After a long roadtrip, do you feel a strong desire to get home?
From Chuck Woodbury: In my essay in RVtravel.com newsletter issue 452 (posted Oct. 23, 2010), I wrote about a "force" that draws me home after a RV roadtrip. "The tug of home -- once you decide that is where you want to be -- is very strong, like a giant magnet that pulls harder the closer you get. Traveling back roads, pausing to explore local attractions -- well, they hold no interest anymore. It's all about getting home."
When you are returning home from a long RV trip, do you have a similar feeling? Or not? Please leave a comment.
posted by Staff Report @ 10/22/2010 05:52:00 PM
35 Comments
35 Comments:
Your comment about the draw of returning home when your planned trip is over hits home. More so this year, because we left our new home of 2 months at the end of September to visits our son in Tennessee. Dry camped for about a month and are ready to head home next week. I am sure though that we will have the itches to travel again in the spring and leave the heat of Florida. Ed
Well said Chuck. I think all of us who have a lot of things at home after a while have the desire to get back to the people and things. The more things you are able to take with you and the friends you make on the road, reduce that desire to get back home.
Dave Hribar
We stay on the road 9 months a year. Home is another place to stop. With that said.....there is a slight tug that's different from all our other places we visit. Life is good!
I understand! For the past 6 years we have done the same, enjoying both home and being on the road. But, we just sold our house and if we survive the next 3 weeks of disposing of most of our possessions, we are going to try being on the road full time—at least for a few years. I'm excited, but I must admit, just a little nervous.
Absolutely. We just spent 6 weeks out west, in the "dry heat". Couldn't wait to get back to the green green grass of Wisconsin. And some humidity. Our skin was so dry, & flakey, we had to use moisturizer.
We finally set the winter out in AZ now and when the times comes to be there that's all you want. Hurry and get there to see our 'winter family'. When on the 4 lanes we travel at 67 MPH but we can putts alone on 2 lanes all day like we don't have to be anywhere.
The past few years coming home had been a duty; not something to look forward to but something that had to be done. Now we have finally sold our house and our only home will be the motorhome. We have dreamt of this freedom for a long time and are excited to start living the dream.
Hi: We live in Ontario, Canada and just purchased our first class a (Monaco Monarch) a couple of months ago. We recently took a 2 week "color tour" of northern Ontario and towards the end of our trip, found ourselves feeling the same way. We enjoyed our time travelling/camping but also found ourselves looking forward to the "comforts of home". Our trip was a trial run as we plan an extended trip to Canada's east coast next summer.
It's true. There is a great pull, like a horse heading for the barn.
It can be mitigated by leaving your RV at a friend's in Quartzsite, and flying home on a selected day.
We were about a day behind you on I-90. I took a WY road & mountain picture much like the one you put in the article. We had been gone only a month. But once my hubby got beyond Sturgis, he just wanted to get back to Spokane. We had plans to spend more time in MT, but instead we drove along, using all the daylight hours and dry camped in a rest stop overnight so we could be back home sooner.
We're like you - love the RVing for all it provides in access to people, places and events, but there's no place like home...
Western WY near Rock Springs, right???--we just got back from Jackson Hole and everywhere near there. All roads lead there every year---never straight from Nashville, though. We wander all over the country on all the back roads that our fifth wheel (34 foot Cameo) will fit on. Small towns and back roads are fabulous. Congrats on your trip---we did a lot of the NE last year.
My home is my motor home. It has been for the last 10 plus years. I,m a cashier at Walmart and I transfer from one to another. The only thing I don't like is that I'm alone, but I do see a lot of this country and thats great.
I can be on the road for about 4 to 6 weeks. Then I have this overwhelming desire to return home. As a horse with blinders, I can see only one path.
After returning, to my "stuff", family and friends, I'm ready to hit the road again after as little as a week. Now that I re-read this, I sound like a yo-yo.
