Re-entry into the real world

March 16, 2012—My good friend Amy was wondering what’s it’s like to re-enter the real world after spending two months in a tin can. I’ll try to fill you in…

First, let me assure you: Living in a motorhome is definitely not living in the real world. In my real world, every morning I get up, read my paper, do my crosswords, go to Curves, clean, cook, and write and edit.

Not so, in the motorhome. I get up, try to read the paper online (if I have access), do a crossword, then either get ready to be a tourist or to travel to another destination.

And everything in a motorhome is compressed into a very small space, which surprisingly can hide items very well. You’d be amazed! For example, we hunted high and low for our Wii games, and we finally decided we had left them home. Not so. We finally found them buried beneath something else in an overhead cupboard.

So, getting back to the real world—my very nice house with its view of a very nice pond—felt a little strange. The first thing I did was to check to make sure we hadn’t been burgled. We hadn’t been—at least not by people. A raccoon apparently had managed to get onto the porch and ate some food we had left over from the baby squirrel. He made a small mess, but not too bad.

After unpacking the motor home, we opened two months’ worth of mail. (My hand still cramped for two days from opening all of those envelopes.)

After a couple of hours, we began to try to settle down. We found we had to think about little things, like where do we keep the paper towels and how do you use the TV remote? I found myself standing up before flushing the john. (You have to do that in the motorhome because of where the flusher is and how the toilet operates.) I luxuriated in my first shower; I was able to shower front and back without bumping into the wall. And it enjoyed going to bed—and getting out of it! In the motorhome I had to walk sideways to go around it and get in. Here? I have plenty of room.

Tuesday morning, after enjoying a good night’s rest in my king sized bed, I got up early to have my coffee and read the paper. It felt really odd to read a “paper” paper. For the previous two months I had been accessing the newspaper online—a slow and often tedious process.

It wasn’t until yesterday afternoon that I was able to enjoy a swim in the swim/spa. Nice! The night before we took time to soak in it and look at the stars; we missed that a lot.

It was fun to watch the cats readjust. Jim had to pry Xena from her hiding place in the motorhome, but once he put her down in the house, she went about exploring every room, to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be. Charlie was more circumspect. He immediately ran and hid under the bed. We’ve found that although the cats can now outside to go potty, they are using the litter box!

Re-entry also means taking care of “Baby.” From the day we bought her until we left on this trip, we had been storing the motorhome rent-free at the dealership where we purchased it. However, when we left we knew we would have to find a new storage area for her; the dealership went out of business. Monday morning, I called a place advertised on Craigslist, on Leon Street, not too far from the dealership. The place where we now have her stored is on acreage owned by a local company. Not only is she safe and secure behind industrial fencing equipped with security cameras, she is also on property where the owner and his son have homes next to their place of business.  

Jim has a long list of to-do’s for the motorhome. I’m sure that one of those things is an oil change and lube job prior to our going out again. He hired a kid to wash most of the dirt off the RV when we were in Arkansas (I think)…or maybe it was Mississippi? He wants to give it a good wash job, then apply a special cleaner to remove the oxidation and shine it up “pretty.” He also bought some type of roof-repair material that will be delivered in a week or two. It’s time to recoat the roof, since we had a leak.

Jim’s to-do list also includes taking up the carpeting and putting down the flooring we purchased some time ago. We also want to build some type of desk area for me, and probably get new chairs. One of ours is OK; the recliner is very big, however. I would like something with a smaller footprint—possible a wall-hugger to give us more room…

We got home Monday. Today is Friday. I still have catching up to do, but slowly it’s getting done. I wonder how long I can put off moving that inch of dust around—another few days?

Until next time,

Your Reluctant RoVer,

Linda