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Home Really Is Where You Park It

| Updated Mar 13, 2016

We just set up camp in along the Emerald Coast on Florida's Panhandle. We're home.

Last night, in Alabama, we stayed in a rest area along I-65. Alabama is one of those very RV friendly states that has RV dumps in the rest areas and welcomes overnight stays. It felt like home. Even had 24 hour on-site security.

In a couple days, well move on somewhere – we haven't figured out yet just where – and we'll be home again.

Everything we need is with us. Clothes, food, cooking gear, computers, Wi-Fi. It takes us about 60 seconds to set up. But that's only if I decide I want city water and to plug in to the 30 amp box. Most times, with solar and giant banks of lithium in batteries, we are energy independent and overnight untethered.

This park we're staying at – Camp Gulf in Destin – is jam-packed with snowbirds and refugees from the colder states. In fact, we got the last spot. The nearby Henderson State Park and Topsail State Park had no vacancies. It's a bit crowded for our taste and on the expensive side but we have a lot of friends in the area and several favorite restaurants so it's worth a splurge. It's home.

camp gulf (1 of 1)Last year, we spend a week or so on one of the beach front sites. See above. Alas, at the heart of the spring break season, we're way back, as you can see on the left.

No problem. We're home.

That's the thing about the RV lifestyle. Wherever you are, there you are. We RVers all have different tastes. But we all share that home is where you park it feeling.

I look around and see a lot of very happy people. Most at this park are in fifth wheels or Class As. There are a smattering of C's as well. Most of our neighbors here sit and stay a lot longer than we do. They have to tow cars behind them because it's just too complicated to unlevel and unhook and pull in slides and have to break camp everytime they want to run out. Besides, their giant RVs are way too cumbersome to drive for shopping or sightseeing.

Jennifer and I – in our Class B Roadtrek –  are always on the move. Our smaller size gives us so much more mobility. This is not only our RV it's our personal transportation. And, of course, our home.

Tomorrow, we'll visit our favorite beach – the Gulf Islands National Seashore – in our Roadtrek CS Adventurous XL, parking yards from the Gulf. We'll haul out some beach chairs, probably cook up lunch out there and I'm even planning to set up a ham radio station and operate from the shore for a while. We'll day camp out there all day. It's home, you know.

And if we get a rainy day while down here and  Jennifer is shopping at the giant outlet mall in Destin, I'll hang out inside the Roadtrek, reading, napping, maybe binge watching House of Cards on Netflix. Yup… you got it.

It's home.

 

 

Mike Wendland

Published on 2016-03-13

Mike Wendland is a multiple Emmy-award-winning Journalist, Podcaster, YouTuber, and Blogger, who has traveled with his wife, Jennifer, all over North America in an RV, sharing adventures and reviewing RV, Camping, Outdoor, Travel and Tech Gear for the past 12 years. They are leading industry experts in RV living and have written 18 travel books.

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