For the most part my daily life is truly wonderful to me, but an outside observer would have to consider it very boring. But this week something really exceptional happened, my mom came out to Flagstaff and then out to camp to visit with me! When I moved to the Lower 48 to live I promised my mom I would come to Florida and visit here every other year, but on the off year she had to come and visit with me—well I have kept my promise but she hasn’t; up till now!
Kenneth, my mom, my aunt Fran and my cousin Kenni at the Grand Canyon.
She has a sister (my aunt Fran) who lives in Clovis, NM and they are very close. They make it a point to see each other every year and this year my mom was flying out to Clovis to visit Fran. Since we were so close she decided they would drive on to Flagstaff and see me as well. Fran has a daughter there (my cousin Kenni) who is married to a great guy, Kenneth (yes, they really are Kenneth and Kenni). They very generously offered to drive my mom and Fran out to see me and take a mini-vacation.
My mom at the Grand Canyon.
They got in to Flagstaff on Sunday and I met them at their motel. We had a nice visit and made plans. On Monday we drove up to the Grand Canyon and played tourist. Of course we visited the South Rim and the Visitors Center, but we weren’t content with just that. We stopped for lunch at a pizza place and then went to see about a helicopter ride over the Canyon. They were all booked up but we found seats on a plane that did tours of the Canyon and booked it instead. It was a great trip and gave us a really unique view of the Canyon.
Mom and I at the Canyon.
Boarding the plane.
The drive north on Highway 180 is really a beautiful drive and I was reminded again just how beautiful this part of Arizona is. We all kept saying over and over again what a great trip it was. The main landmark near Flagstaff is Humphreys Peak which is the tallest peak in Arizona at 12,637. Flagstaff is just south of it and it dominates the sky line and great contributes to the cities beauty. There are Forest Service roads running part-way up it and you can camp in beautiful forests at 8,000 feet with great views of it and still only be 15 miles north of Flagstaff.
Looking south from the plane toward Flagstaff. The Grand Canyon is surrounded by beautiful Ponderosa Pine forest and has tons of free dispersed camping.
On Tuesday we went to Downtown Flagstaff and wandered around. We all really liked the old-timey feel of it and its many wonderful little shops. After that we stopped for lunch and drove out to my camp so my mom could get to see the way I live. Of course taking the tour of my little trailer didn’t take very long because it is so tiny, but my backyard really is enormous and I think it really impressed them! And that’s what is important to me. While we were sitting there we got to see a deer walking through the forest behind us. While we were visiting my good friends Steve and Bryce dropped by and we all visited together.
It doesn’t get better than this! Family and friends gathered around my tiny home in my enormous backyard! Pull up a stump and sit awhile!
After we visited for awhile they drove back into Flagstaff and headed back to Clovis on Wednesday morning. While reflecting on their visit I thought about all the people I’ve talked to who say their families are very disapproving of them becoming vandwellers so I consider myself very lucky to have a mom who loves me so much that her only goal for me is that I be happy. Of course my life is not one that would make her happy, but she is very accepting of it since it does make me happy.
Mom and I in camp. Even Homer is super excited to finally get to meet her!
I’m also very fortunate that I not only love my mom, I like her and I like spending time with her. And even better, I think she likes me too! There is just about no one I would rather spend time with than her! I am always amazed by how many people I talk to who say that they can’t stand spending time with their parents and they actually seem to hate each other. I am extremely grateful to have grown up in a loving home with an accepting mom.
Kenneth and Kenni on the flight. These are good people and knowing my aunt has such caring children to take care of her is tremendous.
It must run in the family because my aunt Fran is also a wonderful person and her daughter (my cousin) Kenni is a very caring daughter and loves and takes great care of her mother and my mom too. She and her husband Kenneth very graciously insisted on driving them out here. They had originally planned on driving themselves but they are old enough now that didn’t seem like a good idea. I’m very grateful to Kenneth and Kenni for driving them out.
As wonderful as it was to have mom visit and to get to fly around the Canyon, when we flew over this RV literally in the middle of nowhere with no one around them, I knew in my heart that was always going to be my home.
