[Note: The following has been extracted from an email we received from one of our readers who opted for the lifestyle of full time RVing. We found his description extremely insightful, and we reprint it here with his permission -- and our thanks]
So we have completed our first leg of
real full-timing on the road. We've done 10,000 miles in four
months. And we have a lot to show for it. One thing that struck
us was the absence of the crime, and lack of values we expected.
We found almost every person we met, both in the cities, and in
the country, to be the kind of decent, caring people we thought
had disappeared by and large in our country. I can't really blame
it on the media, or TV. I am at fault for not getting out and
meeting America on her own terms before now. It's too easy to
get caught up in isolation induced
by job, family and media.
I used to marvel at Charles Kurault and the people he found for his Sunday segment of "on the Road". I wondered how he ever found the unique characters he presented. Not any more. I now know they're on every corner, of every town in our great country. I've only highlighted a few of the people we've met. I haven't mentioned all the dinners we've eaten at a new acquaintances house, all the people who led us through town to our destination, all of the chats and characters we've met and shared some moments with. Just the thousands of smiles and handshakes would take a book. And we have just begun.
But more importantly, we have a lot of great people who've helped us make it every inch of the way. Anyone can buy a rig and hit the road, but there's a lot more to it than driving and parking a 55 foot rig through narrow roads and towns. My friends with brand new rigs made me feel just as proud of my 1990 rig as they were of theirs. RVers are probably the last of the American pioneers. With all the camaraderie, genuine assistance, and common bonds that the early RVers in their conestoga wagons had. As a group I've found them honest, helpful, and as much, or more (believe it or not) as talkative as me!
But more to the point, as we gather
every morning in front of our rigs with coffee cups in hand, we've
experienced more of the old fashioned sense of community, with
perfect strangers for the first twenty seconds or so, than I ever
felt in a tract house community with neighbors of two or three
years. The common bond is that we are doing it, AND talking about
it.
Home is now truly where we park it...
+++Our thanks to Derek for sharing his experiences in opting for a new lifestyle of full time RVing.