Thankful for Our Continually Changing RV Community that Always Makes Us Feel At Home

I love the flowers that are still in bloom around my in-law's Florida neighborhood. But when we head on to our next destination, Doug jokingly reminds me that, ''he never promised me a rose garden''. Yes, I enjoy the beautiful rose bushes that brighten our boondocking spots, yet it's equally wonderful when sea oats, cacti, and palm trees become my ''rose garden''.

Beautifully colored ''neighbors'' also flutter in and out of our lives.

And as wonderful as most travel days are, the full-time RVing lifestyle means that we have to ''give up'' one the the most precious treasures in life ... a stable, in-person community of family and friends. Dinner and gab sessions with girlfriends, pancake breakfasts with church friends, and casual chats with next door neighbors are not going to happen as easily when we are constantly on the move.  And while the chance to explore the vast wilderness of our country is a precious gift, we knew that something that we hold dear would have to change.

Community

While our travels continue to be an amazing experience, we have found that the lack of a consistent community is one of the biggest downfalls of full-time RVing. Most days on the road, it is just ''me and you, babe''. My ''man of few words'', while wonderful in many ways, doesn't carry on the best ''girlfriend'' conversations. And I sometimes find it hard to wrap my head around all the random things that fascinate him.

''Yes, dear, that is a very interesting horseshoe crab,

and no, I don't need to touch it.'' 

Though the years, and especially as Thanksgiving approaches, we have learned to be thankful for our new definition of community ... continually changing yet always making us feel at home.

Our community has become both the people that we meet by chance, share common interests with, and (hopefully) run into again somewhere down the road,

... as well as our dear ''old'' (and young) family and friends who warmly open their driveways and welcome us ''home'' when our travels bring us to their beautiful neck of the woods.

After spending a summer of ''just the two of us'' in Alaska and Canada, we ... ok, mostly me (the extrovert) was craving the special treat of spending time with family and friends. It was time to head back to the Midwest for some campfire chats.

During the last few months, we were able plan a travel route that gave us many opportunities visit with family and friends, reconnect with RV friends, and meet new friends. Evenings filled with conversations left little time for blogging, but sometimes that is a good problem to have. There will be a time for that ... like right now in late November when it gets dark way too early.

We are thankful for the groups of people who help us build up and strengthen our community even when it is continually changing. 

Our ''Habitat for Humanity Care-A-Vanner'' Community

While volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, we meet many skillful volunteers who soon become good friends. We often receive invitations to stop by if we are ever near their hometown. Not sure if Maria realized that we would take her up on her offer, but what a joy to reconnect with her when we visited Fairbanks, Alaska. As the owner of a hair salon, she graciously shared her hair-styling talent as well as showed us around her beloved hometown. We look forward to possibly running into her and other members of our Habitat community on a future build site.

In October we did another Habitat for Humanity Care-a-Vanner build in Goldsboro, North Carolina. During our week there, we got to know and work with another skilled and fun group of volunteers. Site supervisor, David, took me up on my offer to clean out and re-organize his tool trailer. While not the most glamorous job to be stuck doing, Janet, Lynn, and I were happy to see that our work got a big ''thumbs up'' from David. Our new motto: building up and strengthening community one organized tool trailer at a time!

Our ''Hymer'' Community

Despite (or maybe because) the manufacturer of our RV, Hymer, went out of business in 2019, we enjoy meeting, talking, and problem-solving with fellow owners. An active Hymer Facebook group shares maintenance tips and plans frequent ''meet-ups'' that help build up the Hymer community. And like most owners, we jump at the chance to talk with other ''Hymer-heads'' when we see the familiar RV parked nearby. That is how we struck up a conversation with Ron and Pauline when we both were exploring Valdez, Alaska. Even more fun was to reconnect with them a few weeks later when we drove through their hometown of Haines Junction in Canada. We shared travel stories as they proudly showed us their beautiful small town nestled alongside the mountains of Kluane National Park. 

Our ''See You Down the Road'' Community

Sometimes a brief conversation on a hiking trail or at a boondocking spot is the start of wonderful friendships. We have been blessed with many traveling buddies with whom we share travel itineraries, with the hopes that we can ''see you down the road''. Liz and Remy are two such friends. We first met them in Newfoundland, and then in Florida, and most recently in Haines, Alaska and Whitehorse, Canada. We all enjoy outdoor activities, so it was easy to talk each other into an epic canoe ride down the Yukon River

... and a hike in search of King Bolete mushrooms.

Joanne and Gary are also dear members of our ''see you down the road'' community. We recently got to spend ten days with them at one of our favorite places, Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Beach walks, biking and pickleball along with card games and lots of laughter filled our days. 

Our ''Boondockers Welcome'' Community

We've had a Harvest Host/Boondockers Welcome (HH/BW) membership for many years which allows us stay overnight at various host locations. Some hosts use the program as a way to draw more customers into their museum, farm market, winery, or brewery. 

Other hosts, like Betsy and Steve, open the driveway of their private home to vagabonds like us because they are interested in RV travel themselves. Betsy and Steve's house is located near a train station in suburban Chicago so we were able to take the ''L'' to explore downtown for the day. In the evening we shared travel stories and answered their questions about full-time RV living. They, like so many other HH/BW hosts, made us feel right at home.

