Snowbirds

It was a revelation to me when I married and moved to northern Michigan that many of the older population traveled south to Florida for the winter. This did not occur in the state I called home where we waited for the summer months to travel to the ocean's shore.

I was soon to find out that my husband's own Uncle Roy and Aunt Dorothy traveled to Florida every single winter. Uncle Roy considered himself an aficionado of Traveling South in the newest mode of trailer park transportation available.

We were invited to their home for a walk-thru of their brand new fifth-wheel camper. I had never in my life seen anything quite so large that was legally allowed to be driven by non-professionals. Uncle Roy assured me his many years as the owner of Denoyer Bros. Moving & Storage did in fact make him overly qualified to drive this "rig" safely south. My new mother and father-in-law would be accompanying them. A pleasant time was expected by all.

I absolutely giggle to think of the many times my father-in-law would regale me about this transport to Florida alongside his sister's irascible husband. It seems Roy became possessed once behind the wheel of this overlong camper.

He was insistent upon "making good time" and would rarely stop for "necessary" reasons. His over-the-road days had given him the ability to "wait" for ten hour stretches at a time. If the tank didn't need fill'n, his didn't need empty'n! At this point in the story, my father-in-law would lean in close to whisper in my ear, "That Roy was a sun of a gun!"

My mother-in-law Ruth always chimed in at this point to finish the tale. "Do you know we never did get to sleep in their new camper. Roy unhitched that monstrosity, got back in the truck's cab, and drove us all the way back to Michigan. And he nearly never stopped for necessary reasons!