I was recently kayaking down one of the many rivers here in North Central Florida with some friends on a warm sunny delicious day! I am not a very experienced kayaker. In fact, I have only done it once prior to this down in Key West on calm Gulf waters, but I learned how to do it correctly by a pro, so I was confident to do it here on a calm river. It was beautiful and awesome, but suddenly, things went very badly. I can’t recall exactly what happened, but in the blink of an eye, I was in the cold water thinking, “WOW! What the hell just happened?” Did a manatee just flip my ass right over or what? This was certainly an unexpected turn of events! My friends were just as shocked as me, from the blank expressions on their faces, or was it because they were looking to the bank of the river at something else? I turned my head to look at the shore as I was treading water that was deeper than I thought it would be. It was in slow motion, as I recall, that I met the eyes of several alligators basking in the sun, when one of them suddenly slithered down the steep bank like a stealth fighter entering a watery battle zone! All the fear a person can fit into one lifetime reached my heart like an explosion and my adrenaline kicked in very hard! I swam until my feet finally reached the swampy bottom of the riverbank and realized my friends were now screaming at me in horror as they sat in their kayaks helpless. I never looked behind me during this eternity of clawing my way up the steep rocky mucky bank to get up completely out of the water and safely on shore. I never even thought about the other alligators that must have been watching this whole scenario as they waited patiently for their next meal to get closer to them! But, I was praying “Dear GOD and ALL THINGS HOLY, PLEASE GET ME SAFELY OUT OF THIS RIVER!!!” I woke up in a hot sweaty mess in my bed, heart still pounding, but very safe and very alive. Isn’t it amazing the fear you can experience in a dream or a nightmare? I am not sure that I will ever want to kayak again, and to all my friends here who do, STAY SAFE and don’t get too close to those alligators! I’m talking about you, Gary!
I felt like I was the leading lady on “Swamp People” starring in an episode called Death by Alligators! I can hear Troy shouting “Shoot him Liz, SHOOT HIM!” The reality of these shows though are certainly not what they seem. Thankfully, many are staged and no one is in as much danger as they portray on TV. I feel that way about my FT RV life many times. It is simply NOT what it seems like to most of the people that don’t know anything about it. I read a fellow blogger’s post last month and it made me laugh. She also felt this way, so I am certainly not alone. I would like to share a few of my thoughts with my readers on this subject.
It is a total reality that we do have fun and we have made great friends. We have just celebrated another beautiful holiday season here in our Florida RV resort with a great group of people we call friends. Christmas Eve, we shared a wonderful evening of hors d’oeuvres and Italian Wedding soup, ending with a game called “Catch Phrase”, and had many laughs. Christmas morning we held a brunch at our clubhouse with great food, eggnog and a fun gift exchange with about 15 people. That evening, we were invited to a wonderful dinner featuring beef tenderloin cooked to perfection and melted in your mouth! New Year’s Eve was a martini evening with snacks followed by a delicious lasagna as the main course. After eating till we were all contented, we played a game called “Heart to Heart” (the conversation cards) that bring about some great adult conversations and hilarious laughs! I don’t know how after several cosmopolitans, but I did manage to see the New Year ring in on TV and texted my sisters. Good Times, eh?!
But it’s not always shits and giggles. The other reality is, that when the holidays are over and we are just living life, day in and day out, we’re dealing with all the same things people with sticks & bricks (houses) deal with. We pay our bills, which are rarely ever less than when we had our house. We deal with cold or rainy, windy weather just like everyone else, no matter that we are south away from snow. When it is crappy, we are stuck in the same room together all day long. You almost feel like you’re being held captive when it’s rainy or cold because no one wants everyone in their motorhomes, and no one wants to have happy hour in the windy cold outdoors.
Repairs are certainly a reality. At around 2:00am, our air conditioner’s fan (the plastic one that they call “squirrel cage” or fan blower) decided to break, which sounds like a continuous splitting of your rig’s roof and will certainly start your adrenaline flowing or give you a heart attack! Of course, when you are startled out of a sound sleep, you are trying to figure out what you’re hearing, as well as what the particles are being thrown at your face from the AC vent! It doesn’t take you long to find the AC switch in the dark and shut it OFF, which I find rather amazing that your brain can function that quick under duress. Attention all RV owners: You may want to order a spare one of these fans before you need it because you will be without a heat pump or AC unit, and finding one in the middle of nowhere is not what you want. Everyone we know has some sort of repair to deal with pretty much all the time, so if it isn’t us, DH is helping someone else.
Here’s another reality check. Several people die every year on the road and a spouse is left behind wondering what in the hell they are going to do. Eventually, health usually dictates the need to get off the road. Like a fellow FT RVer recently stated in a post; “Buying a home while you still have the money is not a waste.” Some will argue this point forever, but I am 100% in agreement with this guy! Your RV depreciates every single day and all of its mechanical parts will go to heaven eventually…
And one of the biggest FT RV reality checks? We don’t travel all the time! In fact, most of us are doing the same thing people without RV’s are doing; spending winter somewhere warm and going back to hometowns in the summers to be with family and friends! That is probably the biggest disappointing statement to those wanting to do this, but just like looking at beautiful ocean-front cottages, only a small percent of us can actually afford to own one. We can’t travel all the time because it is expensive. Unless you want to boondock on BLM land (Bureau of Land Management- public land) conserving water and constantly in search of a dump station (or dumping illegally, which happens more often than most will ever admit), most people just can’t afford the lifestyle they imagined. So we live in upscale parks with Six Wheels Down and a few road trips here and there. And for those that really can own it all? The latest and greatest in the South is to buy an RV Home (house with RV garage attached!) They own a house, store their RV on their own property, and travel up North to see family in the summer, returning South in the winter, Yes, Florida residents and snowbirds too! Can you spell $$$$$?
Finally, I’d like to share an exciting reality for folks back home. I would like to share this with our Superbowl fans: In our hometown, there is a young man that went to Cloverleaf HS and played football with the Colts. He went on to Harvard, played football and graduated with honors. In 2013, Kyle was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens and was a very successful Full Back. In 2017, he was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers, also as a Full Back/Running Back. (Also a 4x Pro Bowl player) Kyle Juszczyk #44 is one of the most successful Full Backs in NFL history and helped win the Championship game against the Green Bay Packers. He is now about to play the game of his life, Superbowl 54 on Sunday February 2nd, 2020! He is our neighbor Shari’s Son, and we couldn’t be more excited for her and all of Kyle’s family! We want to wish Kyle and the Niner’s much luck and a successful game for a Superbowl Championship!! WE love you Shari and we will be watching #44!!!!
GO NINERS!!
Six Wheels Down 