Oklahoma Dreamin

So there we were headed down the road to Oklahoma. None of us had ever really been west of the Mississippi River and so for us this was an exciting adventure.

We did the trip so quickly that we never really saw much because most of the trip was at night. Tunica MS was so very pretty though. All the light from the casinos were very interesting.

When we arrived in Oklahoma the owners were all right there at the office and the first thing said to us was "Welcome Home". It felt like home. It felt comfortable.

The campground "Big Ceder RV" was way out in the middle of nowhere. It's about 30 miles to the nearest big store in any direction. It was surrounded by moutains like I had never really seen before. I was completely awestruck by the different animal life that was in this area. I even got to see a roadrunner one day on the way to the store.

Johnny, our son, made some new friends too. The kids in Oklahoma, or at least this area of it, were so well behaved and respectful that I trusted them. Johnny went swimming with his new friends one day and they told him to stay with the group because there were fish in the river that would eat him. He and I both thought they were joking until the campground owner told me to look up Gar. They are some scary looking fish let me tell you. I'll include a pic at the top of this post.

Our job here at the campground was simply to clean cabins after the people renting them had left. This took about 15 hours a week and for that we got our rent for free. Of course what we didn't know was that originally we were simply there to do the laundry from the cabins but the other work campers health began getting worse so we took over the cabins too. Then we were asked to take over cleaning the bathhouse and the laundry room as well. Which we did without issue and with no further compensation, a mistake I believe.



After a few months we began to make some friends in Big Cedar. Again another possible mistake. The people were very nice. We were very happy to have made their friendship. However, the campground owner's daughter used to be friends with one of the girls I made friends with and she got very jealous and angry. She began making comments to me about my work. She began being almost rude to me. I ignored it, again a mistake. About 2 weeks later we were told we were no longer to be needed. Again, the original deal was that even when things slowed down over the winter we would be staying for free and that was now changed.



However, due to concern for the owner who had just had heart surgery, we didn't put up a stink. We simply left and headed for our friends house in Massachusettes.

A New Campground

About a month after moving to the long term section events took place that forced us to leave. Kyle moved out. Jessie took a bus to be with her mother in Arizona. John, Johnny and I moved out of the park. These were extremely personal events and events that involved other people within the park so I will keep this out of my writings. Enough to say that "everything happens for a reason" and I though I regret the events I now understand some of their purpose.

So we needed to leave fair harbor but I was not yet ready to leave Perry. I had made some very good friends in the area. John was seeing a doctor that he liked. And frankly we didn't have the money to go very far.

I found a campground just down the road that was quiet and secluded. We called and reserved a spot and within a few days we were there.

Crossroads RV Park in Perry Georgia is a nice quiet little park. They have a playground and a pool. There were other full timers there with kids, so Johnny made friends very quickly. The price was the same as Fair Harbor and even though the campground didn't offer wifi I could get it free from a nearby hotel at our lot. So things were still very ok.

The other nice thing about this little campground is that it was much closer to the stores. I could walk to a convenience store in a matter of minutes and Walmart was only a few miles up the road.

We again settled in. We tried to stay a little more to ourselves in this campground so not to get into another bad situation. I became more protective of Johnny, again. Johnny couldn't ride his bike anymore anyway because he had ridden it so much at Fair Harbor that he had finally broken it.

Johnny went out to play with his new friends daily. They would play basketball, play on the playground, or play at the mini-golf course that was on the grounds as well.

After about 2 weeks in the campground I began to realize that it was not going to be long before my disability would not be enough to support us for much longer. I discussed it with John and Johnny both and we all decided that it was time to start seriously looking for a workamping position.

So I created a website as a resume for our family. I posted our interest on a workamper bulletin board and I began looking through ads.

Within 5 days we had 8 offers. We had decided that we wanted to start traveling west so that narrowed it down a bit. Of the offers westward our best offer came from a campground in Oklahoma. The offer was to work 13 - 15 hours a week cleaning cabins for free rent and hookups as well as laundry.

