THE RV LIFESTYLE

Oct 2/09
So what’s it like to live in an RV? Well, in some ways, it’s like living in a small house that is very well laid out, has lots of storage and is easy to keep clean. We have all the necessities of life as well as a fireplace, a big HDTV, built in vacuum cleaner and a king size bed. Unfortunately, the only dishwasher is me and I have decided to treat washing dishes as a hobby rather than a chore. Perhaps a skill to add to my resume?

The neighbourhood always changes when you live in an RV. We are staying in a combination motel and RV park south of Barriere and the RV park has only 7 sites. Two of the sites have park models in them, one site has long term people who are only here a couple days a week and we have ours booked for another week. The other 3 sites were occupied when we first arrived on Sept 11 but they have been mostly empty since the 19th.

It feels like we are in our own private resort most of the time. From our dining area table, we see a vineyard, thoroughbred horses in a field across the highway and a big rocky mountain that was burned in 2003.



From our rear living room window, we see the west side of the Thompson River valley, houses between here and the North Thompson River, and a grassy field. It is very peaceful and private but the sneaky thing is the railway that is not too far away. We have about 15 trains that go by during the day and night so it gets a little loud and shaky around here at times. It’s amazing what you can get used to in a short time—we hardly wake up for the trains during the night. However, sometimes when we are out fishing on a quiet lake, I can hear the clang, clang, clang sound of the trains in my mind.


The simplicity of life is another wonderful aspect of living in an RV. Because we have reduced the amount of “stuff” like clothing, linens, kitchen ware, knickknacks, toys and gadgets, our decisions on what to wear, what to do and what to clean each day are much easier to make. Rather than dressing to present a certain image at work, or other social situation, we only need to dress for what we plan to do that day. That doesn’t mean that we are slobs and wear the same things over and over. It just means that we are now more focussed on who we are and what we do rather than what we look like. The people that we’ve met have accepted us as is, so it must be okay.

The other wonderful thing about “No Fixed Address” is the reduction of bills to be paid. Stuart used to spend a few hours every month, working at it weekly, sorting out the bills to be paid (taxes, utilities, gas, electricity, telephone, satellite programming, internet service, etc.) and now he gets it all done in a few minutes once a month. And we don’t have to think about when garbage day is scheduled—we can take the garbage out any time of day or night. So that’s a little snapshot of the simpler lifestyle in an RV. It’s not for everyone, but for us with our fancy big rig, or the neighbours with their old Winnebago, or small travel trailer, we are all happy to be RV’ing and living a good life.