Going Around in Circles — The RV Life
Three months of full-time RVing and I feel like we’re going in circles.
We’re back where we started — HOME!
They say home is where the heart is, seems like mine is still in Anacortes and so is Betty Jo’s.
Like a teenager who graduates from school and can’t wait to leave the nest, I was ready for a change, ready for an adventure, ready to visit places I have always wanted to see. I thought I was ready, but I found my heart wasn’t quite there yet, it needed more time to catch up.
I heard of people who hit the road, leave behind all they knew, but soon realized they were homesick. It happens to the best of us.
When we were thirty, we packed up our small family and whatever would fit in our small car and left Colorado, and family members, to move to Washington state. At that age, the world was our oyster and everything in life was an adventure. We hadn’t lived long enough to accumulate much, build long memories, become attached. Then we hit our sixties and suddenly the end of life is closer than we think, adventures become more urgent, and dreams need to happen sooner rather than later.
I had watched some dear friends finally leave in their RV’s, ready to live that dream, only to circle back due to medical reasons. I did not want to wait too long and find it happens to me, but guess what — it did. We keep circling back to Anacortes because, you guessed it, medical reasons. When we started this venture and bought Betty Jo in February, the planner in me immediately started planning our travels. The plan was to leave in March, our first destination — Fort Casey on Whidbey Island. Canceled! For the second weekend in May we signed up for a Newbie Airstream Rally in Oregon. Again, canceled!
But that doesn’t explain the homesickness while on our Maiden Voyage. We had two weeks in between appointments, two weeks I had planned in February, not willing to give it up too, we left Anacortes on a Friday. But by the end of the two weeks, I felt twinges of homesickness.
After the two weeks, we had to return and I chose a park that was over an hour away from Anacortes. I did it on purpose, thinking I was being clever by not returning to Anacortes, by breaking the tie to home.
It didn’t work!
I chose a KOA Campground that some RVers recommended. It’s a nice campground. Well maintained, close to town, but we both felt “uncomfortable” there and we were not sure why. As a newbie I found the spaces too tight, the park hard to maneuver around. And I would so not like to be there in the summer when every little nook and cranny space was crammed full.
But there was more to it than just feeling uncomfortable. I felt — misplaced. Not sure why, not even sure what that means exactly, I just knew it was just not right — for either one of us.
We were scheduled to be there for a month while we finished up some medical appointments, but after one week we decided that was just too long. It was time to return home, to complete our medical appointments from a place of warmth and care.
I told my son that while at Fort Stevens I had moments of homesickness, he replied that home was now where I was. But home isn’t always the place in which we live — it’s a community, the people who surround us, the places that fill our heart and grounds us.
Long time RVers say you will love the RV life. I often wonder if they remember when they were newbies? What was it like for them? How many of them experienced the moments of doubt, the fear of the unknown, the uncertainty, and the awe. I am confident once we finally hit the road and really start to experience the RV life and the stress fades away, I will agree with them wholeheartedly and home will be where the heart ventures to.
Until then, I want to enjoy this home one last time, let it wrap me in its comforting arms as we finish the medical stuff and then send us off with well wishes and BIG HUGS of support.
