Nearly every community has one or two of them around, but does anybody want to spend their summer in an RV parked right in St. Albert, or at the edge of the highway near Morinville?
As it turns out, people want to do it so much some of them have to book months ahead of time if they want to get a spot.
And while the lifestyle isn’t for everyone, those who have chosen to live in a 300-square-foot apartment on wheels for months on end – or in some cases years on end – obviously don’t regret their choice.
Cory and Leigh Krysa, who spent many years living in Westlock before moving into an RV full-time a few years ago, said their attitude is there’s just too much in the world to see, but it wasn’t an overnight change for them.
“It started as a joke … let’s just sell everything, pack up and travel!” Leigh said.
After four years of talking about it, they decided to just take the plunge and make it happen. Both are retired and their parents have died, so they have the time to be able to do it.
They spend their summers in the Morinville RV Park just east of Highway 2, and chose the location because of its proximity to everything they need. They have a daughter and granddaughter in Morinville, and another daughter in St. Albert, so it’s a good central location.
In the winter, they travel around to different places in the southwestern U.S., but don’t have any one specific destination in mind for the winter months.
“We’re not ready to settle down in one spot,” Cory said. “There’s too much to see.”
Leanna Dickson, chasing two kids around a campsite opposite the Krysas’, said she lives in Sylvan Lake but her husband travels around for work so during the summer months, the family goes with him – not a bad way to spend a summer vacation.
“We’re here in general for a job. I found a lot of people (in campsites) are here for jobs in the area,” she said. “We usually camp a lot. All the kids like camping; it gets them out of the house.”
Eric Dyke, one of the owners of the park, said the client base is roughly an equal mix of snowbirds, families camping, and people in the area for work. While some choose to stay for quite a while, there are quite a few international travellers who are passing through on a well-travelled route from Calgary up to the Arctic.
“A lot of the Europeans come over and rent RVs to get to Alaska,” he said. “We’re one of the first stops on the way to Alaska and one of the last stops on the way back.”
He explained the appeal for many clients is it’s close enough to the city for convenience, without being right in the thick of things. Having a location right next to Heritage Lake, which is a stocked trout pond, doesn’t hurt either.
At the St. Albert Kinsmen RV Park just west of the Riel Business Park, the appeal for many tenants is how close it is to everything. It’s so appealing, in fact, that those without reservations are often turned away.
“We’re only open from May 1 to Sept. 30, and we get bookings throughout the winter,” said Gerry Richer, who’s filling in for the site managers while they’re on vacation. “It’s becoming very popular here because of the access to the highways around.”
Proximity to everything, including the conveniences of a city, is a big part of the draw for Priscilla and Vince Ryan. They live in Newfoundland but spend the summers in Alberta to see the sights in Western Canada and visit with their daughter who lives in St. Albert.
“We’ve seen most of Eastern Canada in the RV, so we decided to see Western Canada,” Priscilla said.
They prefer travelling in an RV because you end up spending much more time outside than with other ways of travelling, and can be a lot more comfortable than tent camping, which they also have plenty of experience with.
“I think we’re past that since we retired,” Vince said.
The common theme amongst those choosing to spend the bulk of their free time travelling around is perhaps best summed up by Leigh Krysa: Life’s too short not to.
“I don’t want to be sitting in a nursing home somewhere saying ‘I wish I had done that,’” she said.
