We are not plumbers, electricians, car mechanics, mobile mechanics…there is so much to learn just for daily operation (think Robin William’s RV movie) much less how things work for maintenance and repairs. It’s sooo intimidating. We are constantly learning and figuring things out, trying to fix things that we can and crossing our fingers that nothing major goes wrong requiring shop work because RVs are sitting in shops for 6+ months waiting for repairs, with the popularity of RV-ing during covid no one can keep up. This is a major adjustment from our usual mode of vacationing: pack a bag, give it to airport attendant, play on phone and watch movies until flight takes me where I want to be, open hotel door. Done.
Just getting the RV was an uncomfortable amount of decisions! Motor home or trailer? (We chose motor home since our purpose is truly this one epic roadtrip). Class A or class C? (we chose class C for the smaller more manageable size. Even I was comfortable driving it!) Gas or Diesel? Slideouts or no slideouts? Extra long so we get bunk beds or do the kids share a bed for the summer? (that was a big one and yet to be determined if we made the right choice).
The ONLY thing we’re comfortable with is knowing that our greatest adventures have started when we left our comfort zone behind. Mat’s NOLS trip and my Outward Bound trip, moving across the world for study abroad not knowing anyone, venturing to remote parts of Africa with our kids…
This seems like a great place to note that while every word I write is drenched in privilege we wake up everyday very grateful for each opportunity. While everything about “RV-ing” has been intimidating and anxiety inducing at times, at the end of the day we love our problems. This emotional rollercoaster and budget busting vacation is just that, vacation. (You’re thinking beach and a book would be so much easier and more relaxing, right? But we love adventure, seeing new places, finding things we didn’t know were out there. Glad I found my person who likes the same. Also glad he prefers to do the driving!)
April break 2020: Emerson has a week off of school, Crystal Betty is de-winterized and tuned up JUST in time (Camping World is living up to their reputation of being unreliable), we have a week long trip down the East coast planned out, and Madelyn decides she doesn’t want to miss a week of school and lacrosse (her school has a different vacation schedule than Emmy’s) and prefers if we “work out the kinks” without her, LOL, so we’re off on our first adventure to learn what we don’t know yet about RV-ing.
Every mile Mat drove our nerves lessened and confidence increased. We wanted to test out towing Peggy so why not tow from NH to NJ for the first leg of the trip and hit what feels like every major New England city. Our stops this week were fantastic: we visited dear friends that we hadn’t seen in YEARS, and we toured historic places on our bucket list. Visiting friends and new places after a year and a half of quarantine made it even more wonderful. We successfully made it to NJ to see the Gearys, Virginia to the McKenna’s incredible farm and home, Monticello to visit Thomas Jefferson’s home, Mount Vernon to visit George Washington’s home, then onto NC to visit the Fieldings and Donovans which was LONG over due. Our trip home included a stop near Philadelphia to visit Erin, who always travels to see us, and once again, we didn’t make it to her. Why you ask? Read on
Our trip home included a day of bad weather with our first “high wind advisory”. After researching what that meant (50-60 mi/hr winds) I made Emerson drive in Peggy with me worried that she’d bounce around too much in the RV. Mat was confident if we went slow the wind would be manageable until we started crossing bridges along the coast with signs that posted something like “high winds: no empty tractor trailers and travel trailers on bridge”… for newbies like us it should have spelled out that that included mostly empty motor homes as well! After Emerson and I crossed the second of 2 scary bridge and witnessed a huge truck blow into the Jersey barrier in front of us we called Mat and told him to pull over and NOT cross the next bridge. His response, “Thank God, I was about to make the same call after almost dying on the last bridge.” He said that crossing the Francis Scott Key bridge in the high wind was the most scared he’s been in his adult life. Instead of braving the campground in 50 mi/hr winds (tents cannot withstand 20-30 mi/hr winds) worrying about a tree falling on us, we made the call and found a pet friendly hotel right where we were and parked Crystal in the parking lot with no trees in sight! What we learned from this single experience: RV-ing has limits and we have a much better appreciation of that, safely returning home is our ultimate goal so if that means hotels instead of campgrounds some nights then we can be flexible, and Mat has new found confidence in RV handling – after almost blowing off a bridge everything else seems easier!
Other lessons from the trip:
If you leave ceiling vent open on rainy nights you wake up wet (we did that in NJ).
If you don’t latch fridge for travel the door will fly open and food flies out on first big turn (we did that in VA)
We’re not too proud to admit that we’re newbies and ask the campground for a flatter spot when we can’t level RV after dozens of attempts. I happily accepted the eye roll and snort on our behalf along with a paved, flat spot that we successfully set up on (in SC).
Campgrounds come in a wide variety. We stayed in a beautiful state park with wooded secluded spots (NC), and in a campground that could be categorized as a parking lot behind townhouses (SC).
Murphy, our 13 year old Basset, loves camping! With the assist of a dog ramp to get in and out of the RV (thanks Covinos!)
And most importantly, we learned that camping is far more fun than the driving so we want to go home and re-book our entire summer trip to include less driving everyday (try to keep it under 300 miles a day – a tip we heard from the Gifford family that we fully agree with after our “practice run”). We’d rather take longer to get places if it means rolling into the campground early to mid afternoon to relax and enjoy ourselves vs rolling in at the end of a long stressful day of driving to setup hangry, eat, sleep and pack up in the morning to do it again.
So that’s what we did, we went home and re-booked our trip. We cut out the big parks that we would be happy to fly out to for extended visits like the Grand Canyon and Zion and choose to focus on the smaller parks that we wouldn’t necessarily fly back to like Hot Springs National Park, AR and Guadalupe Mt National Park, TX. We’re no longer beelining to the big parks but planning to enjoy the journey more. Roadside attractions here we come!
October 2020, we decide to look at few dealerships to see what is out there and warn the kids “were not buying anything, just looking” … an hour into looking at RVs on the lot it’s mom and dad who are giddy like kids and ready to buy. A few quick weeks of research online and talking to ANYONE willing to talk to us about their experiences (thank you FB friends and forums) we decide ordering an RV is too big a gamble for receiving it in time with current demands, renting an RV is not economical or convenient for the amount of time we want and miles we wish to cover, so we found what we wanted on a lot and bought it! We took our new toy home for weekend, slept in it in the drive way, then put it away for winter, sad face. Now to name what feels like a new family member… Mat chose Harvey because he liked how it rhymed with RV. Maddy chose Betty because she just is a Betty. Kim chose Crystal because that’s the anniversary gift for 15 years of marriage which we celebrated the same week we bought the RV. And Emerson chose Peggy because we’re all Hamilton fans and it makes us smile. So we decided to use them all: meet Crystal Betty Harvey the RV…and Peggy. Later we when bought our 2014 CRV to tow across the country there was an easy and natural re-assigning of “…and Peggy” to the car behind the RV and now I have my first ever vanity plate.
The decision: Mat and I have always wanted to RV across the country and ideally while the kids were young enough to want to come with us. With Mat’s sabbatical lined up for summer of 2021, COVID cancelling all our other plans, the kids at a great age for exploring, and years of experience working in a nursing home reminding me that you should never wait to check off those bucket list items, we ran out of reasons why we shouldn’t go for it. For that extra motivation we needed we talked to anybody and everybody we could about their road trips or RV experiences (thanks Kate Wentworth, Jan Hamel, and Gifford family to name just a few) to really get excited about mapping out a trip. Let’s go!
Entertaining ourselves during COVID and dreaming of traveling! 2020
Solso Family Adventures 