It’s actually happening.  The SUV gets a brake controller next week. I’ve reserved a site at Saddlehorn. My smiling face has a profile at RVShare.com.

This. Family. Will. Camp.

I’m blaming it all on Tammy Callahan Schotzko.

Tammy helps people un-hoard things.  Have you ever met someone who naturally brings out a better version of yourself? She is one of those someones.  By title, she is a Certified Professional Organizer. But the title fails to capture her remarkable wisdom, kindness, and depth.

I called her last year to say, “I know we’ve never met, but if I give you a credit card number, could you maybe clean up a mobile home that I’m selling?” (When not working life-changing magic, she does first-rate real estate maintenance.)

My poor mobile home. It never had a chance to be happy.  That life chapter closed long ago, but no part of it went “gentle into that good night,” and I’ve been in denial for . . . well, let’s say that my denial could have its own drivers’ license by now.

It took a lot of time and even more Kleenex to sign off on the MLS listing last year. But I did it. With Tammy — who went from maintenance professional to Obi-Wan in about two seconds flat — asking the right questions at the right times, I faced the Hoarder Within and told it to Get Behind Me.

Then I began obsessing about putting the mobile home sale proceeds into an RV.

You don’t know from obsessing.

Obsessing to the point where my girls compete to yell, “Mom, there’s a camper!” when we pass one on the freeway.

Obsessing to the point where DH actually winces when I bring it up, asking if we could please talk about anything else for just one conversation.

Obsessing to the point where my own  dear mother gets a slightly glazed look when I start to combine tongue jack models and child-rearing philosophies in the same conversation.

But my RV Dream is more than a yen for a composting toilet.

It’s a commitment to this family, this life, this chapter.

It’s a decision to make memories.

It’s a decision to live in my now.

It’s a decision to write a new legacy.

Campermania. Let it begin.