And the best of all...
This week at some point....Shad and I pick up our new camper. Inordinate happiness shall ensue. It's a pop-up tent camper. This one, to be precise. (No, I haven't named it. I know, I name everything. Give me time.)
I cannot wait. And I have been waiting for two weeks. (There were hitch issues and waiting for parts) At least I had vacation to distract. Of course, I spent half of it oogling other campers. And why mine was better. *grins* It's weird to be getting excited about it, I've been an avowed tent camper heretofore. It's that whole Girl Scout/camp counselor/park ranger thing. And I'm not tossing out the tent any time soon. But, we hit a point of having to get a new tent (we need three beds now, and the current tent wasn't accommodating), and a new camp stove (We have a lovely Coleman, that they stopped making the proper sized fuel canisters for). To be honest, while I do love roughing it, I'm not as young as I once was and getting up from the ground at 2 am to take a kid half a mile to the bath house just doesn't engender the excitement it once did. And we'd talked about a pop up someday. It wasn't totally selling out. And we could camp a little easier with my folks in it. So Shad started peeking around at prices. And lo and behold, a decent deal appeared.
Before daring to go look at it, we made a decision. We were upgrading from a tent. We weren't looking for a low-end RV.*IF* we could add in porta potty, all the better. (Not that I loved the 2 am bathhouse runs, but my big issue was climbing off the ground for them, not the run itself.) We're on the same page, and off to the camper dealer we go. And we look at the camper deal. It's nice. Lots of room. Great price. No bathroom etc. A few things we want added. He'll have to get us a price for that. And he shows us another model while we're over there. it's the same box size, but with a slide out. And a bathroom. And a few NICE other perks. Nice camper. Suddenly we're in low-end RV territory, but it's pretty to look at. He'll grab the price on that one, too.
Well, he comes back with prices. And for 1500 more, we could get the low end RV. And we did. It just seemed silly not to for the price. The sales guy comes back the next day, after the decision has been made to buy and let's us know he quoted the wrong price. Essentially, he gave us the price for the first camper with our additions as the price for the much nicer camper. BUT...since it's what he quoted us, the deal stands. (About a 3300 dollar difference, mind you.) So yeah, VERY good deal.
So now we're camper owners. With booked weekends until mid-June. But I can't wait. I know I've touched on this whole finding myself thing. At the heart of it, I got lost living in Stepford. And I know my life is only what I make it, but between that and motherhood, I lost myself somewhere. I love being a mom, but I never feel like a great one. Maybe I dwell in tangible demonstrations of my abilities. I was a good park ranger, maybe even great. And I had people around me letting me know that. I saw the eyes light up in programs, the kid that dared to touch a snake, or gasp in awe when I brought out a hawk. As a mom...the people to tell me what kind of mom I am are 5 and 3 and have their own agenda. And I get the eyelight moments, but....they're different. I know in ten years, they may look back and say wow, you were great at this, but right now....it's hard.
Anyway, the point of all that. There's a lot of other finding me factors (including the ones that currently have me keeping my hair colors not found in nature quite often), but this is one thing that's ME. And I'm thrilled that Shad is as excited about it as I am. He's not the camper I am, but he doesn't hate it. The kids love it. We both hate setting up camp with those two under foot. And packing to go. So 90% of the drawbacks just got resolved. Most of the equipment can now be kept packed and ready. Toss a few things in the van, and we're at the lake for the weekend. Or the Outer Banks, or The Smokies, or wherever the wind blows us.
I can't explain quite how, but it's very grounding. And my world has been kinda topsy turvy for the last few years. Balancing the who I am, with the who I feel like I'm supposed to be. And being true to myself. Well this? It feels true to myself.
I cannot wait. And I have been waiting for two weeks. (There were hitch issues and waiting for parts) At least I had vacation to distract. Of course, I spent half of it oogling other campers. And why mine was better. *grins* It's weird to be getting excited about it, I've been an avowed tent camper heretofore. It's that whole Girl Scout/camp counselor/park ranger thing. And I'm not tossing out the tent any time soon. But, we hit a point of having to get a new tent (we need three beds now, and the current tent wasn't accommodating), and a new camp stove (We have a lovely Coleman, that they stopped making the proper sized fuel canisters for). To be honest, while I do love roughing it, I'm not as young as I once was and getting up from the ground at 2 am to take a kid half a mile to the bath house just doesn't engender the excitement it once did. And we'd talked about a pop up someday. It wasn't totally selling out. And we could camp a little easier with my folks in it. So Shad started peeking around at prices. And lo and behold, a decent deal appeared.
Before daring to go look at it, we made a decision. We were upgrading from a tent. We weren't looking for a low-end RV.*IF* we could add in porta potty, all the better. (Not that I loved the 2 am bathhouse runs, but my big issue was climbing off the ground for them, not the run itself.) We're on the same page, and off to the camper dealer we go. And we look at the camper deal. It's nice. Lots of room. Great price. No bathroom etc. A few things we want added. He'll have to get us a price for that. And he shows us another model while we're over there. it's the same box size, but with a slide out. And a bathroom. And a few NICE other perks. Nice camper. Suddenly we're in low-end RV territory, but it's pretty to look at. He'll grab the price on that one, too.
Well, he comes back with prices. And for 1500 more, we could get the low end RV. And we did. It just seemed silly not to for the price. The sales guy comes back the next day, after the decision has been made to buy and let's us know he quoted the wrong price. Essentially, he gave us the price for the first camper with our additions as the price for the much nicer camper. BUT...since it's what he quoted us, the deal stands. (About a 3300 dollar difference, mind you.) So yeah, VERY good deal.
So now we're camper owners. With booked weekends until mid-June. But I can't wait. I know I've touched on this whole finding myself thing. At the heart of it, I got lost living in Stepford. And I know my life is only what I make it, but between that and motherhood, I lost myself somewhere. I love being a mom, but I never feel like a great one. Maybe I dwell in tangible demonstrations of my abilities. I was a good park ranger, maybe even great. And I had people around me letting me know that. I saw the eyes light up in programs, the kid that dared to touch a snake, or gasp in awe when I brought out a hawk. As a mom...the people to tell me what kind of mom I am are 5 and 3 and have their own agenda. And I get the eyelight moments, but....they're different. I know in ten years, they may look back and say wow, you were great at this, but right now....it's hard.
Anyway, the point of all that. There's a lot of other finding me factors (including the ones that currently have me keeping my hair colors not found in nature quite often), but this is one thing that's ME. And I'm thrilled that Shad is as excited about it as I am. He's not the camper I am, but he doesn't hate it. The kids love it. We both hate setting up camp with those two under foot. And packing to go. So 90% of the drawbacks just got resolved. Most of the equipment can now be kept packed and ready. Toss a few things in the van, and we're at the lake for the weekend. Or the Outer Banks, or The Smokies, or wherever the wind blows us.
I can't explain quite how, but it's very grounding. And my world has been kinda topsy turvy for the last few years. Balancing the who I am, with the who I feel like I'm supposed to be. And being true to myself. Well this? It feels true to myself.