Winnebago life 

We stayed in a cabin during our state park sojourn, but of course the park was filled with campers of all stripes.  I can't pass a campground without thinking of the many times my family stayed in KOAs and Jellystone Parks.  Because we were ... RVers.

The Bowmans never owned a recreational vehicle.  We rented them -- like this beautiful earthtoned Itasca, which we drove to Michigan in 1978.  My dad liked the spontaneity of vacationing in an RV.  He's the type who will follow a sign to the birthplace of Chester A. Arthur on the spur of the moment.  We never knew when we pulled up stakes in the morning where we might end up in the evening, and much of the afternoon was usually spent perusing the big campground guide to find the best resting spot near our current path.  (Game rooms were highly prized.)

So my dad got the freedom of the open road, and my mom got ... well, I don't know what my mom got out of RVing.  I know that by the end of a two-week trip, we frequently spent a night in an actual hotel to give her a break.  Was it the thin mattresses on the pullout beds, the tiny kitchen in which she assembled meals day after day, or the shower that never seemed to shed its layer of gritty sand on the plastic floor?  RVing probably wasn't Mom's idea of a vacation, but she went back year after year, like a trooper.

We never really camped -- not with tents or trailers.  I have never spent a night in a tent, and I must say that outside of romantic survivalist fantasies, I don't really want to.  Campfires are great, but when the s'mores run out, I like to retire to an actual bed under an actual roof (even if it's the fantastic above-the-cab fifth bed under the roof of the 28 1/2-foot Winnebago we took to Glacier National Park).

By the way, my dad took a lot of pictures of our rented RVs -- I'm not really sure why, but frequently his family does not make an appearance in the frame.  Sounds like a future blog series to me, especially if I can get him back in the habit of digitizing those boxes of slides.

Posted: Thursday - June 28, 2007 at 06:20 PM         |