We asked RVtravel.com readers to tell us about themselves. Here are a few responses.
NOTE FROM EDITOR CHUCK: I want to let you know that I love meeting those of you who tell us about yourself. My staff and I write our articles and the words go off into cyberspace, and we don’t know exactly where they land. But then I look here and I see your faces and read your stories. I am so happy to meet you!
From Ellen Behrens. When my husband Robert and I swapped our sticks-and-bricks keys for our RV keys back in 2009, our mission was to follow seventy degrees, stopping here and there so he could fish and I could write books. We soon found out fishing required a non-resident license in every state, so Robert’s had to take up other hobbies. But no state restricts writing books, so I’ve managed to pen some mysteries loosely based on our RVing adventures – a little girl in the back of a car we passed and a rude RV salesman have spurred ideas for two of them. Other adventures haven’t wriggled their way into books yet: our fifth wheel getting hit while parked in an RV resort and the kind trucker who stopped us on the highway to return an umbrella I’d dropped at a rest stop are just two.
Sometimes we think about buying a sticks-and-bricks house, but with our favorite hikes in several states, our favorite restaurants around the country, and places yet to see, we’ll probably be on the road until neither of us is able to drive!
From Al & Pat Weber. We both retired at 49 after 30 years at the phone company and lived in a 55-plus park for 7 years. We then bought a house with a swimming pool in Florida. We worked with people with disabilities for 5 years and then retired from that and sold the house. We now full-time in our Reflection 337RLS 5th wheel and love traveling. We winter in Florida and now with COVID-19, we purchased land in Wisconsin that we can camp on. We travel when we can with our Bichon, Cocomo.
From Howard Malpass. I am from Shreveport, LA, and travel between 3 – 4 months per year. I love Fly Fishing and enjoy the Rocky Mountains! Being a former U.S.M.C. and Retired U.S.A.F. and a 100% Disabled Vietnam Veteran, I enjoy being outdoors and meeting other people! Owning a Fly Shop it makes for meeting many people and I share my experiences and locations with the others and encourage them to travel more and get out of the rat race (older term) and see what our beautiful and large country offers!
We’re Don & Sue Hutchins, currently from Olalla, WA (near Gig Harbor, on Puget Sound). We started RVing with a Sears & Roebuck Pop-up tent trailer in 1970! Over the years we went through that trailer, two VW Westfalia Camper vans, then a big 5th wheel toy-hauler so we could take our motorcycle with us on the road. 4 years ago we “graduated” to a 40′ Country Coach with a lift on the back, so the motorcycle still travels with us everywhere. We “saw the world” with 26 years in the Navy and are now working on seeing North America while we still can. We’ve crossed the US and back 4 times in the last few years and will do it again this Winter. You may have read about our Covid “Adventure from Hell” in this newsletter several months ago. Our latest misadventure was two badly timed weeks in Central Oregon, where wildfire smoke wrecked most of our plans to ride the Oregon Cascades. But we remain undeterred and will be on the road again in November. Meanwhile: Happy Camping to you all!
From Richard and Greti Genovese. After 35 years of boating and living on boats we decided to swallow the hook and see the USA from land. We traveled over 40,000 miles on the seas and now plan to do the same on land! We bought a class C Thor Quantum Sprinter in March and have put 7,500 miles on it so far, enjoying our time traveling from Florida to Maine…Next adventure will be to see the west…Both of us have been retired for a while and enjoying it each day…what a beautiful country we have…
From Melanie Chadwick. I have been camping since I was 12 years old. Tent camping to pop-up to class C to Class A and now a little Tag teardrop. I have to say I love my Tag. I camp with my cat, Mooshie. My means of mobility at campgrounds is an electric scooter and am always thankful when I score a handicapped site. I travel all over Florida enjoying our state parks. I venture to Rhode Island in the summer to escape the Florida heat. My camping is my sanity.
From Dan Armstrong. I’ve been a subscriber to RV Travel since the time it had to be mailed to me. My wife, Susan, and I have been RV’ers since we got married in ’75. Our first trip together to our separate duty stations in San Diego from Colorado was in my ’62 Corvair Greenbrier passenger van that my Dad had converted to a camper van in 1970. We were in the Navy.
Now, fast forward to the present time. I’ve been retired from the Navy since ’95, my wife retired in 12/15, and we’re fulltime in our motorhome, upgraded from our first motorhome to an ’04 40′ Newmar Mountain Aire MADP. We’re loving our travels, been coast to coast, north and south, and still have many places to go. Our dog, Cello, travels with us. He keeps us laughing.
From Maria and Jesse Schulz. We have been married 39 years next month and camping about 38 of those years. We started in a tent, then bought a pop-up (1965 Skamper) and then a series of small travel trailers until our son was in cub scouts and we went back to tent camping. After he was out of scouts we went back to travel trailers and our current rig is THE one! Grand Design Reflection 5th wheel. We are weekend campers for now but in two years plan to hit the road 6-9 months at a time.
We have many “Griswald” stories, the funniest of which is when I was cleaning the bathroom of a TT a few years ago, opened the toilet lid, and saw pavement…of our driveway. You have to have humor in life and learn to laugh!
We love this newsletter and so much appreciate all the hard work Chuck and staff do!
Meet our readers from last week’s issue.
We’ll introduce you to more RVtravel.com readers next week!
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Please tell us about yourself by using the form below. Include a photo, too (of you, preferably, but your RV will do).
When I saw the first photo in this article, my first thought was “I know exactly where that picture was taken!.” my next thought was “I wonder if we’re related?” My grandmother on my father’s side was a Behrens. Since I’m spending a good part of my enforced leisure updating my geneaology records I’ll have to keep an eye out for their names. So we already have RVing in common and maybe a whole lot more.
Hi, Ron T! If you guessed Falls Park in Sioux Falls, SD, then you do know exactly where that photo was taken 🙂 It’s a long story, but it’s not likely either of us is related to you… fun to connect via RVing anyway!
Hi, We’ve been there twice with different grandkids. It’s a great place to relax, look at the scenery, listen to the water and watch the kids play. Related or not, I’m sure we’d get along fine should we ever meet!
Ron T.