RV is the acronym for recreational vehicle. But for some people, the RV is home. That’s the case for Grover Williams and a few of his neighbors at Twelve Oaks RV Park in Moss Bluff.

Williams is the fourth owner of a tricked-out bus that was purchased new in 1964 by a Georgia gospel-singing group to go from gig to gig. Chubby Checker was the second owner. He’s the one that put the fancy caramel colored pleated leather on the ceiling, according to Williams. Williams bought the motorhome from a racecar driver that hailed from Connecticut.

“Want to see all the paperwork?” Williams asked. “I’ve got it all right here. It was never used as a Greyhound.”

Williams is originally from a town about 60 miles north of New York City, but said of his motor home and Twelve Oaks, “This is home.”

He shares it with Gizmo, a pomapoo that eats whatever Williams eats.

Williams was headed to New Mexico to visit a friend when he first visited the area. He’s an artist and jewelry maker and has been to 40 states. Three years ago he decided to make Twelve Oaks and the motorcoach his home.

“It’s quiet here,” he said. “Once in a while you hear planes going over.”

Williams has experienced a sense of community at Twelve Oaks that exists in only the closest knit of neighborhoods. After a stroke he was in the hospital for a month and worried sick about who would look after Gizmo.

“Marge and Melissa agreed to look after him and the dog and visited him almost every day in the hospital,” said Rhonda Harb.

Harb keeps the large comfortable welcome center and office at Twelve Oaks running smoothly and stocked with morning donuts and coffee. On Thanksgiving and Christmas the ham and turkey are provided by Twelve Oaks and park part-timers and full-timers alike are invited to bring a covered dish.

Dwight and Mary Lou Binge, residents of Washington State, are in their motorhome most of the year and have been enjoying the RV lifestyle since 1978.

“We had never been east of the Rockies until one of our sons started college in Ohio in 1991,” Mary Lou Binge said.

He is 81. She is in her ‘70s and has packed her sewing machine on occasion to complete projects like Halloween costumes and a Christmas tree skirt. He is a very neat. She isn’t quite as fastidious. He drives. She navigates and uses her GPS, but they still miss exits or realize it’s too late to get in the right lane to turn.

They have been married 51 years and once traveled for over three months with another couple.

“And we’re still friends,” Mary said. “Everyone always asks.”

The couple said they had been through Twelve Oaks before and have visited New Orleans. However, their latest stay at Twelve Oaks will always be memorable. Park owner Tom Baehr invited them to Pat’s of Henderson and insisted they sample an appetizer not served in Washington State or many other states – alligator bites.

Like Williams, their home away from home is a converted Greyhound bus. It’s a 1961 model with over 100,000 miles. Length is 35 feet. Width is eight feet.

Cabinets and paneling are solid wood. The kitchen floor is wood parquet. The closet is cedar lined and the mirrored doors help give the appearance of a more spacious abode. Bus windows were replaced with RV windows. A laundry chute takes the dirty clothes down to the “basement,” the bay underneath the motorhome. At one time, the bay was fashioned into a downstairs “bedroom” for their boys.

Those boys are grown and enjoy doing their own RVing now.

Chris and Kathy McComb have been full-timers at Twelve Oaks since May 2014. They are retired natives of Baytown, Texas. Owners of a 1995 Fleetwood Tioga and seven Dachshunds, they really appreciate the spacious dog park. Under their awning are various large potted plants.

“This is home for me,” said Chris McComb.

Donald and Judy Ledbetter call Twelve Oaks and their Jayco fifth wheel home away from home. He is a pipefitter working at Sasol for the next three to five years. She is retired. Home base is Kemah, Texas.

“We explored the area prior to moving and saw the trees,” he said. “We were comfortable here and have made some good friends.”

Ledbetter said that the RV offers all the conveniences of home. It’s fully loaded. The bed is king-sized. The couple’s routine is much like any other working person’s. He comes in and relaxes a while and then they decide to cook in, cook out, order in or he says that occasionally they dine out.

He’s lived in two different places in two years doing construction work and he’s been traveling and parking his RV to work construction jobs for the last 15 years. His last job was in Gonzales.

Baehr said that a large percentage of the current Twelve Oaks guests are construction workers, which prompted him to develop a second RV park on Broad Street.

Sowela student Justin Breaux, a native of Houma, has been living at Twelve Oaks since December of 2012.

Baehr said that worldwide RV travelers have made stops at Twelve Oaks, including a family from Germany who paid $5,000 to have their RV shipped over and a medical doctor and his wife who outfitted a four-wheel-drive vehicle for living and travel worldwide.

Baehr lives on site but he and his wife enjoys life on the road in their own RV, getting to know people who want to connect and making people smile.

The exiting sign from the park reads: Steps up, antenna down and wife on board. Yes, he knows someone who left his behind – accidentally. That’s why he worded the sign that way.

“Some of the nicest people I’ve ever met, I’ve met at an RV park,” he said.