Moose Don't Look Both Ways! by LMCpublications

I would like to thank the Academy, my family, my neighbors, the guy down the street, the traffic cop who didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t give me a ticket, my two cats, Traveler, Sallie and of course my sweetie who all inspired me one way or another to chronicle this journey and who all taught me that when life gives you lemons, you go find a cookbook. Thank you all. This book is also dedicated to all the RV campground owners and staff who so patiently helped teach a total newbie in the RV World. Many thanks to you and to the road angels who guided and protected me.

Table Of Contents Forbidden Fruit The Devil Made Me Do It Traveler RV Lessons My Master’s Degree A Learning Curve Everything Old Is New Breaking Camp There Always Has To Be A Beginning High Country California Dreaming Hell On A Bad Day Another Change Heading Home Basic RV 101 On The Road Again Hooking Up On My Own Open Road A Piece of Cake Road Angel The Sky Has Fallen Canadian Sunset About Canada Eh!

Designer Dreams A Gypsies Life The Devil Is In The Details Potholes Deja Vu Northward Bound Travel Delay Desert Songs Moose Don’t Look Both Ways Hidden Treasure A Tribute Border Crossing Cool At Last A Rose By Any Other Name As Fate Would Have It Getting Lost Unseen Travelers Bits and Breaks Westward Ho Finding Me Something To Prove Campgrounds About The Author

Forbidden Fruit “You can’t do it,” he said. “Can’t do what? I said knowing perfectly well what he meant. “You can’t... DO it.” “I’m only looking,” jumping ahead with no further explanation needed. “You can’t do it. You don’t have the knowledge or skills so it is pointless. You can’t do it... so why look?” This conversation resulted from a simple request. All I asked was for us to go to the RV show at the convention center. It was a just a simple request and I didn’t understand his reluctance. My spouse had no clue to a woman’s mind... or rather this woman’s mind. I was only looking, window shopping... something built into a woman’s DNA. I just wanted to “see”... he read deeper into my psyche and saw “buy!” What he didn’t realize was that he had uttered fighting words, that in fact he was issuing a challenge. A challenge which had to be met. Forbidden fruit is always more tasty. I stored it all away... one day I was going to taste that fruit regardless of what he said. His words were running through my mind, as five years later, I was sitting in the office of a RV dealership and doing just that. The forbidden fruit was right in front of me and it was going to be sweet! Things had changed for me. A recent widow, with my home sold, with my life in turmoil and with me at a total loss as to what to do, where to go... how to go on. My circumstances had changed completely. It was the perfect time to taste forbidden fruit, it was the perfect time to buy an RV. The day was a hot 105 degrees with a broiling sun shining in a cloudless Arizona day. Somehow dry heat didn’t make it feel any cooler. I was sitting in an air conditioned office sweating but then maybe it was more than the heat making me sweat.

The office was an old mobile home converted to office space. Even with AC it sweltered. For some reason it seemed old mobile homes are the RV office of choice in the desert... and always hot. I should have realized that what I was looking at was another form of a mobile home and these metal boxes on wheels... would always be hot. I had been here for over two hours and I was tired. My fanny hurt from sitting. I was hungry and I was annoyed with the salesman running in and out and he seemed to do nothing but run in and out. What I didn’t know at the time was that this was all part of the selling ritual, the process to wear down the resistance of a client. What he didn’t know was that in my case there was no resistance to wear down... none at all. I was alone in the office for some time when another person... another potential customer joined my wait. A big man in shorts and rumpled shirt had entered the office with salesman in tow and began the same ritual that I was going through. Whereas I kept nodding in agreement, he kept rejecting what his salesman was offering causing his sales guy to run in and out even more than mine. Finally the salesman said to him “What can I do to get you into this...” I was in awe... this man was in complete control. Sadly I never did find out what it took to get him to buy that RV and I needed lessons. At that moment my sales guy returned and a client already hooked... lost in the romance of being an RV owner and the freedom it offered, I’d taken the bait... hook, line and sinker. My sweeties words kept running through my head... echoing in my mind. “You can’t do this... you can’t do this… YOU CAN’T DO THIS!” all the while countered by my salesman’s words... “Yes you can. Yes you can. YES YOU CAN!” It was a case of good cop bad cop but I wasn’t sure if it was the good one or the bad one who did the winning. Much had changed in the five years since my sweetie pronounced me unfit to go to the RV show. He knew of which he spoke because his 40 foot motor home had been his castle and he made many trips across the USA and Canada... but he was gone now, having passed away the previous autumn. I was alone with the dream and this

