Every Trip Deserves a Story

The Labor Day holiday has always been an opportunity to take time off from work and get away. As owners of a Class C RV, taking to the road, seeking out cooler climates, and getting away from the city, it is something you look forward to. But before each trip begins, we are diligent to make sure our vehicle is ready for the road trip ahead. My wife is excellent at confirming that we are stocked up and I make sure the tires are checked, engine is serviced and that we have whatever is needed to connect to services once we arrive. My father-in-law refers to these as blue and pink tasks. We see it as a team effort and often make sure we have each other’s back during the process.

On this particular journey, my wife made a discovery as we are loading the RV. A few months ago, we made the investment in adding a 50 amp circuit to our home, so we could power up the RV and run the air conditioner when we are parked at the house. As is her tendency to work up a sweat, she is going through her mental check list and is working away in the RV‘s bathroom when a gentle, warm breeze cascades over her brow. Turning her eyes skyward, she could literally see the sky. Thinking the vent above the bathroom was probably open, she cranked the handle, and the handle went up, but there was no vent cover… it was gone!

On the day of our trip, we are compelled to make a quick visit to Camping World and learn that there are many, many vent covers styles and configurations. Luckily, it turns out that ours was a standard size, not overly expensive and a repair that we can make before hitting the road. A bit of a late start, but with only a delay of a couple of hours, we are on the road to Payson, AZ.

Each trip is different in one way or another. Arriving in Payson, we checked in and were ‘escorted’ to our site by a camp resident who guided us to back into our space. This was the first time we had been valeted into a spot and I wasn’t sure if we should tip them or not. We did not. But to be fair, I did check with my father-in-law and his experience is that some sites provide that service, just to make sure that everything goes smoothly.

I have got to say that everyone at the site was very nice and helpful, however we are learning that utilities may vary as you try new places. Our water pressure dropped to less than 20lbs and internet was marginal at best. It turns out that over the holiday weekend, they had over 300 campers on site and so we are all competing for limited resources. Inconvenient and lesson learned, but the truth is, we tend to spend most of our time in our Jeep, checking out the area. We made the most of this trip and visited the Mogollon Rim, Winslow, AZ, hiked down to the Tonto Forest Natural Bridge and saw a herd of elk on a dirt road in the middle of the forest.

My wife and I like to eat at local restaurants and visit the antique shops while learning about the town. I have found that in most towns, as long as you are respectful of the people and their culture, that they are inviting and can often share ideas on things to do or visit while in town. I highly recommend that you take the time to leave your campsite, connect and explore.

After an extended weekend, it was time to pack it up and head back on the highway towards home. Rather than hook up the jeep to the RV at the site, we decided to drive into town and find a nice flat parking lot and take our time to make sure the Jeep was secure for the trip. What we soon learned, is that Payson is the crossroads for all holiday traffic in the area and well, before you knew it, we had us a convoy of trailers, RVs, toy haulers, campers, lined up for miles exiting the city. Holiday traffic always requires patience and safe driving habits.

When we got home, we do our normal routine of dumping the tanks, off-loading food from the fridge, and preparing a load of laundry. Also I like to walk around and check the RV after each trip. It turns out that was a good idea as I found a crack in the sidewall of one of our tires. So we have that on our list to replace before our next journey on the road. Actually I plan to replace all four of the rear tires just to be safe.

Owning an RV can be expensive and like any investment, it requires care, maintenance and attention. But the reward is also very special and unique. As we get one more trip under our belt, I can feel a certain level of confidence and ownership starting to settle in that ‘yes’ we can do this. For my wife and I, the ability to take these trips, share these experiences, and travel on these adventures, well it is a blessing we don’t take lightly. Every trip is another page in our journal that helps shape the story of our life together.

Where's The Cheese?

However your path may have taken you here, somehow you are now the owner of a new RV and there comes the day when you have to take it out on its first overnight orientation.  Well, not only is that highly recommended, but also it just makes sense. We soon found out that there are always going to be the little things that get missed.  Prior to the big day, we had ordered what we thought was everything from Amazon and our local Camping World.  As we began stocking the RV, we found out some things fit, some things attached well with 3M Command Strips and others needed a bit more persuasion. 

