There was a time when we would drive by an RV park with our Jeep Wrangler loaded to the gills with camping equipment and shake our heads with disgust.
"You call that camping? Not."
"You can't go up in the hills. It's just like taking your living room camping - disgusting".
Yep, we'd look at each other with that superior glance that says, "we're real campers, we rough it.
Yeah, we did. We roughed it, sort of - certainly not like the trappers in the old days. A tent, a camp stove, a portable shower shack thing, and a porta potty. When it rained, we got damp and so did our stuff. When it rained a lot, we usually decided to pack it up and leave and that was fun. Breaking down a sogging tent, slogging around in the mud - yeah, that was roughing it.
Well, guess where I'm at right now. Sitting in my little hard sided camper at the RV park writing this post for my blog on my laptop. Our little stereo is playing music. Although it is dark out, we are hooked up to electricity and so have our friendly little camper lights aglow. Our refrigerator is cold and packed with tasty stuff as are our several spacious cupboards. There are clean showers and a laundry close by. Outside we have a rain canopy tent over the picnic table and everything under it so it doesn't get wet in the event of rain (which is suddenly coming down at the moment). In the morning, we will turn on our heater. Whenever it gets too hot (not likely here), we will turn on our air conditioner.
Yep. We are not roughing it now and I have to say, it's really nice. About 50% of the time we still camp outside of an RV park, but since our camper has two batteries and propane, we are not without certain comforts. The only thing we don't have is a toilet, but we always camp where there is one.
Most of our RV neighbors are retirees although there is a sprinkling of regular non-retirees like us. Retirees have the big campers, over twice the size of the one we have. That's because they live in them a lot. Since they don't have to go to work any longer, they have the time and apparently the funds to travel to RV parks around the country and stay for indeterminate lengths of time especially going south in the winter. We've met many during our non-retiree travels. Usually very nice. It seems that the larger and more expensive the rig, the less friendly the occupants. So, the ones we typically meet are not in those Greyhound bus sized campers that cost half a million dollars or more. Right now there are a couple of those in this RV park. We are sort of surrounded by big campers and you might say that we look like the wagon train surrounded by the Indians at this point.
Everyone usually makes an effort to get to know one another a little bit. This evening we met our neighbors who are from the Denver area. They look to be in their mid 70's and were very nice. He is a retired engineer and spent a great deal of time asking Merle about various things on our camper. She and I talked a bit about travels, her kids and grandkids and such. It was nice.
Farther downstream are a group of good ol' Harley riding boys from Louisiana and Texas. Merle got to know them earlier today and was invited to come on down and bring your "box" - his guitar - for a jam session later this evening. Well, the weather has not been agreeable so far this evening and his jamming session has not come to fruition and it looks like it probably won't.
Tomorrow we will head further south to see some friends who are building a little cabin. We will help for a day or so if we can. I checked the weather over the Internet here in my cozy camper and it doesn't look especially promising down that way - we'll see.