I called the campground and spoke with the owner and we decided that this was the opportunity we wanted to take. We waited until our time was up at the campground we were at and then pack up and headed down the road for Oklahoma.

Moving Within the Park

Sometime during our 3 week at Fair harbor we decided that we were going to be there for longer than we had originally thought. Realizing this and wanting us all to feel more comfortable I was beginning to consider moving us to the long term section of the park.

John hadn't left the camper since arriving in Georgia except for at night when people really couldn't see him. His social anxiety was in full swing and the thought of going out in the day would make him ill.

So I took a walk down to the long term area and began scouting out possible lots. After seeing what was available I was torn between two spots. I returned to the camper and all but dragged John down with me to take a look. We decided and after returning John to our camper I walked up to the office to check and see if we could move. They told me that this was not a problem at all. So we all packed up the camper and moved it down to a new lot.

The long term section of the campground was far back into the campground and felt quieter and more secluded. John even seemed to feel more comfortable here, as he would now sit out at the picnic table on occasion.

On our 3rd day in the long term section the kids met some folks who lived a few campers over. These folks sent up a bag of food for us and I was concerned that the kids might have told them that we were struggling, so I went down to meet them myself.

As it turned out, they were just trying to be kind to the new folks. Leigh, the wife, told me that when they first started out they struggled and now she tried to help when she could. The kids had said nothing, she just "knows how it is".

Leigh and I quickly became friends. I spent some time visiting with she and her husband Jeff and immediately liked them both. I went up to the camper and spent 20 minutes convincing John to come meet them. He finally agreed to come out, more to shut me up than anything. He immediately liked them as well and he and Jeff became fast friends.

Over the next month that we stayed at Fair Harbor, we spent many nights around a campfire at their camper. We spent many nights sharing meals and talking. Jeff and John played horseshoes a few times, when John could physically handle it. And Leigh and I did a lot of running errands together.

We were beginning to feel comfortable with our new lives, but things were soon to change.

Johnny gets a bike

Somewhere during our second week at the campground, Johnny made a new friend. Johnny and I were out walking and this little boy was playing frisbee with his mother. I started chatting with the mom and Johnny started playing with the boy.

They were there at the campground for a week's vacation and to spend some family time. The mother and I quickly became friends and enjoyed visiting with each other well after dark. Johnny and the boy played the whole time.

Every day that they were there we would go up and visit them. We would enjoy several hours of visiting and playing.

One day the mother told me about her daughter who had just gone into the military. She had left a 10 speed bike at home and had told her mother to find it a good home. They wanted to give it to Johnny. I couldn't believe it. What a nice thing to do. The dad went and picked it up and brought it to Johnny the next day. A few days later they were gone but they left the bike with Johnny.

Johnny now had something to do. Every day he would ride all over the park. He began meeting more and more people. He got to know all of the animals in the park. He was very happy and excited.

Our first couple of weeks in Georgia

So here we were at our first campground ever. We have never been the camping kind of family and therefore never been at a campground in our lives.

In our 30' camper we had 5 people and 3 pets. There was myself and John, our oldest son and his girlfriend, our youngest son, our Rottie, and our 2 cats.

Life in a tag-a-long camper is very different from living inan apartment, a mobile home, or a house. I should know, I've lived in every one of these accomodations. Now here we are living as a familyof 5 in a 30' tag-a-long camper. We have a conversion van as an extra bedroom, but so far that only works well when the temperature outside is warm enough.

When you live in a typical type of home, you have space tospread out and have time to yourself. Most people have bedrooms,kitchens, dining rooms, or whatever that are actual separate rooms. You can spread out and spend a lot of alone time. Some homes are so big that you can lose yourself in them. Families are less connected because they don't have to spend time together and so they don't. Again I know this from personal experience.Our family started out in small apartments. We could spread out and have some time to ourselves but we also had to spend a lot of time together. Then we moved into a mobile home. Over the years we enjoyed living there. We could spend time together when we wanted to but everyone had their own space as well. As the children grew, and the years passed, we moved into a very big and spacious house. We had so much room to spread out and enjoy time to ourselves that eventually we lost our connected together time. Most times I could look around the house and find every member of our family in a different room.

