My full-timing Anniversary part deux

Click the pics and you might witness the Empire striking back.

My family had a Halloween party last night, mostly for the little kids. They fixed up a haunted house in the garage, and everyone came in costume, my family was Star Wars characters. It appeared that everyone had a good time. Unfortunately it got too dark for me to take pictures so I only got a couple of pictures in the daylight. That's the problem with Halloween and haunted houses.... Their dark!

So yesterday, I talked about how I enjoyed boondocking because of all the freedom it gave me. But it wasn't just that; I also enjoy not having to camp elbow to elbow with 100 other campers and listen to their TV, music, and alcohol-fueled arguments. Most of the time, when I'm boondocking I can stay as close or far away from other RVs as I want.

Another benefit, and oddly enough, this is one of the least important things to me, is that boondocking is free.... Most of the time. But despite that, as I've mentioned in my blog before, if boondocking cost money and RV parks were free, I would still  boondock.

There are other reasons I gravitated towards boondocking; I feel it's a better quality of life to be out in the woods or the desert. And I like the challenge of it; I think having to find a place to boondock everywhere I go keeps me on my toes, keeps me thinking, and gives me a feeling of accomplishment that I'm self-sufficient and can depend on myself to provide for my safety and comfort wherever I choose.

So, all in all, I love my full-timing lifestyle. I'm going into my eighth year of living in an RV which is longer than some but not as long as others. I'm unsure if there's a secret to enjoying a full-time life; it comes easy for some folks but not others. I believe that if you have a type "A" personality and find it hard to sit down and relax, full timing may not be the best way to live, but I think any kind of retirement lifestyle is difficult for a type "A" personality, I run into them every once in a while, and there usually over 70 years old and still working two jobs at the campground.

The main thing is to find a way to be happy, and for me, that's doing exactly what I'm doing. I didn't know my full-timing life would be the way it is; I just adapted to the way it became. When I moved out of my home, my daughter and her husband lived on the seventh floor of an apartment building in downtown Denver with barely enough room to park a car in the parking lot, much less a filth wheel, and there were no grandkids.

The first Summer, I came back to Denver to visit. I figured on staying at an RV park near Denver, but my daughter and son-in-law bought a house, closed on it the day I got to Denver, and I spent the night in their driveway before they even moved in. And the next thing you know, I've got grandkids, and I get to spend the Summer parked in their driveway. None of that was planned, but somehow it all worked out.

Living in my family's driveway in Denver during the Summer and traveling around the Southwest in the winter is perfect. If there were a way to improve my life, I would do it, but right now, I can't imagine what that would be.

I am still determining what the end of my full-time life will be: I could go out with a bang or go out with a whimper, but so far, I'm not ready to go out at all. I enjoy my life. And like I've said before, if I won the lottery, I would replace my 15-year-old truck with a new one and continue to live exactly the way I do now.

Theboondork

The inimitable Queen Amidala played to perfection by my daughter. And her pet Ewok disguised as something resembling a dog.

Appearing for one Halloween only, Princess Leia, and Luke Skywalker.

The cutest of the cute in every known universe, Princess Leia.... Also known as my granddaughter.

My grandson who takes his role very seriously, appearing as Luke Skywalker.

And of course, the baddest of the bad, destroyer of worlds, Darth Vader. Usually known as my son-in-law.