Recently, I bumped into someone who asked me where I was from. In giving an answer to this question I usually say “I live on the road full time” and it leads to a talk about our lifestyle. This gentleman said it was a bucket list dream of his, to do the same thing one day. Super common response. When he asked if it was all I dreamed of, I told him that this year was NOT our year to claim poster child status for RV life.
6 displacements in one 365 day cycle is unusual.
This year has taught us that the unexpected can and often will happen. The difference between road life and a traditional house is that when your RV is in the shop, your options are hotels or friends. And when your truck dies, you’re stuck in one place unless, you rent a car or are loaned one. Stuff happens to both lifestyles, but ours is more inconvenient.
I had developed a longing for a home base of some kind. A place where I can imagine myself living out the rest of my life. I don’t think it’s an unreasonable desire, we all long to have a rooted sense of belonging somewhere. A place that defines ‘home’ to us.
But that’s not what this life offers me. My home is a truck and an RV. I do a lot of things to create that sense of home in the RV, and in the sites we live in, but it’s different than having a house, a yard, a garage, and a town that I know, top to bottom. And without the cooking and sewing part of this journey, I’m left with shopping, hanging in a hotel room or sitting in bookstores reading quilt magazines.
Can you say boredom?
Boredom is a sure path to mental gymnastics, that lead to anxious brain fatigue. I begin to ask questions about things that were already settled in my mind. Doubt creeps around causing me to loose sleep, cry, become cynical and a general grump.
This was my mental state on my birthday.
I questioned if we should even be living this way. Maybe it was time to pick a hometown, buy a house, and live in an RV 3 months a year to escape winters. We have that option! I had Bruce in a state of despair. He wants me to be happy and well provided for, and he didn’t feel like he was making that possible for me.
Then, a simple devotional spoke to me.
It was the idea that God leads through our intuition, and listening to it is far more critical than all of the research, logic, advice and Bible verses combined. That still small nudge keeping us on track, is from him as much as if he were standing in the room with us.
It’s how we landed in Clarksville at the end of April.
I was tired of our truck failing, was longing for some adult conversation with someone who knew me, and we had friends of 28+ yrs living there. Before Bruce could protest I had a reservation for a few nights in their town and we aimed the truck in that direction.
Fortunately, (or sovereignly) our friends were available that weekend to visit with us, offer encouragement, kindness and companionship. As we said goodbye (the first of 4 times), we were refreshed and ready to face the challenge of having our RV repaired. Little did we know that it would be 3 more weeks before we could leave town!
We stayed in Clarksville from April 26th to May 21st. Almost an entire month. Our original plan was to arrive in Detroit on May 1st. People were anticipating us, and we were looking forward to the community we’d come to know there. Our hearts longed for the potential relationships that waited. And our desire was to serve the community in any way we could.
But God had different plans.
Once we accepted that repairing the RV would be a process with multiple delays, our longing shifted, and we made plans to land in Terre Haute IN for a month. We had a great experience there when our truck failed last fall. God provided a fabulous mechanic, helpful fellow believers who loaned us a car, and a campground that we could call home. One where we could serve the residents and managers.
It came to us that maybe we could use this town as an interim home base for travels. Find a doctor, dentist, veterinarian and do our annual catch ups there. If we didn’t use Terre Haute, it meant Detroit, or returning to Chicago each year. We were ready to be done with Chicago, and I had difficulty finding available physicians in Detroit. And on top of it all, we were commutable to our kids.
As we arrived at our campground in Terre Haute, Bruce called out to the manager,
“Wendy we’re home”
And the joy of being known by the team and residents was a satisfying wrap up to our time in TN.
We were able to do a bit of sightseeing in TN and KY while we waited on our wheely house. The National Quilt Museum in Paducah was lovely. And Nashville on Mother’s Day for brunch did not disappoint. And of course we had multiple opportunities to visit with our long time friends.
But oh wow! Am I glad to be back in my wheely house!! Bruce was even able to collect his birthday present,
And we’re just across the border from IL so today we head to the IL DMV to have our truck license renewed.
And there’s a fantastic quilt store there…
I’m back to planning for the fall/winter and looking at places to land for snow season. Hoping to do Orlando in December with our kids and Charleston for our anniversary in November. But again, I hold it all lightly…
Cuz anything can happen!
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