We have since gone from that imense house to a 30' tag-a-long camper. There are no separate rooms or places to go that don't have another person in them. We are together often and for long periods of time. It's not as bad as it might sound. We have had to learn to adjust. Everybody has to have more patience. Everybody has to have more respect for each other. Everybody has to cut everybody else a little slack.Watching TV is a family event and tricky at that. With 5 people watching tv becomes a matter of learning how to fit everyone into the area.

The nice thing about Fair Harbor RV was that it was a very big campground. Lots of space to walk around and nature to enjoy. Johnny found great joy in exploring the entire campground each day and he slimmed right out because of the exercise he was inevitably getting.

Kyle and Jessie set up house in the van and would stay in there for hours watching movies or tv. At night they would join us in the camper and have supper and watch a movie with the family.

We met lots of people at fair harbor. The first folks I met were almost right outside my camper. I went outside and started down the roadway. Two campers down from us was a woman who was getting ready to haul out and head for Florida. Her plan was to spend a little time down there visiting family and then she plans to move on to Louisianna to work with Habitat for Humanity for a while.

I didn't get to talk with her very long but I was so touched by the fact that she is going to work with them. Speaking with her when I walked up was an older gentleman who was walking his dog. I stopped and pet the little dog for a moment and then we began talking as well. We started walking down the road together and chatting and he offered to introduce me to his wife. So we walked to his camper and just talked. Such friendly people. His name was Tom and his was a reverend who had come down from a northern state to help out another reverend friend of his. His friend was not feeling well and needed someone to help with his church for a while, so Tom and his wife were there to help out where they could.

Tom and I talked for a long while and then he introduced me to his wife, Mary. Mary was a dynamic and energetic woman. They both have that energy that just draws you to them. While we sat at their picnic table and talked many other people approached us to say hello or join our conversation. We talked about our lives and how we feel about the world today. We talked about things we have experienced and how we believe everything happens for some reason. And then they needed to get on their way so we said our see ya later's and they went on their way.

Over our time at Fair harbor we would meet other lovely people and make friendships that still last.

The First Trip

So here we were with a 1985 Dodge Van and a who knows what year camper hauling down the road for a 1400 mile trip. We were anxious, nervous, excited, happy, and sad all at once. John had never really hauled a camper before and the old van is relatively new to us so we weren't sure what to expect.

From Stockton Springs, Maine we took rte 1 into Belfast to connect with rte 3. Rte 1 was slow going but that was to be expected since it was only 5:30pm and there were a lot of people on the road. We were a little concered about the upcoming hills on rte 3 though cause the van was not really liking the little hills on rte 1. Well, we were right to be concerned. The hills on rte 3 all but stopped us dead in our tracks. Some of them we were lucky to crest at 15mph. The van almost overheated 3 times. We were already starting to worry about such a long trip. All we could do was hope that once we hit highway it would haul better.

Rte 3 took a lot longer than we would have liked but we made it to I95 and kept heading on our course for warmer ground. As soon as we got onto I95 the van was thankful. It started working better with no more overheating issues and the camper was hauling just fine on the highway. It took a little while but John and I both began to relax after about an hour on the highway. Now we were hauling fine and making much better time.

Now the van itself actually gets pretty good gas mileage. Not sure what kind of mpg we get but I know it's good because we did a lot of running around in Maine on about a quarter of a tank of gas. However, with the camper on the mpg were not quite as good. We had filled up on Rte 1 in Searsport at the Irving. We had to fill up again at the first service station in Maine. We topped off again at the LAST service station in Maine just to be safe. Of course at this point we weren't able to judge very well because the gas gauge was not going all the way up to full even when the tank wouldn't take any more gas so we were being way over cautious.

