I sometimes think that people who have never traveled & have not been bitten by the travel bug are the fortunate ones. Simple lives & routines. Contented to live from day to day with all their interests close by. No urge to look over the fence to see what's on the other side, no desire to climb the nearest hill to see what's over the horizon. Happy with the nightly schedule of television, spending time with nearby grandchildren, the weekly club meetings, church, & card games. Backyard BBQs & just sitting on the front porch watching the world go by. Nothing wrong with all that & I am somewhat envious of those people. But, they don't have the itch!! RV people refer to it as "hitch itch." It's that gnawing urge many of us have that just never leaves us alone. That urge to hitch up the car or trailer & head out onto that open road again in search of new adventures. That compelling urge to look over the fence & climb that next hill. That urge to drive those extra miles, slip around the next bend in the road to see what's around the corner. It is because of those urges that I sometimes envy the stay at home people who have no interest in the traveling lifestyle & it is that conflict within that makes for these anxious days. We have been fortunate enough to have traveled 3 out of the last 4 winters & with each sojourn we have become increasingly enamored with the RV lifestyle. We now have the knowledge of comparisons. Comparisons are a tricky thing & one has to be careful in stacking one lifestyle against another. Seems to me that there are 3 elements at work here. I'll call the first one, Suburban life. It's simply life at home in a stick house forever & it is the norm. Second is a cross between Suburban & what RVers call Fulltiming so I'll call it, Suburban Vacations. Suburban Vacations is living in the stick house for 6 or 7 months of the year & living in the RV for the remainder of the year. We moved into the second category a few years ago after spending the past 60 years or so in the first category. I think many people are happy & content to stay here in number 2 but it is here that many others begin to feel the itch growing, which brings me to number 3.......... Fulltiming!! And it is here where things really begin to take on a whole different meaning & concern because it has to do with some big lifestyle altering decisions. Sort of like having one foot on the dock & the other one in the canoe. Bit of a precarious position. What to do, which way to go. Will it be the security of the dock or the risky adventure of the canoe on open water.
I like the way a fellow blogger puts it below. He has dispensed with the stick house & is on the road full time & I like his attitude as he travels about the country never liking to stay in any one spot too long. My feelings exactly:))
RV Boondocker Explorer http://rv-boondocker-explorer.blogharbor.com/
(Quote) Consider camping in one place all season long, which I've done a couple times, in the winter and summer. It's comfortable, you meet people, and find out where to buy or fix this or that. But one day follows the next. After the season is over you look back and realize that you don't have many lasting memories. It was too uniform and uneventful. It is the misadventures that get remembered. An entire season has dissolved into the anonymity of comfort and routine. In contrast, the fresh sights and experiences of travel are like insoluble fluids that float on the landscape's surface. They retain their identity. They stand out from the surroundings.After watching a whole season disappear you experience a recrudescence of the rage that caused you to become a full time RVer in the first place. You remember that "Life is Short" was more than a platitude to you--it was an action item. Maybe hot-headedness makes some of us become full time RVers. Others might agree that normal life is dreary nonsense, but they are calm and mild about it, and don't want to rock the boat. Off we go to find the next misadventure. At least we travelers will be sensitive and alive to what happens next, instead of being anesthetized by the sodden routines of a normal lifestyle......(unquote)
I like the way a fellow blogger puts it below. He has dispensed with the stick house & is on the road full time & I like his attitude as he travels about the country never liking to stay in any one spot too long. My feelings exactly:))
RV Boondocker Explorer http://rv-boondocker-explorer.blogharbor.com/
(Quote) Consider camping in one place all season long, which I've done a couple times, in the winter and summer. It's comfortable, you meet people, and find out where to buy or fix this or that. But one day follows the next. After the season is over you look back and realize that you don't have many lasting memories. It was too uniform and uneventful. It is the misadventures that get remembered. An entire season has dissolved into the anonymity of comfort and routine. In contrast, the fresh sights and experiences of travel are like insoluble fluids that float on the landscape's surface. They retain their identity. They stand out from the surroundings.After watching a whole season disappear you experience a recrudescence of the rage that caused you to become a full time RVer in the first place. You remember that "Life is Short" was more than a platitude to you--it was an action item. Maybe hot-headedness makes some of us become full time RVers. Others might agree that normal life is dreary nonsense, but they are calm and mild about it, and don't want to rock the boat. Off we go to find the next misadventure. At least we travelers will be sensitive and alive to what happens next, instead of being anesthetized by the sodden routines of a normal lifestyle......(unquote)
Great points. You are so right, that itch is relentless once you start traveling around.
ReplyDeleteWe thought that by taking time off and traveling for a year, we would find our "perfect" spot to live in. But what we learned is that this is a great big country, and there are so many places that could be right for us. But we can't decide, because there's just so much to see! So we'll keep on keeping on until something calls out to us, if ever.
Oh forgot to tell you that your "comment" link underneath your posts is not appearing with the new black background you selected. You have to play around with your cursor to find it, like groping in the dark!
ReplyDelete