aspirations

When Dan and I made the decision to make traveling our focus and buy an rv we also joined a travel resort, it seems that there are a few ways to deal with traveling full time and retiring with an rv: Planned communities that have HUGE garages that house your rv and lovely homes attached, Casitas which are basically kitchens and out door areas that you pull your rv up to and have more space (according to the gentleman that explained this all to us at the seminar at the rv show, they are NOT legal bedrooms, but people often have pull out couches as many of us have in our office), and Travel Rresorts. We made the choice to buy into a travel resort, of course we did this before we knew all of the above information, in a moment of excitement (which we still feel) about our new plans-and I might add we are still happy with the choice we made. With our purchase of our membership, we can stay in a whole bunch of spots for free (when we do in fact purchase the rv), and many other places at a discount, including international spots! So it is all good, but the best part? As the salesman was explaining this to all of us he made sure to include that we can hand this “legacy” down to one of our children, yes he actually used that word, and yes, I actually had to excuse myself with my fits of laughter, at the thought of which of our children was going to be the recipient of a broke down old motor home (thinking that by the time Dan and I are leaving this earth we would have put a lot of miles on our rv) and a parking spot…I still have not decided this….maybe I will have them draw straws?

So as father’s day approached we reached out to the 3 kids of ours that lived on this continent at the time to see who wanted to come camping. Only one was able to join us with a dear friend that we all adore so our plans we made! We chose a camp ground in upstate NY, and rented a stationary trailer and made plans to meet them. Now we adore these two, and have vacationed before with them, so this was something we were all looking forward to!

We packed up the dogs, and met the girls and headed up. Upon arrival we were asked for health certificates for the dogs, which I truly think is a good idea, but no one warned us of this (I have come to realize that as we travel more and more with these four legged loves of ours we just need to keep vaccination records with us). They let us in anyway, which was good for us, but also? A little disconcerting now that the question was raised in my mind as to the health of all the other dogs-seeing as there is a dog park on site.

Finding our trailer, Sydnee, our daughter said oh? This is your new aspiration? Good to know! With a slight chuckle. This was only the beginning though, the weekend was full of laughter for so many reasons. The first person to use the toilet? Apparently they had forgotten to flush the black water before renting this trailer and the stench? Was pretty awesome, and caused all of us including the dogs to flee and enjoy the outside while we waited for maintenance.

The camp site has a restaurant, entertainment and a pool.

The restaurant was sort of an all you can eat of the standard American diet, so many carbs, certainly no vegetarian or gluten free items, but it was fun, and there is always a salad! Everyone was very friendly, but it is not the way most of us eat on a regular basis. The entertainment was a blues band, they were good, (although we were convinced that the bass player was the ghost of Stevie Ray Vaughn) and watching all the little kids dance was super cute. These places seem to be really family oriented and that warms the heart. It truly is a great time to connect, wifi was spotty, no tv, but the campfire, games and smores are always good, and we found stuff to make the fire all nifty colors in the shop that was on site.

We left our beloved campsite to go see the Chittenango Falls which is absolutely beautiful! A staircase falls and a nice winding trail make for a nice day. The area is home to a variety of wildlife and plants that are only found here. And I love the fact that the history of the area shows how important it is to maintain parks, in the late 1800s the owner of the land around the falls was approached by a gun powder company who wanted to build a mill on the gorge, and the owner, Derrick Boardman, decided instead to sell it instead to Helen Fairchild for a reduced price with her promise to keep it a park for people to enjoy. At the time is was 40 acres, she later gave it to the state and now it encompasses 194 acres! Also notable about this town is the author of the Wizard of OZ was born in this town, in researching this blog I found this out and realize we will need to go back to see the yellow brick side walks and the All Things Oz Museum!

We hiked the falls, swam a bit, and just enjoyed each other’s company and took some great pictures! The current was strong in some areas, but the water was just beautiful on such a hot day.

Being Father’s day weekend, it was a very busy time at the site, but we stayed an extra day on Monday and sort of had the place to ourselves, the dogs enjoyed having the whole dog park to them selves, and Cat the dog, showed off his agility skills to all, sadly for Cat the humans have gotten too busy, and his skills have not been added to. On heading back, and saying goodbye to the girls at the bus stop I realize Sydnee is absolutely right, this is what my new aspiration is as an empty nester reaching 51, to create fun memories and time spent with each other, to travel and explore together and keep connections strong as we all go off in our own directions and our own paths.