Howdy !
I’ve been thinking about writing this for two weeks now and to tell the truth I don’t know if I’ll publish it. We meet so many wonderful people in this lifestyle of ours and some become closer then the folks we grew up with or worked with most of our lives. RV’ers are special kinds of folks and I can honestly say that I’ve only met a couple of “Old” ones. I’m not talking about the chronological age that we can’t avoid but rather the age of our hearts and minds and the way we tend as a group to look at life and the world around us.
The times I, and likely most of us, have heard someone say “I guess I’m in a rut”: well I reckon that would be a large number. The old saying that a rut is just a grave with the ends pushed open is true in my mind. Now it’s also true that I haven’t quite met every RV’er in the USA or the world – yet, but I’ve managed to meet quite a few and I have not met one of them in a rut . Cantankerous, bull-headed, sometimes silly and most always fun yes, but ruts and old just don’t seem to fit the type of person that is an RV’er.
RV’ers want to see what is over the next hill, around that curve in the road or just explore someone elses home town in America’s broad lands. I have a specific person in mind as the words come out here. His name, Dave Baleria. A retired policeman, a police trainer and instructor, a full-time RV traveler with his wife Sandy and their cat Bucky, a wonderful teacher with the Life on Wheels program, siminars at The Rally and working with the Escapees RV Club – a true friend who would give anything, property or time, if you needed it.
Dave and Sandy made an extra effort to see and visit the heartland of America. To see and experience the small towns and learn the things that make them special. Did you know that most small towns have public parks that you can stay at for free or a little as $5.00 to $10.00 bucks a day. Most have museums to visit and local histories in the town or school library, things that just don’t get in the history books but built this country and keep us strong. Every email from Dave had tips, new things to see and the experiences they were having that were made so real at times that you could see the same things they saw.
RV’ing is made of friends like this. You know, the one’s that you might not see for months or even years but when you do it’s almost like stepping back into the last conversation you were having with them. Special things like that happen all the time for RV’ers. I’ve done seminars at all of the Great North American Rallies – now just called The Rally – and this is the first one that I have no choice but to miss and that means not having the visits we always look forward to with our RV’ing friends my child bride and I have made over the years. Some of these friends only come to The Rally so we won’t see them until next year, and I imagine that we won’t notice that we skipped a year, except for the stories of “Man, ya shudda seen ol’ Ralph last year, let me tell ya what he did – – “. Well you get the idea.
As an official “Old Coot” I’ve had many RV’ing friends that aren’t here any longer. I’m sure that somewhere down the road there is an exclusive campground for RV’ers and that is where I’ll see Dave again and man, I’m gonna have some stories to tell him about places and rallies he missed and I’m sure he will have some for me! He died at the age of 60 a couple of weeks back and will be missed by all the RV’ers he touched over the years, including me. Age gets to us all – all ya gotta do is wait for it as they say and the point of this note isn’t sadness or loss for Dave’s not being here any longer but rather the wonderful memories of our trips and times together as a fellow RV’er and a true brother who we enjoyed while we had time together. Value all those RV buddies, brothers and sisters and friends; they are special and also remember, so are you !!
Latter –
The Old Ranger
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Nick Russell
Mike, I just came across your post about Dave. After all these months, I still can’t accept that he is gone. He left a big hole in my heart and in my life.
Mike Steffen
Howdy !
Yep, it is weird, but it’s true – we all learn from each other and grow in our own personel lives by the assoication with other RV’ers. I think you GET it !!
The Old Ranger
RL Anderson
We really learn more by observing what our rv friends are doing than by reading books half the time.
Seen a lot of stuff … learned how to repair our old motorhome , when we owned it , from others in campgrounds …
Now we have a fifth wheel , and small hints and kinks come from everywhere … a fella has to filter thru a lot of it …and one thing we have found out for us , we don’t need every accessory that comes down the pike … we used to carry a garage load of tools … trying to predict anything that could happen, and it just made us hate to pull out of the drive …
But , after years of this and that … taking advice from others , just new to travel and those who have been around the block , well , now life on the road is wonderful …
We have lived winters in subzero temps … keeping the water lines thawed and the sewer thawed … learning how to stay warm without taking out a loan … how to keep the vinyl skirting from ending up in the neighbor’s yard.
Installing hitches with other folks … talking about fridges and furnaces … and BBQ grills …
It can get overwhelming , thinking we need to have it all , but for us , simple is best …
We have taken our 100 gallon tank out of the truck recently , talking to a lot of the guys who had them , and found out that life goes on with out them.
Hundreds of dollars worth of stabilizing jacks don’t get used anymore , unless we settle somewhere for a few months …I guess , we started out buying every thing our imagination said we needed , and don”t use half of it anymore .
A good friend of ours , who passed away a few years back , RV’d most of his life … taking work all over the country … he told a story of his motorhome climbing mountains … where as he would have to unhook his pickup from tow and have his wife drive it up the hill … One day he got a brain storm and welded up a different kind of hitch for his truck … now , when the grade got steep , his wife drove the truck and helped push the motorhome…
he told stories for relentless winters in the middle of nowhere … the heat in the deserts of California … and never regretted one day of it .
Now , talking to his surviving wife … she never regretted it either , and wished that she could still be out on the road …
Ed , another friend , has made sure that all his children had trailers to tow. And gone thru the agony of teaching them how to replace furnaces in the winter … and seals on the slides …
It is a wonderful life … meeting people from other countries along the way… sharing our hopes and dreams with complete strangers … but somehow , some seem so familiar … weird ……bob