After all the research in preparation for life on the road, I never fathomed there could be things that would surprise me about the RV life. But I was wrong. Surprise. Today’s Listicle is my list of the 6 most surprising things about RV life.
Physicality of RV Life
Who knew I should’ve been lifting weights in preparation for RV life?
I had very little physical interaction with my sticks-and-bricks house. I called the plumber, the electrician, the cable guy, the roofer, etc. for what needed fixed. I lived in a condo, so dues covered snow removal and lawn care.
RVers talk at length about how something on an RV is always breaking. It is a consequence of the constant earthquake-like conditions of driving a rig down the road. There were several reasons I bought a new trailer rather than a used one. And one of those reasons was to mitigate the hassle of things needing repaired. At least at the beginning. Aside from weather-related challenges and a few minor things, this has proven true in my first five months as a full-timer.
Still, I watched enough videos before I started the journey, you’d think I would’ve been prepared for the physical nature of living the RV life. Take repairs out of the equation and I was still surprised by the physicality of being an RVer.
RV life takes a lot of elbow grease. A lot. Pushing. Pulling. Lifting. Bending. Twisting. Positioning. Crawling on the ground. Things are harder, heavier and take longer than you think. Everything from attaching the van to the trailer to opening the battery bank compartment, from pulling out the stairs to connecting hoses. All this has been accompanied by a lot of bruises and soreness.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. For me, it was just unexpected. It was one surprise of RVing.
Planning the Drive is Hard
Before I venture to my next location, I spent quite a lot of time on the internet. Because I hate driving, I follow the route advised by Mapquest because “route 1” is always the shortest one, time-wise.
If I was only traveling a few hours to my next location, then, this would not be as hard. Planning the drive wouldn’t have made this list. But, so far, I have managed to have more than 1,000 miles between my planned stays.
Still, planning stops along those 1,000+ miles has proven more difficult than you would think. I learned not all rest stops are 24 hours, not all Walmarts allow RVers to stay overnight in their parking lot (learned this one by a 3 a.m. knock on my door asking me to leave), places the internet suggests to stop turn out not to be good, and so on.
Despite being lost, I had to stop and photograph this hay stack. I’ve never seen hay so neat and perfectly stacked.
Another planning aspect that continues to allude me is figuring out whether a road is a good one for an RV to drive. To date, I have blindly followed where my phone directed me. Once I ended up on a dirt road through a hay field, so for starters, electronic maps are not perfect. But what they really don’t account for—and I haven’t figured out how to account for myself—are steep inclines and declines that an RV would be better off avoiding.
This surprising thing, I hope, is temporary. I hope there is room for me to improve my planning. Maybe the possibility exists for me to hate the transition between campground stays less.
People Live in RV Parks
Extended-stay is what RV parks officially call it, but it didn’t take long for me to begin to recognize the telltale signs of a permanent resident. There is a general lived in look to their site, including satellite dishes and giant propane tanks on the ground, grills, bikes, welcome signs poked into the dirt, bird feeders hanging from trees, etc.
The thing that has surprised me is the large number of extended-stay people in RV parks. I had no idea. I assumed the people I’d meet at RV parks would be other travelers. Not so. I haven’t stayed at a lot of places yet, but of the ones I have, I estimate 20 to 30% of the sites are in use by local residents.
So Much is Free
Frazier Farmstead Museum in Milton-Freewater, Oregon. One of many FREE treasures I’ve discovered.
When I embarked on my RV life, I knew I wanted to do and see things. I wanted experiences and adventure. For my definition of adventure, see Part 1 of the post I wrote about my time in Walla Walla.
And from the beginning, I had a line item in my budget for these things . The mistake I made was in assuming that everything costs something. Come to find out, you can do some fantastic things without paying a dime.
I’ve gone to museums, taken guided tours, done tastings, visited nature centers, watched films. All for free.
It’s been a delight—and a surprise—to discover.
Fear
I have tried to figure out where my fear come from. I’ve never been a victim of violence or abuse but the possibility of it has left me nearly paralyzed at times. For years—years—I would return home and do a thorough apartment/house search to make sure someone wasn’t lurking. Every closet opened, doors looked behind, beds looked under, shower curtains pulled back.
With this history, I mentally prepared for fear on the road. I expected it, expected not sleeping for fear someone would cut the screen and reach his hand into the trailer. I prepared for the sound of someone jiggling the door handle.
There are new sounds to adjust to at each new campground and I was ready to have difficulty sleeping during the first days at a new place. This one I wrote about in an early post, the first Listicle, in fact. It was a list of the fears I had about the big life change I was about to make.
Of everything on this list, I remain most surprised that I have not been scared. Not once. Not yet, anyway.
I have adjusted easily to a variety of campgrounds and parking places . I sleep easily and well, and always with the windows cracked.
Boondocking
I am happy I was wrong about feeling fear on the road. I’m not at all happy to have to admit this next surprising thing.
I haven’t earned the tiara yet.
Turns out, I may not be the boondocking queen I envisioned myself to be.
It’s hard to write, hard to reconcile the pictures in my mind of being in the middle of nowhere with the fact that I like full hook ups.
I like taking showers without worrying about how much water I’m using. I like watching my DVDs in the evening. On cold days, I like running my space heater. And on hot days, I like running the air conditioner. I like microwaved vegetarian burritos for lunch.
But mostly, I like not worrying one iota about whether or not I have enough battery juice to do any of those things.
