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An RV Getaway for Two Seniors

Updated on December 3, 2019
Don Bobbitt profile image

Don has been an avid traveler and motorhome owner for most of his life. He shares his experiences and valuable tips with RV owners.

Campsite in Orlando

Campsite in TT Orlando
Campsite in TT Orlando | Source

Change in one's life is often revitalizing

We are all creatures of habits and if we are not careful we can fall into a comfortable collection of habits.

These habits can be safe in their regularity and familiarity, but sometimes it's nice to get off of that treadmill we have put ourselves on and do other things and think other thoughts.

This kind of change is so healthy.

Camping as a get-away.

As I have mentioned in other articles, my wife and I had our new(er) RV ready for a short trip and we figured that we really needed the down time of a camping trip somewhere.

We belong to a membership camping company called Thousand Trails. And as members we can stay at any of their campgrounds for free for several weeks at a time.

About eighty miles away from our home, is one of their best and largest campgrounds in Clermont Florida; and its only a dozen or so miles from Orlando where so many tourists go year round for entertainment..

We had just spent the last two weeks with friends and relatives visiting us at our home in Ruskin Florida. And, even though we did love having them visit us, we felt that we should go somewhere in our motorhome and just chill out for a while.

And, as an added bonus for us, we would be checking out our motorhome, while there.

So, we quickly loaded up and drove over to the TT campground.

Air Balloons over Campsite

Air Balloons over the Campground
Air Balloons over the Campground | Source

Setting up our Campsite

The drive was actually 83 miles, one way and uneventful.

Once we got to the campground, we saw that it was about half empty which is typical for this time of year.

You see, in Florida, Winter is the peak season and Summer, with its heat is generally not popular for tourists. The Snowbirds had even gone back north by this time and their horrible winter weather has eased its way into spring with hints of summer.

So, we picked a site we liked, unhooked out TOAD, backed our motorhome into our site and hooked up the utilities.

It only took us another 15-minutes of setting up our site and we were ready to Chill.

An RV site setup is quite simple and ours included;

  • Leveling ourCamper with the jacks,
  • Hooking our Motorhome up to our site power,
  • opening our living room and bedroom slides.
  • Turning on the motorhomes AC,
  • Pulling out some chairs and unfolding them,
  • pulling out our table-top grill and setting it up;
  • Then spreading out a well placed rug to prevent our tracking sand and dirt into the RV and we were ready.


Things Done and Things not Done

So what did we do for the next ten days?

Essentially, Nothing!

Things we did do

  • We got back onto our exercise regimen of walking at least 4-miles a day.
  • We talked a lot and made some preliminary plans for a couple of future camping trips.
  • We sat outside under our awning and reading books, enjoying the breezes and sipping the occasional glass of chilled wine.
  • We met some of our fellow campers and had several evenings of sitting around and swapping stories.
  • We drove over to an interesting old Florida town called Mt.Dora. Once there we walked through the “Foo-Foo” street shops just being tourists, touching things that were interesting before walking on to the next curio, or whatever. And before leaving Mt'Dora, we had a nice early dinner at a casual restaurant.
  • And, when we didn't feel like cooking on the grill or in the Motorhome, we would go to several different nearby Pubs for a cheap meal and a cold beer, just the two of us.

Things We Did Not do;

  • We did not go to any of the high priced entertainment or amusement parks.
  • We did not go to any fancy or chain restaurants and eat any expensive foods.
  • We did not get up early, for anything. We just woke up when our bodies said it was time.
  • We even slipped in a couple of naps when we got hit with showers on two different afternoons.

But, in reality, the best thing was, We just Chilled!

That’s what we really needed, you see. We needed some new scenery, and some down time where we could read some new books, walk around and enjoy the campground and nature trails, and of course, talk and socialize “campground style” when we wanted and how we wanted.

Sometimes, that’s just what camping is all about for many of us, doing what we want.

Campsite Chair

ONIVA - a Picnic Time brand Reclining Camp, Beach Adults, Sports Chair with Carry Bag, 8 x 8 x 41, Black/Gray
ONIVA - a Picnic Time brand Reclining Camp, Beach Adults, Sports Chair with Carry Bag, 8 x 8 x 41, Black/Gray
This chair is my favorite one that I have in my RV. It reclines slightly and it doesn't make my back hurt.
 

Heading Back Home

So, here we are with our time here running out.

Looking ahead, tomorrow we will clean up our RV, inside and out, and put a lot of things away in preparation for our trip back to our home in Ruskin the next day.

The last morning, we will get up a little early, make a pot of coffee, eat a light breakfast, perform our “walk around” inspection of our Rv to assure that it is "road ready".

And if everything is as it should be, we will hook up our TOAD and head back home.

There, for a few days everything will seem new to us (as it always does after being away) even though we have lived there for over four years.

At some point, we'll start putting together our plans for our other summer camping trips.

It is going to be a complicated plan.

  • We will hop up to Virginia, spending at least one night at a Campground about halfway there.
  • Then three or more weeks of camping in Virginia with family and friends, which will include a lot of cookouts. I can guarantee that.
  • At some point we will pick up our grand-daughter, Jordan, in Durham, NC and head back to our home in Florida, leaving our RV in its campsite in Virginia.
  • We will entertain our grand-daughter for few weeks and then we'll drop her off at her home back in Durham and head back up to our waiting RV in Virginia.
  • Once there, we will be camping for a couple of weeks, once again, before we pull out and head to Flagler Beach on the East Coast of Florida.
  • After a couple of weeks there, its back home again to rest up and plan our next set of camping trips in August and September, before winter sets in and the Snowbirds show up in Florida once again.

Right now, we are well rested and as you can see we can hardly wait to hit the road for our special summer tour.

Happy Camping,

Don and Helen Bobbitt,
Wherever we go, There we are!

Video of TT Campground in Orlando

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

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