Fulltime First Day on the Road

Many fulltimers were inveterate RVers long before they jumped into the lifestyle fulltime. However, we're finding a lot of young people these days who are selling off their homes, or getting out of rented homes and apartments and moving directly into an RV. Older ones too, on reaching retirement are ready to hit the road, and sometimes do so without prior RV experience.

If you can, "practice" the fulltime lifestyle by moving into your RV in the driveway or an RV park near your old home first. It'll give you an opportunity to learn how to get around in your rig, and establish what new ways of doing things you'll need to cover. If you have to move into your rig directly, make sure your "first day on the road," is a SHORT one--no more than just a few hours. Leave yourself plenty of daylight to get some of the immediate bugs worked out. Not only that, you'll feel a lot less pressured and you can enter the ranks of the fulltimers without unnecessary stress.

Reflections on Too Much Highway, Way Too Fast

My friend Dick Budrow would have taken a look at us, and with a quick sniff rolled out the pronouncement: "You look like a couple of vagabonds, and smell like unwashed camels."

It's no way to live--running down the road with deadlines ahead and too much pavement to cover in the time allowed. I don't know about other fulltimers, but five hours in the saddle is just way too much time behind the wheel. But to try and meet appointment deadlines in the Northwest, that's about what it's taking to make the deadline.

Drive. And drive. And drive. Make the occasional fuel stop and grumble about the high prices. Find a suitable place to drop anchor. Make a quick meal. Try and unwind. Then fall into the sheets with road weariness. I know the Israelites wandered 40 years in the wilderness; still I think Moses had them sit tight for more than just a night before moving on to the next stop.

This day to day grind causes you to miss too much. Driving so fast with the "next stop" in your sights doesn't allow enough time to smell roses, or anything else--other than yourself and the exhaust pipe of the guy ahead of you. Of the two, I'm not sure which is worse. I know I'll be kicking myself for a while over the one that happened yesterday: Driving across an empty stretch of Nevada I came upon a "deer crossing" warning sign. Sure enough, some frustrated hunter had used the sign for target practice--but he didn't just put the obligatory single shot through the deer's heart area: He roundly and precisely put shots all around the silhouette of the critter. Would have been a great addition to my "sign" photo collection. But I didn't have time to stop and shoot the sign myself.

On the return trip, I promise myself, things will be different.

"Stilted" Campers? RV Park Thinking Amazes Us

It's been a long time since we've tried taking a truck camper into an RV park. Last time was years ago when we reviewed a new RV park, and the management--knowing who we were--was on their "best behavior." Most times we don't "do" RV parks, preferring boondocking or public parks.

Not long ago we attended a convention in Glendale, just outside Phoenix. On arrival at the RV park our "hosts," on learning we were truck camping, told us we had to leave the camper on the truck. "You can't leave it up on stilts," said the registration clerk, "otherwise the wind can blow it over." Stilts? Wind blow over? We were a bit baffled, but since we had other transportation to the convention site, it wasn't a big problem.

Back on the road, we landed in the Las Vegas area at day's end. With the monsoon season in full blossom, the humidity would have made a Mississippian happy. Not wanting to run a generator all night to run the air conditioning, we drove on into the Sam's Town RV park. A familiar refrain hit the air as soon as we mentioned we had a truck camper. "Of course," said the clerk, "you can't take the camper off the truck."

Hello? Maybe our lack of experience with commercial RV parks leaves us in ignorance. Is this the common attitude of RV park owners? Are we--heaven forbid--"camper trash"? Are these excuses of "wind will blow you over" rooted in real experiences that park owners have dealt with, or just that, a flimsy excuse to somehow hide the real issue at hand? We may never know. Maybe some RV park owner lurking here will leave an anonymous comment and clue us in.

Over the years we've cut the camper loose from the truck dozens of times. And yes, we've actually left the camper sitting around in some pretty gusty winds--right on the edge of Washington's Snake River for example. We've got enough smarts not to leave the rig stuck up high on the jacks like some kind of "America's Got Talent" routine. In addition to keeping that center of gravity low, we also bolster the support of the corner jacks with additional supports under the camper "tub" area.

What's your experience?