When you’re on the road all the time, it is an incredible, monumental life experience, but it can also be really exhausting! In a way, ensuring there are enough times for rest and normalcy – whether that’s spending time doing errands like cleaning and doing laundry, watching a movie or reading a book, or simply “adulting” and catching up on life admin, is crucial to more deeply appreciate our travels. And as we’re approaching 2 months of being on the road, having a rest day was very much welcomed.
So today was our rest day, where we eventually left our quiet alcove at Boggy Draw Trails to drive down to Dolores, park at a Family Dollar parking lot, and spend the majority of the day catching up on work and things like this website and our journal entries! And at the end of the day, we just drove back up to Boggy Draw Trails and had another pitch black night tucked in the forest.
Since it was a fairly uneventful day, here’s 25 observations and lessons learned from RV life:
- When we first started driving in an RV, every click, clang, and bump from items moving around in cupboards while we were on the move freaked us out, and we kept thinking we’d broken something (which we hadn’t).
- As items do move around in cupboards, there is a chance they’d drop on us when we opened the cupboards, so there’s still a possibility to break something (our first casualty was our glass butter dish when opening the fridge).
- The first month of living in an RV is a huge learning curve and experience – especially if you’ve not lived in one for a long time before (previously, our longest trip was a mere week, renting a camper to drive around Tasmania, Australia. Oh, and a separate trip to Burning Man). Especially if it’s a used RV, expect things to break. Be prepared to call a mobile RV repairman. In our case, it was 3 times in the first month.
- But we learned to be handy and figure things out, which is a great accomplishment – like the time we had a blown fuse after replacing the water pump with a stronger one, which Michael fixed.
- The closet space in RVs are terrible – there’s hardly any hanger space, and the hanging RV shelves are also awful. Lisette stuffed her clothes in them, only for them to always tumble out – so now she puts her clothes in packing cubes so these fall out instead of individual clothing items. Michael has resigned himself to randomly stuffing his clothes into his tinier closet.
- However, while our situation is unique as we had to pack our entire house into the RV rather than have any other storage, we also realize we don’t need a lot of stuff that’s traveled with us – including the several glasses we took along with mugs (we just use mugs to drink out of everything). For our next road trip, we’ll minimize the amount of cutlery, silverware, clothing, etc we bring, and know less is more.
- We need to go grocery shopping more frequently as we have less fridge and pantry space. But we just learned that we can fit a gallon of milk into the fridge, and Lisette is a fridge tetris expert, so no matter what we buy, it always fits.
- The sensors that show how much fresh water there is left are fairly accurate, but the ones showing how full the grey/black water tanks are, are known by everyone to be absolutely useless. What this means is that we have now learned when we need to fill/dump our tanks.
- We can shower so much more efficiently – and a 5 minute timed shower that we’ve had at campsites now feels like eternity.
- We are so glad that we only use the toilet to pee – where possible, we use public restrooms or have a portable toilet if there’s no place to go when we’re boondocking. Lisette has accidentally spilled pee on herself twice so far – once when she had the pipes fitted the wrong way, and another time when the sewerage lid was not screwed on properly when she was dumping the grey/black water. Needless to say, she smelled as great as a portable toilet at a 5-day summer outdoor dance festival. Gross.
- RVs for some reason have the sewerage pipes exposed underneath. And they hang low on the ground, so every major bump on the road makes us hold our breath and grit our teeth.
- iOverlander is the app of choice for all RV travelers – it has info on campsites, rest stops, water, propane filling, and other helpful details, with many users sharing helpful tips and insights. Everyone prefers the original version rather than iOverlander 2 though.
- Initially, sleeping on the side of the road can be a daunting experience, and our ears can hear every little noise outside. But we’ve now become more accustomed to sleeping in all sorts of environments – from snow/wind/rain/shine, gas stations/casinos/parking lots/out in nature, and from complete darkness to bright street light seeping through.
- Walmart parking lots can be a helpful place to park and sleep for the night. They usually close around 11pm, they have clean toilets, we can stock up on groceries there, and they’re generally okay with RVs staying overnight. But they’re not all consistent in the experience – you’ll know if it’s a good place based on the vibe from the people loitering around when you arrive.
- Casinos are also great places to stop and rest for the night for the same reasons, plus the added benefit of 24/7 amenities and security. We’ve also benefited from “free money” to gamble at the casino, and getting some free drinks (nothing too exciting - it’s free water, juice or soft drink, but still a free beverage of some sort!
- Our favorite places to sleep are on BLM Land and out in nature, where we can sit outside for our meals, enjoy being outside, and enjoy the glorious sights around us. At times, there’s nobody else around us (or very few people), and at night we can appreciate the incredible sunsets and stars twinkling down on us.
- There’s an implicit understanding among RV travelers – whether it’s shown from a simple “hello” nod at a campsite, or through a more in-depth chat to share experiences, we’ve met some really interesting and helpful folks already on the trip, some who we’ve continued to message or be in touch with as we’ve gone in our different directions.
- Folks that travel extensively have fantastic stories and are interesting people to talk to – it’s not about how much money you make or what you do for work (common questions when we first meet people living in a city), but about the travel experiences they’ve amassed.
- Solar panels have been a fantastic investment to keep us on the road for long periods of time.
- The “America the Beautiful” National Park pass paid for itself almost immediately. At only $89 for the year it is an amazing investment, since most parks charge between $25 and $35. The National Parks, National Monuments, and State Parks in the US are so varied and spectacular, and are overall highlights of our road trip – we couldn’t tell you which is our favorite because they’re all so wonderful.
- While we miss many aspects of city living – from catching up with friends, to regular paragliding, yoga, and dance classes – we’ve loved the new experiences we’ve had, and how technology keeps the distance between connecting with family/friends as small as possible.
- Because each day is different from the last one, it can be hard to establish a routine. But we definitely never miss our morning coffee, tea, and breakfast!
- It took a while for Sheila to get used to the more confined space, but she is enjoying road life and loves being able to explore different places outdoors – we’ve opened the door for her to find snow one day, to desert the next!
- A positive attitude makes a huge difference. Even when things go awry, it’s been so helpful to regard it all as part of the adventure.
- Everyday we are so incredibly thankful to have this once-in-a-lifetime experience, and would recommend it to anyone!
Route Map
