The lucky RVers who are attending the winter olympics in Vancouver!  It is astounding to me to watch the beautiful athletes from around the world amaze us with their unwavering determination and skill.  It is so inspiring to think they spend years and years perfecting their sport all for one moment.  Our best family road trip was from Raleigh to Atlanta for the summer games in 1996 (all five of us in a car).  The 8 hours was worth it when we were magically transported to another world.  The excitement everywhere was palpable.   So, do any of you know the feeling I am talking about?  Now that we have our new home on wheels, if there's a venue that we can drive to, we're THERE!   

I love the Olympics! This year is special as one of the hockey players from Belarus played hockey on the Junior team here in Cedar Rapids and we got a chance to know him well. Saw him walk in with the Belarus delegation. If you watch hockey and Belarus is playing cheer on Sergei Kolosov (plays in the Detroit Redwings minors organization). It is so cool to see him following his dream! We were in Vancouver this summer, it is an amazing city.

I went as a spectator to the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. I have fond memories of it because that was my first RV experience. You see, I 'thought' I had planned the trip perfectly by purchasing tickets well over a year in advance. However, I waited till a couple of months before the games to rent a car and get hotel accommodations. Well guess what, there were no rental cars available and rooms were very scarce. Mind you, this were the days before the internet so you were very limited in what you could research. I kept calling places and someone suggested that I rent an RV. 'An RV, are you nuts', I told them. LA highways are notorius for congestion so you can imagine what it would be like during the games. Not to mention that I had never driven an RV in my life. Well I had no choice so I rented a 21 foot Winnie. To say I was nervous would be an understatement as the rental agency went over all the details of how to operate everything in the Winnie. They should have made a movie of me driving through the major LA highways to get to the events. Driving highways in LA for the first time ever, during rush hour, during the Olympics, with a street map in hand (yes there was no such thing as GPS either!). It was hilarious but somehow I survived. Once I was stuck in a traffic jam and I was looking at the map and saw the next exit was not too far away. The road looked a little 'squiggly' but it was that or be stuck in traffic for hours. Well that road ended up being Mulholland Drive. For those that don't know about this road look it up. I will never forget driving it, I remember it like it was yesterday. Anyways, renting the RV was the best thing I ever did and I have been hooked on them ever since. We boondocked several times on the beaches of Venice. Some of the stories of what occurred boondocking and driving around would fill a blog! The events in the Olympic stadium were incredible as we would go back to the RV during the two hour break in the day (due to heat) and take showers, eat, maybe nap and go back to the stadium for the rest of the Track and Field events. The rest of the spectators were exhausted since they basically sat there the entire time with no place to go. In fact at the stadium they had an area roped off for RV's! We would spend the day at the beaches in LA and go to the evening events. Truly one of the most wonderful experiences I have ever had. Since then I have rented RV's with friends to go camping, white water rafting, etc, etc and now this year have already booked a two week trip to Alaska with a 31 foot RV and my white water rafting buddy has done the same and we will be traveling together with family in a two RV caravan! I can't wait till this becomes part of the normal lifestyle!!!!