I had camped (in a tent) most of my childhood, and into adulthood. My husband—not so much. He wanted nothing to do with a tent. As we got older, and I wanted to share the joys of camping with him, I finally talked him into renting an RV for a weekend. We made reservations, paid deposits, and eagerly awaited the upcoming weekend. Mid-fall in Minnesota—the colors would be beautiful!
The appointed day arrived. Our first surprise: the orientation took over 2 hours! We had no idea there were so many “things” one had to do to make the RV work. We finally got to take it home and load it up. That is when it started raining. Our second surprise: it took a long time to load our stuff! We finally set off to our desitnation. And drove and drove—about 3 hours worth—in the rain and now dark evening. We arrived at our campground—a lovely location on the Whitewater River after 10 p.m.
The next surprise: parking and hooking everything up looked easy in the video. Try doing it yourself for the first time in the rainy, cold dark night, with small flashlights. We ended up wet and cold, and were struggling getting warm. The next day turned out to be – surprise – more of the same! Damp, cold, dismal. We were able to take a short walk, never had a campfire, and thoroughly enjoyed the antique carriage collection at the campground.
Sunday came, and the ritual known to all RVers was upon us – emptying the holding tanks. Surprise: my husband’s quote “eeewwww”! Luckily there were no mishaps, and we were on our way back home. As we were passing people, they were pointing up. It finally took a guy in pickup who pulled alongside us for us to get it: we had left the antenna up!
I was sure, after the painfully long ordeal to get started on Friday and the awful weather, my husband would never talk camping or RVing again. Boy, was I surprised. He talked about that trip off and on all winter long—and winters can be long in these north woods! He liked that it was, overall, relaxing, rejuvenating, and stress-reducing. He was pleased that even though the weather was bad, he could stay dry, fairly comfortable, and still have things to do in the RV.
A number of things happened the following spring. One thing led to another and gets us to the final surprise—we purchased our own RV in the summer!
Our first RV trip turned into the love of RVing that we both share today. In the four years since our first RV trip, we’ve averaged over 5,000 miles of RVing per year—and are looking forward to the point in our lives where we can full-time.
Submitted by Gloria Burnell of New Richmond, WI as a part of the RV Centennial Celebration “Share Your Favorite RV Memory” contest.
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