Missing out?

There's an interesting phenomenon that occurs when you sell your house and decide to move into a "recreational vehicle" as your permanent residence. Lots of people consider you "homeless" and lacking in every day conveniences.

There are some amenities I no longer have at my disposal by being in a motorhome that I had in a traditional "sticks & bricks" house.

A DISHWASHER:

     Years ago when I was still living at home with my parents, we were out searching for a new house. We went into several nice homes when we happened upon a quaint little place. There were plenty of bedrooms, a nice yard, decent overall square footage. We got to the kitchen and my mother and I began looking around. My mother asked "Where's the dishwasher?" The realtor politely replied "Oh. There isn't one." Apparently, according to my father, both my mother and I lost ALL interest in the property immediately. He might as well have said there was no indoor plumbing. Ha! My Dad was incredibly embarrassed at the time, today we all laugh about the whole experience. I'd like to think I've grown since then. hehe

     I had a lovely dishwasher in our previous home. More times than not, disagreements arose as to who was responsible to loading and unloading it. And lots of times dishes stacked up and could not all be fit into this wonder of modern technology, so old fashioned washing by hand still needed to be done. In Gertrude, there is no dishwasher. Loading the dishwasher would require some sort of adult beverage for myself, generally. hehe And to be perfectly honest, I haven't missed it at all! Given the limit in space, not as any dishes get used in meal preparation and so there isn't as much to take care of in the end. I know everything is clean and there is no need for picky inspection of things coming out of a dishwasher that didn't quite get clean.

PRIVATE PERSONAL BATHROOM/TUB:

     Now don't get me wrong! My motorhome DOES have a bathroom...complete with tub/shower combo, sink, and toilet. However, the RV Park where we are staying has private bathroom facilities that have a sink (some with double vanities), a toilet, and shower. We use theirs for all bathing needs...and I LOVE IT! I don't have to clean toilets, mirrors, showers, sweep/mop floors, refill TP, etc... The provided facilities are sparkling clean every time I have used them! They are cleaned once a day by someone other than me!! I thought I'd miss my soaking tub, but it hasn't really bothered me. These facilities being available have moved to one of the top spots on our must-have list for future travel destinations. I'm thrilled that I haven't had to use the shower in the RV as of yet, especially since I am using it to store our shower items and medicine/first aid caddy.

NEIGHBORHOOD POOL:

     Honestly, I didn't use our neighborhood pool as much as I should have. Usually there were several teens or small kiddos there, and many times they took up much of the pool area. There was a "kiddie pool" but no hot tub. At our current location, there is both a pool and a hot tub. We have found ourselves down there hanging out in the evenings more often than not. As it gets cooler out, this won't be as big a priority, but for now. LOVE IT! And again, I don't have to take extra care of it.

WASHER/DRYER:

     We have an old Army bag of my husband's for all of our laundry. Seems that we go about 7 days before needing to do a load. We wash everything on cold, and all together in one load. It costs us about $4.25 to wash and dry a full load here at the site's laundry facilities. Takes probably an hour and a half to two hours total, but that's no biggie. This is FAR less expensive than the laundromat in town I had to use when our washer broke a few months ago in our house. And I do like that everything gets done at once and then folded/hung up and put away right away. 

     So overall, I'm thinking RV life suits me! I'm enjoying cleaning up and organizing around Gertrude. I am getting out usually once a day and riding my bike or walking for some exercise. I'm more at peace. So I might be "missing out" in some people's eyes, but they're missing out on the calm that I wake with every morning knowing there's no dishwasher to unload, bathroom to clean, etc...