One of the reasons Pattie and I chose the RV lifestyle was
to have flexibility to go where we wanted when we wanted. Sometime the “when we want” part of that is
influenced by events. This does not
cause us to question our choice; but rather reaffirms it. The past six weeks provide a couple good
examples.
As I mentioned before, I returned to the workforce for a
company that allows me the flexibility to work remote. Some travel to remote work locations is
required and in my last blog entry I wrote about the trials of air travel. Another trip was required to Titusville, FL
to meet with a customer this month. I
submitted a cost comparison of flying vs. driving to my boss that showed
driving from the Ft Benning area to Titusville and staying in the RV was
cheaper than flying/hotels/rental cars. So,
Pattie plotted a course for us and we set sail.
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| Horse Creek Winery Georgia |
Some people are curious on how we plan a route.
I may write a dedicated blog entry on that
subject one day as it is worthy on its own.
Here I will just say that when several days of travel in a row are
required, we look for easy in/out and low cost/free camping sites along the
route.
We recently joined Harvest Hosts
that allow us to stay a single night at participating farms, wineries, and
breweries.
We look there first, then look for Passport America campgrounds where we can get 50% off normally on
Mon-Thur nights.
After those, we look
for military campgrounds or even Wal-Marts that allow you to stay overnight.
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| Camp Blanding Florida |
For this trip, Pattie found Horse Creek Winery on the
Harvest Host app and called for permission to stay.
It was a beautiful setting right off the
Interstate that made nice wines and even had a café.
We met the owners, sampled some wine and ate
dinner there.
OK, the “parking spot” was
free, but we did spend some money on a few bottles of wine and dinner.
The next leg of the trip took us to Camp
Blanding in Florida. It is a military
campground on a near perfectly round lake.
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| Willow Lakes RV Resort Florida |
Our final leg got us to Titusville where we stayed at Willow Lakes RV
Resort under the Passport America program.
We have read about these RV resorts, but never stayed at
one. There are several in Florida for snowbirds
and they become easy to rent as soon as the weather warms up and the owners go
back north. We enjoyed seeing how they
have built port homes on their lot to protect their RV and expand their living
space.
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| Mom and me |
So getting back to the flexibility topic, the RV lifestyle
allowed us to spend time together, sleep in our own bed, and still meet work
obligations.
We had just finished
my work in Florida when we received a call that my mother was ill and being
admitted to a hospital in Tuscaloosa, AL.
We had already planned to visit her on Mother’s Day, so we just
expedited our trip and arrived in time to care for her the day she was released
to go home.
She is entering that time in
her life when it is best she does not live alone and my sister and
brother-in-law added on a suite to their house for her to live with them. With the construction just finished it was
time to move her in. Pattie and I
stayed a little over three weeks helping with work around my sister’s house,
taking care of mom, and moving her in to her new home.
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| Extreme Yard Makeover - I love hydraulics! |
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Time to Move
|
The flexibility of the RV lifestyle was a true blessing for
us during this time.
Had we followed the
normal paradigm of buying a bricks and sticks home it would not have been in
Tuscaloosa, AL.
We would have been
traveling to and from our residence to help as we could on weekends.
The RV lifestyle allowed us to be on location,
in our own home, and able to support our loved ones.
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| Mom's new place |
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| Getting settled |
Where to next?
Well,
we will head north to escape the heat stopping in Red Bay, AL to replace our shock
absorbers along the way.
Thanks for keepingupwiththejonesrv.
Other Notes:
Before
we left Ft Benning, I adjusted the new headlights on The Bus and replaced the
factory fog lights with these PIAA driving lights.
PIAA is known for high quality off-road lights and these new LED versions live up to the reputation. Let me
describe it this way, I can have the new projector beam headlights on at night
and when I turn the PIAA driving lights on, they wipe out the low beam
illumination.
If you want performance,
replacing the factory fog lights is a easy do-it-yourself upgrade.
