A beautiful mosaic

What would your expectations be of people living the RV Lifestyle? Well, the first thing you’ll learn is with RVs there’s many different lifestyles.

We’ve posted of starts and stops traveling, sights seen, places visited and technical how-to’s and what we’ve observed. But we’ve yet to elaborate on people who live in RV’s at RV Parks.

“We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.” ~~ Jimmy Carter

Of course some are similar to us– retired, enjoying traveling with severed ties from previous brick and mortar houses– and many are uniquely different with their own interesting story.

RV’ing is a good environment to meet people and exchange information. Conversation usually begins with “Where are you from?,” and then spins into stories as unique as each RV rig and  license plate. Most everyone is interested in the why and how of doing this lifestyle and will happily share what they know.

Many folks we’ve met are “snowbirds.” They travel to Georgia or Florida for the winter months then return to either another home or to a northern RV park or somewhere they will call home for the spring and summer.

Most are quick to give you the condensed version of themselves and eager to assure us we are going to love this new life — we of course are eager to hear this and hope they are right. They often make good recommendations on where to eat or what to see around the next bend and all appear to be without much stress. The majority seems to be married couples with at least one dog in tow. Small dogs greatly out number larger dogs. Many of the long term seasonal “snowbirds” adorn their seasonal sites with lights, flags, hanging plants and pink flamingos and always, ALWAYS two (usually four ) outside chairs to meet and greet neighbors.

Age and physical condition are not reliable indicators of hobbies or interests—we’ve met avid canoers, golfers and radio-controlled pilots who break all conventional sterotypes. Some still work part-time or at least have one hand in a family business.

What’s been unexpected are the countless people who permanently live in RV parks:

• the disabled “younger” man who lived alone in his tiny trailer and seemed only to venture out for the occasional groceries;
• the overly friendly nine- year- old girl who was wise beyond her years–she reluctantly told us she was living with her mother and grandmother in a one-bedroom RV. She was quick to offer she was home-schooled and had two older brothers back in Rhode Island. The RV park was her playground, the occupants her playmates, and we watched as she wandered the park every afternoon asking to earn money walking dogs or performing simple chores; and
•  the deaf widow with MS whose husband died several years ago. She lives by herself with her little “service” dog and is mostly reliant upon the kindness of strangers to help her carry out day-to-day tasks. We happened to be parked next to her and we returned home one afternoon to the most ear-piercing, high-pitched alarm imaginable. It was so loud we could hear it as we were coming down the road. Turns out it was a faulty propane sensor on her stove we were able to find and repair for her. Of course she couldn’t hear it but her poor little dog certainly could. She said her dog had been running in circles for a while but she had no idea what was wrong with him. That’s one dog that’s going to be sad to see us pull out.

We reflect upon the people we’ve met without judgement, as I hope they do of us — new people, new insights and new experiences, an important part of this journey.  We look forward to those we may meet next.