What does home mean to you? For full-time RVer’s this question can be a little difficult to answer. Is it where we were born, where we last owned a home, where we spent most of our years, or is it something else entirely?
Our travels have taken us to Junction City, Oregon, just outside Eugene, for some quick maintenance work on our RV, or so we thought. Guaranty RV comes highly recommended so we feel we’re in good hands, albeit hands that we thought would release us within a day, maybe two. This has proven too good to be true.
Fortune did smile on us by way of an accidental meeting of Howard and Linda, “rock stars” of RV Dreams, a couple whose blog we have followed for many years. It seems my husband is getting quite the reputation for stalking, as he hunted down Linda in the customer lounge at Guaranty RV and had a similar experience in Mexico no less, with a couple who are now our close friends. We enjoyed a lovely dinner and visit with Howard and Linda and wish them great success on their upcoming rally.
For those who don’t lead the nomadic lifestyle we do, you cannot appreciate home ever meaning living at a service center while your “house-on-wheels” is lovingly attended to. We disappear during the day while our house is taken over by technicians tweaking this and replacing that. After business hours we move back and get tucked in for the night. Our experience has been different from many who are stationed in Guaranty’s RV lot, although Howard and Linda can also attest to this fun.
Our RV is sitting right outside the service bay, wheels off, as we await parts winging their way west, which should arrive Monday. Yes, we could opt to stay in a hotel, but we have a sense of adventure, you see, and this is part of the RV experience (not to mention it’s free)! Hence, we, like most who give the question of home more than a passing glance, do not subscribe to the obvious answer of where our RV is parked but more the feelings that live inside that domicile, the safe, nurturing, loving feelings that our surroundings bring forth, the place where we share our hopes and dreams.
Sitting in an RV service bay can be quite the sensory experience, a cacophony of sights and sounds, not for everyone, and certainly not something we care to do anytime again soon. However, when the door is closed at the end of the day, the feelings of home fill our little house-on-wheels, feelings that we carry with us wherever we go. So, what does home mean to you?
If you liked this blog post, why not scroll up to ‘Follow Us’ and enter your email address? You just might find something that interests you.
Paint Your Landscape 
beautiful post thank you for share this wonderful photo and beautiful words for us
Thank you Stefan 🙂
Your sense of humor shines through, once more. I am so happy for both of you, that you can feel that anywhere you are is “home.” I think that’s everyone’s dream, especially your next to the last paragraph. Happy travels.
Thanks Joan! Gave a great weekend. 🙂
You said it LuAnn…a place where we share our dreams and hopes. That we can return to for succour. Doesn’t really matter if it has wheels i guess 🙂
No it certainly doesn’t. Have a wonderful weekend Madhu. 🙂
You too 🙂
Sorry, I meant your last paragraph!
I knew what you meant. 🙂
That’s a great question! I find a lot of people around my age are asking the same thing. A lot of us love where we’re from, but we can’t be there or live near our families because there aren’t jobs or opportunities. I think home is defined by the people we love–“where the heart is.”
.
You are so right Lauren. I have been concerned for those of you who are nearing graduation or have just graduated and what the future holds for all of you. What I had not thought about was the fact that in order to obtain a job, many will have to be uprooted from family and friends and move across the country, as you have done. Yet another tragic reminder of how this economy is impacting our younger generation. Hope you are doing well in DC. I know from following your blog that it has not come without its challenges. Take care. 🙂
Thanks, LuAnn…it’s a tricky question to negotiate, but I do think it’s a question as old as the idea of “home”! So many people throughout history have had to be on the move. At least all of us asking where home is, are in good company.
I moved so many times during my working years so I do empathize with your situation. Hang in there 🙂
Thank you! Will do. Must do.
When my husband was alive, home was with him wherever we were. When we were traveling the RV was “home” and we said we were “going home” at the end of a day of exploration. We never called a motel home–never. When I traveled for six months and intermittent camping for several years in my little trailer with Mr. NImble–the trailer was home at the end of the day. I wrote a recent post about a recent motel stay compared to having my own little trailer. Big difference.
I agree with you, home is with the one you love. Whenever Terry and I stop at a campground, after we have set up, we look at each other and say “we’re home”. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend. 🙂
Love it. Home for us is also wherever the rig is parked.
And with your best friend and love of your life John! 🙂
We always stay in our MH when it is getting repaired. Like you said…it is our home and we need to protect it. Paul DOES NOT like hotels at all.
Now that we purchased a “stick and brick” home, our MH is our “vacation” home on wheels.
How is your new home coming along?
Beautifully written LuAnn. To me, home is where we are at the moment, home is being alone in prayer in my special corner in my room and. Just being still. Reflecting, Rejoicing, and at peace everywhere I go.
