Go RVing And Make Some Memories! – #GoRVing

May is a month for memories. It’s perfect for it. May is full of events that memories are made of. Proms. Graduations. Mother’s Day. Memorial Day. There’s a whole slew of minor holidays in May, which is also National Photography Month.

• May 2: Brothers and Sisters Day
• May 7: National Tourism Day
• May 12: Mother’s Day
• May 18: Armed Forces Day
• May 18: Visit Your Relatives Day
• May 27: Memorial Day

In some places, school is letting out. In other places, such as here on the Jersey shore, it’s the time of year that signals the beginning of vacation travels, into and out of the state.
I myself graduated college this month. As a treat to myself I decided to go visit my brother, who lives in Ohio. It was an unplanned coincidence that I was there on Visit Your Relatives Day. The drive from here to there is a road trip, as the drive is over 500 miles long. Road trips are memorable because you can see and do things that you might not usually see or do in the course of your average day. On this particular trip to Ohio, I saw a few things of interest.
A Ferrari.

I passed him like he was standing still, and I was only driving a rented VW.
Partway through the drive, I debated asking if I could hitch a ride on this.

I didn’t ask.
Then I saw this.
An I don’t even know what to call it. It was like a bubble room for a car.

Some of the best stories in our family involve road trips and RVing. My parents have a motorhome and I have a camping trailer. Once, when two of my brothers were a bit younger, they got rambunctious in the back of the motor home. There was a loud noise and all of a sudden the back window was broken all over an Indiana highway. My fondest memories come from our annual family vacation in upstate New York. My parents drive their motor home up and I pull my camping trailer, and we get two sites next to each other. My brother is the keeper of the fire.

The only shortage of family activities when you go RVing that exists is if you have a shortage of imagination. When we go RVing, once set up we hang out around the campfire, bbq, chat, listen to music, play games, and just have a lot of fun. One memory we all share is one night we were all outside, hanging out playing a board game. My oldest got a little fresh and the hubby told him to go to his room. He looked at his Dad right in the face and said “it’s not a room, it’s a camper”. We still quote that and laugh about it to this day and it’s been years since it happened. Good memories are that way, they last forever.

The only sad part of this particular road trip was that I took it alone. Well, physically alone. I had all my favorite music with me. And I pulled over from time to time to tweet my brother and friends to keep them updated. I was so happy when I finally got there, it had been nine months since I’d seen my brother, his better half Amy and their two kids. We got to talking and were trying to figure out how we could all see each other more frequently given the distance. Our solution? Mini road trips. We decided that while an 8-9 hour ride was a bit much for a weekend, a 4 hour ride would be manageable for both of us. So we’re hoping that beginning in 2014 I’ll pull my camping trailer to a point somewhere near halfway between us, in Pennsylvania. Then we’ll set up and enjoy our time together and make new memories. I know that we’ll have fun, because of the countless times we’ve already done this together.
One of the highlights from this trip was going to the largest music festival in the country, Rock On The Range, with my brother. That’s a memory that we will never forget.

Rock On The Range is a three day festival, which meant on the two days we went we drove about 80 minutes in each direction to the venue. Then you spend another hour parking. Not a surprise when you consider the size of the crowd. Over 105,000 people attended this year.

I noticed while we were there that you can camp there, which is something I’m seriously considering for next year. It could be a lot of fun, and even save time and money.
RVing is great because it’s a form of affordable travel that costs much less then staying in a hotel. There’s no need to worry about or spend money on things like airline tickets, airline seating, baggage fees, transportation to the airport, and hotel bills. For us with the camping trailer, it’s great because many towable RVs are relatively lightweight, which makes them easy to tow. And how great it is not to worry about spending money on expensive meals in your room or in a restaurant. IN an RV you have the ability to bring whatever foods you like and/or need with you. It’s perfect when you have someone that requires a special diet like my youngest, who has Celiac disease and requires a gluten-free diet. And, it’s just plain nice to have your favorite foods, snacks and drinks with you, so you don’t have to try and hunt them down in unfamiliar territory. (Although in fairness I am always interested to see what brands an products are available elsewhere that we don’t have here at home in Jersey.) Taking a road trip and RVing give families the chance to spend quality time together without the distractions so many of us have at home in our daily lives, including electronics. By being unplugged and removed from the need for daily errands and such, family members have the opportunity to just relax and have fun. Plus, RVs permit you to have most of the comforts at home with you. You have your own bedding. I don’t know about you but I always have a hard time getting comfortable when I don’t have my own pillows. Not so when we take the camping trailer, I have a set in there so I’m nice and comfy. And perhaps best of all, you can bring your pets with you when you go RVing. You can’t always bring your pets to a hotel, and then you spend half of your trip worrying how your pets are, which stinks.
We’re starting to get our trailer ready for the annual trip in August. My brother is supposed to be driving East to join us so I’m very excited. We’ve been camping there for about twenty years now. The years without my brother have been fine but the years with him are even better. I’m hoping this year is our best yet.

Have you ever gone RVing? I’d love to hear a memory of one of your travels. Or, if you haven’t, I’d love to hear if you’ve thought about it and where you might go if you did.
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