Memories of My Parents

My parents were my inspiration for many decisions that I made in my life and the main inspiration to live the RV lifestyle. Even though they didn’t have much money, my parents always made sure that we had family vacations, often staying in cabins or my Dad’s hunting camp, usually somewhere to enjoy being out in nature.

my sister enjoying daytona in front of my parents first trailer. five of us traveled to florida with that little thing!

When I was 17, they purchased their first travel trailer. It was small but still perfect for family adventures. Over the years, they slowly upgraded to large travel trailers and eventually a fifth wheel. When I could take time off from work, I continued to join them on vacations in their trailer. When my Dad retired, they decided to become snowbirds and spend their winters in their trailer in Florida. They chose a RV Park near Sebastian, FL.

This couple reminded me of my parents although my dad would have been fishing and mom sitting with her needlework to keep busy while he fished. fishing was one of the reasons they choose to spend the winter near sebastian.

I remember initially thinking, how can you live in such a small space for 5-6 months out of the year? It was especially crowded when Tim, me, and the girls came for visits but we loved seeing them in their winter home. The trailer offered all of the comforts of home and where they were located, the weather was usually great so you could spend most of your time outdoors and even better, at the beach! I came to realize that this was a perfect way to live in retirement and told Tim that I wanted to do this when we retired.

I took it a step further and suggested we live full time in the trailer and travel the country. I am not sure Tim was game at first; but over time, he agreed to do it for a few years. We are now 3 years into this lifestyle and we will probably keep doing it for a few more years. Since their life was our inspiration, I wanted to visit the RV Park that was their winter home for over 25 years.

Luckily for us, Sunshine Travel RV Resort, is part of our Trails Collection membership, which is an add on to our Thousand Trails membership. We can stay for free at this park for up to 3 weeks with our membership. I was so excited to get here and meet the folks in the park, especially to see if any of my parent’s friends were still here.

Even though it has been 11 years since Mom passed and 7 for Dad, I feel their presence here in this park. Memories of spending time with them when my kids were little flood back as I walk past their old lot. I can still see Kim and Katie as toddlers playing in front of their trailer and tears come to my eyes. I am sad but also happy to have such wonderful memories.

kim and katie enjoying a visit to sunshine travel

The park had a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner. At it, I was able to meet some of parents friends. They were all happy to meet us and said how much they enjoyed my parents. One couple had spent quite a bit of time with them square dancing and talked about how much they enjoyed dancing with my parents. Another mentioned that at the weekly coffee meeting, she loved that my Mom always had tea. Its these small things that bring back bittersweet memories.

While we have spent most of our time here enjoying the park, we also got out to visit the area a bit. That also brought back some great memories. We went to Captain Hirams for dinner a couple of times. This was one of our favorite spots when we stayed here with my parents. We also went to the beach and spent an afternoon at the Sebastian Inlet State Park. I loved walking around the park, along the inlet and the ocean, and seeing many beautiful birds.

Loved seeing the many birds at the Sebastian inlet state park

The beach at sebastian inlet. it was a cool day at the beach but still beautiful

We have hit a few other restaurants along the water and drove up to Cocoa Beach to meet Tim’s sister Sue and her husband Greg for lunch last Saturday. Tim’s cousin, Mark, joined us and it was great to see him again. It had been about 15 years since we last saw him.

Enjoying an afternoon at Captain Hiram’s

All in all, our brief stay at Sunshine Travel has been wonderful. Even though we can’t travel back in time, being able to spend time here allows us to live in our memories for a little while. Till next time……

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