When we got to the middle of the bridge that connects Maine and New Hampshire the whole family waved goodbye to Maine and gave a little cheer. We cheered not only because we had finally gotten out of Maine but also because the van and camper had made it this far with no problems. My youngest son, Johnny who was 14, was very excited to see the states go by. We had been working on geography and learning where the states are. He is very good at it and can tell you what states are near what other states now and do a blank map with no problem but still this trip was to be a learning experience. It's very different looking at a map. Traveling through them gives you a much better idea of how big or small they are and really drives home the lessons.

New Hampshire went by in a flash and when I said "wave goodbye to New Hampshire" Johnny was suprised that we were already in Massachusettes. We stopped at some service station in Mass to fill up again and further down the road we went. At every state we waved goodbye to the one we were leaving. Johnny and Jessie, Jessie is my oldest son's girlfriend, stayed up for most of the first night of driving. They were very excited when we got to New York to see all the lights.

Now here is where I should mention that a very very good friend of ours let us use his gps system for the trip. I love the thing. It kept me busy, I felt usefull and it helped keep me awake. Not to mention that it helps when finding rest stops and distances. However, as nice as gps is, it is not always appropriate to follow it. Use your best judgement as I learned the hard way.

We were following I95 south. When we got to New York City the gps told us to get off the highway for a short period. It was my assumption, mistakenly, that the gps was trying to help us avoid the city traffic and all. I am not sure what the gps was trying to do. It took us off the highway onto some side streets. We ended up pulling our camper through an interesting part of the city. The gang we passed was quite obviously shocked to see a camper go by. Bright side is that maybe they were so amazed and shocked that they stopped whatever they were up to for the night to discuss the idiots from Maine. The kids found it all very amusing and interesting though. We got our picture taken but a completely unexpected red light that we had to run because we could not stop. And finally it took us back to the highway. Maybe the GPS thought I needed to wake up and it was trying to entertain me, or give me a heart attack. Anyway back on the highway and on our way once more.

Now I am from Maine. I was born and raised there. I have lived in Connecticut for a very short time as an adult and in Florida for a couple years as a kid but basically I'm a back country girl. With that in mind I want to say that city highways scare the crap out of me and I should have packed some valumes. Driving through the cities, even on the highway, is a scary situation.

Thankfully most of them we went through at the wee hours of the morning so the traffic was light. I was looking at the 6 lanes thinking what it must look like during the day and shuddering. However, though cities scare me a bit, the lights are beautiful and it doesn't take much more than some well lit up buildings and interesting billboards to entertain me and wake me up.

We came into Maryland at about 6am and John had been awake for more hours than I can count and driving for over 12 of them. I was tired and trying not to fall asleep so he would have company. The kids had all passed out hours before. John was barely awake. It was time to stop and rest. We had hoped to make it to Virginia in our first stint but this was just not going to happen.

We found a nice rest area/service station along the highway and pulled in for the day. By this time it was already 7am. John and I went right to the camper and went to bed.

When the kids woke up they were so good. Johnny came to the camper and got something to eat. He sat at the table and played with the cats. I woke up at about noon and couldn't sleep so I came out and he and I went to the restaurant area. The food was all terribly expensive but we sat and talked and had a soda. We found these neat little machines that would turn your pennies into souvenirs. So we got a few of those for ourselves and for a friend. Kyle and Jessie hung out in the van for a while and then walked up to look around. We all kind of just did nothing for a while. Then Johnny and I went in the camper and played cribbage. After our cribbage game I got very tired again so I went back to bed. Johnny was so good and quiet in the camper while I slept.

John and I woke up about 2:30pm and there was a rain storm moving in. We hoped to get moving and beat it, but no sooner did we get on the road then the rain started. It made driving interesting and then the traffic picked up and got kind of heavy. John was getting a little anxious so we found another rest stop and pulled in for a while. We all sat in the van and had some sandwiches. The rest stop had free wireless so I popped online to chat with my friends in Maine for a little while. Then at about 7pm we decided to haul out again.

