Who are the people in your (RV) neighborhood?

Yes it is a song from Sesame Street but I feel it’s quite appropriate for this situation. Before we left Erwin we had a chance to chat with some of our neighbors. While my striking up conversations with people drives my family (mostly the kids) crazy I think you can learn a lot by being friendly.

(Don’t worry—all these conversations took place while using social distancing guidelines…lol) For instance, one young mom and her daughter had booked a cabin there for 3 months and were only 10 days into their trip. They were from Texas. Another gentleman and his daughter lived there in the area and from the sounds of it somehow were involved with the owners of the RV park (maybe his parents?). He was a contractor and was thinking about moving to New Smyrna Beach, Florida.

The most interesting conversation happened while we were trying to start our fire (FYI—if would never survive in the wild—we couldn’t even start a fire with a lighter 🙄). Our RV neighbors we hadn’t seen at all until then. I asked something simple and found out they had been there for a few days and were from The Villages in Florida. This is about 45 minutes from where we live. Of course, we then mentioned we weren’t FloGrown we were born and raised in Ohio. Where? The Cleveland/Akron area. What? They lived and raised their children one town over from where my husband was born and raised. Crazy right?

We then find out they are in Nolichucky because the husband is hiking the whole Appalachian Trail. Evidently this is a thing . You have one year to hike the whole Appalachian Trail. https://appalachiantrail.org/explore/hike-the-a-t/thru-hiking/. It’s 2,190 miles long. That’s a lot of walking. Our neighbor, we found out, had left in February and then got stopped when they shut the trail down because of Covid. So they added an extra 10 weeks onto his time so he can finish. He mentioned about 3,000 people a year sign up but only about 1/4 of them are able to finish the journey.

I meant to get his information before we left so that I could follow his journey and see if he is able to finish, but the opportunity to talk again never happened! Listening to him I learned a lot that I previously didn’t know, so I hope he is able to accomplish his dream and can do so successfully!

So, if you get a chance to strike up a conversation with your RV neighbor try it. Most people are quite friendly and you might learn something you didn’t know before!