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What, Are You Crazy??

© Barry Houseknecht

During one of those rare “slow” days at work the conversation turned to what we were planning to do during the “good” years after retirement. I mentioned that I was going to travel and work on the road in a RV.

“What? Are you crazy? Are you telling me that you have worked all your life to get where you are and now your going to give it all up to live in a truck?” someone? said. “It’s not a truck it’s a motorhome.” I stammered. Well that started me thinking, am I crazy? Have I gotten so wrapped up in my plans for Rving that I lost sight of reality? What about my wife, have I twisted her thoughts into my Ideas?

So I timidly asked my wife, “Why do you think you want to live in a truck?” “Look, first, it’s not a truck it’s a motorhome.” The answer started off good didn’t it? Well, it got better from there. She went on to explain “I love the feeling that you are always camping, but I think mostly it’s the freedoms that the lifestyle allows. It’s the freedom to see new places and experience new things. If you like what you see where you stop, there is very little hindering us from staying, we have our home with us. If there is a better site located on the other side of the park or you can’t stand your neighbors wind chimes you can change that very easily. If you get a job you can move closer to it or in some cases when need be, move away from it. It’s the freedom from trying to keep a home maintained. With our RV the yard and housework takes so much less time and effort and allows more time for leisure things. Then there’s the freedom from things such as mortgage payments and high utility bills. If you want to change the temperature or the climate don’t reach for the thermostat reach for the keys. Speaking of reaching for the keys we can have a cabin in the mountains and a beach house for the same price. Here is something else to think about, we have lived in this neighborhood for over four years now and we rarely have conversations with any of the neighbors. When we pull into an RV park or campground, within an hour we have conversed with most of the park. We don’t have anything in common with our neighbors, the people we want to associate with are out there on the road, reach for the keys. Does that answer your question? What, were you thinking, maybe I wanted us to become couch potatoes and watch television for the rest of our lives? Oh! I know, I’ll bet you were having one of those philosophical conversations at work again weren’t you?”

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