Our First Travel Day

I set the bar pretty low for our first travel day. There were about a million little things I still needed to do be full-time in an RV that is smaller than the smallest bedroom of my house.

But we still missed the mark. On November 15, the day before Arthur, Estella, and I were supposed to leave, I made a list of what I needed to get into the POD to move to a storage facility in MN, what I needed to get into the RV, and the other logistics I needed in place to leave our home of over five years. Mr Haps was a huge help in all of this, but I had to get it across the finish line, so we could get to our first camp site.

My plan was to leave by 10AM on the 16th. 10 turned to 10:30, then 11, then Noon, and finally we left at 12:30. Arthur is a very smart kitty, a trait that he tends to hide most of the time, but he knew we were getting into Estella again, and he was hiding in the most unlikely of places – under the couch cover.

One of Arthur’s last glamour shots before we hit the road.

For those of you who read my first post, Arthur and I did solve the issue of him climbing under the brake pedal while I am driving. I stuffed pillows under there, so there wasn’t enough room for him and the pillows. Problem solved…for now.

Our destination was 344 miles away in Zanesville, Ohio. I subscribed to RV Life Pro – an app and a website to fine recommendations from fellow campers and plan out your route, and I found National Road Campground – our first camp site. It was on our route, it looked safe, and when I called to reserve a spot, they were so friendly and informative. Perfect first spot for us.

I don’t know if you can really appreciate topography and wind speed fully until you’re on a highway, going 70 mph in a van that’s longer than any car you’ve ever owned and twice your own height. Estella’s a looker, but she’s no Honda CRV. I am grateful that she does a little shimmy when she thinks I’m going too fast because Arthur always thinks I’m going too fast. #NotHelping

Mishaps to Ohio

A reminder of the Mishap Scale >>> (🍫 = minor; 🍫🍫 = ordinary; 🍫🍫🍫 = embarrassing; 🍫🍫🍫🍫 = terrible; 🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫 = not enough chocolate in the RV to recover)

  • Where do I put the fuel? I have rented so many cars in my life, and I have never had this issue. Up until this point, I had never fueled the RV. Mr Haps said that it was by the driver’s door, but what he didn’t say was how close to the driver’s side door. It’s not somewhere along that side of the RV. You have to open the driver’s door to find and open the flap the covers where you put the fuel in. Let’s not discuss the number of times I walked back and forth on that side of the RV…🍫🍫🍫
  • Beware: The diesel is bubbly. Why is it bubbly??? I don’t know, but it’s foamy and spills over if you’re not paying attention. Ask me how I know. 😐 🍫🍫🍫
  • Every. Single. RV person will tell you that you should arrive before dark because of course you should. This only makes sense because you’ll be less tired, you can clearly see your surroundings, and – in the fall / winter – it isn’t as cold for set-up. We did not arrive before dark. 🍫🍫
  • By the time we made it to National Road Campground, it was so dark. I was so tired. I couldn’t remember any of the reservation information, and I walked back and forth from the after hours check-in station three times before I had everything I needed to complete the check-in. Thankfully, the campground was pretty empty, so no one observed my walks of shame – unless you count the security camera footage. 🍫🍫

Good news: I got my steps in. Even with six idle hours, I still achieved over 8,000 steps. Even better news? Tomorrow’s drive will be longer….

The Adventure Begins

It’s Christmas, and I’m in a van with my cat on the adventure of a lifetime, and my gift to the world (or at least to whoever’s tuning in) is a blog about our travels, discoveries, and mishaps along the way.

We started in Pennsylvania with an experimental trip at Gifford Pinchot State Park in early October. I was just getting back from a work trip, so I rushed to get what I thought would be the essentials for us to live, work, and sleep from the RV for a few days. The fall colors were beautiful, and the temperatures were perfect – high 60s to low 40s.

Estella was a champ. She drove great and backed herself right into our relatively level spot – one try! She even got a compliment from our neighbor; he said she looked “sharp”.

Arthur struggled. This was his first drive that didn’t involve a vet appointment, so he was anxious, “vocal”, and a pile of drool. He expressed his unhappiness by peeing in his carrier, a carrier has not continued the journey with us. Once we were parked, and I shut off the engine, he did better.

I did ok. I had watched all the videos, read the Facebook posts from other new campers like me, and I bought almost all the things. Even the best prepared run into things, here’s my list from this trip. I’m using a chocolate bar (🍫) rating scale (🍫 = minor; 🍫🍫 = ordinary; 🍫🍫🍫 = embarrassing; 🍫🍫🍫🍫 = terrible; 🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫 = not enough chocolate in the RV to recover).

Mishaps from Pinchot

  • I forgot chocolate. I learned very quickly that my coping mechanism for stress is chocolate. 🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫
  • I didn’t think to bring any of that tape stuff you put on hose threads, so the hoses slowly leaked at the connections the whole time. Wasting water = 😩 🍫🍫
  • I also didn’t think I’d need a support for my sewer hose, so that it would more easily drain. The resolution to this mishap involved me using whatever I could find to create a slope to empty the grey and black tanks, which was – of course – observed by some other campers slowly walking by and talking loudly about how they liked to see how other campers set-up their rigs. 🍫🍫🍫
  • Taking Arthur outside the RV. In short, he didn’t like it. I think, because he lived in the woods as a kitten, it was just too scary to be back out there even on a leash and with me. So, we went back inside and didn’t try that again. 🍫
    • I underestimated how small Arthur could make himself when he got scared. When we left, the carrier smelled like pee, so I didn’t want to put him back in there. I let him just sit by my feet, which was fine until this happened:

Yes. He sat there for all 40 minutes it took us to get home. 🍫🍫

Our Best Story from Pinchot

So, there I was, following the directions from RV Blogger on how to set-up your water at your camp site…. (I wish I had taken a picture, but I was in a slight panic even after it was over.)

Step one: Let the water run out of the spigot to run out any rust or sediment that may have accumulated since the last camper used it. The water spigot was pretty tall; the handle came up to about my shoulder but lifted pretty easily. It had a c-shaped lever to turn the water on. So far, no issues with step one.

After about a minute, I went to shut it off, so I could hook up the pressure reducing valve, hose, filter, etc., but I could not get the handle to go back down. I was hanging from it, and it wouldn’t budge. Water everywhere because the pressure was intensely high. I didn’t have a hammer. I tried to use a strap to give myself more leverage – no movement. I think another minute had elapsed before I remembered I brought a hatchet. I used the flat end to pound the lever back down. 🍫🍫🍫 Crisis averted.

Thankfully, we did the experimental trip. I made some mistakes, but I gained a lot of confidence as well. #ICanDoThis