Visiting with mom is priceless!
Indeed!
Bob
Thanks for writing this, Bob. A heartwarming account of a magnificent time. I’m biased, but I think a lot of parents simply want to know that their kids are getting along okay and are doing or pursuing what makes them happy. Not a whole lot else matters much. Whenever your family can let you be you and just enjoy your company, you’ve got it made. That works both ways, of course. This post also places the Grand Canyon on my bucket list.
Doug you were so close and you never made it up to the grand Canyon? It definitely should be high on your bucket list!
Bob
Very cool.
Thanks Kim!
Bob
Yay for mom visits! I hope my kids will be as excited to see me someday, too. 🙂
LaVonne, me to! time has a way of making parents cool again.
Bob
Pretty sure you’ve just made serious brownie points with all the moms here, Bob. 🙂
LaVonne, I need all the brownie points I can get!
Bob
It is always a very good thing when you really like your near relatives.
It really is Mary! I am so grateful to have a good relationship with mine!
Bob
Way to go Bob’s Mom!!!! Thx for sharing your visit & pics with family – special memories for sure:) Greetings from Stanley, Idaho.
Gretchen Rose, so you are finally on the move and almost out of the Pacific Northwest! Idaho is beautiful, I envy you being there!
Bob
Wonderful, Bob, truly wonderful. What a nice visit. Having spent the last month or more visiting my descendants in their environs… I appreciate your Mom’s acceptance of your lifestyle. I guess I am mellowing and that is very good as I am finding the lifestyles of my grown descendants a little easier to accept these days. It is true that what most parents want for their kids is that they become happy adults… I know I always told my boys that… things like “I don’t care if you are a garbage collector, so long as you are a happy garbage collector.” I meant it from the bottom of my heart, but we never really know what their futures are going to look like. So happy your Mom is at peace with your life… and even happier that I am now at peace with the lives of my descendants.
Family dynamics are tough for a lot of people! I consider myself truly blessed to have such a great mom!
Bob
Good for your Mom for supporting you even if she may not understand your lifestyle. My parent were campers but neither were fulltimers; still they are the ones who taught me to love this lifestyle. It’s one of the things for which I am grateful.
Linda, you are very fortunate to have such good parents that they took the time to take you camping, so few do anymore. You are also fortunate to have an attitude that counts your blessings and has a grateful attitude. You are a lucky woman! Of course I’m sure you put in a lot of hard work to make it easy for luck to find you. The two seem to go together!
bob
So happy for all of you! I bet your mom would have some great stories to tell around the campfire! 😉
~Naomi
Naomi, I’m sure you are right, but I think that is true of all moms! I’ll bring my mom to the campfire if you bring yours!
Bob
Your mother doesn’t look old enough to have a 39 year old son!
Such a pretty lady. A pretty lady, indeed!!!!
Bless you Al!!! My mom and I both thank you from the bottom of our hearts! I’m 58 and I think with my grey I look it. But she does look great for here age. Shes just 61!
Bob
Very cool
All the best to you and your mom, great pictures
Thnaks pondputz! Are you fulltiming now? If so how is it going?
bob
What a lovely lady! You’re blessed and she is too with a accepting and loving son. I’m now in the same place as your mom. I only want my kids to be happy and healthy – even if their lifestyle isn’t what I need/want for myself.
Sounds like you are a lovely lady as well Pam! I wish you and your sons all the best.
Bob
Your mom is cool. Accepting your choices in life that make you happy. My mom passed away is 2009 and I miss her all the time.
CAE, I don’t want to even think about that.
Bob
Sounds like fun Bob! I admit to being one of those people with bad family relations. I don’t get along well with my dad, and I barely speak to my brother. I haven’t spoken to my sister in about three years, and I hope to never see her again. My mom is the only one i get along with to any degree.
Cyrus, at least there is someone! Unfortunately I think your story is pretty common.
