Camping--and why we got an RV (and it's not what you expect)

Disclaimer: this post starts out very sad.

So last summer we went on a cruise with our daughter and son in law. We were on an excursion on Pearl Island in the Bahamas when a woman suffered a medical emergency in the water while snorkeling. My husband is a family physician, son in law a paramedic/firefighter and daughter a cop. When I saw the island staff running with a stretcher holding a limp woman, I yelled "Go!" to the family and they ran to help. Hubs and SIL ran CPR for 30 minutes as the patient was loaded onto a boat to head back to the mainland. As the boat left the dock I realized they had no phones, ID, shoes or even tee shirts (after all, we were on a beach excursion). The patient died. A woman of 42 who was on vacation with her husband and son. My husband took it very hard. Life is short, people. You just don't know what is coming. If Covid didn't teach us that, this did.

Tom is a country boy from Virginia and always liked hiking and camping. Me, not so much. I like my AC and my modern bathrooms! We did an epic camping trip in 1986 for three weeks when we were first married out West in a pup tent...that leaked....I was not a fan of the tent experience but I did appreciate the scenery. He has wanted a truck since forever and had a dream to get an RV and semi-retire and visit all the National Parks.  After the Pearl Island incident, he decided it was time. For the RV anyway, not for the semi-retirement! Meanwhile I said "you are going to be 63 years old! You need to think about your bucket list!" And we have a dog, a Bernedoodle. He has hip dysplasia but loves to be outside--could he be our hiking dog?

Hence an RV was born!

We have had some super scary towing moments and scary parking moments ("OMG you aren't going to back in????") but all in all we are three trips in now and still married LOL.

(Yes it's been 39 years)

Maverick approves. He likes hiking and likes to be the leader on a hike.

We have camped at Gettysburg, Ricketts Glen and Cape May, NJ.