Tag Archives: recreational vehicle

local news

Another travel milestone crossed

Retirement

This is the latest in a series of occasional blog posts commenting on upcoming retirement.

GALLUP, N.M. — I wasn’tĀ waiting consciously for this revelation.

However, I knew I would recognize it when I felt it.

It occurred during our latest trip pulling our fifth wheel through three states.

The revelation showed itself when I realized I wasn’t thinking instinctively about returning home. Yes, I thought about when we would get back to our home on the Texas Tundra, but it was a conscious thought, one that I had to decide to think about.

We visited Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Sitting Bull Falls … all in far West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. Then we tooled over to Casa Grande, Ariz., between Tucson and Phoenix, to visit my uncle and aunt.

We haveĀ laughed all along the way, ogling the sights and enjoying Mother Nature’s splendor. We have enjoyed catching up a bit with family members.

Through it all, I haven’t harbored a single instinctive thought about going home. When we first started taking our RV onto the highway, I would think about the end of a particular journey. I couldn’t help myself. It never detracted from my enjoying the many moments we’ve shared so far. However, those thoughts did cross my mind.

Now we find ourselves getting caught up routinely in the real-time joy we experience on the road.

I mention this to signify that our comfort with our 28-foot fifth wheel has taken us to a new level of enjoyment in the travel we plan to do once we declare ourselves to beĀ fully retired.

We’re not there just yet.

However, we’ll know when that moment arrives, too.

 

State news

This journey is going to test us

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This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on upcoming retirement.

A big trip is in our future. I’m not nervous about it, but I am a bit anxious.

We’ll be on the road for two weeks and one day, if all goes according to plan. It’s going to be an in-state adventure with our fifth wheel RV, which my wife some time back nicknamed “Sally,” as in the late astronaut Sally Ride. You see, our RV will ride it us, get it?

We’re planning to head east and south through Texas. We’ll go to a state park just north of the Dallas area, where we’ll visit with our granddaughter and her parents. Then we’ll mosey southward toward the Beaumont area, where we lived for nearly 11 years before moving to the Panhandle more than 20 years ago; there we’ll catch up with some dear friends. Then we’ll head to Houston to see more friends. Then it’s on to Corpus Christi for some sand and surf. Our last stop will be the Hill Country to seeĀ more family and some friends.

This trip, though, is going to have an important new wrinkle added to it.

My wife and I had been thinking separately about what to do with our 13-year-old kitty, Mittens. Then my wife broached the subject out loud this weekend: Why don’t we take her with us?

OK, there you go. No worries, then, about keeping her in the house. We’ve known all along we didn’t want to board her somewhere; she wouldn’t do well in the care of strangers.

So, for the first time we’re going to take her with us. It’s going to be something of a trial run, as we intend to travel more extensively as we inch toward full retirement.

Mittens is in good health. We have some time plan how we’re going to do this. We’re kicking around a few options to employ while we’re on the road. We’re confident she’ll be just fine once we stop and get comfortable in our sites along the way.

Oh, of course we have Toby the dog, who’s proven to be a tremendous traveler. He’s one cool customer.

Mittens, though, might present some challenges for us.

Keep us — and her — in your thoughts as we ponder our plan of action.

We haven’t told her yet. We’ll save the best for last.

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RV camp fellowship is for real

This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on impending retirement.

MESA, Ariz. — I want to introduce you to Jonathan.

He’s retired from the Army; he’s from San Antonio. He and his wife are hauling across the country a gigantic fifth wheel. They are parked next to my wife and me at an RV park in Mesa.

This morning they demonstrated what I had heard about RV users, which is that they are helpful beyond belief.

The toilet in our 28-foot fifth wheel backed up this morning. I scratched my head wondering how to unplug it. Then I started walking down the street to where my sister and brother-in-law — who are much more experienced at RV travel — are encamped.

Jonathan was standing next to his monstrous RV. “Hey, good morning. How’s it going?” he asked. “Not so good,” I said. “My toilet is backed up.”

“Do you have a ‘twirler,'” he asked. I said no. “Well, use mine,” he said.

A twirler is a device that serves as sort of a flusher. You hook it to your water supply, stick the device into your commode, turn the water on full blast and — presto! — you’re good.

Jonathan then proceeded to explain several helpful hints about how to prevent this kind of thing from happening. What to buy. How to use it. Where to install it. The whole nine yards, man. We got a serious — but good-natured — lecture on the joys and occasional trials of RV living.

We had heard many times about the friendliness and cooperativeness of RV campers. Until today we hadn’t actually had a need to solicit help. Actually, the help we got today came mostly unsolicited, but we appreciated it more than either of us can express.

So I’m doing so right here.

We wish Jonathan and his wife safe travels as they head toward South Dakota on their next adventure.

My wife and me? We’re heading home very soon. We both are a good bit wiser about traveling with our recreational vehicle.