We headed off on our first adventure in the RV (we still haven’t come up with a good name for her) and we arrived at our first destination which was only 4 hours drive from what used to be home. We were late heading out after it took way longer than I hoped to clean the floors at the house before we left. So we arrived not at 3:00pm as we had aimed for but after 5:30pm to find that the office at the campsite was closed. On the door of the office were envelopes for the people who had reservations, BUT there was no envelope for us! We had made the reservation, so we were totally confused, and worried that our first night on the road was going to have to be spent in Walmart parking lot! NOT OUR HAPPIEST HOUR!

Panic could have set in, but rather than that I went online and found a campsite nearby who had a spot we could take for the night and we booked and paid for that spot, thinking we would go there for the one night and then come back and claim our reservations here at our original destination.

We were about to pull out to head over to the nearby campsite, when a lady came driving up to us in a golf cart and asked if she could help us. We explained the situation and she hurriedly went off to get the lady who worked in the office, who apparently lived at the campsite. A few minutes later, a very nice lady came and opened up the office, and found our reservation and we were set. Her and her husband were very welcoming and escorted us to the appropriate site and helped us make all the hook ups and get settled. They also invited us to dinner the following evening, which was really lovely. We graciously accepted their invitation, after all we knew no-one and had no firm plans.

What really impressed us was how everyone we met in those first few hours at this campsite was so friendly, something that you just don’t come across when you first move into a brick and mortar house. You can go months, even years without meeting or knowing your neighbors! It was almost like everyone around us took an interest to make sure we had everything we needed. Very refreshing!

We were bummed that there was the initial mix up about our reservation, and that we had had to pay for the nearby site, which was not refundable.

We found out that the nice lady and her husband who had welcomed us and helped us that first night were Janet and Jimmy. We did have dinner with them the following night and they introduced us to a few other people, also really open and welcoming, and now, after being here for 3 weeks, have all become firm friends.

Although we had planned to stay for just a week and then head west with a final destination for the winter near San Antonio, Texas, we decided to stay at this campsite for a while, at least until our house sold, which over the next few weeks changed to… we will stay here for the winter.

The owner of the campsite has been very accommodating and is happy to have us stay for the winter. Because of prior bookings, we have to move a couple of times, but that really isn’t a problem.

The people we have met here are totally amazing and knowing that we are complete newbies, have helped us by teaching us all kinds of things about our RV and the systems on it, showing us around the area, and as we don’t have a car at the moment, have taken us shopping, and even loaned us their car if we have needed it. We are in awe of their generosity and care.

We have taken it in turns to make dinner for everyone, and often sit after the evening meal as it turns dark and chat, laugh and have a good time with this group of fantastic people. It actually feels like we have known them all for years, not weeks.

We have been to a few great restaurants, one wing place, where on Tuesday evenings, they have 2-fer night, you get double the amount of wings you order for the price of the original order, so if you order and pay for 6 wings, you get 12 wings…… etc. They also have happy hour at the same time, so Tuesday evenings is usually wing night.

We also all went to a great Mexican restaurant, the food was amazing and loads of it! A great time, lots of giggles, lots of laughs and actually quite a lot of tequila too!

We have our set up pretty much worked out now, we also discovered something that we had not thought of before we left. We had all kinds of camping and cooking gear, we had a crab boil pot with propane burner, which we let go in the estate sale for literally next to nothing, but now we are wishing that we had brought it with us. We were under the misguided impression that while travelling, everything has to be stashed away in a compartment or cupboard, but we have since found out that most people have lots of equipment that is literally put into the RV while travelling and left outside when set up. There is a sense of trust in RV communities that you don’t find in normal neighborhoods with brick and mortar homes. This discovery is very refreshing, and we will be replacing lots of that camping equipment that we just sold off. We just wish we had realized this before we sold everything.

We are learning a lot in a very short time, and one of the biggest things we have learned is that the people that do RV full time, are some of the most open friendly and honest people you could ever want to meet. That is not to say that anyone should let their natural guard down, but this full time RVing I guess attracts a different kind of person, and the ones we have met have all been very similar in the fact that they have all been very caring, helpful, friendly, giving, outgoing people. I truly believe that everyone should try this for a month, it would restore a lot of people’s belief in humanity!

We are having such a great time, and feel so relaxed already, we have seen huge changes in our health, our outlook, our hopes and dreams and neither one of us can imagine living in a brick and mortar house ever again……..this life is AMAZING! We are loving it.

The best part of all is that there is absolutely no rush to get anywhere and we have a whole huge country to explore at our own pace.

We are looking at maybe doing some workcamping in summer 2020, maybe in Colorado, or Nova Scotia, as it seems to us that even though it is great to be free, having something to get up for in the mornings is quite a good thing, and the added bonus is that if you work where you camp, you usually get some kind of break on the site fees, which makes living very inexpensive.

I have to admit that living full time in the RV, I had thought that we may knock heads a few times, over silly things, but so far, we have been really in tune and at peace with each other in such confined quarters. I think that Linsley and I are closer now than we ever have been before, and we have been together for a very long time!