Dom: Appreciate your post. You have two engaging lifestyles. Born on a military post in Oklahoma, we spent a lot of time in the North and brought our fly rod to southern bass fishing which is great. We can't remember when we didn't camp because my Dad and Mom camped and fished a lot. Our kids all camped before they were old enough to crawl. Bill
8 years ago, I began fulltime caregiving for my mother who has Alzheimer’s Disease. One day about 4 years ago, I saw a TV commercial, “Go RVing.” I visited the website and started learning about RV’s. At that time, I had never been in a camper, travel trailer or motorhome. In fact, I couldn’t even spell “RV.”
I thought that a motorhome would be good for my mother and me. I was always taking her for drives to entertain her, but finding public bathrooms where I could help her was difficult. Family rarely came to visit her, so I thought that I could take her to them.
My mother and I went to the nearest RV dealer and I immediately determined that I needed a motorhome with a mid-door because it would be too difficult to get her through the twisty front door that almost all diesel pushers had. Nonetheless, all the gassers that I saw had an engine hump to trip over to get to the passenger seat. I searched for a diesel pusher with a mid-door.
In less than 30 days from first seeing the TV commercial, we bought a brand new 2005 Fleetwood Bounder Diesel 39Z with a mid-door. We had an RV storage facility next door to where we lived, so it was easy to just “get in and go.” It was so much easier for me to take care of my mother in the motorhome than in a car, we used the motorhome for everything, even grocery shopping.
One day, we took off for the weekend to visit family about 400 miles away. After that visit, I decided to keep going for another 1,200 miles to visit more family. Our weekend trip had turned into 3 months. I was hooked on RVing.
I have since sold the house and we will spend the rest of her life traveling in the motorhome. My mom is now nearing the end of her road. We are so fortunate to have experienced this adventure together.
'05 Fleetwood Bounder Diesel 39Z | Datastorm F2 Satellite Internet | Toad1: '03 Lincoln Town Car | Toad2: '08 Jeep Wrangler Sahara Unlimited 4WD
Gary Franks wrote: 8 years ago, I began fulltime caregiving for my mother who has Alzheimer’s Disease. One day about 4 years ago, I saw a TV commercial, “Go RVing.” I visited the website and started learning about RV’s. At that time, I had never been in a camper, travel trailer or motorhome. In fact, I couldn’t even spell “RV.”
I thought that a motorhome would be good for my mother and me. I was always taking her for drives to entertain her, but finding public bathrooms where I could help her was difficult. Family rarely came to visit her, so I thought that I could take her to them.
My mother and I went to the nearest RV dealer and I immediately determined that I needed a motorhome with a mid-door because it would be too difficult to get her through the twisty front door that almost all diesel pushers had. Nonetheless, all the gassers that I saw had an engine hump to trip over to get to the passenger seat. I searched for a diesel pusher with a mid-door.
In less than 30 days from first seeing the TV commercial, we bought a brand new 2005 Fleetwood Bounder Diesel 39Z with a mid-door. We had an RV storage facility next door to where we lived, so it was easy to just “get in and go.” It was so much easier for me to take care of my mother in the motorhome than in a car, we used the motorhome for everything, even grocery shopping.
One day, we took off for the weekend to visit family about 400 miles away. After that visit, I decided to keep going for another 1,200 miles to visit more family. Our weekend trip had turned into 3 months. I was hooked on RVing.
I have since sold the house and we will spend the rest of her life traveling in the motorhome. My mom is now nearing the end of her road. We are so fortunate to have experienced this adventure together.
I just wanted to tell you that your story touches me deeply. Your family is in my thoughts and prayers.
Gary Franks wrote: 8 years ago, I began fulltime caregiving for my mother who has Alzheimer’s Disease. One day about 4 years ago, I saw a TV commercial, “Go RVing.” I visited the website and started learning about RV’s. At that time, I had never been in a camper, travel trailer or motorhome. In fact, I couldn’t even spell “RV.”
I thought that a motorhome would be good for my mother and me. I was always taking her for drives to entertain her, but finding public bathrooms where I could help her was difficult. Family rarely came to visit her, so I thought that I could take her to them.