Traffic had cleared up a bit and the rain was beginning to let up so driving was much less stressful for us both. By the time we reached Virginia we were out of the rain and feeling good again. So on we went. At this point we had about 750 miles to go and we were feeling good about getting to Georgia by late morning. Ok so we are a little over zealous.

By this time we had figured out that we could go between 150 and 200 miles on $60 worth of gas and that was usually about where we would fill up again. We were getting the hang of this traveling gig. Of course John didn't have the money, I did, so he didn't realize how low we were getting and how much we had spent. I was getting concerned about having enough to get there, pay for the campsite, and buy any supplies we may have forgotten, but I was paying attention to what we were spending and not allowing to much frivolous spending.

Somewhere in North Carolina we decided to do what the gps wanted us to and switch from I95 to I85. I was concerned because this was not the route that I had originally planned but I hoped the gps was smarter than I and was taking us on a better route. Turned out to be a good decision. I85 in North Carolina is a VERY good road and the speed limit is 70mph. I don't think I have ever seen a speed limit of 70 before. Now of course we never actually did 70 because we were after all hauling a camper but John had us at a steady 65 - 68 for quite some time and it was doing just fine.

Now like I said, I85 is a very good road but it is also a very very long road. At least 450 miles of our trip was on I85. When you think about it that's not really a lot considering that most of our trip was on I95, but I85 is mostly country and no pretty lights to keep me awake. No turns on the GPS to keep me navigating. Inevitably I fell asleep for about an hour. But when I felt the van turn off the highway I woke up. John was stopping for gas. I got some food and I guess my power nap did me some good because I managed to stay awake for the rest of this leg of the trip.

Yes, I said leg of the trip. We didn't get to Georgia in that drive. We did get through most of South Carolina and just before we got to Georgia, at about 3:30 in the morning, we stopped at a rest stop to get some real sleep. I swear the camper was still carrying the cold of Maine with it, so I started the propane oven and put a pot of water on a burner to boil and took the chill off inside. The kids were sound alseep in the van, so we left them sleeping and went inside a still chilly but not brutally cold camper to sleep ourselves. We talked for a while so that the oven could warm us up. We realized that we were going to have to get a new tongue jack for the camper because when we were hooking up the old one broke. We decided to deal with it when we reached Georgia. Then, after we warmed it a bit, I turned everything off and we went to bed at about 4am.

I awoke at about noon again, though this time that was a lot more sleep than last stop. It was very nice outside when I got up and I wanted to enjoy that a bit and walk around. I decided to just let John sleep a while. Johnny and I went up to the welcome center at the rest stop to look around and make a couple of calls from the payphone. I wanted to call the campground and let them know we were on the way and also see if they could recommend an RV supply store in the area. I called and nobody was in the office so I left a message that we were on the way and hoped for the best.

Something struck me to ask about RV centers in the area at the desk. I walked up and a very friendly woman came over to talk to me. I told her the part we were looking for and she knew right where to send me. She went and got the number for me and put me on the phone with them. They had the jack and said they would hold it for me at the service desk. It takes such little things to make me happy. The woman at the desk then gave me great directions to get there. I thanked her and excitedly went to wake John and tell him.

At this point it was around 2pm. I woke my sleeply husband and told him what I had done. He was amazed and very happy. He felt well rested and was ready to get on the road. We pulled out and just a few miles down the road we found Camper's World, where the part was. It was really easy to get to and to get back on the highway and on our way again. Now we were very excited 270 miles to go from Camper's World in South Carolina. We were going to be in Perry Georgia by 9 or 10pm.

Down the road again. We stopped at a little store just before leaving South Carolina to gas up and they had hot food. The kids went to get some stuff to eat and Johnny came over to tell me they had chili cheese fries. I was so excited, I think I regressed to about 12 years old myself. I ran right over and ordered some. I haven't had chili cheese fries in forever and I love them. We gassed up, all got food and then I remembered we needed cigarettes so I went and bought them too.

