Thoughts About Snowbirders Travel Style Choices

Over the past month or so, I’ve found it interesting to follow the different styles of travel we snowbirders take to get back home, wherever that might be. Some folks like to race home like it’s the Indy 500 while others take the time to explore, meander and make their travel time an integral part of their snowbirding vacation.

I wouldn’t have wanted to miss this lonely Cypress for the world

Paulette and I are meander types, for the most part, as we like to pick different routes to, and from, home and see things we’ve either never seen before or re-visit places we would gladly return to time and time again.  This year was no exception as we chose to travel slowly from Palm Springs to home mostly using the Pacific Coast Hwy. 101 – it was spectacular.

Marina Dunes Beach – a spectacular, quiet beach on Monterey Bay

Other trips home have seen us drive through Arizona, New Mexico, a bit of Texas then head up to Carlsbad before heading north through Colorado and Utah. Another one of our fun routes was going to Las Vegas, Sedona, and the Grand Canyon followed by Salt Lake City, Idaho and Montana.  All of these places had special attractions we enjoyed and we’ll probably return to many of them again some day.

Pismo Beach – lots of room and a quiet place to walk forever

While admittedly far from a scientific analysis, it seems to me that we RV Resort types generally take our time while traveling to and fro, while non-fulltime boondockers (NFTB) seem to always be in a hurry. I find this a bit ironic as some NFTB’ers, not all by any means, seem to have a rather superior, maybe even “holier than thou”, attitude compared to us RV park types.  All I can see is, it’s cheap.

This would be my worst RVing nightmare! 

Still, it’s strange because many of those same NFTB’ers spend their nights parked on asphalt beneath the glaring neon lights of Walmart, Home Depot, Cracker Barrel or a Casino.  What gives?  That’s about as odd as Jenny Craig going to 5 Guys Burger ‘n Fries.  It’s weird to me because it seems diametrically opposite to their reasons for wanting to boondock in the first place.  But, each to their own.

Part of the RVing experience for us is the travel to and fro

On our way home this year, we stayed in many very nice RV Parks along the California and Oregon coasts. This allowed Paulette and I to walk for miles along beautiful beaches with the waves of the Pacific Ocean crashing on the beach.  A lot of these spectacular spots were almost deserted giving us all the quiet and privacy we wanted.  We’ve found this to be true even in the RV parks we’ve stayed in.

We stopped at countless viewpoints to marvel at beautiful scenes of Monterey Bay, Pismo Beach and Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge. We stayed in an RV Park in Waldport, OR that looked out over the Pacific Ocean. For the life of me, I can’t imagine trading these experiences for a Walmart parking lot - even if it is free.  I never envisaged camping on Walmart pavement overnight when we took up RVing!

So, if you’re like us and prefer RV Parks and Resorts, I wouldn’t get all defensive and apologetic the next time you hear an NFTB’er say  that the best way to enjoy nature is to boondock.  When I drive by some desert spots and see ATV’s roaring around, generators running and boom-boxes blasting I’m always glad to be in our RV Resort where most night’s its “lights-out” by 9:30pm and very, very quiet.

I’m also happy to say I love an endless supply of hot water, showers, fast cable Internet connections, 50amp power, swimming pools, golf, Laundromats and all the other wonderful amenities RV Resorts have to offer.  After a day of hiking out in the hot, dusty desert I can then return to our park and go for a swim and soak in the hot tub.  

Now, having voiced my opinion, I’m going to get one of Paulette’s beautiful quilts and find myself a nice comfortable corner in the Bear Pit.  Just remember, there are rules against feeding the Bears so please refrain from throwing rotten fruit and vegetables into the Pit.  Criticism and verbal abuse I can handle but not rotten fruit!

Have a great Tuesday, and thanks again for visiting!