Community.
The RV Community is something we’ve read a lot about, but for some reason, just didn’t plan on experiencing this way.
Let me give you an example: We left Las Cruces, New Mexico and had plans to stay somewhere near Guadalupe Mountains National Park. All the camping areas in the places we wanted to be were either first come, first served or BLM (Bureau of Land Management) open camping.
We packed up early and headed out only to find that we missed the last available spot in Guadalupe by about 10 minutes.
Ugh.
No worries, there’s always a solution (& a backup plan). Flexibility is key.
So, we turned out of the park and aimed toward the BLM land close to Carlsbad, NM. We drove out to our first choice of designated “campground,” but it was full already with signs posted requesting that campers please stay within the designated areas. (Yes, we probably could have parked outside the area, but we’re *trying* to follow the rules when we can.) So, backup plan for our backup plan, we took off for Plan C – another designated camping area on BLM down the road a bit.
This area wasn’t anything to write home about. It was a big gravel lot that overlooked a lot of flat desert with a few RVs scattered about. We were all a little bummed (we do love our epic views), but it was a place to set up base camp for a few days. As we were setting up, I noticed a couple of kids playing nearby. I mentioned this to our kids, they looked over and said, “Hey, we know them!” Then they took off to go play.
Here, at our 3rd choice of campground (that was just BLM land in the middle of nowhere), hundreds of miles from the last place we had stayed, my kids already knew people. And more folks arrived over the time we were there with kids that joined the fun. And as the kids ran and played and squealed with delight in the dirt, the adults sat around and drank wine and chatted about this crazy life we are living. And when people left move on in their own adventures, we exchanged numbers, and we stood outside and waved and we hoped that maybe our paths would cross again soon.
It’s community. It’s happened again and again at these places where we’ve stayed. It could easily be the most unexpected and delightful part of this entire experience.
The photo with the RV in the sunset is nice.