A common misconception is that living in an RV sounds like a great vacation but would be too small and confining for everyday living. The thought had occurred to us. Before we launched out in Betty, we gave RV life a try. One summer was 7 days. The next year it was 12. It was hard do more since our time belonged to the man. Finally, after the big R day (June 15th 2018), we did 54 days, but that included time in Bradenton with family, and moving every few days as we relocated the coach to PA. Now we are at fo’ reals. And every day is not sunny. In fact, lately it has been a lot of rain. How do we handle it? Especially without a car.
Back in DC, we ventured out when the weather was good. Too hot, too cold, kind of drizzling, sort of windy, too humid, rain in the forecast, were reasons to do something else, something in the house, or something inside via car. Now, our “inside” is small and you cannot get to a different “inside” without walking or biking in the elements. Curl up on the coach with a book? Surprisingly, it happens less than you might think.
Sometimes we get lucky with a campground clubhouse like this one at Fiddler’s Cove, but usually, we push it. If there is a break in the rain, and there usually is at least a little one, we take it. We have umbrella holders on the bike, and can bring our bike cover in the panniers. This morning, the sun broke through what we in Naval Aviation used to call a “sucker hole.” The terms comes from the days where pilots would sit around the ready room during bad weather, waiting for it to improve. When the weather guessers forecast bad weather sitting on top of the airfield, but Mother Nature disagreed and made a small clearing in the clouds to show the sun, that’s a sucker hole. Go ahead a take off – but landing is sure to be tricky because that hole closes faster than it opens. Unlike pilots, we look for those sucker holes, and make our move.
While the briefly sun shone on Silver Strand beach, with an angry surf and threatening clouds on the horizon, we stretched and sprinted in our favorite sand game, paddleball. And when our hands chaffed and we had to stop, we broke out the Jazz stunt kite for combat action in the high wind. And when the sucker hole lasted a little longer than that, we bike toured the neighborhoods across from the beach on our way back to the cove. By the time it was all said and done, the rainy day had let four or five hours of sun, near sun, overcast, and not raining that much, time into our day.
The forecast for tomorrow? More rain. But, our bet is that it will not be hard rain the whole time. In fact, we bet the rain may break for 30 minutes, maybe an hour. And, there is that top rated ice cream shop in Imperial Beach only 10 miles away.