Taking everybody with you

One of the downsides of travel is leaving your friends and family behind. Sure, you meet people and make new friends along the way, but there’s something about people you’ve known for many years. They get you.

My lovely wife and I once met a group of people who traveled in RVs together. They were all friends who used to be teachers at the same school. They retired early together so that they could explore RV adventures as a group. We met them over twenty years ago, and we haven’t found another group quite like that.

Possibly it’s the way we travel. Maybe groups like that tend towards higher end RV parks? No idea. I also don’t know how long the teachers traveled together. They’d been traveling less than six months so anything could have happened.

In the sailing community there are people who have larger boats just so they can entertain. They’ll sail off to some exotic location. Friends and/or family fly out to spend vacations with them. It seems to work for them.

My lovely wife and I considered looking at boats large enough for crew. Then it occurred to us that few of our friends and family would visit. Many have busy lives and taking a few weeks off is difficult. Money is an issue. Those who have the time to sail with us for extended periods of time aren’t really into sailing and adventure. It’s surprising how many people we know easily get sea sick. For some reason a lot of people don’t want to put up with tight quarters, storms, sketchy plumbing, bugs, heat, cold, and weird food. Yeah, there’s that, but there are also dolphins, sea turtles, and sun downers on the beach. Some folks don’t think the highs are worth the lows.

Instead of trying to take everyone with us, we go home for at least half the year. That mostly works. Of course, the months of travel and adventure change a person. The people back home don’t quite get you the way they used to.

-Sixbears