Our ''Hometown'' Community

Despite being gone for seven years, it still feels like coming home when we return to Rochester, Minnesota for a few weeks each year. We appreciate our community of dear old friends opening their homes and their hearts to us year after year.

Zoey, the precious pooch, and Callie, the calico cat, warmly welcomed us back,

... and Marybeth and Gary provided a comfortable place for us to call home while in town. It was a special joy this year to be able to help them prepare for their daughter's wedding.

Since we couldn't celebrate their birthdays with them earlier this summer, Daniel (5) and Lulu (2) were more than happy to blow out some more candles with us in September.

We proudly cheered on Ann and Warren as they bravely completed a major downsizing project and prepared to move closer to their children.

Dave treated us to a beautiful hike in one of our favorite Minnesota state parks ... Whitewater, while his wife Maureen fixed us a delicious dinner. We timed our visit perfectly this year, as we were also able to enjoy the bountiful produce from his massive garden. Tomatoes, potatoes, apples, zucchini, eggplant, and squash were a delicious part of our meals during our time in town.

While we can't keep up with them on the bike anymore, it was still fun to enjoy the ''after-ride'' refueling with our athletic biking buddies at one of our favorite hangouts, Beetles Bar and Grill.

Taco Tuesday got elevated to a higher level when we reconnected with former co-workers who have become dear friends through the years.

What started out years ago as a playgroup for our toddlers morphed into ''mom's evening out''. So wonderful to continue to share stories, laughter, and good food when I can get together with this special group of women.

How do they grow so fast? Our Godchild Ella now towers over me, but we still enjoy making treats together like these mini fruit pizzas that help fuel this tall teenager.

So happy to have passed on my love of cooking to another dear young friend of mine. Brittany proudly hosted an elegant dinner for us complete with homemade beef stew and corn bread ... deeee-licious!

Our ''Friends Along the Way'' Community

The fun thing about planning our route as we go, is that we can fit in special side trips to see friends along the way. Our not-so-direct route this fall from Minnesota to Florida allowed us to drop in and spend time with friends who we would probably not see as often if we were not so mobile.

Delightful college buddy Jill welcomed us to her northern Virginia home. While I assured her we didn't need a bed, we definitely didn't turn down her scrumptious blueberry french toast breakfast.

In a classic ''it's a small world'' fashion, we were delighted to find out that dear friends had moved close to my sister's home in Richmond, Virginia. We raised a toast to old friends and new at a cute outdoor craft brewery in the area.

Some former Rochester friends showed us a few of their favorite places in their new hometown of Jacksonville Beach, Florida. We spent the afternoon being entertained by dogs of all types at Brew Hound ... a combination brewery and dog park.

I was happy that I don't have to venture to Colorado anymore to spend time with best high school buddy, Diane, as she recently moved back to a cute small river town south of Minneapolis.

Panama City, Florida is never too far off our route since it is a chance to hangout with my Polish ''sista'' Tami. I was in organizational heaven when she allowed me to help her straighten out her pantry. Her husband promises to have the dumpster delivered the next time we come if I can talk her into cleaning out their ''bonus'' room!

Our ''Colombian Connection'' Community

After four extended visits to Colombia, South America, we have developed many friendships with our special ''paisa'' friends. Through the power of technology, we are still able to stay connected even when we're back in the United States. We communicate with a group of young people from Medellin who are learning English through on-line meetings twice a month. Other friends stay in touch through Facebook and WhatsApp. Through this community, we are able to keep our Spanish skills up. We look forward to when RVentures take us back to Colombia in early 2023.

In another ''it's a small world'' moment, we struck up a conversation with Amparo and her husband last winter when we were touring around Colombia and realized that they live in Minneapolis. What fun to visit ... and practice a little of our Spanish when we were in town!

We met Melissa a few years ago in Colombia, and I was happy to be able to reconnect with her when she moved back to Florida. She fondly refers to me as her ''American Mom'' ... although, as you can see, she obviously didn't get her height from me!

Our ''Family is Forever'' Community

The older we get, the more we come to cherish time spent with family. And while everyone leads busy lives, we appreciate our sons, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles taking time to visit with us when our travels bring us ''home''.

''You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them''

Desmond Tutu

Thankful for God's healing touch that allowed us to spend time with Uncle Fred and Aunt Terri.

Thankful for the gift of a wedding that allowed us to spend time with Aunt Dory and Uncle Joe and many special cousins.

Thankful for the puppy cuddles and lots of laughs as we spent time with Doug's sister and family in the beautiful rolling hills near Pittsburgh.

Thankful for delicious meals and wonderful conversations with my beautiful red-headed sister, nieces, and great-nieces.

Thankful for time reminiscing with my baby brother and family over delicious Kopp's Frozen Yogurt.

Thankful for early morning ''sista'' walks and sweet great-niece talks ...

ok ... it's probably more like a ''coo''.

Thankful for a spur of the moment visit with Doug's niece who so generously chose to drive an hour and a half after work to spend time with her grandparents and us. 

Thankful for son and grand-puppy time ...

and for the joy of knowing that we will be adding a daughter-in-law in the near future!

Yes, the continually changing community is definitely a challenge in RV life,

... but as we celebrate Thanksgiving, we want to let our various communities of family and friends know that

we are thankful

for all the ways you make us feel at home ...

whenever we flutter into your life.