COMMUTE FROM THE MOTORHOME, don't mind if I do!
It was mid May in 2019. I was still living out west in Sylvan Lake, Alberta. You will learn one thing about me is there is no time like now to do something and get my wilderness or adventure fix. I had to work Monday to Friday until my vacation in August when I would go to Quetico but I needed a good fix, right now!!! I got creative and found a way to get myself a mini- vacation without missing work! Oh.. I am one creative lady!
Twin Lake is part of Crimson Lake Provincial Park in Alberta just a smidge west of Rocky Mountain House and about 98 kms to Red Deer where I was working at the time. I had the cutest little 1979 Chevrolet Aristocrat complete with AM radio in the driveway and so badly just wanted some Q U I E T solo time!! The good news about May is very few people want to be out camping. The shoulder season is one of my favourites for this very reason! Though the evenings can be little bit chilly it is actually quite refreshing. As luck would have it I found out about this spot Twin Lake in this very quiet little campground where you self register in the off season. Challenge one was that the campground has no services in May. How would a girl handle this. Again, I am my own person and I figure things out. I wasn't going to let that stop my plans.
So this was the plan. I would go out to the motor home every evening after work. In the morning I would drive in to my home at the time in Sylvan Lake, stop in for a shower, drop off my Presley then carry on to work, then in the evening stop off at home grab my fur girl and go back to the motor home. Sounds like a lot of work, right?
It was anything but. I had my little car at the time. So to make this happen I brought the motor home and my canoe to the campsite one weekend. And for work I used my little commuter car to drive back and forth every day. Some evenings I had time to make a fire and a dinner, some evenings I had to settle for Tim Hortons by the fire, but every evening I got to have a fire, read a book, crochet if I wanted and in the evenings listen to the wind and the storms when rain would pelt down on the roof of the motor home or tall trees would crash together. I also had my pink bicycle out with me so I could take a spin around the campground. At my leisure I could dart down to the beach and listen to the loons or cart my canoe down.
Oh and though I never saw them apparently there was a couple grizzlies in the vicinity at the time. I had no idea though until I read about in the paper the following week. But regardless, what I do know is it was like having an entire campground to myself!! And though I had to go in to work every day, the drive in was quiet and peaceful and the ride home was enjoyable knowing I had that motor home bed, peace and fresh air to drive home to! Even though I worked that week, it felt as much like a vacation as any other mostly because my evening were truly unplugged. And just focusing on those pleasant little moments that only nature can offer.
My point, vacation doesn't have to be super fancy or completely "off duty". Sometimes vacation means just escaping the mundane and doing something different.
I loved every minute of that mini-adventure. Although it wasn't back country or a tent. It was solo in a motor home in a quiet little campground, under the trees BY MY LONESOME, with a couple great books and my bestie - Presley!!
I highly recommend this kind of fun. I tell people all the time if I could find a way, and some day I might, actually I will, I would live in a tent all summer!! Even if it meant commuting to the office. For me it's about not missing an opportunity to be outdoors as often as possible!
So here's to changing up the every day routine! Yes, you can go on a vacation and still get to work!!!
Twin Lake is part of Crimson Lake Provincial Park in Alberta just a smidge west of Rocky Mountain House and about 98 kms to Red Deer where I was working at the time. I had the cutest little 1979 Chevrolet Aristocrat complete with AM radio in the driveway and so badly just wanted some Q U I E T solo time!! The good news about May is very few people want to be out camping. The shoulder season is one of my favourites for this very reason! Though the evenings can be little bit chilly it is actually quite refreshing. As luck would have it I found out about this spot Twin Lake in this very quiet little campground where you self register in the off season. Challenge one was that the campground has no services in May. How would a girl handle this. Again, I am my own person and I figure things out. I wasn't going to let that stop my plans.
So this was the plan. I would go out to the motor home every evening after work. In the morning I would drive in to my home at the time in Sylvan Lake, stop in for a shower, drop off my Presley then carry on to work, then in the evening stop off at home grab my fur girl and go back to the motor home. Sounds like a lot of work, right?
It was anything but. I had my little car at the time. So to make this happen I brought the motor home and my canoe to the campsite one weekend. And for work I used my little commuter car to drive back and forth every day. Some evenings I had time to make a fire and a dinner, some evenings I had to settle for Tim Hortons by the fire, but every evening I got to have a fire, read a book, crochet if I wanted and in the evenings listen to the wind and the storms when rain would pelt down on the roof of the motor home or tall trees would crash together. I also had my pink bicycle out with me so I could take a spin around the campground. At my leisure I could dart down to the beach and listen to the loons or cart my canoe down.
Oh and though I never saw them apparently there was a couple grizzlies in the vicinity at the time. I had no idea though until I read about in the paper the following week. But regardless, what I do know is it was like having an entire campground to myself!! And though I had to go in to work every day, the drive in was quiet and peaceful and the ride home was enjoyable knowing I had that motor home bed, peace and fresh air to drive home to! Even though I worked that week, it felt as much like a vacation as any other mostly because my evening were truly unplugged. And just focusing on those pleasant little moments that only nature can offer.
My point, vacation doesn't have to be super fancy or completely "off duty". Sometimes vacation means just escaping the mundane and doing something different.
I loved every minute of that mini-adventure. Although it wasn't back country or a tent. It was solo in a motor home in a quiet little campground, under the trees BY MY LONESOME, with a couple great books and my bestie - Presley!!
I highly recommend this kind of fun. I tell people all the time if I could find a way, and some day I might, actually I will, I would live in a tent all summer!! Even if it meant commuting to the office. For me it's about not missing an opportunity to be outdoors as often as possible!
So here's to changing up the every day routine! Yes, you can go on a vacation and still get to work!!!
