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Sharon and I started RV’ing almost by accident. We purchased a boat, a 21 foot bowrider, in 2010 when our children were teenagers. We have 5 children – Lauren, Elizabeth, Danny, Allyson, and Ashlyn – and after they got older and started venturing away from their childhood activities of baseball, basketball, dance, cheerleading, chorus, etc, Sharon and I tried to come up with an activity that we all would enjoy and the kids would still consider “cool” enough to hang out with their parents. Since we only lived about 10 miles from Clarks Hill lake, a 71,000 acre US Army Corp of Engineers reservoir on the Savannah River that borders GA and SC, we started thinking about ways to spend more time at the lake. Just going to a day use area and sitting in the hot and humid sun did not appeal to me at all, but Sharon would have LOVED it because she loves to soak in the sun. Hence, the boat.
We fell in love with boating immediately, and so did the kids. We started spending almost every Saturday and Sunday after church at the lake in the boat. The kids would wakeboard, tube, ski, and bring their friends for the same. We had friends that lived on the lake and we would pull up to their dock and sit, talk, swim, and cookout. We loved it and spent almost every weekend, all weekend doing it.
Of course we had to trailer the boat back and forth for every trip, which after a few years of doing that we started thinking that since we spend so much time there anyway, let’s just buy a house at the lake and make it permanent. Well, we realized that a house on the lake really wasn’t in our budget. After a couple of years of trying to figure out a way to “move to the lake”, I mentioned the idea of an RV. Clarks Hill lake has dozens of campgrounds around it, and if we can’t find a permanent home on the lake, maybe we could just go camping and spend the weekends there.
We did not know the first thing about camping. I had been a few times when I was in the Boy Scouts, Sharon had been a few times when she was a teenager with friends who had campers, and I took the kids a few times tent camping on our Father/Kids Sunday School jug fishing trips, but we really had no experience camping. And I KNEW Sharon was NOT going to tent camp, so that never even crossed my mind to try.
After dropping hints every few months about the idea of an RV, we started “kicking the tires”. We casually looked at some brochures, manufacturer websites, and went to a couple of RV dealer lots, but nothing really jumped out at us. One day while out, we drove by Augusta RV in Evans GA. A longtime friend of ours, Richard Fender, owns the RV service and storage center and we decided to drop by and just mention our idea of maybe buying an RV and see what his thoughts and suggestions might be.
Come to find out, he actually had a few RV’s on consignment and showed us a travel trailer he thought we may find interesting. Needless to say, the moment we stepped in the 2017 Heartland Mallard M29 we knew almost immediately this was what we were looking for. We looked it over a few times, had Augusta RV do an inspection, and a few days later we were RV owners without a clue.
Our first trip was a week later to a USACOE campground at Clarks Hill and we have been hooked ever since, trying to go at least once a month during the winter months, and every possible weekend during the spring and summer months.
I have said many times to anyone willing to listen to me talk about RV’ing (and I can talk all day about it), “I wish we had done this 20 years ago”. If you are even casually thinking about getting an RV and wondering if it would be something you might enjoy, do it, we do not think you will be disappointed. Although we jumped in feet first, there are many opportunities out there to rent an RV and try it out first. It is definitely a commitment of time and resources, but it has been one of the most enjoyable investments we have made.
Editors Note: This is our first blog, so it may not be the most polished or informative, but hopefully it gives you an idea of how we started RV’ing and why we love it so much. We hope you enjoy the article and we look forward to providing future posts that we hope will be entertaining and informative and may help you to also enjoy the RV camping lifestyle.
This post may contain affiliate links. We may receive a commission from purchases made through these links. Please see our full Disclosure Policy below for more information.