I didn't really pay attention to what I payed for them but further down the road I got to thinking and realized that it was well under $10 for 2 packs. That made me wonder what the price was. At the next store I forgot to look at the price again but I noticed a sign that said there was a 10 carton limit per customer per day for certain brand names. Again I didn't think much about it until we were on the road. Later I'll tell you what this is all leading to but it is important, at least to a smoker.

Anyway, as we got close to Perry we all got very excited. All of us started reading all the billboards to see what was around. We looked at all the stores along the highway and watched as our exit cot closer and closer. Finally we reached it. We pulled into the campground at 9:30pm. We found a site and pulled in for the night. We didn't hook anything except the power up and we all went to bed.

We woke up at 9am and drove everything up to the office to see if we needed to be on any certain site. Because we are long stayover campers we could only pick from certain sites. The man in the office gave me the map and paperwork to fill out after we got parked. He gave me directions to Wal-Mart to pick up some things we needed to set up and said he'd see me in a while.

We hauled to Wal-Mart and picked up our supplies. At the register, this time, I looked at the cigarette prices. I almost fainted. See now, I am from Maine. In Maine cigarettes are close to $6 a pack. Here, camel wides were $3.70 and Marlboro's were $3.30. I couldn't believe it. It was like 2 for the price of one. So I bought a couple of packs. And off we went to find us a site and set up.

We found a nice pull-through site. We got all set up. We cleaned the camper, which took a while. Then we settled down to watch some tv and relax. Johnny, however, spent the day with the campground map in hand and wandered all over the place. Just before dark he even got to see an owl up close. He came to get me, because my favorite animal is an owl, but it was gone by the time I got to where it was.

So we were there. We settled in. The plan was to stay here for January and February. Then we might be moving our home up to Tennessee to be with some good friends of ours who might be moving there. If they move there then we would, if not then we would stay here a bit longer.

So much for best laid plans.

Funding the trip

Ok so we had the camper and the destination, now we needed the funds to make the trip.

After searching the internet and contacting several campgrounds we settled on a campground in Perry, Georgia. Fair Harbor RV in Perry, Georgia sounded like a great first place to go. It was within a city and close to everything yet set in a country like setting. They had no problem with our Rottie or the fact that there would be 5 of us. Not only that but the monthly price was $300 a month and included elec, water, sewer, 70 cable channels, and free wifi. This definately sounded like the right place.

However we still didn't even have a vehicle that could haul the camper. We began our search for something. We considered trucks but there would be 5 of us and a dog so a truck might not provide the best comfort for us. John and I began discussing the possibility of a van. We searched the local classifieds and finally found one that we thought would haul us.

John and Adam went to look at the van and they decided that it would do it. John paid for the van right there and then. He then came home and we registered it and insured it for he and Adam to go pick up in a few days.

When we finally got the van home, the kids were very excited. It was so big and looked like it would be very comfortable for the trip and for Kyle and his girlfriend to use as a partial bedroom.

Then we discovered that we needed a very expensive tow package to haul the camper with. We got a price quote of $750, which was more than we actually paid for the van itself. If we purchased it we would not have enough money for the trip.

We became desperate. John still owned his truck and his van and about $7,000 in tools. We had been trying to sell them all but we had no interest yet. We discussed selling the whole thing at a discounted rate and then talked to a couple of people we thought would be interested.

In order to sell this stuff we ended up selling it all together for $2400. We definately could have gotten more for it but we needed the money right then. We also sold my car back to the place where we bought it from so that we wouldn't have two vehicles to drive along the trip.

This gave us enough to get the tow package installed and new tires for the van. We also bought supplies for the trip.

So here we were, in the middle of January, with all our money for the trip, a vehicle to tow our home, and a destination ready. Now we just had to wait for a break in the snow.