Let’s do something different

Leah and I have ended our RV run.

There. I just came out and said it. No drama, no guessing games, which is also pretty much the way we made the change.

We’ve been living in an RV for more than 13 years, in three different trailers. We wintered in five different places in Texas. Our summers included one year at Yellowstone National Park, four years at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, seven years at the Six Flags theme park near Buffalo, NY, and the summer of 2024 we took off work and toured the West. Returning to Texas one fall, we took a route to enable us to visit our 50^th state (Wisconsin). We actually camped in 31 different states.

Our lifestyle also freed us for more exotic travel. During those 13 years, we took five cruises, including two transatlantic. We visited South Africa, the Amazon River, Thailand, Spain and Mexico with numerous stops along the way. I was able to visit my seventh continent and Leah her sixth. Of course, we’ve also made numerous friends, some now numbered among our closest.

So, we count our RV experience as a rousing success. But, if it was so great, why did we leave it?

We long ago realized that the run would sooner or later come to an end. The past few years, in fact, we acknowledged that debilitating issues with either our pickup truck or our RV would mean the end of our nomadic life. We’ve been in great health, but we both have background issues that could arise again.

Therefore, we’ve often talked the past few years about what we would do when we could no longer pull a trailer, and the best answer for us, our financial situation and plans for the future was apartment life.

But, what happened to bring us to the point of enacting Project Apartment Life? Did the truck blow up? Did we roll the trailer on a sharp curve? Did a doctor order one of us to bed?

No, nothing dramatic. As it happened, it was more like a death by a thousand cuts. Gradually, there were more and more problems, small and not-so-small, with the RV. To be fair, such things are going to happen when you periodically bounce your home down our deteriorating highway system at 60 mph, but the glitches were piling up on our psyche. It all came down on us, rather literally, when the awning collapsed while we were unloading groceries.

We secured the awning until I could figure out what to do with it and we ended the day discussing our situation. We were both thinking it, but Leah said it first, “Maybe it’s time to move on to our next adventure.” She thought I would object, but I immediately agreed. The next morning, my 71st birthday, we put our plan in motion.

That was a Thursday. We already knew of a 55-plus apartment in the Bryan / College Station area where we wanted to live. We toured the place, found an apartment that seemed perfect, and filled out an application on the spot. On Monday, we finalized the paperwork, arranged for the city to switch the electricity to us, bought a few pieces of furniture and started moving in. Wednesday, one week after the awning collapse, we slept in our new home. We spent two weeks (interrupted by four days of jury duty) moving everything from the trailer and taking care of cleaning and repairing little things and selling it. We slowed our pace a little, using about three weeks to move everything out of a storage building we’ve maintained more than a decade.

And, just like that, we’ve completely vacated our RV lifestyle. Well, there’s still the pickup to find a new home. If you’re interested in a Chevy Silverado 2500 work truck – Duramax diesel, long bed, Allison transmission, 132K miles, white, no engine issues, useless radio, and you can deal with some scrapes and a dent or two – well, don’t be a stranger.

P.S.

I must add that, eight weeks into our new life, we are totally enjoying it.

One more thing

Are you worried just a little bit about being too obsessed with something like hoarding old margarine tubs because you might need them all one day?

Well, this should help you feel better about yourself.

The Associated Press is reporting about a man in California who has ridden a particular Disneyland ride 15,000 times. Fifteen thousand. That’s once a day, every day, for 41 years and 25 days.

But he’s done it in about 13 years. That’s more than 22 times a week, every week.

I find this amazing … even if it’s maybe a little concerning.

Get the AP story by clicking here.

For a bonus, I found an online video of the ride; click here.