On the Level

March 7-12, 2025 | F.D. Roosevelt State Park | Pine Mountain, Georgia

Our first week-long travel adventure with Yin and Yang to F.D. Roosevelt State Park in Pine Mountain, Georgia, started with a windy ride up I-75 to the Florida-Georgia line. Northwest winds gusting to 25 miles per hour on a stretch of 3-lane interstate with too many semis to count meant constant steady steering and many small sways from side to side. It was nerve-racking for the driver (Cheryl) and the copilot (Marsha).

We pulled into our Harvest Host site in Jennings, Florida, for the night, which was a bittersweet challenge. Nice farm and host. Great tour of their off the grid underground home, triple chicken coop with a fresh dozen eggs, five head of cattle, countless goats of many varieties, Snazzy the toy pony, and a vegetable garden prepping for spring. And … a very unlevel site for Yang. We’d never had to use leveling blocks and didn’t have enough to even try since we were nearly 10” too high on the driver’s side. We opted to accept the drastic imbalance and get what sleep we could.

Travel day number two went much more smoothly, and we reminisced along the journey about the many times we talked about doing the RV thing in retirement only to swing around to the other side of settling into suburbia. It felt really good to swing back to the RV life in the end. And then … we encountered a steep decline into F.D. Roosevelt State Park winding round hairpin turns and trying not to smoke the brakes. Unfortunately, we hadn’t investigated Yin’s advance features for this type of driving experience, so we did our best to get to our site albeit with that distinct smell of hot brakes. We’ll be reading the owner’s manual for Yin to make sure we know how to shift into “down mountain” mode for the next time.

Site 510 looked great on the state park map. A pull through, which is always a welcome situation, and a semi-level site. And so … we needed to use those leveling blocks for the first time, but we didn’t have enough. Marsha was adamant we would not be sleeping at a slope this time, so Cheryl headed to the camp host site to get some help – YES, Cheryl asked for help – but she did it after having a small meltdown from feeling ill-prepared and doubting her abilities to learn these new things.

And yes, Ann, our camp host was amazing. Not only is she “family” but she had extra leveling blocks we could use and coached us through the whole process. We were so grateful for her help, and Marsha asked if she enjoyed wine. Of course she did, so we thanked her with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from our Angel wine collection (check out Naked Wines if you want to know more about Angel wines).

Our adventures in retirement up to this point have been woven with lots of lessons. Of course, we both love to learn, but it’s harder to accept lessons at this age when it’s way outside our comfort zone. In the end, it’s a balancing act to find that level spot or create it when it’s not there. Here’s a little reminder for all of us from Depeche Mode’s “Get the Balance Right.”

When you think you’ve got a hold of it all, you haven’t got a hold at all.
First to the left. Back to the right. Twist and turn until you got it right.
Get the balance right.