Well said Linda. Look forward to seeing you and Dan soon. 🙂
There are times (far and few between these days) that I miss the lush gardens of the midwest. Love that top photo. Al and I avoid hotels and flying at all costs. So totally understand staying in the Rig, even while in the shop. Hope you’re back on the road soon!
Thanks Ingrid. That first shot is at Terry’s parents’ home in Ohio. We will hopefully be back on the road next Tuesday. 🙂
Hi. We are new readers of your blog, but have followed Howard/Linda since the beginning. We too were fulltime RVers and we started the same year they hit the road. We loved our home on wheels, just as you do, and are so thankful that we had the opportunity to travel all of the lower 48, Canada and Alaska. And, like you all, we experienced a serious health scare (me, with stage 4 bladder cancer) just about this time a year ago. We were traveling the area you are now into. The diagnosis sent us quickly back to family in Arkansas and surgery. We made the hard decision to give up the RV in favor of a senior retirement facility here in Little Rock. (BTW, the RV is still for sale – a 2002 Newmar Mt. Aire). And, thankfully, I am now cancer free with follow-ups scheduled every three months, PTL. Anyway, just wanted to introduce us to let you know we really enjoy following yours and others who post these wonderful blogs and beautiful pictures. The pictures especially remind us of the many beautiful things there are to see in America.
Happy Travels
Don & Alice Faye Turney
Hi Don & Alice Faye, Thanks for stopping by. So glad to hear that you are now cancer free and that you were able to travel so extensively while you were on the road. We too want to cover the lower 48, Alaska and Canada. Hope all is well in Arkansas. Perhaps we will meet someday when we explore your neck of the woods. 🙂
Hi, just found your blog (via RV Dreams) and enjoy your style! See you on the road someday. 🙂
Hi Jan! Thanks for stopping by. Are you a full-timer as well? Hopefully we will meet on the road someday. 🙂
Love your blog! We are new fulltimers to the RV lifestyle, on the road for 6 whole weeks now. However, we’ve been full-time travellers (sailing) since retiring almost 8 years ago. We still call the place where we lived for so many years and where our children and grandchildren still live “Home”. We, too, are in Eugene this week … getting a little maintenance done on our “Bear” and shopping for bicycles. Love it here!
Welcome to full-timing! At one point in our lives we looked into purchasing a boat and heading off but thought better of it, as the learning curve would have been greater for us. Today is hopefully our last day here, where we will visit some friends that we missed because of our maintenance delays. Enjoy your time in Eugene. We found it to be a lovely city. 🙂
Home, to me, means people around me that I love and truly care about. It means awkwardness, precious moments and good food. 😀
Beautifully said Rommel. 🙂
Interesting! I never really thought about where RVer’s go when the RV needs maintenance and you’re temporarily homeless! My home is my house in NJ, but really, home is wherever I am together with my husband and children.
It really isn’t a physical place so much, is it?
I love a good view from a different perspective, unless I happen to be hanging by one hand off a cliff that is. Home to me is tranquility, comfort, library.
Thanks Stephen! 🙂
LuAnn
Love your blog, brilliant!
But thought your poem on Penny’s competition was just superb.
Brought a lump to AnElephant’s throat.
Well deserved congratulations.
Thank you so much. I think everything you do is just amazing. I look forward to following your blog. 🙂
You are just too kind.
Talented and generous, what a great mix.
I just speak the truth. 🙂
Thanks for the attendance
love of greetings from us.
Wolfgang
You are welcome and thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Ein gutes Wochenende + schönes Wetter.
Gruß, Wolfgang
Tolles Wochenende für Sie als gut Wolfgang. 🙂
I, like the others love this post LuAnn, you say it so well. We are all travellers, in one way or the other, aren’t we. Home is where the heart is. You say that loud and clear with each word my most excellent friend! 🙂
Thanks Penny! Your words always life my spirits. 🙂
Your always welcome of course! 🙂
Home is wherever my husband and dogs are together & relaxed in our RV. We once stayed in a packed Camping World lot. Close the blinds and we could be anywhere. Inside it was home.
http://www.greatescapefromnj.blogspot.com
I agree, not necessarily a physical place. Thanks for stopping by. I checked out your blog today and learned a great deal more about Google. Thanks so much!
My husband always dreamed of having an RV. We borrowed one for a couple of trips that were truly fun, but with hubby gone, there’s no way I would dream of driving one. The VW bug is about the size I like to drive. These days even my Prius feel a bit large to me. But I’ll agree taking chances on a motel (especially with a pet) isn’t always perfect. Home for me is my little house that’s close to the beach. I couldn’t think of a better place to live.
Given that Bandon is home, we envy you so much!
Beautiful homes. Home represents something unique to all of us, but it is always deeply rooted in out hearts.
Yes it is Tina. Thank you for your comment. Have a lovely week. 🙂