Old Friends, New Friends

Many full time RVers have left friends of many years, established neighborhoods, habits, work, and family behind to pursue their dreams of traveling and seeing the country. There are the momentary pangs of wistfulness that happen when you wish you might be a little closer to them, but there are so many positive things about traveling full time, I couldn't begin to list them all. I guess it helps that Eldy and I have family all over the country. Well, I do more than he does, but we are heading back to Indiana to see his family and friends soon. He needs to get the "grandkid" fix and to see his adult kids, who are wonderful adults, by the way!

BUT, when we look at all our photos, our blogs about where we've been and what we've done, it's been a fabulous 15 months and we can't wait to do more traveling! We are learning so much about the U.S. We love to share this stuff in our blogging and with our families. It's a wonderful time to do it with technology helping us all the way--to share, to savor....This country is an amazingly beautiful place, and to see it for real, and not in front of the TV is a fantastic experience. We wish everyone who has the desire to travel full time could!

And we are making new friends all the time......Some parks are not as friendly as others and we don't know what the deciding factor is that determines that. Sometimes I think it's the layout of the park, sometimes I think it's the management's attitude about their guests. Sometimes I think it's the people themselves that are staying in the park. We have noticed that RVers are a really friendly bunch for the most part. They say hi when they walk by, walking their dogs. They see you out, sitting in your chairs and they stop by to talk---"I like your rig. Where are you guys from?" is a frequent topic starter. It doesn't take much to get Sparky or Eldo talking, and pretty soon we are sharing life stories, or travel experiences, or the beginnings of a new friendship. We do the same thing when we are out and about in the places we stay, although we tend to be a little more shy and wait for someone with an opening to get us going. (Sparky, shy????? HA! exclaims E.)  And RVers blog...and they blog, and they blog...and they read blogs, LOTS of them!

We start reading blogs and pretty soon, we're having regular "conversations" with fellow bloggers, leaving comments, encouragement, and sometimes advice. (Sparky LOVES to give advice, says E). And since we tell it like it is, (general rule of thumb for bloggers) depending on how "open" you are, our blogger friends respond in kind. Friendships that develop online are very important to us as we are gypsies on the road and on the move. But you'd be surprised at how often RVers paths cross and you get to meet your blogging friends. Friendships develop more quickly with bloggers exchanging health updates, pet updates, losses, joys, births of grandbabies, success stories and horror stories with our rigs and of course, travel bloopers. (E. says, "And we DON'T have any of those to share lately!") Friendships develop quickly because we know we won't be able to stay in the same spot very long before it's time to "hit the road".

And then, sometimes, you get really lucky, and you cross paths with your blogging friends, like Sherry and David, and their blog--In the Direction of Our Dreams.....We finally met up with them. We are traveling in opposite directions heading towards the same destinations at different times, but--we are in the same spot for four days and are they neat people! Just like we thought they'd be...

Sherry and Sparky have LOTS in common, we are former teachers, we have daughters with similar names and ages, we love kayaking, hiking, have an interest in native American flutes, and lots lots more....Eldy and David talked each other's ears off while Sparky and Sherry did the same yesterday, when we met them for the first time. It was a great chat, and we look forward to seeing them some more in the couple of days that we have left here at Jim and Mary's RV Park....WHICH, by the way, is a wonderful, cozy, beautifully landscaped park with a cottage flower beds, cute metal garden sculptures sprinkled through the park, and good wi-fi, cable TV and 50 amp spacious hookups for about 31.00 a night. Our Verizon air card works great!.....They also have a GREAT weekly rate of 190.00, but we can't stay that long, because we are going to Yellowstone soon......Here's our site....

Here are some of the views at Jim and Mary's RV Park...

Very pretty, very friendly park...we've had more people stop by and chat than any other place we've stayed in.....

This place seems more like a neighborhood backyard than an RV park, we love it! We'll be here for two more days, then we head to our first park 25 miles from West Yellowstone, in Island Park, Idaho. Tomorrow, we're going to investigate a smoke jumper school and take a tour. Very appropriate topic for this area as there was/is a forest fire not that far from Missoula this week.....should be interesting, see you there!