On a personal note, it took me three tries to get the proper electrical cables and adapters to make it from our house to the RV, so we could power up our air conditioning unit.  I highly recommend watching YouTube videos to learn best practices from fellow owners.  Another good tip I found on YouTube that makes sense, is to not use your clean city water hose as your black tank flush hose. There is much to learn and many to learn from.  Every trip is an adventure and an opportunity to share your knowledge and gain new experiences that will enrich your time on the road.

It is exciting to load up the RV, and head towards your destination.  Check in time was 2pm, which gave us time to have a good lunch, double check the RV and drive to our park to settle in.  Remember as you drive that you are in a vehicle probably much larger than your daily drive.  Curbs, cars, stopping distance and overhead obstacles will need to be observed with care as you gain increased driving experience and skills. In advance of the booking, we drove our car to the site so we knew where we were going, how to get there and what to expect when we got there.

With as much preparation as possible, we booked our overnight stay at the MotorCoach Resort, a local park that is only a few miles from our house in Chandler, AZ. Upon arrival, we checked in and parked in our assigned space.  We worked as a team to make sure the utilities are setup and working properly.  Electrical power, city water, and sewage were the basics.  Once we lowered the levelers and made sure all 4 legs were down firmly on the concrete pad, we checked the slide outs for clearance.  A quick note on the levelers, make sure as you lower them that they are not going to be on top of your water, electric cables or other obstructions. Take things slow and work as a team to look out for each other as you setup.  Look for any water leaks at your connections.  Make sure breakers on your power post are in the proper position.  We use a water pressure regulator and a water filter to give us the best possible water quality and protect our internal plumbing.  We have a surge protector on our electrical feed to show us the available power is properly wired and safe for plugging into our home. With the external connections made, we are ready for preparing the inside for our overnight stay.

Did you know that you have to turn the refrigerator ON for it to work?  We had assumed you turn on the power and boom, you are ready for the refrigerator to chill out.   Turns out, after about an hour we decided to open it and check the thermometer.  It was 76 degrees and warm, so we knew about the slider on the fins and moved it to the coldest setting.  An hour later, no chilling.  My wife starts investigating and finds there is an ON button on the refrigerator and it is not on.  We did see great results once the switch was in the right position.  In fact the refrigerator got down to 29 degrees and we found that according to Google, 40 is the preferred temperature for refrigerators.  Lesson learned!

While all that is going on, we are extending the sliders and awning.  Mental note, make sure the stabilizers are down and contacted before extending. Also weather can change quickly and your awning can be shredded if not reeled up at the end of the day or in any high winds.  Make sure you retract the awning whenever the wind is above 10mph or at the end of the day. We were busy making the bed, setting the A/C to a good temperature, checking the shelves to make sure everything traveled well and is in place.  As night approaches, we are closing the drapes over the cockpit area getting ready for our overnight stay.  It’s time to check the refrigerator again and we are able to move food from the cooler we brought into the now chilled refrigerator. 

Our thoughts turn to dinner and for the first time we are firing up the propane stove.  Our next door campsite neighbors, also new to the RV world, warn us that the glass top, is not a cooking surface.  They learned the hard way, applying heat to the glass surface causes it to shatter and that is a dangerous mess no one wants to deal with.  My wife and I agree to keep it simple and limit our meal to a single pot of Hamburger Helper.  We had purchased some microwave safe bowls and plates, but probably could have got by with paper plates/bowls and plastic cutlery.  But it was a little more work, a little more grey water than we needed to do, but on an overnight it’s okay to splurge a little.

Night time is always a struggle in a new place, on a new bed, and the sounds may not be familiar.  We may not have picked the most peaceful place for a night’s stay.  On one side we had the interstate, the other a Truck Stop and across the road, a drag race track.  We learned that noise ordinances do not apply on the reservation where we were staying and the ¼ mile track kept busy with dragsters until midnight.  My wife, who is the smarter among us, chose earplugs and a Benadryl.   She had no trouble sleeping.  I would recommend, that on a first night's stay, until you get adjusted, a sleep aid and ear plugs if you want to get a full night’s sleep.

Morning arises and the sun starts to shine into our little mobile home on the prairie.  My wife, early to rise and early to grab a cup of coffee, promises me a delicious breakfast guaranteed to rival any Egg McMuffin that I’ve ever experienced. True to her word, within a half hour, there it was.  A Canadian bacon and egg sandwich on a muffin.  A sight for hungry eyes.  Upon closer inspection, and upon first bite, it became clear something was missing.  I peel back the muffin and give it a look.  Where’s the cheese?  She was quite honest and said it didn’t make this trip, maybe next time.

