Camping Fire Pit Gathering

"New Friends are like new adventures. You never know what life lessons they may teach you." - Unknown

We don't normally do hot dogs on a stick but we needed a quick meal to cook up. On Friday, two camper families came over to share our fire. We made Smores galore!  One of the two families has 4 Children and they have lived at the campground in their RV for the past 8 months. They moved from Germany where they have lived most of their career. The Father is retiring and they are about to move to Manhattan, NY.  

The other family just arrived for a week. They were here to close on their house and then head back to Arizona where they were stationed.  

The conversation centered around Retirement and Moving.  And, of course the standard question, "Are you Catholic? Are you Mormon?"  And the standard answer, "Neither. We just love Children."  

The conversations with the other campers in the area has been enlightening as well.  There are several more families here at the military instillation, who have children, that are living in their campers full time. There are at least 4 other families on the circle besides the one that I mentioned who has been here for 8 months already.  It seems that the going trend and reason on why they are choosing the camper at this time is due to the down sizing of the military.  Many are looking at how they can cut corners before either being forced to retire or forced to leave with out any retirement or severance pay.  So, one way to cut corners is not to live in the military housing since the military housing takes all your basic housing allowance. Instead, they have decided instead to live in their campers (RVs, Pull Behinds) for $8 a night (which includes electricity and water here)  and pack the rest of the money away for the unknown. They are getting their financial house in order for many reasons. And, a few of them could very well be caught up in the cuts to Captains/Majors in the Army this year. The number to be downsized in that area is staggering. The civilian world is going to have a huge influx of more people with out jobs. It is just so heart wrenching!