Yes, you can go home again and having an RV is a big plus
We’ve spent this summer settling into our new routine in our cool new digs in an old building in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood.
For Leslie, that location is extra meaningful, a feeling that was driven home during a recent trip to Leavenworth for a family reunion. Here’s her story.
Sometimes, when I meet someone new, I’ll tell the condensed Reader’s Digest version of my childhood and how it relates to my new address. My parents separated when I was 8, my sister 6 and baby brother was just 2. We moved with my mother into my father’s parent’s place on 10th Avenue West in the Queen Anne neighborhood while my father stayed in Fresno, Calif., trying to sell our underwater home during a recession.
It was a deeply bittersweet time because as much as we loved hanging out with Nana and Papa, we missed our dad terribly. By the end of the school year, my mother left us to marry our stepfather and my sibs and I spent the next decade bouncing around with our father through various addresses and a couple of wives. By the time I was 17, I opted to live with a friend for my senior year in high school in Bellevue rather than follow the family up to Kodiak, Alaska, where my dad had landed a job.
It’s no wonder I was hooked on soap operas while growing up. But I found my way and sometimes my sibs and I marvel at how well we turned out, all things considered.
We had a chance to celebrate that sibling bond during a recent gathering by the Icicle River in Leavenworth, where six of my father’s eight grownup kids showed up and visited, hugged, laughed and ate amazing potluck dishes in the yard where we had played as kids. Yes, it was the best kind of full circle as our sisters Jenni and Colleen invited us to hang out on their parents’ property. Gloria, the first of my stepmothers, even joined in the celebration -- and it was pure joy.
What made this very special day even more meaningful for the Going Mobile team was that we got to return to one of our all-time favorite RV parks. This trip, we made a new discovery, opting for a spot high on the bluff at Icicle River RV Park, the mountain stream cascading below our campsite. On a Sunday evening, we had the entire portion of the park to ourselves. What a gift!
My sister Laurel and her husband Greg, showed up and we had an impromptu pizza party. Thanks for coming through again, George Foreman smokeless grill!
The takeaway from the quick trip was that, yes, life can get messy and complicated, especially when you’re a kid who doesn’t really have control over your situation. But that’s why it’s so important to celebrate those moments of peace and harmony. No, I’m not crying, you’re crying.
Back in Seattle, our new home base is less than a mile from Nana and Papa’s old place and I drive by it often. Sometimes, I feel wistful, wondering what could have happened had things gone differently for my mother and father. But then again, I am so grateful at how my life turned out and all those bumps in the road gave me the gift of resilience.
