Last week I shared the cons of solo RV travel and I said it seemed an obvious list. The same holds true for the positive aspects of traveling alone. Still, I want to share what I have experienced as the pros of solo RV travel.

You know that truism about the silver lining of a break up is no longer having to share the television remote? At its heart, that is the pro of solo travel. You control everything and share nothing.

Not Sharing

I fully recognize that had I decided to hit the road with a human traveling companion, I may not have made the same RV choice. And had I not made the same RV choice, this list might look different. That said, I know several full-time couples who do it in an Oliver Trailer. Still, when I think about the pros of solo RV travel, I cannot help but to love not sharing the limited space.

Some days the one designated pet cabinet irritates me and I wish I could reclaim it for my own stuff. I cannot imagine going from two cabinets and one kitchen drawer down to half that for clothes. Or sharing the closet which I have stuffed with shoes and jackets. Or finding a place for double the electronics and food.

Besides storage space, there are also actual space issues. I constantly trip over two pets. When I’m cooking, for example, I make the pets stay on their beds in order to have room to maneuver. Add an entire human to that mix? It’s hard to even wrap my head around the level of constant coordination it would take.

Speaking of the pets, the most practical positive aspect of traveling solo is that the pets get their own bed. In their entire life with me (Solstice at three months and Kitty at two years old), they’ve never slept on the floor. It is not reasonable or fair to ask them to start with RV life. They wouldn’t understand it and I don’t think they would accept it.

Now, again, if I’d started with another person the choices made might have been different. And even if we ended up in an Oliver, the bed choice probably would’ve been the King so there would be enough room for people and pets. More or less.

Still, then when I think about that, I have to wonder if I would’ve found the mold problem as quickly since I found it by turning the mattress on its side to take off the fitted sheet. It’s a bit of a rabbit hole to explore these ideas. “What if” questions are always a rabbit hole.

Nevertheless, I’m sticking to not sharing storage space, not getting in another human’s way and the pets getting their own bed as pros for solo RV travel.

Adventures

Last week I said I didn’t like eating alone in a restaurant but that I loved adventuring alone. Let me start by saying I wasn’t sure if this would be true. Before I got on the road, I halfway feared I might forego adventures rather than going it alone. Then it turned out I loved going alone.

This comes back to controlling the remote. First, I get to choose the adventures that appeal to me. I love nature trails, for example, so I get to explore as many of them as I want. When I was in Fredericksburg, I found an interpretive nature trail at Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park and even though it was a 28-mile round-trip excursion, I went seven times in the month I was in the area.

Similarly, I have been to a lot of old houses. Yes, I’ve seen a lot of the same stuff. But, so far, on each tour I learned at least one new thing, the most recent being where the expression “sleep tight” comes from.

But I can easily picture another person saying, “Really? Seven times to the same trail?” Or, “Not another old house.” So the pro of solo travel is no need to compromise.

Not only do I get to pick the adventures, I choose how long or how short I stay at them. Museums in my mind are a solitary experience even if you are with another person because we engage with the art in such a personal way. Some pieces will speak to you deeply and others you can pass with just a glance. So when I went to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium, I got to buzz by the aquarium part because that section didn’t appeal to me but then I slowed down and took the time to go into the little theaters to watch historical films because that interests me.

Forced Socialization

You might think anything that starts with the word “forced” couldn’t possibly be on a pros list. But it really is. If you are a natural introvert—and I find many RVers are—traveling with another person provides company. Obviously. And having company often means not having to engage with others. The need for socialization, however small, can be filled by your travel companion.

In the last eight or nine years, the idea of how introverts and extroverts operate has made its way to mainstream knowledge. And a good definition of an introvert helped me embrace the fact that I am one. It helped me not be embarrassed and apologetic for being one.

Since I was a teen, I have frequently been asked about my shyness. It always struck me as such an odd question because I wasn’t shy at all. I just didn’t really talk much. But it was never because I was afraid to. It was because I didn’t want to, didn’t feel the need to.

But being an introvert never meant I didn’t have a need and desire for socializing. Introverts simply need a lot less and in different ways than extroverts. In my pre-RV life, that need was easily filled by interactions with co-workers, my monthly writing and book groups as well as coffee with friends now and again.

Those socialization opportunities disappeared when I hit the road.

I wouldn’t say it was on my list of ways I wanted to grow on the road. It wasn’t that deliberate. But it has proven to be a natural outcome of solo RV travel. Each place I visit, I must create opportunities for interaction and socialization.

I’ve met nearly every one of my RV neighbors. On walks, I stop and talk to people with dogs. Generally, I turn down invites to big parties (because large groups can overwhelm and be an energy-suck for an introvert) but I accept invites to smaller gatherings whether that’s morning coffee in another person’s RV or making s’mores with a family or small group. So, now can you see why I force myself to socialize and why I find it to be on the pros list?

I feel myself growing with every interaction.

Offered Assistance

In some ways, this is a kind of socialization. Being a solo RV traveler, I have discovered that tons of people freely offer to assist me.

Now I admit at times I probably look a bit pathetic (such as the 20-30 up and backs I have to do to get my van lined up perfect to the hitch on the trailer) and maybe the offer of assistance comes from pity. But I don’t care because I tell myself a different story.

The story I tell myself is about kindness and the good in humanity (despite what we see on television). Not only is it a pro, it is an opportunity for positivity and gratitude.

A few times, I even knocked on an RV door to ask for assistance. I have a funny story (funny, now that it is behind me) about getting another RVer out of bed on a Sunday at 7 a.m. to ask him to crawl through the window of my rig. I’ll leave the story for another day but suffice it to say, he did it happily. And groggily and in his pajamas.

I Did This

At the end of the day, I think one of the most satisfying pros is the sense of accomplishment I feel for having done this. And having done it alone, in spite of initial fear and without nearly enough of a financial safety net.

I did it because I could no longer not do it. The strong feeling that I shouldn’t wait until I was 65 or until I had someone to travel with me or until I had savings that money would never stress me.

Sometimes I look around my rig—a rig without enough storage space, a rig where my big dog has fallen out of her small bed twice, a rig without an oven—and I think it is the best most perfect home I’ve ever owned. I think, “I did this.” I created this life with deliberation and without the confines of a “supposed to” life. This little RV life I created.

It is satisfying and fulfilling beyond the words I can find to express it.

I did this. The biggest pro of all. And, at the end of the day, maybe the only one that matters. The only one that can stand up against a list of cons four times longer.

Links to Referenced SSL Blog Posts Above:

• The Cons of Solo RV Travel
• The Road Cat: Introducing Kitty
• The Road Dog: Introducing Solstice
• How to Grow Mold in 30 Days: A Cautionary Tale
• Adventures in Fredericksburg
• Museums of Dubuque

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