The RVing Life: Leave Stress Behind

Are you stressed out and overwhelmed by all your "stuff" and the responsibility that goes with it? Is your body showing symptoms of stress like high blood pressure, headaches, anxiety and general discontent? Most of us don't need any quizzes to know whether or not our lives are too stressful. We know it! We have possessions we don't care about, people who are not important to us making demands; we have the Jones to keep up with, the boring meetings to attend; many bills and too many commitments. Even those of us who are retired can find themselves caught up in a vicious cycle of having too many demands upon our time.

There is definitely a period of adjustment when going from living in a house to living in an RV, there's no doubt about it. Because of the tight quarters, we learned on our first RVing trip that everything must be put in its proper place. We quickly learn to avoid stepping on the cat as we squeeze around each other, and it doesn't take long to realize that each person needs a little space. In our case, my husband watches his Sunday afternoon football games in the bedroom with the door closed while I read. Unless the weather is bad, we set up chairs and a small table outdoors. Even if it's just to have a cup of coffee, it's much more relaxing to have it where we can watch the birds or enjoy the view. We often go for walks near our camp or go exploring in our Jeep into the back country. We've both learned that too much togetherness can make us testy, so we each have interests that we can pursue alone.

Once these details are worked out, we are free to enjoy our new lifestyle to the fullest extent. We each have our own way of coping with the close quarters, but one thing common to all of us is the relief we feel at not being tied down to a house and all the stuff that goes with it.

See Boondocking.

It's not difficult to find peaceful, quiet places to park your RV for a few days, a few weeks or a few months. It all depends on what kinds of things you like to do. One relaxing trip we took was to Michigan's Upper Peninsula where we had beautiful views, many natural areas to hike and the unusual Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore to explore.

The serene views to the right are photos taken in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore located in Michigan's Upper Peninsula along Lake Superior between Munising, Michigan and Grand Marais, Michigan. The little village of Grand Marais has a lovely city park situated on cliffs overlooking Lake Superior. The beach below, Agate Beach, is a wonderland of pretty stones including agates for the experienced rock hounds. There are many small roads and trails along the lake, but for the best views, go to Munising and take a tour boat to view the rock formations, arches and dunes from the water.

A beautiful and natural area of the country, the Upper Peninsula is a wonderful place to get back to nature. Enjoy walks on the beach, treks through the woods along the cliff's edges and especially the spectacular sunsets on the lake.

There are definite positives to living on wheels. For one thing, if you don't like the neighborhood, you can very easily move. Don't like the dogs or the neighbors with the big lights shining into your rig? No probem, just unplug the electric and drive away. Is the weather too hot, too cold, too rainy? Look at the map and the weather report and find a better climate. If this all sounds like it's too easy to be true, it isn't. One of the reasons people love full-time RVing is that they have the option of moving whenever the whim strikes. We follow the sun to Florida or South Texas or Arizona in the winter and follow the cooler weather to the mountains of Wyoming, Colorado or the Northeast in the summer.

Living on wheels also makes it possible to be totally flexible. Get up in the morning in Ohio and decide that it would be really great to visit Nashville? By mid-morning you can be merrily on your way. It's hard to explain the feeling of freedom you get when you pull up stakes, hook up the toad (tow vehicle, which for us is a Jeep Wrangler) and take off. We have a silly little tradition whenever we do this -- I plug in the iPod and play "On The Road Again" as we head down the road.

On the other hand, we've come across out-of-the way, beautiful camping spots where we intended to spend the night and ended up staying 3 weeks. It's great to be free!

Maybe the title of this section should be Freedom doesn't ring since being on the road seems to discourage all those annoying calls you used to get. Your cell phone is turned on, your number is the same, but you won't be getting calls asking you to be historian for your club, or to bring refreshments for the Ladies Guild meeting. If you had a land line before, you will no longer get solicitations from sales people and charities because they can no longer find you. I just love that!

You don't have to worry about staying in touchwith people you want to hear from because you'll have arranged for your mail and computer services on the road.

Life would not be entirely stress-free if we had money worries, and many RVers stretch their money by volunteering at parks or campgrounds in exchange for free campsites. There are also many opportunities to work full or part time while still enjoying the RVing lifestyle. Check out the WorkKamper News or the Volunteer.gov websites for more ideas and listings.

Also, see my hub,RV on a Budget: Free Fun and Cheap Entertainment and RVing on a Budget: Cheap Camping

If you are driving, slow down. You don't have to be anywhere in a hurry, let the traffic fly by if they want. If you are parked, lean back and relax.

Imagine that you are now parked on the edge of a beautiful serene lake, maybe Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. You don't have to pay utility bills or worry about heating your big house all winter. You pay your $25 a night for the full hookup campground and everything is taken care of for the next few days or weeks.

You don't have to mow the lawn or trim the trees or feed the roses. You don't have to vacuum 6 rooms or dust all the knickknacks because you don't have room for knickknacks in the RV.

You won't have to iron your clothes or shine your shoes or style your hair. This is the simple life! Easy, wash and wear hair styles, t-shirt and jeans or shorts are all you need. This afternoon you will have to make the serious decision of whether to go for a hike along the lake shore or sit in the shade and read the book you picked up free at the campground book exchange.

Maybe tonight you'll join the neighboring campers for happy hour around a campfire or maybe you'll just watch the sunset with your spouse. Do you feel your blood pressure going down, yet?

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This article Copyright ©2011 by Stephanie Henkel