Alert and Orientated X3 When Traveling

 “Orientation is a function of the mind involving awareness of three dimensions: time, place and person. Problems with orientation lead to disorientation, and can be due to various conditions, from delirium to intoxication. Typically, disorientation is first in time, then in place and finally in person.” Wikipedia

Somedays I wake up and I’m a little confused and this concerns me…A few years ago I had no trouble being orientated. I might not be able to tell you how I got to work, but I knew exactly where I was, what the date was, and how many days were left until payday or the next holiday.

Now, it’s not so easy. Of course, I know all the people in our fifth wheel trailer,  (it helps DH answers to Scott, Rick, Rich or Richard) but it’s the time and place that have become difficult.

So, I have developed some tricks. To determine the state…I look at the license plates on the vehicles that pass us and I go with the odds theory. If most of the vehicles passing us have Oregon plates, we are in Oregon.

Of courses, if we are not in a moving vehicle and are walking around the campground being orientated to time and place is more difficult. 

Right now we are in Mississippi and not one license plate in this campground is from this state. Also being in Mississippi in February makes it extremely difficult to determine the season. 

Usually I can determine the season by what people are wearing. Winter coats, sun dresses, plaid shirts and jeans…but yesterday when I went out for my morning walk (if I didn’t get out of bed until 11 AM and out the door before noon, but it’s still the first walk of the day…is it still a morning walk?)

One woman was walking her dog, smoking a cigarette and had on a winter coat and a scarf wrapped around her neck and another woman was sprawled out in a lawn chair in a bathing suit. Now if I was in Minnesota, I would know the season was spring, but having never spent a month in Mississippi, I’m not sure.

Sometimes, I can determine the season by the way people have decorated their motor homes and trailers…but the tween seasons make this difficult. Some of the sites have red and green Christmas lights blinking in the evening, another has dog statutes with red stocking hats, while others have pink and red hearts pasted to their windows, and other still are displaying Mardi Gars wreaths.

So, to orientate to place, I purchase a postcard and leave it on the counter and because we are always concerned with weight (the trailer). I mail the card the day before we leave.

As a full-time RVer, sometimes we spends months in the same place volunteering and other we might spend a night, week, or month in one place before moving on…Sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night I have no idea where I am, so I listen to the night noises.

If I hear highway noise….hmmmm, it’s a one night stay and we will be up and moving in the morning. (Sometimes to really test my memory, I try to remember if we unhooked the trailer or if we are still attached to the truck.)

If I hear animal or bird noises…must be a state, national or army corp of Engineers campground.

If I hear reveille, star spangled banner, or artillary fire, I know we are staying on a military base.

Of course one way to improve orientation to date and time is to look at a phone or a calendar, but if you’re like me, these are not always easy to locate. (Even though everything we own is either in the truck or the trailer.) So, I purchased a Fitbit watch which not only displays how many steps, but also the day and date.

You maybe wondering why I am concerned about orientation? Personally, the date and time mean nothing to me, but to the medical profession it sends off big red flags if you can not correctly answer their questions as to the day, date and place.

So, if you want to pass any medical exam it’s important to be orientated. So on your way to an appointment look at the license plates of the vehicles passing you and then casually glance at your phone or watch when questioned about day and date and you too can be alert and orientated X 3. 

Happy Travels.