Summer will end soon enough,

and childhood as well. – George R.R. Martin

Today is June 6, which happens to be my Dad’s 74th birthday. And as I am writing this, June 6 is screaming S-U-M-M-E-R-T-I-M-E here in Ohio.

The campgrounds are now packed each and every weekend, and there are a lot of these tiny, little humans running around with glee and screaming and hollering to each other. In fact, as I have been trying to fall asleep many nights, they are still screaming and hollering with glee. Don’t these kids have a bedtime?!

Oh joy. Bah-humbug!

But really, I don’t mean to sound like a grumpy, childless, full-timing 40 year old. I am all those things – though ever so light on the grumpy – but in actuality, when I hear their pint-sized laughter and giggling, I smile at the thought of how much F-U-N this rv’ing thing would have been when I was a kid.

I grew up in a big family – there were 7 of us kids (6 boys and one girl – me!) – one mom, and one dad. We lived in a suburb on the Kentucky side of Cincinnati. Not only did we not have an RV, we did not even have a tent. And I do not remember any of my friends having an RV either. So, this whole camping/rv’ing life was a complete unknown to me whilst growing up.

But as a kid, I loved nothing more than being outside, exploring, climbing trees, hanging upside down on monkey bars. With that in mind, it sounds like summertime rv’ing would have been perfect.

But then, when I try to picture the nine of us in an RV, even a 42′ motor coach like what I am in now, the idyllic vision of summertime family fun and frivolity greatly diminishes. In fact, it downright implodes. We took many road trips in my formative years, often in long, ugly station wagons rusted through the floor so you could see the roads beneath. And this conjures up horrible memories of motion sickness, punching, fighting, bickering, threats of Dad pulling the car over for spankings, actual spankings, etc., etc. etc. On top of that, Dad used to tune the radio to classical music during these torturous drives, and as a result, to this day, classical music makes me nauseous.

So all in all, perhaps RV’ing with a family of nine would not have been such a vision of summertime perfection. If you are a large family out there making that happen though, I would LOVE to hear from you!

As for the rest of you, who have just a few wee ones, what is summertime RV Venturing like for you as a family? Please share your stories – the pros and cons – here!