One Year RV'ing: Getting Ready to Hit the Road
- Eleanor Becker
- May 30, 2018
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 9, 2018
She’s an old lady but has such good bones! Her stripes on the outside were a bit faded, so we replaced them with brand new graphics so she looks happy again. Not perfect at all but just right for us. The remaining nicks and slight blemishes on her body give her character, it honors her many years of great service.
On the inside everything was intact with no rips or tears but well used and looking tired. We loved the footprint and bones so decided to restore the furniture instead of replacing it. They don’t make them the way they used to anymore, we reasoned. We dressed her up with brand new fabric, and bam, she sparkled almost as brightly as in her former glory! We are in love and grateful, continuing to fine-tune the numerous systems and moving parts as we go. Thank God for Hennie’s engineering skills—he makes the mechanics work, and I make the inside livable.
This is not our first motorhome adventure. When our kids were young and we lived in Virginia, we owned a Four Winds Class C 28-foot coach.
We enjoyed many vacations as a family in that beautiful two-year-old motorhome, including trips to Niagara Falls, Canada, all the way south to Key West, and west to the Blue Ridge Mountains, and beyond. A cross-country trip took us from sea to shining sea; we crossed plains and plateaus, canyons and caves, rocks and rivers, and observed geysers and gardens that left us in awe.
Initially, I was vehemently against such a huge purchase and bold trek across this country. In my view it was extreme, but my adventurous husband insisted. He believed God for provision and desperately wanted to give our three kids the experience of a lifetime, enjoying the beauty of this land as a family. I, on the other hand, believed that we didn’t have the money and ought to limit ourselves as far as vacations and spending were concerned.
Looking back today, I have to say that he was one hundred percent right. He mostly still is.
We will never have our kids at ages 8, 10 and 14 again to go back and redo life.
It was a bold decision, and I’m grateful that our desires were not snuffed out by fear, people’s opinions, or a lack of trusting God in the matter. My daughter Yolandie asked me the other day how someone loads three kids with all their stuff into a motorhome to be ready for weeks on the road. The answer holds one of the beauties of vacationing in a recreational vehicle—life happens on the outside, it’s about what’s going on outside more than inside. Simplify. Figure what is really needed and lose the frills for a while.
It’s amazing how little is necessary to have fun with the disclaimer of regular laundry stops. Even those laundry stops in so many different places turned into interesting experiences our kids will never forget.
Prior to our first motorhome purchase, we camped in tents and bungalows or whatever means it took to get in the outdoors and enjoy nature. Some of those tent camping days were challenging to say the least but gave us close family times and lasting memories of good times, mostly good times. Glamping is definitely more my style, so every now and then we’d stay in a nice hotel. It became boring all too soon, so off into the wild, roughing it again we went.
Yes, here we are on the road again—on wheels—after all these years. This time it’s a bigger rig but sadly no kids. As I enjoy our time away, I’m beyond grateful that I warmly remember our RV days of old instead of regretting never having done this with our kids!
She’s an old lady, this Winnebago Journey DL. She needs help and upgrades, and I’m sure she will continue to remind us of her age. But her heart is good, so we decided to love her. All of us are going to get old someday, and it comes far too quickly they say.
So take permission to always stay true to God and what He has put in your heart for each season of life.
Old is not bad at all, not with our Winnie and not with those who let God renovate and update them from time to time. Nothing is perfect and brand new in this life. Most things and people need renovation, a second chance, a sprucing up from time to time. God’s mercies are new every day and offer hope, promise, and potential. So onward with the journey!
Photos: Renovations, and finally done! Hennie on roof of first RV 1998 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina - can't believe I found this picture! Didn't have cellphones back then . . .
💕