“Time is the longest distance between two places.”
― Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
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“On the Water” Butler Island, City of Darien, Georgia.
This photo is from the three-year period, 2015-2017 when we were full-time RV’ing. I published photos, the low-hanging fruit, in relevant posts at the time, but I haven’t felt like going back and fully exploring the period photo archives…until now.
While living it, I experienced something akin to sensory overload, what with the process of constantly moving and seeing new sights and staying in new places. Photos accumulated and were simply stored away.
Then by late 2016, our canine family member Maggie began exhibiting severe signs of anxiety with traveling. For the most part, we spent the year 2017 trying to see if we could find a travel pattern, a compromise that both she and we could be happy with. By the end of 2017, it was clear we couldn’t continue the RV life with Maggie. So we quit. We were happy by the promise of more peaceful days for Maggie and us, but we were heartbroken as well. Bonnie and I were not truly ready to stop RV’ing in our hearts, but it was the right choice at the time, and I’m certainly grateful for the experiences.
I believe I’ve required some distance from the disappointment of giving up that adventure to really look objectively at the photos again. There are certainly more images and stories to be shared.
I remember this scene was part of a nature reserve with dirt roads and pathways around the ponds and waterways for walking. The photo was made in mid-February when there weren’t many people, and dogs were allowed, so it was a great opportunity for all of us to enjoy a little nature. This was near the beginning of our RV adventure, and it all seemed pretty special to us.
Isn’t it amazing and wonderful that photographs can bring back so many memories. Must have been an amazing time.
Thanks, Howard, it was. Being a very visual person, I find images to be especially key in memories and emotions. I don’t know if everyone has the same level of reactions or not, but I would expect it to vary between individuals. Have a great week!
You too Earl!
We have a number of neighbors with sizable RV’s that I see parked in driveways at various times of the year. Not quite the full-time adventure you took as they still had their houses, but I always wonder what it would be like to drive around in something that big in relative comfort. As a kid we tent-camped a lot, can’t say they were all pleasant memories, lots of memories of rain and waking up to water inside. :-) Actually having a “moving address” for a sustained period of time would be quite the adventure, but I would want to stay away from the packed lots of RV’s I typically see in some of the spots around MI.
I felt the full-time RV’ing scene changing even for the brief period we did it, Mark. When we started in 2015, there were fewer RV’ers, and you were usually able to find an RV site in most places with little or no notice. By the time we stopped in 2017, the scene was beginning to feel crowded, and if you wanted some of the choice locations to stay, you had to make reservations 6-12 months out, and most of the parks felt crowded. This was especially true of some of the popular areas out west. Of course, there was dry camping on BLM land but we were not equipped to take advantage of that. For us, that took a lot of the spontaneity out of RV’ing. In the last couple of years, the popularity of RV’ing has exploded. I can only imagine the need to plan, and the crowds have gotten much worst. Maybe it’s a good thing we stopped when we did. :-) Thanks!
It must have been nice also to essentially “purge” a great deal of things just sitting in storage in a house. As I get older, I want fewer things that amount to clutter. And I even feel a deep sense of sadness of all the things I have purchased over time that now just accumulate. My own contributions to landfills and consumerism.
I suppose one benefit to living out of an RV is that I imagine you don’t accumulate many things along the way. :-) I don’t know, maybe some do and just pack ‘em full.
Our “purge” of worldly goods was an initially scary but ultimately rewarding process. We basically took the ripping the bandaid off approach. We found a group that specialized in personal downsizing to come in and take care of getting rid of everything except the house itself. They did it all for a percentage of the proceeds. We basically took the few essential things we wanted or thought we needed and left the house for a few days. They collected, sorted, cleaned, and sold everything. We sold three cars at CarMax, taking only a few minutes each, and then the house sold 14 days after listing. I can still clearly remember the feeling of a huge weight being lifted off my shoulders, not from having the elimination process done, but of no longer being “owned” by all those things.
We came out of RV’ing with even fewer things. We didn’t need all the things we initially thought we would. Now being in a small house, we’ve added a few things, but we’ll never go back to where we were. We have one reasonable car, we have space in our closets, and there’s nothing in our attic or a storage facility.
I don’t know how it is where you are but around here; the rental storage business is booming. I would bet that the vast majority of things people put into storage never get used again, and they pay to store it all for years. Mind-numbing!
yes we have a number of new construction buildings in the area – all storage rental places!! Makes me shake my head. I’m sure some are for transitions, but for those long term ones, people really need to evaluate their “footprint” if they can’t fit it where they are living.
I’ve watched and followed the Vanlife and notice the change in it. I’m not sure I would enjoy it as much as I would have 10 years ago. The dream has faded a bit over the past year or so but I still dream of it once in awhile. I also dreamed of a smaller RV than you two traveled with but then I’m single and need less. I simplified my life a lot back in 1991 after my divorce, have accumulated a few things but still much less then I had before. Seems to be a need to purge every once in awhile.
Knowing what we know now, Monte, we probably would have chosen a bit smaller RV. It would have been worth trading a little space for more maneuverability and having additional parking options. Now I’d want something which could go off-grid for several weeks at a time…maybe more of an overland truck camper. Away from crowds! :-)
Yes, I think it’s human nature to obtain things, and we have to be aware and actively keep them under control.