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Season Opener: Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina

At some point this February, my husband set off to retrieve the family camper from South Jersey. We had (once again) dropped the pop-up off for some repairs at the dealership, where it proceeded to stay for the better part of two months awaiting parts and pieces.

At last everything was right as rain and while Jeremy went to pick it up, I did boring weekend chores like grocery shopping and banking.

Well. We just happened to pull back into our driveway at the same time Jeremy was pulling up with the camper. The squeals of delight that erupted from the backseat shocked me because, quite frankly, it is just a pop-up and did we really miss seeing the hulking beast in our driveway all winter? Apparently so. I played along, expressing utter glee (Hip Hip Hooray! The camper is back!) as I ushered the boys into the house.

Do you see the punchline of this story coming? I certainly didnt.

Here is the thing I discovered as I watched an enormous multiples meltdown shatter the peace of our Saturday morning: the boys were not excited that the camper was back. They were excited because they thought we were going camping. Right then. In February.

You try explaining weather and seasons and months and all that waiting nonsense to two and a half year-olds. See how that goes for you. I told them it was too cold for camping. They started to furiously pull out hats and gloves from the closet and insisted that they were not cold. Here all of my propaganda about it never being too cold to play outside came back to bite me big time.

I eventually took them outside and pointed to the trees in our backyard. I told them that we couldnt go camping until the leaves had grown back on the trees. They had to be very patient and watchful boys, keeping an eye on the trees. I dont know why this worked, but it did. Theo in particular spent the next week giving me the daily update on the leaf situation. Eventually, the boys moved on and I heard not a peep about the camper through the whole month of March.

So I was pretty excited to tell them last week that we were finally going camping:

Guess what, I asked in that goofy drawn-out singsong mommy voice.
What, they replied, thinking they might be getting something with sugar in it.
We get to go camping this weekend! Isnt that exciting?
No we not, says my master of the universe toddler.
What do you mean, honey? Yes, we are going camping. This weekend. We leave in two days.
Mommy, we cant go camping. The leaves arent on the trees.

This argument continued as we packed, loaded up, and set off on our journey to North Carolina. Somewhere in Virginia I triumphantly turned to Theo and said, Look! See all those leaves on the trees. I told you there would be leaves.

To which he replied disdainfully, No Mama--those arent trees; those are bushes.

Welcome to our third season with the Mouthy Lively Little Campers. Despite the ongoing debate, the camper has already hit the road (and kept us warm through 30 degree nights!). We had a marvelous time hiking, zip lining, and experimenting with bows and arrows. As always, we hope we can inspire you to strap those kids into the car and do some exploring.

Just remember to bring them back home with you.
Happy Camping.

The Lively Little Campers have met several other kindred RV Travelers through this blog and we always love to hear about their adventures on the open road.  So when we found out that John and Cathy, two of our long time readers, were heading to New Zealand for an RV trip, we just knew that we had to get in on the action!  Since we arent able to hop on a plane and join them we decided to invite them to do some guest blogging about their trip preparations and the trip itself.  When the boys get old enough for international RV travel I hope to look back at these posts as a guide for our own New Zealand Adventure.  So John and Cathy, welcome to our blog!  We wish you safety and joy on your epic adventure!



Have you ever tried to find a needle in a haystack?  How about finding a person in a country of four million plus?  That was the task we faced as we tried to find and contact the exchange student that we took on a cross country trip 12 years ago.

I first met Ria at an organization meeting of the track team that I was coaching at the high school where I was teaching.  During the track season she became one of the athletes that I depended on.  She was more mature than most of the other students since she had already completed high school in New Zealand.  On the day that she informed me that her host was ill and could not travel over the summer, it became obvious to me that she could accompany us on a trip to Berkeley, California to visit my daughter and new grandson.  She was an excellent traveler and my wife and I came to appreciate her maturity and her stories of New Zealand. 

Many years later, once we decided to visit New Zealand, we knew that seeing Ria and meeting her family would be an important part of the adventure.  A letter was soon dispatched to her address, but it was returned.  She and her parents had moved.  She married, but again that address drew a blank.  The email address that we had also elicited no response.  We were about to give up trying to reunite with our �travel daughter.�  She is here, taking a break from hiking in the Grand Canyon.


However, serendipity came to our rescue.  Coming home from work one day we found that the ceiling in our �office� had fallen in.  What a mess we faced, plaster and dust everywhere.  In cleaning the mess, I found a map of New Zealand.  On the map, two cities were highlighted.  One was the capital of New Zealand, Wellington, a big city.  The second was a much smaller town, Cromwell on the South Island.  I was so excited, I googled Cromwell and found the New Zealand equivalent of the Chamber of Commerce.  I emailed them with my tale of woe, not being able to find my former exchange student.  I gave them her name, and what I thought was her married name, Smith.  The next day I received an email from Ria�s father!

Imagine how excited we were at finally being able to connect with this young lady that we had not heard from since a thank you note for a wedding gift from 2006.  Since then Chris, Ria�s dad, has sent us material and given us much advice about our trip.  This has taken a lot of anxiety out of our planning.  By the way, I had the last name wrong, really wrong.  That was why I could not find her on Facebook or other social media.

We really can�t wait to see Ria, her husband and young son, as well as her mom and dad.  This is a picture of Ria from her wedding, she looked so radiant and happy.



A connection had been made across the length of North America and the Pacific Ocean.



Thanks to guest bloggers John and Cathy for sharing this first installment of their epic New Zealand adventure.  We look forward to all of their upcoming posts!

Best--The Lively Little Campers