> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.adoptingfatherhood.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Place Where Family Memories Are Etched - URL: https://www.adoptingfatherhood.com/the-place-where-family-memories-are-etched/ - Published: 2026-09-11T15:02:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-16T15:20:10.000Z - Author: David Lingholm - Tags: Fatherhood, Mental Health From a financial perspective, owning an RV is a horrible investment. They depreciate quickly. They require considerable maintenance (they are rolling earthquakes, after all). Monthly storage fees only add to your expenses. All those costs are incurred before you spend even one night in a campground. From a building family memories perspective, owning one is priceless. Your house is with you wherever you tow it. Your kitchen. Your bed. Your comfy chair. A familiar space that is your base of operations for a week or two of fun. This is part of the reason why selling our current RV is so hard. Selling is necessary. Frankly, The Kid is too big for it now. Our bunkhouse trailer was great when we bought it five years ago. She has grown significantly over the last five years and watching a growing young woman struggle to get into a space designed for little kids is just too much. It's not a fun space for her anymore. And that defeats the purpose of having an RV. For now, we are selling without buying something new. The Kid just started high school, and we know the next few years of summers will look different than they have in the past. We've also talked a lot about finally traveling overseas, something an RV is ill-equipped to do. If all goes the way we would like, we will not be without an RV forever. Fortunately, mourning the end of our time with our current travel trailer is similar to packing it away for the season, which is when I spend my time remembering the fun we had along the way. Here are a few of my favorite memories. ## Two Wheels, One Promise Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island were our favorite destinations well before we bought our first RV. Renting bikes and going counterclockwise around the island is always on our agenda. One year, we rented a tandem bike for The Kid and I to take around the island. She had fun, but it also made her determined to ride a bike on her own. On the ferry ride back to the mainland that night, she said to me in a sleepy voice, "Papa, tomorrow, I'm going to ride my bike by myself." The next morning, I took the training wheels off her bike, and she spent the next hour giving herself encouraging pep talks when things were tough. By the end of the hour, she was speeding around the gravel roads of the Mackinaw City KOA like she'd been riding for years. ## Pandemic Sanctuary Our first travel trailer had beds that folded off the side of the camper in a way that is reminiscent of the pop-up trailers I spent a ton of time in when I was a kid. The difference between the pop-up and what's called a hybrid was in the hard sides, so that you could have a proper kitchen and bathroom in the hybrid. It was a Godsend the first summer of COVID restrictions. When campgrounds were allowed to open, we jumped on the chance to work from campgrounds instead of home immediately. We did not have to worry about anyone's cleaning protocols, we could make our own meals, and with air-conditioning, the hottest days of summer were more bearable than they were in our house. ## Barney hated the drives, loved the destinations Our beloved Barney (2012-2024) did not like road trips. He was nervous every ride and was the first to jump out of the truck whenever we arrived at our destination. He loved whenever we parked, especially when we bought our second RV. In our first RV, he was always under foot and as a skittish dog, he was always searching for a safe place to relax. With our upgrade to a fully hard sided trailer with bunkbeds at one end, he found his safe place. ![A white dog with his blue fall themed blanket enjoying his safe space. ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/df/bd/dfbd8136-494d-49ab-9196-09526e1846ad/content/images/2026/09/PXL_20210423_231248087-1.jpg) Barney's favorite hiding spot in our Jayfeather. Under the bunks was an empty space, intended to be a place to haul bulky items, became his safe space. Having that haven unlocked a new part of his personality, one that let him enjoy long-walks through Ocqueoc Falls State Forest and dipping his paws into Lake Michigan in the rocky beach at McGulpin Point Lighthouse. ## Our Dollywood misadventure Do not get it twisted. I loved Dollywood. It was hands down a better experience than any other amusement park I have been to in my life. Fantastic food. Great music. Beautifully told history. Big coasters and age-appropriate rides for the littles. It is a perfect place for a family weekend. Our problem wasn't with Dollywood. It was with our truck. I started noticing that we were having trouble accelerating and the truck was running quite rough about an hour into our eight-hour drive. We limped into a Chevy dealer in Wapakoneta, OH because I figured they would have the parts we needed to replace the speed sensor I put off replacing before the trip. As it turns out, the speed sensor was not a problem. After a night at the Wapakoneta KOA (which is a convenient place to stop for the night on your way through Ohio), we discovered that the camshaft had worn down on two pistons, which meant we were only getting power from six cylinders instead of eight. Rather than wait a few weeks for the engine to be replaced, or try venturing back home, we decided to buy a used truck and continue the journey. It was the most expensive trip to Dollywood I could imagine, and it was still a better theme park experience than anything Disney could have thrown our way. ## Storm-Soaked Tire Change on Route Home We took our bunkhouse travel trailer to Florida a few years ago during the Easter holiday break from school. We learned a few things about long-distance RV travel on that excursion. One, it is incredibly important to regularly stop to rest and potentially change drivers. Two, Buc-ee's is fine, but not when you're trying to negotiate a 100-pump gas station with no RV parking and a rig that is 50 foot or more long. Three, any more than 500 miles in one day is a royal pain in the ass and should be avoided at all costs. More importantly, it was our first trip with Sailor. We discovered that he adores long trips. He has no problem getting out at rest stops and taking care of business quickly. He does hog the back seat of the truck, but it's so he can relax with his people, not because of nerves. He also loved the RV because it was easy for our herding dog to keep track of all of his people at once. We also learned the importance of inspecting your tires at every stop. EVERY STOP! On our way back to Detroit, I noticed one of our tires was starting to wear out pretty quickly on one side, which was caused by a flattened leaf-spring. We wanted to get home, so I kept paying attention to the tire, hoping we could make it home and the shop close to our storage unit could take care of the springs soon. Alas, we got to a rest stop just south of Toledo, OH and upon inspection, the steel bands under the tire tread were starting to become exposed. I had to change the tire. I removed the spare, grabbed a jack and got to work. The only thing complicating my evening? It was late and we were in the middle of a severe thunderstorm warning. Eventually, the lightning stopped and I was able to safely change the tire. But for a few nerve-wracking moments, I wondered why the hell I put myself and my family in that situation! ## Five Days in My Personal Wilderness My daily devotionals lately have been focused on Exodus, specifically when Moses was leading the Jews out of Egypt and they were wandering in the wilderness. The author of the devotional has me reflecting on those wilderness moments in my life. My biggest wilderness moment has been my [heart health after passing out cross country skiing](https://www.adoptingfatherhood.com/but-youre-so-young-and-athletic/). Before that happened, I was already at an inflection point in my career and I was actively battling depression. Afterward, with restrictions on so much of my life, including driving, the need to sit in my wilderness and look for signs to lead me out of it was apparent. Our RV provided the place to sit that I needed. My uncle towed our RV to a campground in Ann Arbor, where I had a front porch view of a swimming hole and most of the campground to myself, because early May camping in Michigan can be a crapshoot. Gladys and The Kid helped me load everything in, then gave me five days by myself to begin to process everything that was happening. The weather was delightfully cold and rainy. I watched countless hours of BONES. I journaled for hours. Yin yoga was a daily friend. I slept a lot. I refused to look at my work laptop. While I did connect with my girls so they didn't worry too much about me, having the freedom of five days alone was the rest that I needed to begin wandering out of my wilderness. The investment in an RV never makes dollars or sense, but it can provide a place for family memories to be etched into the stories we tell about ourselves. It can provide a place of refuge. It can provide a place of healing. I can't wait until we are through this season and ready to travel by RV again!