“Journey or Destination” or “How I got into RVing”
My friend, Carolyn, who I credit for some marvelous health improvements (see bioflavanoids in previous post this morning…) made the following comment about travel after having perused my recent travels on this blog:
“For me travelling is simply a way to get from A to B. I LOVE to go places but the getting there is not that fun.”
The classic “Journey or Destination” paradox… It really made me think – which I LOVE by the way! And as a side note, if you want to read about some young women who are living – and I mean LIVING life and being thoughtful, world-caring, world-changing people – visit Carolyn’s blog and then her blogging friends (links from her site) – and their friends…. These are people that give me hope – they have committed to God, marriage, family, people in need, the environment – and they have committed in LOVE – not necessairly huge “in the news” things – but simple daily acts of thoughtfulness, random acts of kindness, “doing unto others as we would have done unto us” lives… Sharp contrast to the “me-me-me-ness” that seems to make the news.
So, back to topic… Before I had the motorhome, I would have said that the same was true for me – “the getting there is not that much fun.” Somewhere/somewhen after much business travel and a few cross country car trips my travel philosophy changed a bit. It was so gradual and sneaky that I didn’t consciously see it happening. The last car trip in 2000 – Montana to Maine to Nova Scotia and back – that was the first conscious thought of RVing. I spent 7 weeks “on the road” and except for one week in a Maine cottage, I was in a different hotel every night – with a dog and cat and their respective beds, food, dishes, litter box…plus my computer and my stuff.
There were many times that trip when I fantasized about being in a little rv… and that’s where I started – looking at camper vans – mini-motorhomes. It wasn’t just the in and out of motel thing, it was also that I realized that I really LOVED “road” travel – wandering around the country on the highway, listening to local radio and at night, tv – talking to people – What’s important to people here vs there? What’s life like in this place? It was realizing that I loved the journey.
Fast forward to summer, 2005. I had off and on looked at vans, travel trailers, truck campers, motorhomes – everything! They each have their plusses and minuses and I dithered. But in early summer ’05 a number of things happened – I had sold a house I loved and did not find another, a relationship ended, I had a 1-2 year work committment with a long-standing client, i.e. didn’t matter where I worked from – short story, I was “footloose and fancy free” and somewhat in need of a distraction… oh, and I turned 50…
In true mid-life crisis fashion, I went to an RV dealer and bought the Winnebago. As it turned out, it was perfect for me and the boys (Karl and Bob). At the time, buying the RV was a “means to an end” – a way to look around the country and see if there was somewhere else I’d rather live – while having the comforts of home and ability to take my pets easily. I never expected to like the “rv lifestyle”…I thought – I’ll look around, decide where I want to live and then sell this thing and get back to “real life”.
Ha! Turns out that I love travelling in my “300 square foot 1 bedroom/1 bath home on wheels”. The pets adapted beautifully and now I can’t envision traveling any other way and additionally the whole rv thing has become a hobby and the travel an addiction of sorts. I haven’t really had a hobby before – it is incredible to me that I have become so enamored of all things RV and in the process, I hardly care WHERE I go, I just enjoy the going – with the paradox of loving Montana, my little house and the beautiful forest I live in.
So, maybe it is more than the RV journey – the journey of life and of discovering my place in it – on wheels or on ground. Either way, now, for me, it is the journey.