Bob
Bob, reading of your mom’s acceptance of your chosen life is like a breath of fresh air. I can’t even begin to comprehend what that would be like, as my dad has never in my 58 years encouraged me to follow my own dreams or ideas; only his. It’s very depressing. I’ve made my plans regardless and intend to act upon them whether or not he likes it.
Some parents seem to think the reason they have kids is so they can use them to fulfill their own sick fantasies, other parents know that the real reason God gave them kids is so they can teach those kids to fulfill their own dreams, and not those of the parents.
Carry on, and enjoy the life God has given you. Cherish the time you can spend with your mom. It’s a wellspring of refreshing water for you to draw upon in your future. I wish many times I still had mine. I look forward to one day dropping by your camp. By the way….sound decision you made to not publish your location anymore. Being left alone is priceless.
Varmint, I understand exactly how you feel. As a father I had to fight constantly against the desire to use my children to make my life better, to make me feel better about myself. I know how sick that sounds but it really is true, I had to constantly watch my motives as to why I was feeling and reacting to them how I was, and if I was really honest it had nothing to do with them but everything to do with ME.
A conforming child makes us proud and an “odd” child makes us ashamed. And so we find ourselves doing everything we can to make them conform and be good little children so we can show them off. There is no pride in telling your friends that your child is a homeless bum who lives in a van!!
Discovering those things about myself made it easier for me to change and be a better father–although I could and should have been much better!! It also helps me be more sympathetic toward men like your father who weren’t able to be honest with themselves and see the damage they were doing to their children. it’s inexcusable but when you see how easy it is to fall into it and how hard it is to break out of it I can at least say “but for the grace of god there go I.”
Bob
So awesome she came out and had a great visit, just sad we weren’t there to meet the beautiful lady that created such a wonderful man! I guess we’ll just have to meet her next time (wink wink). We miss you guys and hoe to see you all in a few months. Take care of each other!
A few months!!?? I don’t think I can wait that long! I miss you guys!
Bob
Thank all of you for yout lovely replies to
bob’s blog about our visit. Although that lifestyle isn’t for me I’m not only accepting of it for my son, i am so proud of him. I tell everyone I know about his lifestyle. While in Clovis I was talking to a lady friend and gave her this blog address. I stop little old ladies in the street and tell them about my son. There’s a good chance thar we will be going to see him againwithin the next year or two. All my sis and I have to do is mention driving to Arizona and we get lots of offers to drive us. Kinda hurts our feelings. I’m proud of my son and sooo happy that he has all you wonderful people as friends. To get serious for just a second. To those of you who do not have good relationships with your family. It is so important and moreso the older you get. You don’t get a second chance at parents and vice versa and ther will come a time when you will realize what you have missed. My wo children mean the world to me. End of sermon. Bob does them so much better. mom foever.
Thanks Mom!! Wow, two visits out here in a single year! That’s my dream come true!! I am a very, very lucky man to have such a great mom and too have found such wonderful friends. I love you!!!!!!!!!!!
Bob
Bob,
Glad you had a chance to spend some time with them.
LOL and nobody has a better back yard for entertaining than you do.:)
You’ve got that right Curtis!
Bob
Bob;
Your Mom is awesome! You are blessed!
My parents are long gone though I spent a few minutes (Okay, a lot of minutes, I Miss Them!) imagining them visiting my camp…
Dad (was an electrician) – He spends the entire daylight hours adjusting the portable solar panel by micro-degrees, charging everything in sight and running gizmos to use every nano-watt to its greatest advantage and smiling from ear to ear.
Mom (her parents opted out of the depression in the 1920’s and the land they homesteaded in N. Canada, where Mom grew up, is still miles off grid) – She spends too much time going through every single item I own and culling out a pile of excess to give to the needy muttering about feeding/clothing 10 people with less stuff.
Me – I look busy but I’m really waiting for dark when I get to sit between them on a log and they hold hands behind me so I can lean back.
Note to Bob’s Mom: I’m voting for you for Mom of the Decade!!
Joni, it sounds like you and I both hit the lottery when they were handing out moms! You must have a wonderful life!
Bob