Lollygagger@significant: Adventures await vacation-starved RVers

Gary and Barbara Pouliot employed to be content campers.

Today, the Springfield natives are wildly enthusiastic RVers.

Our paths crossed in January at a Florida collecting of travelers signing up for caravans sponsored by Yankee RV Tours. The corporation and its founder, onetime Somers resident Rod Coe, had been showcased in a Lollygagger@substantial column released by The Republican in June.

“We have by no means carried out a caravan, so we are very energized to tour with Yankee,” Barb Pouliot claimed.

They weren’t by yourself. Coe reported 135 adventure-hungry RVers – masked and respectfully distanced, of course – turned out for the tour company’s annual reunion and orientation at Southern Palms RV Vacation resort in Eustis, about 40 miles northwest of Orlando.

“We signed on for a few caravans,” Gary Pouliot explained. The to start with excursion, scheduled July and August, will take them by means of the American Northwest, what he called “our aspiration vacation spot.” The itinerary spans 35 days, commencing at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota and following sections of the Mormon and Oregon trails to the Pacific Coastline.

The couple also signed up for two activities in 2022: a six-day RV rally in January at Cape Canaveral, Florida, which will contain excursions of Kennedy Area Heart and in September, they’ll embark on a 20-day caravan as a result of the American Southwest, touring countrywide parks and scenic miracles in Arizona, Utah and Colorado.

Gary Pouliot is 65, a brawny male with a mild spirit. His wife, a 12 months young, possesses a completely ready and eager feeling of humor.

Barb was Barbara Stevenson when her spouse and children lived in East Springfield. She attended Pottenger Elementary, Van Sickle Junior High and Complex High colleges.

Gary grew up in the Liberty Heights neighborhood of Springfield, off Carew Street. He attended Liberty Elementary, Van Sickle Junior Higher and Trade Significant faculties.

“We grew up alongside one another,” Barb Pouliot mentioned. “We met at Van Sickle Junior Large where we became childhood sweethearts.” They ended up married in 1975 at Our Girl of Hope Church, wherever their family members ended up communicants.

Following relationship, Barb was a keep-at-residence mother and provided care for many other kids. Later on, she labored for Filene’s at Eastfield Shopping mall and Louis & Clark Pharmacy.

Gary was utilized by Ferrara Spring Performs in Springfield, then joined the Carpenters Union Nearby 108. He labored on construction projects in the Springfield region, then expended 23 decades with Unwinn Overhead Doors in Chicopee. He retired in 2012, and he and Barb took up residence in Alva, Florida, 18 miles northeast of Fort Myers.

The Pouliots’ enthusiasm for RVing shows on their faces and in their speech as they remember far more than 40 several years of tenting adventures.

“We began tenting in 1980,” Barb mentioned, when the youthful Pouliots were ages 5, 3 and 2. “We tent-camped and also slept in the again of pickup truck.” Gary, she recalled, had “made a plywood mattress that he place up on prime rails of the truck where by the youngsters slept. We slept on flooring of truck bed with the dog. It was a terrific and economical way to go and have a lot of enjoyable.”

The upcoming generations of Pouliot campers consist of daughter Jeannine Pouliot Duquette and her partner, Ben, who dwell in Springfield with daughters Anissa and Mikayla, and son Gary Pouliot, his wife, Stephanie, and their son, Jordan, who are living in Ludlow. Daughter Kathryn Pouliot and her daughters Chloe and Kelsy live in the A few Rivers area of Palmer.

Through 4 many years of camping, the Pouliots have been via a fifty percent-dozen RVs, such as a transformed van, two vacation trailers, a little motorhome, substantial motorhome, and a 60-foot-extended park model on Cape Cod, wherever they “spent tons time with grandchildren,” Barb claimed.

The Pouliots now vacation in a 23-foot-lengthy MPG travel trailer the company states that the title is derived from producing far more “Memories For each Gallon.” Gary Pouliot emphasizes that the MPG “will almost certainly not be our last” RV.

Barb reported she prefers to travel in an RV “because it is the best way to just chill out.” Gary reported he enjoys the way of living because “it’s the finest and only way to see every little thing and you meet up with the best folks. … We program on RVing ‘til we cannot generate any more.”

Norm Roy, a retired duplicate editor for The Republican, lives and travels in a motorhome. He is eager to hear from visitors about their own travel adventures. His e-mail deal with is: [email protected]