King & I

People have a preconceived notion of what full time RV living is like. They picture adventure every day, seeing new sights, visiting new places, exploring vast wilderness areas… In reality, that’s about one-sixteenth of our life.

Reality Vs Expectations

When we are in Michigan, both of us work. King does lawn maintenance for the campground where we stay, and I work in the campground store. We are what is commonly called “Work Campers.” Because we’re full time RV living, it helps pay for his golf and puts money away for when we travel. When we travel to California, we help out our daughter with daycare for her sons. It really doesn’t save her any money, because she still has to pay for daycare even though the boys don’t attend, but it helps out on the nights when she has late appointments. I also cook and, much to her annoyance, I clean. Sometimes I clean so well it takes her months to find things I put away.

On the week the boys are with their father King, and I are left to our own devices. Sometimes we explore. Often, we rest up for the next week of babysitting. There is a reason 60-year-olds don’t have children.

So, this winter, rather than doing a lot of traveling, we kind of hole-up in the trailer and nap. I’ve also been crocheting afghans. It started with a project to use left-over yarn – a mishmash of colors and different types of yarn leftover from my weaving phase. I had a fairly good start on an afghan when King volunteered me to make an afghan for each of the boys. I suggested it would make a nice summer project; King suggested it would give me an immediate project. The boys were quite excited and chose their colors. So, I’m making afghans for each of them. I’ve never learned to read a crochet pattern (I learned by watching my college roommates) so I make up the design as I go. I never say never, but I don’t plan on learning to read patterns any time soon.

Hobbies

While I crochet, King removes the daisy decals we plastered on the outside of the trailer two winters ago. We both decided we wanted to be daisy-free. And the absence of daisies does give the trailer a more “adult” look, but then again, a 40-year-old-trailer will never allow us to be “mainstream.” I often find myself looking at newer trailers on Facebook marketplace, but always manage to talk myself out of adding a trailer payment to our budget. We like full time RV living, but we love being debt-free.

I’m also still polishing rocks in a tumbler. While my mother decorated her house in Early American décor, I decorate my trailer with jars of polished rocks, because honestly, what else can you do with polished rocks? I also have a few jars of marbles.

In between rock batches I tumble glass, then drill holes in the glass and make sun-catchers to give away as gifts. My most recent project went to our camping neighbor across the street. She and her husband are campground hosts but are moving to North Carolina at the end of February. They are full time RV living as well abd we’ve gotten to know them over the past three years of staying here.

Full Time RV Living

Boondocking

On February 8 our 90-stay at this current campground is up and we will be moving around between then and the end of March when we pack up for good and head back to Michigan. Most campgrounds here have a 14-day limit, so it means moving every two weeks. We are talking about maybe trying to find a campground closer to our daughter next winter and staying a week at a time while babysitting and then “boondocking” during the off weeks. (Boondocking is remote camping with no hookups – and no people). It’s our version of full time RV living.

That’s a year off. We will probably leave that decision to next November. That’s one of the things I love about full time RV living.