RV Camping According to R

R and his parents came to visit us on Saturday. We were all excited about this because, when R originally learned we were selling our house and living fulltime in our RV, he worried to his parents that we will be homeless. So we knew that it would be important for him to see our new home.

On arrival, we had a tour of the RV. The cats were upset about an invasion of their (now smaller) home space, as we had expected. However, we didn't anticipate how upset the cats would be. All disappeared at first. Baxter even hissed at R and his parents as they tried to go upstairs to the bedroom area. Nevertheless, we completed the tour. R was pretty impressed with our televator and our lazy reclining chairs.

Then Kathy and David took R and his dad on a tour of our campground. We offered R our camera and told him to snap away. The result was a whole slew of photos that provide, we would say, an uniquely R-esque view of our campground. He started out with this photo of David:

Then he snapped one of his dad –

– followed up quickly with one of Kathy:

He particularly enjoyed unique details of the campground, such as a picnic table,

a tree,

as well as some leaves:

There were some accidental photos of his legs and arms, but he did get one photo of his face (or at least part of it):

Far and away, however, R focused on all the RV's and vehicles in the campground. There were many more than we can show here, but this one is an example:

There's no doubt that his vehicle and RV photos were the most well composed and thought out, which is a natural outgrowth of his interest in cars (see below).

All the photos stopped, however, when R's attention turned to collecting dandelions and rocks. He collected too many to hold, so his dad offered to hold them. There were so many that R filled his dad's hands with dandelions and rocks (oh, the joys of parenthood). All of the specimens went home with R. We're not sure his parents were as excited about that as he was.

After our campground tour, R played at the playground, but that was soon aborted when he was hit in the nose by a nerf football. His dad was there to soothe his pain, and his mom followed up to finish off the parental ministrations.

Meanwhile, the campfire had been lit and had grown to a nice warm blaze, so all of us warmed ourselves at it while we waited for dinner to cook. We had hamburgers, finished off with s'mores. R found a great marshmallow stick with a prong at the end that allowed him to cook TWO marshmallows at a time – which his dad greatly appreciated when R offered his dad the two golden-brown works of art. Not a singe or burn mark on 'em.

After dinner, R came into the RV, only to encounter a Baxter cat ready to defend his territory TO THE DEATH. Baxter was ready to chase R out of the RV, but David intervened. This actually happened twice and Kathy took up the cause the second time. Baxter was exiled to the bedroom, which solved the problem.

We capped the evening off by watching the movie, “Cars,” which is one of R's favorite movies. He really, really likes cars. He collects lots of cars. So you can understand why this movie might appeal to him. His mom said they had watched the movie “more times than I care to count,” which we took as a ringing critical endorsement of it. You'll be happy to know that the hero wins the heroine in the end, reconciles with the father-figure, and bests the bad guy.

Although R really wanted us to watch “Cars 2” as well, it was getting very, very late (way past David's bedtime), and R and his parents had a long way to drive home. So we agreed that Cars 2 would be screened on the next visit.

“Goodbye, R! We really enjoyed the visit!”

“I'm really going to miss you, Uncle David.”

“I'll really miss you too, R.”

“...and tell Aunt Kathy that I'll really miss her, too.”

“I will, R.”

And they drove quietly off into the darkness.