4 Months

Hopefully you won't mind a little negativity disguised as growth.

When we first started planning this adventure, we were, of course, all rosy eyed and optimistic. The freedom!  The adventure! The views!  

As time went on, folks kept being all negative.

"Are you sure?"

"You mean, you won't have a HOUSE?"

"What if it gets hot/cold/rainy/snowy/nuclear?"

We thought of all those things, we really did.  And we decided that we would probably go through a lovely honeymoon period, then come crashing for a bit, before hitting our groove and feeling comfortable with the whole thing.  We gave that process 6 months.

We kinda did.

Except we didn't make it 6 months.

We learned that more people are doing this lifestyle than ever before.  This is caused by everything from Boomers aging and retiring to the road, young families priced out of housing, Covid sending everyone remote working, or afraid of group travel, so they buy RVs so that they can travel AND social distance, at the same time.  In fact, we kinda banked on that.  There were almost 2 years between our decision to do this, and when we planned to start.  We thought that those who bought RVs in 2020 would be tired/disillusioned by the time they hit the 2-year mark, and those RVs would dump onto the market.  Not quite what happened, but we still managed to find a good vehicle for a good price.

Finding campsites, however, was another story.

Time was when you could pack the kids, tent, and sleeping bags into the Family Truckster and head down the road, sleeping in rest areas, county parks, and "down by the river" while enjoying a family vacation.  Well, now, the county parks have fallen into disrepair/been closed/don't allow sleeping.  Same with rest areas, which were on the decline, but many finally closed during the pandemic, and will probably never reopen.  We drive by them, barricaded, dilapidated, and abandoned, all the time.

Campgrounds, too, were usually available for drive up patrons.  Now, however, you reserve them, online, as far as a year in advance.  (In fact, I need to get planning for January of 2024, if we want to go to Florida!)  We didn't know our start date for sure, and didn't have all the reservation policies memorized yet, when we did, so there were many times we were just clueless as to where to stay.  We found some state parks; they are now our go-tos.  Usually quiet, shady, actual Camping Places.  

We did stay in a few Camping Resorts, which is what you call a parking lot next to the interstate, in most cases.  Seriously, row after row of campers lined up as if parked, with barely space between them for a picnic table.  Boo Boo and Yogi would be thrilled at all the dumpsters to rifle, but we, as campers, will avoid them when at all possible.

This was the major stressor that led to the end of our honeymoon period.  I think I broke down about the quality of campsites sometime in the first month, more than once.  The last time I did, John reminded me about our 6-month plan, which comes up at the end of January.

"We'll give it 6 months at a time, and reevaluate.  If we really can't stand it, we'll quit."

So far, I don't see us quitting in January.  Stay tuned.