That declaration made, I’m not 100% ready to forgo the boondocking queen title. Because I continue to feel a little lost when it comes to RV life, it possible that once I’m more comfortable all things RV I might be more open to broadening my horizons to make the pictures that danced through my head almost every night for three years as I planned my RV life a reality.
What do you think about this list? If you are an RVer, what things surprised you about RV life?
My heart jumped for you when you said someone knocked on your door at 3 am to tell you to leave! How did you know it was legitimate and not someone on their way from closing the bars? You are so brave.
Becky in INDY
Thanks, Becky. When it happened and woke me from a dead sleep my heart jumped too. I cannot say how, but I just knew it was someone from Walmart. My dog has a big loud voice so my hope is that she would scare an ill-intended person off, even if in actuality she would only lick them to death. Afterward, I started thinking about why I had answered the door and whether I should have something in place just in case. What I came up with is that I will grab my keys if that happens again. Since the van is always nearby and the unlock/lock thing also has an alarm button on it, I can push that. It wouldn’t by itself protect us, but I think it would be loud enough to draw attention and the scare the bad guy off.
Wow! Love your writing and reading about your adventures…..looking forward to getting your blog feed sent to my email address. I miss so much on FB unless I check it daily which I don’t.
Thanks, Jana. So glad you signed up to get the email reminders. That’s all I send. I don’t flood people’s boxes. Yeah, FB’s algorithm only let’s you see about 4% of what your friends post which makes it easy to miss so much. Hope all is well with you.
Great and surprising list!
We took our trailer out just for a couple of short visits last week. In one, expecting fun spring weather, we ended up driving through a blizzard. (Northern Idaho). Had no idea that it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. our truck is four-wheel-drive, and there was no problem at all. So like you, I got rid of one fear. We will be more likely to travel in the almost winter seasons.
Another thing, one you you pointed out earlier, was how wet it can get inside of a trailer. There were two of us and two dogs. Even with the vent open ( it was near freezing outside but we like the cold ) the entire trailer still fogged up.
I like this post a lot. Got me thinking. Keep up the good work !
Thanks, Karen. You know that expression (and book title, I think): Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway. I always think of that when I’m scared. Well, not always. Let me say I TRY to think of that expression and then move forward toward the fear. But I’m so glad you just opened yourself up to several more months of possible RVing. That’s fantastic. That moisture in the trailer is insane. I’m testing out a few of the solutions that people offered in that post. I’ll do a follow up here soon with those results. So glad you like the blog.
I so agree with you about boondocking. I thought I would like doing it more often than I do. I have spent some great time at boondocking spots but I always make sure they are spaced out between FHU sites. One of the reasons I purchased my Thousand Trails membership is I can stay for “free” (there is a initial membership and annual fee) at campgrounds and RV resorts with full or partial hook up. For me it is a perfect blend between paid and free camping.
That does sound like a good balance. It’s also maybe a way to ease into boondocking, rather than, say, 2 weeks in the middle of nowhere with no hook ups. Thanks for your comment, Rhonda.
Whew. You are helping to relieve many of my apprehensions!
I’m so glad!
You have learned so very much in five short months. I have learned so much just by reading this post. Boondocking is still in your future … just not tomorrow. Happy Trails! Love, Marie
Thanks, Marie! I have learned a lot, but I’ll be honest I’m kind of looking forward to the days when I don’t have as many lessons to learn.
Love your blog. Looking forward to meeting you at the rally.
Thank you Kathy. Looking forward to meeting you too. I cannot believe we’ll be there in a month. That northern Alabama area looks really nice. It’s yet another state I’ve never been to so that makes it extra exciting.
As I recall from some other blogs which I follow, there are maps/atlases/websites/ and even GPS devices made specifically for RVers (and truckers) which detail uphill and downhill grades. They also detail overhead clearances as well. You may want to look into this to alleviate some stress on travel days.
We did our first true, extended boondocking last fall at Land Between The Lakes in Kentucky. To prepare for it, I purchased a portable solar “suitcase” to charge our (single) battery. It worked like a charm and was super-simple to use. Alligator-type clips are merely connected to the terminals on the battery and the panel can be adjusted for the angle and location of the sun throughout the day. We always had a fully charged battery by noon each day. We had a great six-day stay on a small peninsula all by ourselves. Best part — it was totally free!!
The $225 I spent for the solar suitcase is easily the best $225 I ever spent. We will easily recoup that cost with just a few more nights of off the grid camping or by saving some of the fees at state parks by picking spots without hookups.
Hey, Peter. That is a good idea and made perfect sense as soon as I read it. Just hadn’t occurred to me that an app might be a better choice than the basic map/driving function on the phone. I’ve heard of people using specific apps to accurate weather reports so they aren’t driving into something crazy so it makes sense there would be one for road and road conditions. i will look into that. Your solar set up sound simple and, you’re right, free boondocking will quickly pay for the cost of solar. I was looking into some popular areas for the summer and found campgrounds charging $50-$70 per night. Thanks for the idea!
One of the little surprises that is a real part of RV life is the necessity of always factoring in the length of the rig. Whether you’re parking overnight, to eat or visit an attraction or simply buying fuel, you have to be constantly aware of your need for space. It takes a bit of getting used to. A clear path is a must.
So true, Joyce. And sometimes my brain thinks I’m small because I only have a 23′ trailer. When I am in RV parks, I’m usually the smallest by a lot. But it’s amazing that when I hook it up to the van (an extended wheelbase), my total length is really long. That is a good one to add to the list. Thanks for the comment.