Community on the Road

My gosh, I am really cranking out the blog posts, aren’t I? 🙂  I think the most I’ve ever managed in one month was nine posts. That was in May 2016 when we were on our way to Alaska, which to this day remains one of the most exciting and enjoyable trips we made while fulltiming. 

 If you’ve followed this blog at all, you know how much we’ve enjoyed our friendships and travels with other fulltimers. Which brings me to the subject of community on the road. It’s common to hear RVers say they’ve met more people and developed more lasting friendships while traveling than in their sticks and bricks life. We would agree with that. The RVing community is huge and even though it is ever fluid, it’s surprising how easy it can be to forge a family. 

That photo above is a small representation of the fulltiming class of 2014. It was taken during the RV-Dreams reunion rally last year in Nevada. (Tracy Perkins, I’m so glad you organized the group for this photo, it’s a fun one to look back on). 

So what about in Europe? Well, it’s a bit premature for me to even imagine what community might look like for us in, say, a year or so. I’m guessing at the very least it will be multi-lingual and involve a lot of hand gesturing and probably some wine. I hope so. I’m sure we won’t become fluent in any language during our time here, but a few words in many languages would be fun. Like, a year ago I didn’t know the Norwegian word for motorhome is “bobil”, but I do now! Steven says since I’m the boss of the motorhome, I’m a Bobilhead 🙂 

One thing I can tell you with certainty is that we are not trailblazers. There are loads of people fulltiming throughout Europe. Last year as we were researching our big move, we made contact with two couples who continue to offer us invaluable advice and tons of encouragement. I’ve peppered them with questions for months now and they’ve been very generous with their time and detailed information. Though we didn’t know it at the time we made contact, both of these couples also worked with Phill and Hannah at Euro Camping Cars to get set up and on the road. 

We found Alan and Ruth’s blog, Travel-Cook-Eat, while researching details of visa requirements and Internet options for RVers. They are from New Zealand and have been traveling in their motorhome Betsy since 2017. Alan has done a ton of research and has made it available on their blog. Also thanks to his recommendation, Steven and I are now both set up with affordable SIM cards for our phones. He has also reviewed loads of motorhoming kit which is super helpful for those of us just starting out.  

Ruth has offered valuable advice on packing, cooking, and places to visit. Also, she has a neat little washing machine that I don’t mind telling you makes me green with envy. As is obvious from the title of their blog, they love to cook and especially like to try their hand at local dishes, something we have in common with them. They have traveled far and wide to places high on our list, including Turkey, Russia and Morocco! It’s great to read how others have managed challenges on the road, it gives us confidence to try for ourselves.  

Shani and Todd are an American couple who arrived in Europe by way of Saudi Arabia. They also own a Hymer, so I reached out to Shani after reading a few of her posts on the Hymer Owner’s Group on Facebook. They have, in their lifetimes, traveled to over 77 countries and have been motorhoming around Europe since 2017 with their little dog, Sebastian. You can check out their blog at Don’t Waste Life. I love chatting with Shani on Facebook, she sends me lists recommending stuff we never even knew we needed. While at home over the holidays, she sent us links to products on Amazon that were not readily available in Europe. 

And lest you think no one shares the not-so-fun part of motorhoming in Europe, one morning Shani and I were chatting about GPS and whether or not the motorhome version is helpful. She had this to say, about their GPS named Gabby: 

Gabby tried to send us through a historic arch in Italy that was way too skinny….that was after we had gotten lost getting to the campground…which then told us no dogs allowed, then he sent us to their other campground with the directions to go right through town (on a major holiday) through streets packed full of people then we got to the arch (OMG) then had to do a U turn , then back through all the people…until we finally found the campground….that had 2 spots left. 

Y’all, would that be your worst nightmare? It certainly is one of mine! But hey, they survived and hopefully if (when) it happens to us, we will, too. 🙂 

So, what now? 

Once again we are in the throes of a packing spree. On Friday we say goodbye to St. Julien and our little maison and make the long 8-hour journey to Toulouse. We have been so happy here, not just in the house but also in the area. The Yonne Valley is just a beautiful part of the French countryside and we have really enjoyed being here. As you might expect, our recent forays to IKEA means our little car will be packed tight! We keep asking ourselves why we did all this shopping now rather than wait until we traveled to Toulouse. Well, we had the time, and once we turn in our rental car, our only transportation will be the motorhome. We figured we need a little drive time before taking on shopping in a big city! Not having a Toadie Hopper is going to take some getting used to, and frankly, I think I see a couple of bikes in our future.  

After checking into our hotel in Toulouse, we will make our way to the dealer for our walkthrough. Yeah, we’re going to be tired after an 8-hour drive, but since our tech only speaks French, we won’t even know what he’s saying. Hopefully there will be enough pointing and demonstrating that we at least get the gist of it.  

We will try to get some sleep Friday night, but we’re pretty excited. Saturday morning we will unload all our stuff into Bijou, finalize anything that needs finalizing, return our rental car, taxi back to the dealership, then off we go! Eeeeee! 

We spent a ton of time looking for a place to go and settle in with Bijou for a while and get ourselves unpacked and sorted. We looked at a few apps and resources people use to find camping spots, of which France has thousands. But honestly, we had a hard time finding one that seemed suitable. The Wallydockers in us thought the IKEA parking lot in Toulouse looked pretty good, but we don’t even know if that’s allowed! And really, we need a place where services are readily available and where we can stay for more than one night. We don’t want to have to pack up and move every day, at least not at first.  

Finally, in a slight panic, I threw myself at Shani’s mercy. Please, I begged, find us a campsite! And she did! If all goes well, by Saturday afternoon we’ll be parked up in the foothills of the Pyrenees in full sun and temps in the mid-60s. With lots and lots of wine. That is the moment we have been dreaming about since we decided to move to Europe over a year ago. Doesn’t it sound lovely? 

UP NEXT: Moving Day, with photos 🙂  

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