Leonard's Legacy

The RVing community has lost a long-time enthusiast. Earlier this week, Leonard passed away.

Leonard was my mother's cousin. At 90-something, he lived a very long life. And, it was a full one.

For as long as I can remember until a decade or so ago, Leonard had an RV. Every year or two he would pass through my hometown and stop by for a family visit. For awhile he had a truck camper, then a Class C or two and back to a truck camper. I remember being amazed that everything he needed could fit in such a small space. And, it all seemed so cozy! One year he stopped by at Christmas. As sunset neared, he gathered us kids and had us come outside to see his lighted nativity set in the cabover window. I was old enough to remember thinking that was a little weird but really cool at the same time. That was Leonard.

Leonard was a talker. With every visit, he would tell tales of the places he'd been and the people he'd met. He'd been to Alaska a half-dozen times. He visited nearly every Canadian province. He'd traveled some in Mexico. He had journeyed to 49 states. And, if there had been a way to drive his RV to Hawaii he would've done it. The only state he didn't really care for was California.

He had friends everywhere. He treated some of his friends like family and vice versa. Leonard never married, but he had "adopted" kids on his travels. And, when they had kids they called him Grandpa. Long before the days of Facebook or cell phones, Leonard kept track of his many friends and adopted family members via postcards and long-distance phone calls for special occasions. And, every year or two he'd see them, live and in-person, on his travels.

Leonard was never a fulltimer. While he was working, he would travel for three or four months at a time. I could never figure out how he made that happen. But, he did. He worked for the same company for most of his life, and he always had time for his travels. After he retired, he extended his travels to six months or more at a time.

Whenever he'd stop by to see my family, my mom would make the same offer. "Stay with us," she'd say. "We have plenty of room." His reply was always the same. "No, thank you," he'd say. "I have everything I need right here." His idea of family dinner was him supplying the food and our family providing the house. He'd stop somewhere and bring BBQ or fried chicken and all the fixin's. Leonard would never want to impose.

Growing up, I thought of Leonard as the "odd relative" in our family. Every family has one. With a heart of gold and lots of stories, he was fun to be around. But, he was so different. After all, he spent so much of his time traveling the country. On the road. In an RV, no less. And these friends of his! What kind of people does a person meet on the road? It was all a bit weird for me. Of course, Paul got to know Leonard over the years, too. He described Leonard as my weird little loud vagabond relative. He was all that, too. (And, he got louder as he got older!)

No, we just didn't get it.

When we took our first trip in a rented RV two years ago, we thought about Leonard. By the time we returned from that 10-day, life-changing journey we could understand how weird old Leonard could spend months on the road. When we bought our first moose, we really got it. We had everything we needed and there was a whole continent out there for us to explore. We "got it" so much we decided we had to do it fulltime. We've been on the road ever since. When I told my brother we were going to sell the house and travel the country fulltime in an RV, his reaction was priceless.

"It's in your genes," he said. "You got it from Leonard."

Yes, in a way, we did.

In his last days, the hospice nurse said Leonard was still planning road trips. What a way to go. Godspeed, Leonard.

Now, we're the "odd relatives" who are traveling the country in an RV, seeing places and making new friends who feel like family. As we carry on his legacy, we'll do our best to make Leonard proud.

We promise not to be as loud.