Alas it is with some sadness that we chose to give up our RV lifestyle this past winter.
She had reached the ripe old age of 10 years old and in people years that works out to about 75 - still serviceable but requiring frequent maintenance procedures - and Don no longer felt up to the task. Hence, we spent the first part of the winter deciding whether to replace her with a younger model or invest in something without wheels for our Florida winter haven. We chose to replace her with a brand new park model mobile home. The operative word here is mobile. I'm not sure why that is the nomenclature because while she is delivered on wheels, once she is planted on a permanent site, the wheels are removed and she becomes stationary.
Many a good time has been had in old Bertha and her predecessors by the Chilson Clan.
Our new place is quite lovely and a bit more roomy than Bertha. It is doubtful we will build the same kind of memories. Grammys rules for the RV have lost some relevancy. Especially, no. 42 "never leave Grandma behind."
Bertha has carried us across the country from coast to coast and from the farthest southern point of the country to across our northern borders into Canada. From the highest point in the country, Leadville Co. to the lowest, Key West. (I think Death Valley is actually lower but we have never taken her there). We explored mountains and canyons, oceans, lakes and rivers, cities and villages.
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Our first camping trip was to Florida in our pop-up
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This is the end of an era for us. We started camping in 1978 when our boys were 3 and 5. We hauled our own boys across the country in a small pop-up camper. Each was given a box and told they could bring anything they wanted as long as it fit in their box.
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| Jack's first adventure, South Dakota |
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| Jack's second adventure, the Grand Canyon |
Even then we dreamed of the day we could snatch our grandchild and take them on the same adventures. Jack, the eldest took his first trip with us when he was 6. Later his sisters Elise and Ella joined us.
We have sown great memories with our children and grandchildren. Relatively few children today can say they travelled the country in a rambling little house on wheels. National Parks were everyone's favorites. Over campfires we cooked foil dinners and s'mores, shared ghost stories and solved the problems of the world.
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| We started in Yellowstone with the whole family |
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| Uncle Tom's house in Virginia |
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| Drew and Ollie |
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| Robbie and Jacob spent a few spring breaks with us in Florida |
Last summer we went to Northern Wisconsin with two of our sons and seven of the grandchildren. If we had realized it would be the last trip we might have marked the occasion somehow, but perhaps it was best this way. We avoided adding a note of sadness to a perfectly joyous occasion.
