RV Trip Day 1

Day 1

On Friday, we set out on our adventure.  We had planned to leave around noon, but, with all of the usual last minute things that had to be done, we didn’t leave until about 3:30PM.  Our original plan was to drive to St. Louis and get there in time to have dinner, relax a bit and then get a good night sleep before hitting the road the next day.  As it worked out, we stopped outside of St. Louis to have some dinner because we were all hungry and we realized we were going to be arriving at the RV park after dark anyway.  We stopped in a Wal-Mart parking lot so we could grab a few groceries we needed and fix some dinner. 

We were so excited that our RV had an over-the-range microwave and we brought quite a few microwavable foods for quick meals on the road.  My son loves corn dogs, so we offered to fix those for him after he rejected all of the nearby restaurants that were within walking distance of the Wal-Mart parking lot.  We made sure the generator was turned on and I prepared to fix the corn dogs.  This is where we encountered a problem.  The microwave wouldn’t work.  We tried flipping breakers, plugging the microwave into different plugs, etc.  Nothing worked.  My son whined that he was hungry and wanted his corn dogs.  We called the RV owners and they had no idea what could be wrong either.  We finally decided it was probably a fuse in the microwave- not something we could fix ourselves.  It was getting rather late and we were all tired and hungry.  My husband, daughter, and I got food at a nearby restaurant to go.  My son ate some snack food we had and said he was full.  We continued on to our first campsite.

We arrived at the Lakeside 370 campground in St. Louis after dark.  We picked up our paperwork at the office and proceeded to our site.  My husband managed to park the RV and get the hookups done in the dark quite well.  I was impressed, but also rather exhausted.  We slid out the sides of the RV making it a much larger living space.  I pulled out the queen size sofa bed and made it up for our daughter and flipped open the other couch to make another full-size bed for our son.  We all collapsed into bed and went to sleep. 

Lakeside 370 was a pretty RV park right by a small lake in St. Louis.  I decided to take a shower using the park’s facilities the next morning.  Rather than being inside a restroom, it was a single unisex room with a door that locked.  The shower contained several bugs, one of the flying biting variety I soon found out.  I took a very quick shower while shooing away the biting fly.  I decided perhaps the RV shower would be a better bet in the future. 

My husband decided to take a quick shower in the RV.  As soon as he started running water down the drain, a horrible smell emerged from the drain.  It smelled like cat urine, only worse.  I googled bad smell from drain in RV and found that, apparently, this is a very common problem.  I found that it is a result of not keeping the drain trap filled with water.  We flushed water down the drain for about 20 minutes and the smell went away.  

We folded up the beds, slid in the slides, and set out for the next leg of our trip- a 6 hour drive to Salina, KS. 

Cross Country Adventure

My family and I began a new adventure last Friday.  We rented a 38’ motorhome, packed up our stuff and the kids and began a 3 week tour of the American Southwest. 

How in the world did Brian and I, who seem like sane people (usually), decide to voluntarily place ourselves in a space of less than 500 square feet with our two energetic children for three weeks?  What in the world possessed Brian to decide that, after driving a relatively small, sporty, hatchback car, he would be glad to drive a 38 foot long, 31,000 lb. behemoth for three weeks? 

It is actually something we’ve discussed and dreamed about for a few years now.  What better way to see the country than to drive through it?  And, if you’re going on a long drive with small children, it is certainly convenient to have a clean bathroom available at all times and to have a large refrigerator and freezer.  A few weeks ago, I mentioned to my husband that a friend of mine had gone on a Southwest road trip with her family.  We talked about how educational that would be for the kids and interesting it would be for us.  We had been planning a family vacation in October, but we were planning a relaxing beach vacation.  Brian suggested we do this instead.  I pointed out that it wouldn’t be very relaxing.  After discussing it more, though, we agreed it would be an amazing experience for all of us and we agreed to start planning. 

We agreed that I would plan our route and Brian would work on finding an RV rental.  He started looking and found that RVs are rather scarce and expensive unless you plan several months in advance.  I found that the places we wanted to visit out west were apt to get snow as early as October so we’d need to go relatively soon or wait until Spring.  Then, I posted a question on a Facebook group for RVers and a member of the group messaged me to say that she and her husband live in our city and had an RV they might be willing to rent to us.  We found that they lived just 15 minutes from our home.  Brian and I met them and checked out the RV, a 10 year old Fleetwood Bounder, Class A, 38’, diesel pusher.  It seemed pretty well maintained and the couple seemed very nice.  The price was slightly better than renting from a rental company and it was available whenever we wanted to use it.  After figuring out insurance issues, roadside assistance, etc. we picked up the RV on Wednesday night and started packing our things. 

Packing for an RV trip is very different than packing for a road trip where you stay in hotels or even packing for a camping trip.  Rather than using luggage, we packed our items directly into the closet, drawers, and cabinets of the RV.  I had to think about meals on the road and pack food in the cabinets and refrigerator/freezer.  I had to pack cooking utensils, dishes, silverware, etc. 

As I packed, I was a little nervous.  This was essentially a house on wheels.  I had to keep in mind that this house and everything we packed in it would be moving down the road.  Things would potentially shift in transit.  I had to make sure everything was secured.  There was something a bit disconcerting to think about sitting on a couch or at a dinette table while rolling down the road at 65 miles per hour.  I packed carefully and was thankful for cabinet doors that closed securely and shelves with lips on the front. 

I started to get excited about the trip as I imagined all of the interesting and amazing things we’d see and be able to share with the kids. 

I’ll write more about our trip as soon as I can.  Internet connectivity at RV parks can be a bit spotty.