RV Road Trip Wrap

We rented a Compact RV from Cruise America. Over 16 days, we drove 3,197 miles (an avg of 199 miles per day including the return day) through 5 states, visited 3 national parks/monuments, stayed in 9 campsites in 4 states and consumed an absurd amount of boxed mac ‘n cheese and La Croix.

Could we RV full time? Maybe …

• The worst thing about the Cruise America RV was the lack of suspension — uneven roads caused so much rattling and bouncing. It wasn’t unsafe and not really hard to actually drive (except on a few roads) but the noise and bouncing were incredibly stressful. I think we’d actually prefer a trailer pulled by a smaller truck/SUV crossover because a) the rattling would all happen in the trailer where I couldn’t hear it and b) we could leave the trailer behind at a campsite and take our passenger vehicle to run errands and see sights. While parking the RV in lots at Yellowstone was probably good character-building experience, I’d be fine never doing that again.
• The best thing about the Compact RV is that you COULD park it. The other things I liked that would be true for all/most RVs included the onboard fridge (we only ate “out” twice), the kitchen, storage (cupboards and drawers), having a bed, and the AC.
• There are a lot of things we could do to make the RV and our life in it more eco-friendly including solar panels, installing an induction stove, more advanced planning to use less single use plastics and containers. But the reality is that to tow a trailer or drive a motor home, you have to drive a vehicle with an internal combustion engine and it’s not going to be energy efficient. And I have some doubts about the efficiency of RV water hookups and the environmental impact of Dump Stations. I suspect our current car free, multi-unit building lifestyle is lower impact (minus any flying we do — none recently but it will resume soon).
• We’d need to figure out the internet. So much is online now and while it’s nice to be disconnected for awhile on vacation, full-time life would require a more reliable internet connection that we had on this trip.
• I loved the simplicity of having fewer dishes, fewer clothes and less stuff. When it wasn’t unbearably hot, I loved setting up and sitting outside in the evening. I can absolutely imagine downsizing to just the stuff that fits in an RV and being perfectly happy for months at a time.
• I’d need to figure out meal planning — I didn’t bother so much on this trip and we ate canned Annie’s soups and boxed dinners.
• I’d want to stay places longer. The longest we were in any site was 3 nights. If we were doing this long-term, I could see staying somewhere for 2 weeks or longer before moving on. I’d want to take things a little more slowly than we did during our whirlwind road trip vacation.

Items that served us well in the great RV experiment

• A super absorbent camping towel (Blue Sky GEAR Utili-Towel 1.0 — now discontinued) I picked up at REI years ago — we’re using it in lieu of a dish rack
• A small bottle of Doctor Bronner’s soap
• The Stanley percolator
• Our Stanley camp cooking set that includes 2 bowls with lids, 2 saucepans and a cutting board
• Our metal sporks
• Some microfiber yoga towels — faster drying and work well post-shower
• A small colander (helpful for draining pasta)
• Our to-go coffee mugs and water bottles
• The broom we brought from home (so many crumbs and bits of dirt get onto the floor) — I’ve been sweeping out every morning
• A bottle of all-purpose cleaning spray we brought fom home (baking soda, vinegar, dish soap, water, essential oil) — we’ve been spraying down surfaces every morning, too
• Paper towels!
• Rubber gloves, which are essential for dealing with the sewage/gray water pipe