My mother and I went to the nearest RV dealer and I immediately determined that I needed a motorhome with a mid-door because it would be too difficult to get her through the twisty front door that almost all diesel pushers had. Nonetheless, all the gassers that I saw had an engine hump to trip over to get to the passenger seat. I searched for a diesel pusher with a mid-door.
In less than 30 days from first seeing the TV commercial, we bought a brand new 2005 Fleetwood Bounder Diesel 39Z with a mid-door. We had an RV storage facility next door to where we lived, so it was easy to just “get in and go.” It was so much easier for me to take care of my mother in the motorhome than in a car, we used the motorhome for everything, even grocery shopping.
One day, we took off for the weekend to visit family about 400 miles away. After that visit, I decided to keep going for another 1,200 miles to visit more family. Our weekend trip had turned into 3 months. I was hooked on RVing.
I have since sold the house and we will spend the rest of her life traveling in the motorhome. My mom is now nearing the end of her road. We are so fortunate to have experienced this adventure together.
I just wanted to tell you that your story touches me deeply. Your family is in my thoughts and prayers.
Me too. Brought tears to my eyes. There's no emoticon for that.
My mother tells me that my crib fit in the space between the bunks in our tent trailer. It was a big aluminum box with a bunch of upright poles and about 300 pounds of yellowish canvas tent. Later, they got a VW bus and a cabin-style tent that comfortably held a family of five.
Most summers, the tent stayed up in the back yard and my brothers and I slept out in the tent as often as we could. We camped all over Washington and Oregon.
The summer before I graduated from high school, I took my last camping trip with my parents... the three of us with that same tent in a Honda Civic.
In college, I bought an 8x8 tent for outings with friends. After college, I bought a Honda Goldwing and went camping on the bike once a year or so. Every potential girlfriend was screened to determine compatibility with motorcycles and camping.
Mrs. PJ had a helmet that matched mine when we met. We camped the first summer we were dating.
Last summer, we decided that setting up the tent was a hassle and getting up off the air mattresses was getting difficult.
I was a geology student on a field trip. Cold, raining, wet, hiked all day, muddy all over, tired, hungry, aggravated, trying to eat Dinty Moore beef stew (unheated) out of the can, sitting in a humid, sagging tent trying to write a report with a pitifully dim flashlight when the earth started to tremble. Looked out and a motorhome was backing in next to my tent.
Inside it looked dry, warm, comfortable, well lit, inviting. The owner sat back in his recliner reading the paper while his wife cooked. The smells were wonderful (ok...compared to cold beef stew). I knew that I had to get one!
It turns out that I kept tent camping for years so my kids could enjoy it. When I purchased the first RV everyone was ready for it!
Today I run across geology students on occassion in a campground and I think back. I feel like putting up a sign outside that reads, "Geology Students: Free hot showers, free hot coffee and free hot food. Girls--yes we have a hair dryer". But I know better...
In 1992 we stayed a few days in one of the cabins (then known as Fleetwood trailers) in Fort Wilderness. Walked around and looked at the RVs. And thought, that's cool. Bought a popup in '93, went to a motorhome in "94.
And we're in Ft Wilderness right now.
It all started in the summer of 1963, Dad got tired of the hole in the water in which he funneled money into ( wooden power boat), sold it. In the spring of 1964 he and my mother brought home a brand new 16' Avalon TT on the back of our 62' Red Pontiac Safari Wagon and it's all history from there!
I sorta replicated my Dad's life in many ways, after two boats and ten years I to unloaded my boat and purchased a 24' TT and hooked it on the back of my Red Grand Cherokee Wagon and its been four TT and several tow vehicle's later, here I am!
Good Luck and Happy Trails
2007 Dodge 3500 4X4 MC,SRW,CTD EB
2004 Citation 29NP
Equal-i-Zer
Yamaha EF2800i
Nascar24 A lengend in my own mind, A Scary thought in someone else's!
During my grammar school days, when the big yellow school bus let me off in front of my house, and my parents had moved, leaving me a note of something to the effect of not trying to finding them!
E.C. & Sandra Walker, (aka She Who Must Be Obeyed), and Baby, the "children cat" (non-camping), 1999 Ford F250 CC 4WD Powerstroke, 29' Wildcat RLBS 5ver.
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