All things considered, it was a great first venture into the world of RV’ing.  The truth is something will always be left behind and maybe, just maybe it will make it on the next trip.  We packed up, made sure all was secure, shut down the power, drained the water, unhooked our connections and readied for our trip home.  We locked all the storage doors and did a walk around the RV to make sure there were no obstacles or items left behind.  As we climbed into the cab to begin our journey home, we both were feeling excited and accomplished.  We were ready for our next adventure on the open road.

Me and My Shadow

We are the owners of a Class C RV which for us was just what we wanted to start our journey into the world of RVs. It’s just right for me and my wife and our two dogs. We find it to be comfortable, fairly easy to drive and convenient for our weekend holiday trips. With that being said, your needs may be different.

This weekend we set forth on our first multi-day venture celebrating the Memorial Day weekend. Thank you to those who served and serve our country. If you are an international reader, Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering and honoring those who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It seems to us there are many veterans who seek the RV life and we enjoy hearing their stories when we travel.

We decided to spend the holiday at the Hon-Dah RV Resort in Pinetop/Lakeside, Arizona. It is a beautiful park that strives to sustain the natural beauty of the ponderosa pine trees and rolling landscape located in the White Mountains. The RV Park, casino, and hotel are owned and operated by the White Mountain Apache Tribe.

Since we are new to RV’ing, we didn’t know what to expect. Checking in was easy and there was a map to our site. There is wifi available and we had water, electricity and sewage at our site. As newbies it was nice that we had a pull-through site. Interestingly though, we had to plan the direction to drive into the site. Spoiler alert, we missed our turn and had to circle around and re-orient our entry into the site. It was a real driving test maneuvering our RV and towable Jeep around the pine trees, and obstacles on the small gravel roads. But we made it undamaged and began setting up our site.

For us, everything about RV’ing is new. We had our towable Jeep configured with a tow bar, braking system, and lighting on a Wednesday at Camping World. We brought the RV over to connect the two together on Thursday and headed to the mountains on Friday. We went with a braking system that installs under the hood of the Jeep and has an actuator that connects to the brake pedal. It was a nice clean installation and on the road, it only takes about 15 minutes to install, setup and be ready to travel.

On our RV we have a rear view camera that allow us to watch our towable as we go down the road. There is an indicator on the Jeep mirror that lets us know when the brake is engaged. Towing up and down the mountains was not an issue. It was comforting to look in our rear view camera and see that our shadow was still following us and not off in a distant ditch or over a cliff. Also the Jeep tracked really well with our turns and the braking system performed so well that we hardly noticed the Jeep was there.

Arriving at our site, we met our campsite neighbors who were from Tucson and they gave us some great tips on things to do in the area. The park is rather large and it took some time to orient to where things are located and how to navigate in and out of the park. There are some street signs which help but there aren’t really any exit signs or guides to numbered sites. We consider this all part of the adventure. We did learn how to place markers in Google maps which help you find your way until you get used to the geography of the site. With that being said, there are no streets within the park that are on your GPS, Google, or Apple maps.

On our first night, we had a drip leak at our toilet fresh water intake. Waking up and walking on a damp bathroom floor is not the way you want to start your morning. My wife was quick to give it a look and determine where the water was coming from. So our morning schedule changed to include a trip to Lowe’s where I got a hose clamp and within a few hours we were drip free.

As we continue to RV, we are adding to our repair/mend kit which now includes some spare hose clamps, duct tape, a tube of caulk, box of screws, double stick tape, zip ties and a roll of Velcro double stick cloth from Harbor Freight. I’m sure our kit will continue to grow as we encounter opportunities to repair.

Enjoying the destination is a big part of why we travel. We spend our time getting to know the area where we are staying. Experiencing the food, the people, the recreation sites and if we’re lucky a farmer’s market or art fair. We find that culture varies as you travel the road and you share experiences that make for lasting memories. On this trip, my wife’s sister and my brother in-law had suggested this resort and accompanied us in their fifth wheel trailer. Shared adventures and new adventures help forge lasting bonds. It’s always nice to know you have someone with experience that you can trust and is available to help when needed.

All good experiences come to an end and it is time for us to pack it up and head back home. We take with us memories, a few souvenirs, and a lot of pictures. Oh and a check list of things we will do to improve our next outing. Slowly our RV is truly becoming our vacation home on wheels.