dreamer was about to create her own dream. I wanted to get away from my present life. To flee from the pain of loss. I wanted to escape and the RV salesman gave me the key to the door or in this case the RV. I signed the papers. RV is a glorious term, what I bought was the VISION, the vision of escaping my present life, the vision of no roots... the vision of going where I wanted, when I wanted. The vision of freedom and of the open road. Oh it was a glorious vision! What I actually bought was a little tin box on wheels with a whole lot of learning ahead. It was a tin box that you filled with gas, plugged in to make things work and which came with sewer lines. A tin box which was always hot and which needed two spaces to park. I was the perfect first time RV buyer... a dreamer and one with good credit... and my salesman sold me the dream while he checked my credit rating. Like a lamb to slaughter I eagerly sought that dream buying into the adventure of a life time. It is said that when a door closes another opens. I never suspected that the door in question was to an RV. He had been a world traveler as well, he’d been to Europe, Russia and the Far East. He had often cruised on grand ships and toured in his deluxe motor home. The world had been his oyster and he enjoyed only the best and finest available and... he shared it all with me. So in a way he was to blame. His stories and photos enthralled me. He spoke often of his beloved motor home and his long meandering trips. He glowed every time he shared these experiences. It was he who was the real salesman. I bought into my dream but into his dream as well. He was a mechanical contractor with every kind of technical skill and believed that I, without those skills, was unqualified to own an RV. What he overlooked was a fierce determination and this woman’s logic that the world was everyone’s oyster and this woman wanted a string of pearls! He was to blame with his wonderful stories but even more so for uttering those words. Creating the challenge. The very fact that he said “you can’t” prompted the “I can” in me. Five years after he uttered those fighting words I was sitting in an RV office preparing to accept the gauntlet. Preparing to join the RV club. I was about to test my own wings and to fly the coop to live the dream. I was preparing to prove him wrong. I was about to accept the challenge and say “yes I can.” The irony was that I didn’t have a clue about the world I was entering and with that... I proved that he was right.

CAMPGROUNDS USA CAMPGROUNDS Arizona Zane Grey RV Park 4500 Arizona 260, Camp Verde, AZ 86322 1-928-567-4320

Missouri Beacon RV Park 822 S. Belt Highway, St. Joseph, MO 64507 1-816-279-5417

J & H RV Park 7901 US 89, Flagstaff, AZ 86004 1-928-526-1829

Nebraska Prairie Oasis Campground 913 Road B, Henderson, NE 68371 1-403-723-5227

California Rio Verde Trailer Park 971 W. Main St., Barstow, CA 92311 1-760-256-8836 Shadow Hills RV Resort 40655 Jefferson St., Indio, CA 92203 1-760-360-4040 Iowa Timberline Campground 31365 Ashworth Rd., Waukee, IA 50263 1-515-987-1714 Interstate RV Park 8448 N. Fairmount St., Davenport, IA 52806 1-563-386-7292 Whispering Oaks Campground 1011 Timberland Dr., Story City, IA 50248 1-515-733-4664 Kansas RJâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s RV Park 4100 E US Highway 50, Garden City, KS 67846 1-620-276-8741 Michigan Waffle Farm Campground 790 N. Union City Rd., Coldwater, MI 49036 1-517-278-4315 Newberry KOA 13724 M28, Newberry, MI 49868 1-906-293-5762

New Mexico Circle B RV Park 26514 US 70, Ruidoso Downs, NM 88346 1-575-378-4990 Demming Roadrunner RV Park 2849 E. Pine St., Demming, NM 88030 1-575-546-6960 Oklahoma Rockwell RV Park & Campground 720 S. Rockwell Ave., Oklahoma City, OK 73128 1-405-787-5992 Texas Mission RV Park 1420 RV Drive, El Paso, TX 79928 1-915-859-1133 Amarillo KOA 1100 Folsom Rd., Amarillo, TX 79108 1-806-335-1792 Wisconsin Diamond Lake Campground W5449 Loomis Rd., Porterfield, WI 54149 1-715-789-2113 Pettibone Resort on the River 333 Park Plaza Dr., La Crosse, WI 54601 1-608-782-5279

CANADIAN CAMPGROUNDS Ontario, Canada The Summer Place Marine & Campgrounds 18254 Kent Bridge Rd., Morpeth, ON N0P 1X0 1-519-674-2326 Wildwood Golf & RV Resort 11112 11th Concession Rd., McGregor, ON N0R 1J0 1-519-726-6176 On Golden Pond 4340 Cromarty Dr., Mossley, ON N0L 1V0 1-519-485-0679 Milton Heights Campground 8690 Tremaine Rd., Milton, ON L9T 2X7 1-905-878-6781 Primrose Park 635687 Highway 10, Shelburne, ON L0N 1S0 1-519-925-2848 River Haven Resort & Campground Magnetawan River Rd., Britt, ON P0G 1A0 1-705-383-2426 Serpent River Campground Ontario 17, Spragge, ON P0R 1K0 1-705-849-2210

About The Author LM Costello has dual heritage with both US and Canadian roots. Born in Canada, she spent early days in Ontario moving as an adult to Arizona. She has traveled across the North American continent many times by plane, train and automobile including of course... by RV! She is a widow and swears it wasn't her cooking. As an artist, writer and cowgirl, she has lived on remote Arizona ranches, guided tours into the desert and mountains, went to school in England and traveled the world with the elite of show horses. She lives an eclectic and diverse life, is a dedicated environmentalist, animal lover and traveler.