I will never forget our first Thanksgiving on the road. We had been stuck in the Phoenix area waiting for RV repairs and when they finally got done we just wanted to be gone. We hit the road and found ourselves in an RV park in Saint David, Arizona that night.
The next day we were out dropping off sample bundles of the Gypsy Journal, and when I went into the office of the Escapees Saguaro Co-op in Benson to leave some papers the nice lady behind the desk saw the Escapees RV Club decal on our truck window and asked what site we were staying on. I told her that we were actually staying down the road at another campground. She asked what we were doing for Thanksgiving dinner that day, and I told her we had not realized it was Thanksgiving. “Well it is,” she said, “and our potluck dinner is at 3 PM. You can sit at our table.” I tried to beg off, telling her that we were not prepared for a potluck and did not have time to go home and fix something to bring. “That doesn’t matter,” she insisted, “You’re Escapees and you’re having dinner with your Escapee family. If you don’t show up, we’re going to come looking for you and drag you back here!” What a wonderful way to be introduced to our extended family in the Escapees RV Club and the world of RVing!
Holidays can be challenging for many RVers, especially new fulltimers and snowbirds who are spending their first Thanksgiving or Christmas away from their families. How do you celebrate a traditional holiday when you have moved into a home on wheels and left everybody you traditionally celebrated with?
It’s easy if your family lives somewhere in the Sunbelt and you are wintering nearby. But what if they live in the frozen northland, or they are in Arizona while you are in Florida, as we have been many winters? How do you handle that?
We know some snowbirds who wait until after the holidays to head south, and fulltimers who brave the weather to travel to be with family. While some take their RVs, others fly or travel by automobile, leaving their RVs in a park down south or out west.
Some of our RVing friends actually do it in reverse, making arrangements for their family members to fly down south to be with them over the holidays.
Others of us choose to stay where we are to avoid holiday travel hassles. Many RV parks host Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, usually potlucks, where the park supplies the ham or turkey and guests bring the rest.
Sometimes a small group of RVers will have their own holiday dinner, usually taking advantage of the warm weather to eat outside under an RV awning. It was at an event like this that we first tasted deep fried turkey. If you have not had this delight yet, do yourself a favor and try it. You won’t be disappointed.
Many times Terry and I have just gone out for a holiday dinner, leaving all the cooking and cleanup to somebody else. We spent several Christmas seasons at the Orlando Thousand Trails preserve in Florida, and it became sort of a holiday tradition for several of us couples to go to a Chinese restaurant for Christmas dinner. Good food, good friends, and we didn’t have to wash the dishes afterward!
How about you? How do you handle holidays on the road?
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Thought For The Day – Dear Santa, this year please give me a big fat bank account and a slim body. And please don’t mix them up like you did last year.
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At Christmas time I am 1000 miles from my closest relative and 1200 from my children and grand kids so an alternative is needed. I have several times been invited to nearby friends stick and brick, most RV parks have large pot luck or (one time) catered banquets. As a holiday depression victim, I have several times gone alone to a cafeteria so as not to be a drag on another’s celebration but so far I have never set alone and pouted. Before going on the road as a single empty nester I often sat in the corner at a family gathering and kind of enjoyed their reverie. but it has been 20 years since I had a tree or decorated beyond hanging the cards I received
I celebrate with two dogs and a parrot. Holidays aren’t my favorite time of year either. People think being single must be like getting the State trophy for best barbecue, but it has it’s own set of challenges, the biggest one being able to get through the holidays alone. On the flip side, I don’t have to spend hours taking down and packing up all those decorations and lights!!
We celebrate with our kids and grandkids but soon we will hit the road and maybe we will be at an Escapees park or Thousand Trails during the holidays. That sure is a good looking boat you got there Nick. You and Terry will be celebrating out on the water catching your Christmas dinner 🙂
Is it better to put the Escapees decal on the toad or the RV?
Sandy, we have them on both.
Ah a good Chinese meal is hard to beat…we have found a nice place, tho’ not fancy…just good food and plenty of it for the price, near us…the lunches are superb!! We don’t worry about being with others on holidays…as we have aged seems fine to be alone!! But if we were someplace that some others invited us, I suppose we might do as you all have done!!
We have only had one Thanksgiving on the road. We were at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in October with the Escapees Boomers. Several were planning on meeting for Thanksgiving at Mittry Lake Wildlife Refuge about 18 miles north of Yuma. It is a complicated set up and I believe it is a Wildlife Refuge run by BLM. We had about 23 rigs and 43 Boomers and guests for Thanksgiving dinner. Some were staying in area campgrounds and joined us. It was cold and windy (the coldest Thanksgiving in many years) and we actually moved some of the RV’s into a wagon circle to block the wind. The turkeys were cooked by a Boomer in an RV park and brought to where we were parked. Boon docking and turkey. Went with a few friends and left with more. There are all kinds of options.