My husband has a dream of traveling the country for a year in an RV. Alas, Ken’s dream is my nightmare! As my friend Bonnie described it, my hubby is a snowbird with clipped wings and I am a homing pigeon! But since my sweet husband has supported my dream of being a writer for almost a quarter of a century now, I figured the least I could do was consider it. So…
…this week, we are taking a “test-drive.” We rented an RV near St. Louis and are wending our way south along the edges of the Mark Twain National Forest through beautiful Missouri State parks, toward Cape Girardeau, Missouri. (Since both of our daughters live near Cape, we are getting some great grandkid time too!)
We had a lovely spot at Johnson’s Shut-ins campground. I could have stayed here for a week (except for the fact there was almost ZERO wifi or phone service! This IS a working “vacation” so we need to be connected!)
We happened across the charming town of Caledonia, Missouri on our way from one campsite to the next. Now, if THIS is RVing, just maybe I could get into it!
Our lifelong-Missourian son-in-law built us a fire for hotdogs and S’mores at our campground on the Black River.
There were dozens of horses (and their cowboys and cowgirls) at the Riversedge Campground on the Black River near Lesterville, MO and this was our view from our spot right on the river two nights.
We have two daughters and five grandkids living in Missouri and they each drove to visit us for an afternoon and evening.
We hadn’t seen this little princess since she was born! What a joy it was to spend a few hours with her and her big sister!
Our oldest daughter’s family at Elephant Rocks State Park. It was so much fun to see the park through their eyes.
We tried to move this boulder out of the way, but were sadly, unsuccessful. 😉
Alas, we’re trying to make this trial as realistic as possible, which includes a day in the laundromat. (Where I am as I type these words!) It has actually been a very pleasant experience with air conditioning, fast wifi and a wonderfully clean and tidy laundromat that we had almost all to ourselves.
And this gorgeous scene in the same town of Ste. Genevieve, MO was the rest of a very pleasant Sunday afternoon.
We’re only on Day 4 of our seven-days-and-seven-nights trial, but so far, I’m enjoying it much more than I thought I would, and Ken’s enjoying it a tiny bit less than he thought he would. Will we be able to meet somewhere in the middle? Will Deb finally come around to Ken’s way of thinking? Stay tuned! 🙂
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It looks like you are having so much fun! How do you get any work done?
I didn’t get as much done as I hoped, but that’s partly because we’re RVing near family. 🙂 If we did this for real, the secret would be that we wouldn’t have a TV, so the two hours we often spend watching movies in the evening would be spent writing to make up for the extra hiking time. It works in theory! 😉
What an adventure! I’m proud of you Deb for giving it a try. I’m a homebody, too, and while my hubby doesn’t want to take a year long wander, he has dropped many hints that he would like to get a small RV and take weekend excursions. Maybe once we retire from the day jobs. Right now I need my weekends for my sanity. Ha!
You were an inspiration to me with your “everything went wrong” biking/hiking-in-the-rain adventure, Karen! 🙂 I must admit, it hasn’t been nearly as unpleasant as I was prepared for, and Ken is having the time of his life, which is fun to see.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading about your travels. Will you also be writing about how to get along with so much “together-ness”? That looks like a small RV! LOL!
Haha! It feels a bit smaller every day. But honestly, we’ve gotten along surprisingly well. Of course, ONE of us is on his…er, their…best behavior since “they” are trying very hard to convince the other one of us. 😉 Ken says the kitchen in our house has prepared us for camper life! Haha! I love the kitchen in our house, but Ken thinks it’s POORLY designed for multiple cooks!
You are a brave woman, Deb! I’ll be watching to see how it all plays out! 😉
So far, so good, Anne! We’ve had various experiences, different types of campgrounds, all kinds of weather, so it’s been a good test. I think I’ll always be a nester at heart, and prefer a STATIONARY home, but at the very least, this trip has proven to me that it wouldn’t be nearly as bad as I’ve imagined!
My husband is making the same noises. I confess I have been reluctant but your pics give a different view than I have had.
The laundromat idea is one I use now when we are at our Indiana cottage with no connections. Glad to hear they may be the connection in many places.
I am staying tuned.
I’ve been VERY pleasantly surprised, Jen! There were some gnats and flies and other bugs at one campground that weren’t fun, it has been unseasonably hot in the middle of each day, and I do miss my wonderful shower with great water pressure, but the only real issue of this trial-run is that we haven’t had good internet anywhere! That will be a must if we do this for an extended period because we’ll have to work on the road six days a week! But there are options that will solve that problem. Do stay tuned!
