We need more Mark Twain Landings

GeoTagged, [N47.65031, E122.37269]

Our summer has been of the mixed bag variety. Lots of highs and lows, wide learning curves, uncertainty and discovery. The hard times were very hard: truck trouble, finance trouble, job troubles, and massive life changes. The last element was the hardest. It's difficult to uproot and become nomadic. For most of us, nomadic existence is not normal. However, strangely enough, we felt more in control of life by becoming mobile. Our jobs were not sustaining or fulfilling (I've looked for years for a full time teaching job-no luck). Our savings dried up, because it cost more to live then what we were making (oh yea, the market ate the rest). Except for time with family-happy events, our day to day lives were stressful and unfulfilling. But being mobile = uncertainty. You go from job to job; you (We) have no health insurance, and you are at the mercy of the weather; rootless in a rooted country. This reality causes stress, and I stressed! And yet, the full-timing RV community is truly a wonderful one. Rarely have I met more helpful, kind, and generous folk. This reality brings to mind a 1950s fantasy where there are block parties, and you know all your neighbors. Where you offer each other a helping hand and tuna casserole. Our asses have been saved more than once by these glorious, rootless people, and we are grateful. However, the even rootless need a place to moor for a while. An RV park, especially those that cater to seasonal folks (ie. Folks camp for the whole season such as summer), has it's good and bad points. It is a small community like a small town. Everyone knows everyone's business, and you know most everyone. But, like I said above, people act more like what we say communities SHOULD be. Mark Twain Landing is like this. "The Landing," as it's called, is not perfect, few places are. But it can be a piece of heaven. Here is a place where families, retirees, children and all us nomadic souls can meet, play, and live (with a capital "L") together. It was a safe but fun environment: cookouts, fires, fishing, pools, game room, music, lakes, and the list goes on. We need more places like this period. When I was a child in the 70s, these places were disappearing already, and now almost all are gone. This is a shame-truly a shame. It comes down to community rather than financial standings. At the Landing, no matter how much money you have, you are an equal member. Yes, there is the occasional bout of "rig" envy, but we are all living in our RVS, on small plots of land, and struggling with black water tanks! It's a small reminder that we are all alike, all human. Our society in the US focuses so much on the money, profit margins, and greed. We need places like the Landing to center us and remind us what is really important: community. R Written on the road, in route to Kansas City, MO.