What Hasn't Changed

The last year of our lives has most certainly been boldly defined by change. We turned countless nights of campfire fantasizing and years of imagining a distant pipe dream into reality.  We changed everything about where and how we live our lives together and completely upset the family dynamic as the central hub around which our blended family of 3 kids and 9 grandkids exist as a unit.

Five months into our first calendar year, my biggest surprise is how much of how we live day to day as a couple has stayed the same. People (including us sometimes) marvel at how much we gave up to live this lifestyle. I have written about things I think I will miss, like being away from the kids in the winter and my jacuzzi tub in my old house.

Everyone has heard the cliché “the more things change the more they stay the same”.  There is nothing like a major life change to make one understand that saying. I experienced this some 19 years ago, when my first husband died suddenly and I found myself alone in the world with two traumatized kids to raise. This time it is a much more pleasant circumstance and less chaotic even though it is a monumental change to sell everything, pull up your roots, put 1500 miles of distance between and all that defines us, family, friends, and old neighbors, for the duration of a Midwest winter. But, let me focus on what is the same.  That is where the comfort zone is in a lifestyle such as that of the Full Time Workcamper.

A typical week for us (when I wasn’t at work) used to involve going out for dinner, sometimes just the two of us, sometimes with friends or family once a week or so. Not much has changed. We go out with our volunteer compadres’ and some of their friends from the area every Tuesday night for Taco Tuesday at a locally owned restaurant that quite frankly expects us each week.

Our cat's still think they need to eat everytime they walk past the threshold of the doorway. They still have to sleep, segregate from us, lest they decide to run an obstacle course over our faces at 3:30 AM

Instead of sitting on our deck in Williams and visiting with neighbors who inevitably stop by (by the way we loved that about Williams) and enjoyed the deck, a lawn chair and maybe a cocktail fairly frequently, we have impromptu happy hours in front of one RV or another after the workday,  before we all disperse for dinner and our evening routines.

Sunday mornings haven’t changed a bit.  I still cook a breakfast that would horrify a cardiologist and play Van Morrison, until CBS Sunday Morning comes on the TV.  I can’t warm up to the newspapers in Texas, I think they are too conservative. I read the Des Moines Register online and print the New York Times Sunday Crossword. I still do it in ink, the only difference is it’s on copy paper from my printer instead of the Iowa Life Section, folded 6 says from, well next Sunday, to make it manageable.

It’s spring so I’m reading seed catalogs, like they are the answer to life.  I will plant everything in containers instead of in raised garden beds.  We do lot of DIY projects but instead of working on ‘the house’ we are working on ‘the house’ aka 2015 Montana 5^th wheel.  Our friends and family won’t recognize this thing by the time we get home.

We are separated from our grandkids and kids, now, but we will be home soon and the regular visits and overnight stays with one grandkid or another will start again.  The kids are no strangers to our camper and campsites. Kids will come, grandkids will stay for 2  or  6 days depending on what’s going on and how greedy we feel.

Yes, we gave up a lot of status quo type things, and we facilitated unprecedented change, but the comfort in this life style and the key to adapting is to focus on what has not changed. For all the people, we have met in 5 months adding richness to our lives I can’t imagine how many people we will know 10 years from now.

The scenery may change but the important things, connections to other people, connections to nature and of course the presence of a nearby Super Wal Mart to satisfy our basic material needs and consistent store layout have stayed the same.

Happy Camping!