J Is For Jolly Good Neighbors

During April, we're participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Every day (except Sundays), we’ll be doing an alphabet themed post starting with “A is for Adventurous” and ending with “Z is for Zinc”. We've got a theme for every letter sorted except for Y. If you have any ideas for the letter Y, please leave a comment or email. 
 
Thank goodness for jolly good neighbors. We had some amazingly jolly good neighbors when we stayed at the Jolly Rodger Travel Park in the Florida Keys. It it wasn’t for the kindness of these strangers, I’m not sure what we would have done. We’re pretty new to this whole RV lifestyle and really don’t have the kit that more experienced (or more prepared) folks have. Like a spare water hose and an extension cord. So when we pulled into our palatial site at the Jolly Rodger (pretty much anything is palatial when your travel trailer is only 13’), we had a moment of panic when we realized that the electric box and the water faucet were way too far away for us to reach from our travel trailer. We were caught out once before in this situation at the Gulf Islands National Seashore. There were plenty of other vacant sites, so while it was a pain, we just ended up moving to another site where we could reach the electric and water. 

Not this time at the Jolly Rodger. There pretty much wasn’t a single site at any RV park in the Florida Keys to be had when were were there and we were lucky to have the one we did. So, we scratched our heads and tried to figure out a way to maneuver our travel trailer into a position where we could reach the water and electric. And that’s when our lovely, jolly good neighbors came in to rescue us. They saw our predicament and offered to lend us their spare water hose and extension cord. I felt so relieved. And so thankful for the kindness of strangers. 

I don’t know about you, but I’ve found that RVers and cruisers are some of the nicest, most helpful people there are. Maybe its because they share a common love of nomadic adventures, maybe its because they believe in paying it forward, maybe its because they’ve been there too and had jolly good neighbors of their own come to their aid before. Whatever the case, these are two really special communities with kind-hearted people. 

I don’t know if it was the fact that we had such jolly good neighbors that put me in the right frame of mind, but I really enjoyed our time at the Jolly Rodger Travel Park. Normally, I’m not such a fan of being crowded in next to other folks in RV parks, but the Jolly Rodger had such a nice feeling about it. Maybe it had something to do with the warm weather and being located right on the water. Sunsets like this don’t hurt. 


 


Maybe it was because the Jolly Rodger had a nice, clean shower block. We’ve experienced some pretty mediocre ones in our time. Clean bathrooms can go a long way to putting you a good mood! 

Maybe it was because of the friendly ladies who worked in the office. We’ve experienced some pretty poor customer service elsewhere. The Jolly Rodger ladies always had a smile and went the extra mile to help answer questions and give advice.  

Maybe it was because we met such interesting people. Like the guy who was a member of the “United Flying Octogenarians.” You can only join if you’re still flying a plane on your 80th birthday. This guy was 84 and still flying a plane he built himself. That’s pretty darn jolly.
 
Who knows. It was probably all of it, but I do know one thing for certain, it all started with our jolly good neighbors.

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