As some of you know (or knew but have forgotten), my husband and I have a 1973 FMC motorhome that we love to go camping in with our children and our little dog, too. We try to go camping every other month — it isn’t always easy to make that happen. However, we try.
Part of being successful at making a goal like that happen is simply planning out the year ahead of time and making sure that we get our weekends in — and often booked — early in the year.
So far this year, we only have two camping trips planned. One in April and one in May. I need to get on the ball and plan a wintery trip for February. We also want to do a Spring Break trip (like our successful Disneyland trip of last year). This year, we intend to go to San Diego and do Legoland, the Wild Animal park, and Sea World (or whatever it’s called! 🙂 ).
The big thing we want to do this year is a BIIIIIIIG Summer trip. My husband’s family did a big trip in their motorhome every couple of years and he wants our kids to grow up with that same experience. I’m game. Traveling in a motorhome is totally wonderful for me. Traveling in our old 5th Wheel setup would have been AWFUL on a long trip unless we only traveled about an hour a day — in the motorhome, the kids are so much happier and their is virtually no whining or fighting. Bliss!
What I love about motorhome trips is who I become in a motorhome. I become a Tidy Person ™. I don’t leave messes lying around. I willingly do the dishes each and every night — usually multiple times a day, actually. It’s amazing to me — at home, I am a slob. I resent cleaning up, I fight doing the dishes, I leave my stuff everywhere. But, in the motorhome, you simply can’t be that messy — there is no room for it. So, I putter around and tidy up throughout the day. The great thing is that because we are on vacation, I still have time to read, take naps, and relax. I don’t feel resentful about doing all those things. They are simply necessary.
I look forward to this year of trips. I don’t look forward to the bills we’ll have for gasoline. We decided not to put off taking trips like this for two major reasons. #1 – our children have a limited window where a summer trip will be the best part of their year (rather than a torturous nightmare to be endured) and #2 if gas prices continue to rise, our motorhome may become the dinosaur it resembles or we’ll have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to make it “green.” Wonder if any electric car companies want to fund a project to make a hybrid motorhome? 🙂 Anyone? Anyone?
mother. wife. friend. teacher. writer. reader. photographer. birder. quilter. blogger.
Liza Lee Miller 