We recently purchased our first RV, a Sunray 109. It’s a mini lightweight camper that we can pull with my small SUV. We named her, Little Roadster. The kids are all adults now, so this was a purchase for just us. It’s bittersweet. I miss my small children. The cuddles for story time and their abundance of hugs and kisses. Life wasn’t easy or perfect raising children, but the times I reflect on are the treasured moments, not the occasional melt downs, or sibling squabbles, or the torrent of teenage hood amplified by technology. I miss the simple sweet days.
With the growth of our children we are now in a place where everything is changing. The cost of living in Connecticut is daunting to us as we enter our golden years. Taxes and energy are quite honestly oppressive. Every time we turn around it’s a giant electric bill, a tax bill, an auto repair, insurance, you name it, it’s risen to heights that make it hard to keep up! For years I have driven by All RV in East Hampton, CT, thinking someday, I want a camper to explore the country, rest in the woods while I strum my ukulele and sing. When the kids were little an RV felt overwhelming. With just the husband and I, it’s a breeze for two. What an adventure awaits us!
We enjoy playing music and participating in festivals. Sometimes we create a stage and bring sound equipment. We have a nice system, if the weather is kind, it is golden, if it is stormy, it is hard work. The most relaxing by far is just two acoustic instruments and the two of us. We enjoy building a stage in the woods and having family and friends join us to play. There is nothing quite as sweet as live original music. At night when I lay my head down after a music festival, I can hear all the melodies and songs dancing in my head as I drift into sleep. We have no desire to live in an RV full time. We need our roots grounded in this earth. We’re part time singing gypsies of the road. The stark reality of living in Connecticut is a fiscal nightmare of taxes, user fines and fees, and high energy costs.
Take a listen to this recording of my mom and here beautiful music. Recorded live at PorcFest.
Love Lost by Joan Roche
We are a one party state with a super majority of Democrats. The minority Republicans are not much better. Government frustrates me and it is not what I want to focus on at this moment, though it is the cause of my angst! We need solutions. For us, a solution is relocating out of Connecticut. There are many pieces to this puzzle. The mini camper, Little Roadster, is a big part of that piece. Hotels are not my thing. I much rather be in my camper. We took our first trip to the White Mountains of New Hampshire for PorFest. It was a stormy up and down and all around kinda time! From severe heat to severe thundershowers. The weather kept us on our toes. Little Roadster, kept us dry and fed.
The kitchen is my favorite part of the mini camper. I open her up and whip out my cast iron and make simple and delicious meals. The camper has a mini fridge with a great freezer. I brought a weeks worth of frozen farm fresh meat I got from a local farmer. Buying directly from local farms is also a solution. Thank you to all the farmers that keep us fed! I fed myself, husband, and my mom, from the mini kitchen. It’s fun to be in a camp ground, especially at a festival. I like both kinds of camping, camping in solitude, and festival camping. We’re taking Little roadster to Rhode Island for Rhythm and Roots in August. It’s a short trip, but will be rich with music, food, friends, and good times. In the fall we are taking Little Roadster to the southeast to look for new places to plant down roots. I want to travel and experience a place before we leave. I love Connecticut, but the corruption is overwhelming. This cronyism leads to high energy and food prices, high taxes and the cost of living in general. I feel torn, then I read an article about yet another tax, another fee, and the energy bills come in. It’s thousands of dollars just in taxes and energy costs, never mind food! So off we go in our Little Roadster, to explore, singing and strumming, as we ride the country side..
The Adventures of Little Roadster