Winter plans
Susan and I are making preparations to move out as soon as the election is over. (I also have one last medical appointment the first week in November.) We had originally intended to go south again - Alabama and Georgia worked fine for us last year - but I had a random thought and asked Susan if she’d ever considered Arizona, and the next thing I knew she had a park picked out for us in Tombstone.
We’ve been more than a little surprised at how relatively easy it was for us to fit into this new lifestyle. It was two years ago that we said goodbye to stationary lodgings, and - except for infrequent motel stays, hotels during the tour of Spain, and rented lodgings during the three weeks we spent in China visiting our son - we’ve been at it ever since, with no more problems than come from living anywhere. (Different, sometimes, but not more numerous.)
One of the warnings I saw during my advance research for the RV life was that a couple had to be aware they’d need occasional time apart, constant togetherness in smaller quarters lending itself to impatience and conflict. Turned out, not really an issue for us. Before we sold our house, and then later when we were living in an apartment, Susan spent most of her time in the bedroom watching television, while I spent most of mine in the living room reading from my laptop. And now … we still do pretty much exactly the same, except these days we’re only a few feet apart, and somehow we’re fine with that.
Also, I found that there are actually three general classes of people in ‘the RV life’. The first is the popular picture, folks who are always traveling from one place to another, visiting people and seeing the sights and pretty much staying on the move. The second is people who stay in one place, but just do it in an RV, not really much different from those who live in ‘mobile’ homes; every RV park I’ve ever stayed, there have been at least a few long-term residents. Third …
Third is people like us: doing the travel thing, but returning regularly to the same spot and staying there for months at a time. In our case, it’s been because of family activities and - as I mentioned - endlessly recurring doctors’ appointments. (Then there was the fact that, when she attempted to retire, Susan kept being asked to fill in on her last job for just a bit longer, which wound up stretching out over months.) The last two years, we’ve spent 13 months in the same park in our original home city, along with another 4 months in a different park 20 miles down the road. Barely 25% of the time, then, actually going/staying anywhere else.
I think, in the future, when we have necessary appointments we’ll stay somewhere close enough to drive in for the day, without having to park ourselves back in the same old spot. There are places worth seeing that would allow us to make a day-trip back here (or even an overnight) for long enough to do what we have to do, without needing to stop traveling for another month or several.
Susan still really wants to live in China, and I’m increasingly liking the idea of eventually retiring to Spain. I’d like to get in at least another year of what we’re doing, though, because we’ve only skimmed the surface of all the available possibilities.
Who knows? We might even arrange things so we can finally do that drive up the Alaska Highway. Here’s hoping.