I will never forget our first Thanksgiving on the road. We had been stuck in the Phoenix area waiting for RV repairs and when they finally got done we just wanted to be gone. We hit the road and found ourselves in an RV park in Saint David, Arizona that night.
The next day we were out dropping off sample bundles of the Gypsy Journal, and when I went into the office of the Escapees Saguaro Co-op in Benson to leave some papers the nice lady behind the desk saw the Escapees RV Club decal on our truck window and asked what site we were staying on. I told her that we were actually staying down the road at another campground. She asked what we were doing for Thanksgiving dinner that day, and I told her we had not realized it was Thanksgiving. “Well it is,” she said, “and our potluck dinner is at 3 PM. You can sit at our table.” I tried to beg off, telling her that we were not prepared for a potluck and did not have time to go home and fix something to bring. “That doesn’t matter,” she insisted, “You’re Escapees and you’re having dinner with your Escapee family. If you don’t show up, we’re going to come looking for you and drag you back here!” What a wonderful way to be introduced to our extended family in the Escapees RV Club and the world of RVing!
Holidays can be challenging for many RVers, especially new fulltimers and snowbirds who are spending their first Thanksgiving or Christmas away from their families. How do you celebrate a traditional holiday when you have moved into a home on wheels and left everybody you traditionally celebrated with?
It’s easy if your family lives somewhere in the Sunbelt and you are wintering nearby. But what if they live in the frozen northland, or they are in Arizona while you are in Florida, as we have been many winters? How do you handle that?
We know some snowbirds who wait until after the holidays to head south, and fulltimers who brave the weather to travel to be with family. While some take their RVs, others fly or travel by automobile, leaving their RVs in a park down south or out west.
Some of our RVing friends actually do it in reverse, making arrangements for their family members to fly down south to be with them over the holidays.
Others of us choose to stay where we are to avoid holiday travel hassles. Many RV parks host Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, usually potlucks, where the park supplies the ham or turkey and guests bring the rest.
Sometimes a small group of RVers will have their own holiday dinner, usually taking advantage of the warm weather to eat outside under an RV awning. It was at an event like this that we first tasted deep fried turkey. If you have not had this delight yet, do yourself a favor and try it. You won’t be disappointed.
Many times Terry and I have just gone out for a holiday dinner, leaving all the cooking and cleanup to somebody else. We spent several Christmas seasons at the Orlando Thousand Trails preserve in Florida, and it became sort of a holiday tradition for several of us couples to go to a Chinese restaurant for Christmas dinner. Good food, good friends, and we didn’t have to wash the dishes afterward!
How about you? How do you handle holidays on the road?
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Over 160 readers have already entered our latest Free Drawing, and I’m not surprised because this week’s prize is a great one. John and Kathy Huggins from Living the RV Dream have donated a 16GB USB3 flash drive with all current shows of Living the RV Dream podcast, along with their Radio Days recordings and show notes. That’s over 400 hours of great RVing tips, wisdom and interviews with industry experts! And just to sweeten the pot, they are also including e-files of all three of their books. That’s like going to RV college right from the comfort of your own home! To enter, all you have to do is click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening.
Thought For The Day – Dear Santa, this year please give me a big fat bank account and a slim body. And please don’t mix them up like you did last year.
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