As a solo RVer I can relate to your wanting to get home...After a few weeks I get the same 'need' to get back to my familiar stick house & all that goes with being 'home'. However, I envy those that travel much of the year or full time in their RVs. I think this would be more attractive to me as I love to travel, IF I had someone to share the adventure with. For me, it's a really sad experience when I see something so beautiful along the road & have no one to share it with.....
We live in our fifth wheel while doing volunteer work and we're "home" in it; as much as 7 months of the year. We love going home to our stick built home, but also love being on the road volunteering. It's the best of both worlds! We do very little traveling just to travel; guess that will come when we are no longer able to do the construction work we do as volunteers.
You are absolutely right. My husband and I could never be full-timers because we enjoy home just as much as we enjoy our road trips. After about 3-4 weeks, I'm ready to head home. Of course, after about 4-6 weeks at home, I'm ready to hit the road again!
I don't know what it will be like; I'm still working so have had to get home. What I do know is my travel partner and I just spent two weeks in New York City and New England. It was fabulous but could not wait to get home. So, if you have a home base, there is that pull to your own surroundings, to the familiar.
We have a 5 year old motorhome with 65,000+ miles and have traveled to 46 of the lower 48 in it. We love the RV lifestyle. What follows is the last paragraph of an article I am sending to my family. The title of the article is "Our Journey Home":
"We are heading back home now. We are so very thankful that we have a wonderful family and community of friends waiting for us to return. We have several friends who have sold their houses and nearly all of its contents and are now RVing full-time. We are on the road 5 to 6+ months each year. We love our lifestyle as “part-timers” and have considered being full-timers. Hamp jokingly says, “We ain't sellin' the Ponderosa!” We love Maryland, our home place, our family, our friends, our community, and our church. Our emotional ties to them all are so strong that we cannot contemplate becoming full-time RVers. The call of the open road ebbs and flows like the tides. We stay home-side for awhile but the the wonder lust hits us and we have to hit the road again. But the call of our home place and love ones will always bring us back to Maryland. While the echo of that same call, beckons our return to the 'roads less traveled'...be it ever so humble, there is no place like home."
Nope, we have no desire to live in a rooted house anymore. Before retiring and RVing full time, we owned our home and indeed WOULD have that good feeling of getting back after each trip out in our camper.
Nine years traveling in our home on wheels, a 38' foot motor home, we ARE home where ever we land. Usually 2-3 weeks at a time. No more pulls or conflicting desires. No more best of both worlds; as far as we're concerned, full time RVing is the best, for us.
After six to eight weeks on the road as a single RVer I too find myself sticking to the interstates traveling at a faster pace than one travels on the secondary roads. Sometimes I have something I must be home for others it just is the pull of home sweet home. However often times I'm ready to leave again after a very short time.
I travel in a 22ft Rialta which is just right for me.
We did a three-month trip to Alaska this past year, the longest we have been away in our rig. Have owned a 5th wheel for 5 years. Our license plate frame says "almost home", which it truly is but I, too, am glad to get back to the stick house! And -- you are so right -- once you decide to head home, that's it! You drive a little more during the day, stay at rest stops, WalMarts, places where you wouldn't ordinarily stay just to get back to home sweet home . . .
I am passed frequently by other R.Vers all of whom seem to be in a hurry to get somewhere ! I like to be able to actually see where I am at ! Chuck McKenzie
We kind of feel the same. We are ready in May to get the RV packed and on the road. But, then in about mid-September we're ready to put away the RV for another winter and be home playing a little golf with our friends. It works out so well, it's scary.
With every intention we had planned on being in our RV 24-7 and did a two 1/2 month stint for our first try two years ago and summer beckoned us home to Ontario. Then because of selling our stick and bricks we needed to be home that next year. Then last winter we did a 6 mo stint in the southern climes of the US and yes when we head home there is no time to stop as it is colder as we head home even in early spring. I have seen enough and just want to go home to the familiar. This winter once again we will stay home because of other obligations.
