We took a tour of the national headquarters, housed in the brick building pictured above. When it was built, they thought certainly they would never outgrow it. Four building additions later, they are still growing. It is here that they process mail for over 10,000 address holders like us. We went on the tour of the mail facility and got to see where we "live." We couldn't take any pictures during the tour, but their procedures and care of our mail made us even more satisfied customers. We call them when we need to know if a specific piece of mail has arrived, and they will check our file. When we need mail forwarded, we provide a general delivery address to the post office closest to us, and it arrives in 3-5 days. We usually get our mail delivered to us once each month. After using this mail service for over a year now, it was a little strange to actually be able to get our mail on a daily basis while we were here.
We were surprised at the number of houses at Rainbow's End. We assumed it would only be camping spaces, but many of the deeded lots also include stick-and-brick homes as well. Many of them included covered car ports big enough for an RV.
There is also an activity center complete with an outdoor pool, but the pool wasn't open during the winter.
There is also a club house for activities. We attended the line dance classes at the club house each morning. It was here that we met a fellow dancer that was gracious enough to invite us to two different local dances in the area.
One of the most unique parts of Rainbow's End is the Care Center. It provides care services for full-time RVers that have had surgery or debilitating medical conditions that need some assistance. It's like assisted living where the patient lives in his RV. They provide meals, laundry, cleaning, and transportation to doctor appointments; and it's at a price much lower than assisted living facilities because of the help from volunteers in the park.
There is also a clinic that is open two days per week. Knowing that it is hard for a full-time RVer to get an appointment to see a doctor, they are working to become a network of health professionals with clinics at all the other Escapee parks throughout the country.
Another service needed by full-time RVers is a good place to weigh our homes to be sure we are not over-loaded. We take motor homes that are meant to be used for occasional vacations, and we put everything we own in them. We have everything from snow ski clothing to snorkel gear with us, because we might need both in the course of our "vacation." So weighing each individual tire is important to make sure we aren't over-stressing our tires, axles, and frames in such a way to be unsafe on the road.
After the weighing we got a professional assessment of our results. We are glad to report that we were within all our weight limits, so we don't have to purge anything right now. One of the reasons we chose a diesel motor home is that it is built to safely carry more cargo. She did point out that the passenger side was heavier than the driver's side. I guess that means that Denisa needs to cut down on the calories, but she's going to blame the weight on the refrigerator and washer and dryer that are also on her side of the motor home.
We were out exploring the area while we were here, and did some extra cooking too. We still have citrus fruit left from our time in the Rio Grande Valley. So we found a recipe for grapefruit pie and shared the finished product with some of our neighbors.
One of our favorite parts of Rainbow End was our fellow campers. Many times we will be the only full-time RVers in a campground. But here we were just one of many. There were lots of other campers that understood our lifestyle, and a surprising number were close to our age. We all feel like we are happy with the pot of gold we have found at the Rainbow's End!
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