Hard-Learned Lessons From an RV Newbie: Part I
Day One | 9:00 am, Sarasota, Florida
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we excitedly packed our family of five (one with paws) into our rented Ford f-350 attached to this 40’ fifth wheel and departed the unusually temperate June Florida day. Destination No. 1: Charleston, South Carolina.
Fortunately, my husband, Matt, had already taken an hour-long practice drive in the rain a few days earlier. His nerves were tamed and a sense of courage-backed adventure paved the road ahead. He’s no stranger to driving long distances or towing a boat, so the first eight-hour journey went off without a hitch. We arrived at a seamlessly-run KOA campground in Mt Pleasant, South Carolina and were guided into our reserved, paved pull-through site. (No hard-learned lesson here. We weren’t interested in risking unpaved or back-in sites on our maiden RV voyage, so we sprang for the premium spots this first go round. Money well spent.)
Days One - Three | KOA Mt Pleasant, South Carolina
Matt prepared for the trip by watching a plethora of YouTube videos and visiting all the “RV Tips” websites and blogs he could find. I highly recommend you do the same if you’re new to this type of adventure. His heavily-researched laminated checklist served us well upon every arrival to and departure from a new site.
Not only did our deluxe spot come equipped with a fire pit, chairs, picnic table, and a grille, this KOA facility had super clean restrooms and washers & dryers! We didn’t have any clothes or linens to clean at the beginning of the trip, but the restrooms came in handy with four people vying for one RV commode at any given time.
There are plenty of pros and cons to camping in a motorhome vs a trailer. I don’t have much to offer on the subject other than the fact that we wanted the ease of setting up camp and being able to drive around. Our stays were relatively long (3-6 nights each place), so this arrangement made sense for us. That being said, we haven’t yet experienced a motorhome and may try that next time for many reasons.
We were able to easily get away during the days to explore the USS Yorktown and downtown Charleston. We gravitated toward several of our favorite French restaurants—Gaulart & Maliclet and Rue de Jean—likely inspired by our subconscious desire to have been in France (where we had planned to be during this time had out trip not been cancelled due to Covid-19).
Days were spent playing in Charleston and evenings were enjoyed by the campfire alongside other kindhearted and interesting RV travel-goers. How could it get any better than that?
It seems that it couldn’t.
Our towable RV trip, which had started off with a bang, quickly began to accrue its share of challenges once we left our cozy little South Carolina campground…
Day Three | Charleston, South Carolina
We expected day four to be our second long travel day—nine hours with planned stops from South Carolina to Luray, Virginia. We packed up the RV, followed the departure checklist to a T, and headed out in time to make it to our destination for dinner.
But what we didn’t bargain for was an additional three hours on the side of the highway and an impromptu night in a Walmart parking lot.
Day Four | Fancy Gap, Virginia
Day Four Continued | Mt Airy, North Carolina
As we crossed the border from North Carolina into Virginia we couldn’t help but notice the jolting bucks of the turbo diesel engine and ever-decreasing speed at which we were attempting to climb the mountain highway. Mack trucks and other happy RVers were flying by us at top speeds as we struggled to maintain more than 20 mph. Having passed the last exit for the next eight miles and fearing that the weight of the ginormous house attached behind was going to pull us backwards, Matt made the tough call to pull over to the shoulder. Pulling over meant giving up as there was no way the truck engine would be able to continue the steep mountain climb from a complete stop.
Once again, we were as prepared as we could be since both the friends who rented to us and we ourselves had confirmed insurance coverage before embarking on the trip. We stood on the side of the mountain for the next three hours as the weather turned cold and rainy until the tow truck (from Massey Towing, some of the kindest people you could ever meet!) arrived and transported the whole shebang—truck attached to trailer attached to tow vehicle—back to a small town in North Carolina. Fortunately, their mechanic was willing to take a crack at fixing the truck that Sunday evening. By the time it was “fixed” the rain was coming down hard and daylight was long gone, so we opted to set up camp in the local Walmart parking lot.
HARD-LEARNED LESSON: Make sure you have a full tank of fresh water and plenty of gas in the generator.
Shit happens. You can’t prepare for everything. It’s nice that Walmarts are available all over the country, and most are more than willing to extend a free night or two to RVers. But, they don’t have hookups for water, sewage, and electricity. At a minimum, we needed to keep the refrigerator running. Without gas in the generator, though, it meant that we had to mess with traveling to purchase gas on top of setting up for the night in the rain. Not fun. Somehow, we all managed to get a good night's sleep amid the roar of the generator, the harsh parking lot lighting (sleeping mask), and the late-night teen scene (earplugs).
More hard-learned lessons and the continuation of our journey into Virginia can be found in Part II of this series.
Would you like to receive these types of posts in your inbox? Never miss a week of my practical tools to help you live a more vibrant life by signing up for my newsletter. You'll receive my Mind-Body Healing Starter Guide for FREE just for signing up. Win-Win!
