“There it is!” I pointed to the sign.
We turned down the driveway of the R Campground in Charles City, Iowa.
I was about to spend my first night in an RV park and had no idea whether I’d like it or not.
Would we be parked next to a Cousin Eddie straight out of National Lampoon’s
Christmas Vacation?
Would I be able to sleep surrounded by unknown people, protected only by the thin walls of our RV? Snoring, snuffling, unknown people?
OK. This was too negative so I shook the ridiculous thoughts from my mind as we pulled up to a white house that looked like an office.
My only RV experiences had been at Tucker Lake and at a friend’s cabin in Canada— both pristine, isolated spots where strangers were nonexistent, but for the next eight days, I would be living in RV parks alongside other people, so I’d better adapt to the idea.
I looked for the “office” sign but saw none, then noticed another sign alongside the road—Check in at
Yellow Box.
Beneath was a large metal yellow container.
Pay a yellow box? Seemed strange.
But a young man bounded out of the house, gave a few instructions, and sure enough, we registered on a sign-in sheet located on top of the Yellow box
and dropped both it and our fee in the Yellow Box.
That was easy and only $24.00. I liked it.
What a view greeted us as we wheeled into the park— tall, huge-trunked oaks filled with bird song, a graceful bend in the Cedar River where wild geese swam, green grass everywhere. And sunlight filtering down through the oak tree buds.
Some of my misgivings disappeared. If this was RV life, it was sweet.
Finding a site was also easy. The place was not crowded so we picked a spot with some space around it.
As Dick hooked up the water and electricity, I slid a box of Sammy’s Pizza from the refrigerator, planning to nuke it for dinner, and thought about our plans for this trip.
The plan was to spend a week enjoying the spring weather at an RV park in Arkansas. This was the shakedown cruise to see if we enjoyed the RV lifestyle. Would it suit us? Would one of us like it and the other hate it? And the biggest question— would we like traveling with the dogs? (Did I mention we brought Goldie the Lab and Magoo the Pug?) Would they like traveling with us?
After feeding and walking the dogs, we ate pizza and sat at the picnic table to watch a beautiful golden sunset.
Bird song filled the air, mourning doves, cardinals, geese on the river. We sat under the greening oak trees with the sunset’s gold glow scattering over the river’s surface.
We talked until the golden sunset faded from the river and another day was done.
As we pulled down the curtains and RV shades, preparing for sleep, I realized that if this was RV life, I liked it.
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