling style. We decided that the ideal choice for Rocky’s replacement would need to have improvements in the drivetrain, suspension, and steering that would make long distance travel more comfortable; to have greater engine torque for easily towing an SUV in the Rocky Mountains; to have a floor plan that could accommodate two desk areas for our remote work needs; and to feature some safety-related upgrades including braking systems that are better suited for mountain descents.

Months later, Rocky II was born: a 2021 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40 IP, shown here parked at our lot in Deer Creek Motorcoach Resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains. His traveling buddy is a 2020 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland 4X4, which is suitable for flat-towing (all four wheels rolling). I’ll detail many of these lifestyle changes in upcoming blog posts, but I wanted to at least introduce these newest members of our traveling family before we head out on our summer trip. More soon!