Hopefully we will be back on the road again in 2011 or 2012. I sure hope so as I really miss being on the road.
Still there is no place like home.
CW
Ontario Canada
After motorcycle touring in 49 of 50 states and full time rving in our 6th year my wife and I have a saying when within 150 mi from "Home" ."Its like cows heading for the barn "
Some things never change :)
cycleclown
My husband would like to sell up and full time but I need roots. I love going out for 3-4 months, but then I want get back home for a few months.
Full timing and touring are different. Full-timers are "at home" wherever they are. They have adjusted their lifestyle and live within their comfort zone. I would venture to say the tourists are not. Their comfort zone and lifestyle are at home with its familiar surroundings and known amenities - friends, shopping, doctors... Therefore the tug to return home, jump in a hot shower and waiting bed, ahhh.
We full time in an Airstream trailer and call Canada "home". When we complete a tour of the good old USA, we return to: Time Horton's Coffee, Canadian Tire... - you know, familiar things.
RG
Canada
Wyoming looks good this time of year. You should have been going through there on Aril 30,2010 it was snowing, sleeting and you name it. We have a travel trailer and it was not much fun. Got to go there when its warmer I guess. I love the U.S.A.
Jan & Midge
It always seems that the pace going from home is always slower than the pace going to home. In the beginning of a trip we are eager to stop and see even the places we didn't anticipate, but on the way home "we're on the way home." But, it doesn't seem to take long at home before we get the urge to "get on the road again."
Home is where my dog is and since my dog is always with me I'm always at "home"
We (wife and I) just completed a 2.5 month, 8,000 RV & 2,000 toad miles cross country trek (GA to Chula Vista, CA along US 1, 101, then along I-5, through OR, WA to Vancouver, BC, then returning to GA through MT, ND, SD IA, MO,Il, IN, KY, and TN. We could not get back home fast enough.
LuJohn+4
Maybe selling my home and hitting the road "saved" me from the draws to "home", because I traded that habit for a new one: "home is in my heart." This means that I am always "home", and this seldom leaves me longing for something else. If it's another PERSON you're longing for, then it's a lot harder to be happy on your own. During my 1st very happy yr on the road I met an amazing guy who was ready to retire and hit the road too. We joined up, and now there's someone to share all this wonderfulness with!
May we both always appreciate the "home" within that we now get to share with each other. Where we are isn't important. It's WHO we are that counts most! And being able to shart that is what I call "HOME".
we feel the same way! After a trip to Arkansas and Texas for Thanksgiving, we can't get home fast enough. Interstates 10 and 8 are flat and boring so we go faster-pulling the fiver at high speeds just to keep awake. Feels so good to get back to our winter home and it's comforts. Hubby found out that the MPGs are no lower at 70 than they are at 65 so he puts the peddle to the metal.
We (wife and I) also have a 2-3 month travel allowance for trips (Unfortunately). She's more of a home body than I am. Visiting my brother in Alaska (past 30 years). we decided to drive up there. In talking to him from time during the trip, he ask "how much beauty can the mind absorb is a short while. Every time you topped a hill there was a beautiful panaramic view, going and coming back. This was a 2 month jaunt.
We’ve been camping as RVers for over 30 years. Over that period of time we have encountered some of the best and some the worst that RV living, and camping, has to offer, both part time and full time. We’ve enjoyed travel trailer camping and camping with a 5th wheel, family camping as well as just the two of us and even with all of that time spent on the road, we haven't grown tired of it. There’s so much to learn and to do and there really isn't anything we enjoy more than traveling to a campground that we've never been to before and see what’s there, and at the end of the day, come back to the comfort of own RV – our home away from home. When we look out of our windows, we see totally different surroundings to the home that we love while the inside is completely familiar, warm and welcoming.
Post a Comment
Thanks for leaving a comment. It will appear shortly: we look at each one before making it live to keep away the spammers.
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home