18 Months of Travel Recap and Trailer Park Looney Toons

A couple of days ago, I was sitting in the lodge at the RV park in Bend where we have our home on wheels parked. For some reason the wifi signal doesn't seem to reach our camping spot, so if I want to surf the ol' inter-web or catch up on emails, I have to hang out with the other RV-ers in the lodge. I don't generally mind hanging out in the lodge, mainly because it has big comfy chairs to lounge in, free coffee and tea (I'm a cheapskate), and there is about 12,000 times more space than in our home on wheels. Also, more often than not, there are nice people that are doing the same thing as me (mooching free coffee and surfing the web).

I say that there is more often than not nice people hanging around the lodge, because that is mostly the case. Most RV-er's are a happy-go-lucky and friendly bunch. Most people are out traveling and experiencing life and because of that, are an interesting group of people to spend a little time with. There are some people however, that are living in their RV's, campers, and trailers because they don't seem to fit in anywhere else. Back in my working life, I used to say that construction work was the catch-all for people who didn't seem to fit in (I must remind you that I was in construction so I was one of those people). I am starting to find out that RV's also seem to be that same type of catch-all.

Before we go any further, I am going to remind you that I am currently living in an RV. I'm also going to reinforce the fact that I was in the construction field. I am also going to state that most of my best friends are construction workers or sailors (sailors are basically the same type of people as RV'rs, they just have more salt water running through their veins). I am also going to again reiterate that most RV-er's are a happy-go-lucky and friendly bunch.

Now, let's talk about the operative word here. “Most”. Most is a pretty big word for only having four letters. Most means not all. Most means that there is going to be a percentage that slips through the cracks. Most also means that with some simple math and statistics, we can determine that some of these people sitting next to me in the RV park lodge, are going to be complete and utter nut jobs.

Well, you guessed it, I was lucky enough to sit next to one of those guys just a few days ago. Statistically speaking, it's bound to happen. You can't expect to just have great people around you every second of every day. With over 7 billion people on this planet, it's an impossible expectation that every person out there is just as perfect as us (I'm including you in the assumption of perfection).

I'm not going to tell you exactly what I experienced, because at this point, he is still living within a very small radius of me and he may show up at my door wanting to talk about this very blog post with an ax in his hands. Sometime down the road, when I'm sure that this individual has no chance of finding me, I may revisit this topic. Until then, I am going to share brief tidbits of conversations I've had with a few random people at RV parks.

The Lady: “Do you want a bite of my Thanksgiving waffle?” (said within 2 inches of my face)

Me: “What's a Thanksgiving waffle?”

The Lady: “Everything left over from Thanksgiving on top of a waffle with maple syrup and gravy and pressed in my George Foreman Grill” (still said within 2 inches of my face and with bits of her Thanksgiving waffle spraying between her missing teeth and landing on my forehead)

Me: “Uh, no thanks.”

Different day but same Lady: “Do you want a bite of my doughnut burger?” (again within 2 inches of my face)

Me: “What's a doughnut burger?” (an obvious question)

The Lady: “Well, it's a big mac inside of 2 doughnuts pressed in my George Foreman Grill” (still within 2 inches of my face and with bits of her doughnut burger spraying between her missing teeth)

Me: “That's pretty good.” (I had to try it)

The Guy: “Oops. I have to get out of here...I just peed.” (said sitting next to me in the hot tub)

Different Guy: “They shouldn't have taken my guns. I needed those guns. If I had those guns, I could get back at them. They shouldn't have taken my guns.” (this was said while mumbling and with a bit of a twitch)

Me: “Brenda, it's time to go...NOW.”

Me: “How are you?”

Another Different Guy: “WHY WOULD YOU ASK ME THAT? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?” (All capitol letters means yelling. If you didn't catch that, he was yelling at me because I asked him how he was doing...sorry another different guy, next time I see you I won't ask...and I didn't)

Lady: “WHO TOUCHED MY F*****G LAUNDRY?!?!? WAS IT YOU?!?!” (This was screamed at me as I was sitting underneath a huge sign that reads “Please remove your laundry as soon as it is done so other people can use the machines. Other people can remove it for you if you don't do it.”

Me: “Nope. I don't know who did it.” (But I did know who F*****G did it. I actually touched her F*****G laundry. I moved it after I waited for over a F*****G hour with her dry clothes sitting in the F*****G dryer staring me in the F*****G face.)

I could go on and on and on with strange and interesting interactions, but I also wanted to share one of my better conversations that I just had the other day as well. I met a guy in the lodge who would be in Bend only for a few days as he was just passing through on his way down to Arizona. We had the normal RV park conversation that starts with where are you from and where are you going? I was heading up to the mountain to do some skiing, so I really didn't want to spend a whole lot of time chit-chatting when there was fresh powder to be had. I was as nice and friendly as I could be, we swapped contact info, and I said “Hopefully I'll see you around”, as I filled my mug with the free coffee in the lodge (yep, I'm a cheapskate).

I bumped into him the next morning while I filled up on more free coffee in the lodge. My new friend stayed up all night and read our entire blog from start finish. He asked me all about some of the places we had been, where we stayed, which route we took, where are we going next, etc, etc, etc... We ended up hanging out for a couple of hours and quickly became old friends. He was just starting out on his travels and had the same fire in his eyes that we did when we left over a year and a half ago.

Because of his all night binge reading session, he seemed to know more about our adventure than I did. He also seemed to be more excited about it than me. I quickly realized that I had forgotten that we were still on a big adventure and that we have done and seen some incredible things in the last year and a half. Don't get me wrong, I know that I am still having more fun that I can ever remember having. I get to go skiing just about every day. And skiing is my favorite activity on earth. Being an official ski bum is the best job that I have ever had. It's just that sometimes I have a tendency to forget that yesterday was pretty great and tomorrow looks like it's going to be pretty good too.

As we parted ways, he told me I should put together a video of our trip so far and put it on Youtube so he could show his friends. He made some comment about his friends not knowing how to read, but they are pretty good at watching TV. I made the same comment I had made the first time I met him. “Hopefully I'll see you around.” But this time I actually meant it.

Since my new friend Jim asked for it, I guess I'll share it with you too. Here is a video recap of our first 18 months of traveling.