Settling into RV Life – 15 September 2021
It been an interesting couple of months transitioning into fulltime RV life. While being stationery, is not a true reflection of life in the future, living in a very small space especially with a dog and cat, does take some getting used to, especially when you have been used to living in a large house.
Having a separate area for one’s self is fantastic. When I want some alone time, I can just close the door to my office and not feel on top of everyone. Also what helps is making sure everything has its own place. This means putting things away as you use them, otherwise you become quickly overwhelmed with clutter. Luckily there are lots of different hidey holes in the RV.
When we camped in the summer time, the outside space was always an extension of the inside space. A place where we could also hang out and relax. Now we are confined to our inner space only, we need to get out regularly to stretch our legs. We walk in all types of weather, at all times of day. As a result, we are much more aware of the weather and our wardrobe has adjusted accordingly. 100% waterproof jackets, fleece lined pants, waterproof pants, caps that extend to cover the neck and mouth, warm scarves and gloves. Lastly, a good pair of waterproof, lined boots. We notice heavy rain pelting down on the RV roof and heavy winds rocking it from side to side. These are strong reminders of when we were on the sailing boat. On the plus side, we get to appreciate the beautiful sunsets and marvel at unusual cloud formations. Our sense of smell is now awakened with the saltiness of the ocean, the clean forest air and delicious cooking wafting down from other resort guests. Our ears are getting tuned to the many different bird sounds.
Our life/work balance is much improved. We wake up later, take time to sit and enjoy coffee breaks, take the dog for lots of walks by the ocean and have much more focused work periods in between. Derek has commented that since leaving his job, every day is a weekend and it is easy to loose track of what day of the week it is. There is more time to do things we want to do.
Our plan for the fall and winter months was to hunker down somewhere we hadn’t stayed before that didn’t get a severe winter, so we chose Parksville on Vancouver Island. The Surfside RV resort we are staying in is perfectly situated across from a beach, walkway, parks, and lots of shops. There are also lots of different areas in the vicinity to explore. It is a wonderful place to see the Winter through. While it would have been great to go to the States and have a nice warm winter in California, we are erring on the side of caution for now, hoping that next summer, COVID will be less prevalent.
Weekends are filled with day trips to discover new surrounding areas. Parksville is well situated amongst seaside towns, forests, rivers and ocean. We are close enough to the Ferry terminal that it is also easy to pop over to Vancouver for a day trip or visit some of the other islands like Saltspring, Horby etc. Driving back to Victoria to see family and friends takes about 2 hours.
Very early on Saturday morning we awoke to Jax howling outside our bedroom door. While Jax likes to be heard, howling at this time of morning was unusual so we quickly took him outside to do his business. Turns out, he had the most explosive diarrhea. It seems he has been up to his tricks stealing cat morsels from the cat litter box again. As we recently swapped from clumping grit to silica crystals, I suspected the crystals were not sitting too nicely in his stomach. Unfortunately, he had also exploded inside so there was a lot of mopping up to do. This continued throughout Saturday with him needing to go to the bathroom about every hour. Eventually Sunday morning we took him to a nearby Vet, concerned that he might have an obstruction in his bowel. Well the good news is that he was not obstructed and was sent home with some tablets to help with the pain. We need to find a good latch solution now for the bathroom door to stop him from getting into the litter box. Next time we might not be as lucky.