What a great blog! Your pictures are all gorgeous, for different reasons. That pic of Ken and grand-daughter is precious! I wonder what about this trip made Ken a little less enthusiastic? Did you share driving? Sorry, you don’t have to answer all those questions. It looks like the weather was nearly perfect! That you for sharing your experiences.
I meant “THANK you for sharing your experience.”
Now that I’ve retired I can’t type any more, apparently.
Happy to answer your questions, Hilda (now that I have internet access!) The internet problems are one of Ken’s concerns. We aren’t retired and won’t be for some time, so we both MUST be able to work on the road, and that requires good, fast internet access, so we’ll have to solve that problem. Another issue is not knowing what kind of accommodations we’ll have each time we move. If we bought an RV, we’d stay a few days to a week in each location instead of moving almost daily, so that will help, but hardly any of the places where we camped had accurate information on their websites. So we didn’t realize we wouldn’t have water hookups at one, or that another would have no PHONE service, let alone wi-fi, etc. Or that we’d be a half-mile walk from the shower house at the spot where we didn’t have water, etc. None of the issues are unworkable, but Ken realized it will take a lot of planning ahead and phone calls to clarify information, etc. I did NOT drive on this trip…didn’t think a rental was a good time to learn! Ken has driven this type of vehicle in former jobs, so he was comfortable with that part from the start.
Your husband shares the same as my husband. And you and I share the same reluctance. I’m trying to adapt, but I would not like to RV full-time. We’ve taken two long trips in ours and thank God, he broke them up with a hotel stay or family visit. Besides, how can you take your cute little office with you? If you figure it out, let me know!
Notice, I was interrupted in the middle of the sentence, a common occurrence in an RV. Supposed to be “same dream as my husband.”
We’re working on all the details—and it’s been fun to talk about it on this trip (versus talking about it BEFORE this trip, which was extremely tense because of my attitude!) But “NOT full-time” is one of my non-negotiables! Right now the “compromise” involves 3 months out, 1 month home…for a while. 🙂 We’ll see. LOTS of details to work out, and our adventure wouldn’t start until probably next fall.
So fun to travel-along! I understand why you might be enjoying RV-ing more than you thought. But, what about it is Ken finding not quite what he expected?
Copying and pasting my answer to Hilda. 🙂 The internet problems are one of Ken’s concerns. We aren’t retired and won’t be for some time, so we both MUST be able to work on the road, and that requires good, fast internet access, so we’ll have to solve that problem. Another issue is not knowing what kind of accommodations we’ll have each time we move. If we bought an RV, we’d stay a few days to a week in each location instead of moving almost daily, so that will help, but hardly any of the places where we camped had accurate information on their websites. So we didn’t realize we wouldn’t have water hookups at one, or that another would have no PHONE service, let alone wi-fi, etc. Or that we’d be a half-mile walk from the shower house at the spot where we didn’t have water, etc. None of the issues are unworkable, but Ken realized it will take a lot of planning ahead and phone calls to clarify information, etc. I did NOT drive on this trip…didn’t think a rental was a good time to learn! Ken has driven this type of vehicle in former jobs, so he was comfortable with that part from the start.
That said, some of the parts he was expecting to be more difficult like set-up and tear-down, dump station duties (because that’s one thing I REFUSE to do if we’re going to do this 😉 ) and handling water and gas fill-ups, have been much easier than either of us thought. At least in this Class C rig. (We’re leaning toward a trailer pulled with an SUV or truck, so we can be more mobile from the campsite, so that will complicate set-up and tear-down but will be a good tradeoff, we think.
What a great idea to try it out first! Looks like you are having lots of positive moments.
My husband’s father always wanted to do that, but never got the chance. Maybe it could work out to travel for a few weeks at a time in different directions rather than for a full year. Whatever you decide, I would encourage you to do it while you are still in such good health. We took a cross country trip in 2017 for six weeks in our SUV – stays in hotels and with friends and family. We were beginning to have some health issues and wanted to do it while we felt we could.
You’re not the first to say that about “do it while you can!” And that is truly Ken’s reason for wanting to do this NOW while we’re both in excellent health, but not getting any younger! One of the compromises I’ve requested is NOT going full-time, but still having a home base and coming back for a month’s stay at home every few months of travel. I think Ken’s realizing that we could travel the rest of our lives and still not see the entire country, let alone the world! 🙂 (Plus, when this RV-thing is over, I want to travel to England! 🙂 )
Aw, Deb. What sweet photos and what a great way to connect with your grandkids (and your husband). We had an old motorhome and did quite a lot of camping when the kids were young and they loved it. Enjoy!