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Scott and Jackie's Travels – Thousand Trails Reviews, Campground Reviews, Fulltime RVing, European Travel

Tag: advice

2016 – Planner or freelancer?

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compassPlanner or freelancer, which will it be?  That’s a question I come across fairly often, and I’ve written about it here and also here.  Should a fulltimer create a travel calendar, make reservations, and follow a schedule?  Or should a fulltimer go with the flow, setting sail in the morning, not worrying about where they will spend the night till closer to the end of each day?  I think there’s room for individuality on both sides of this issue (and certainly some compromises to be made on either side).  A lot, though, depends on your travel style and budget.

If you don’t mind a bit of uncertainty and enjoy the adventure of dropping anchor in an unknown port, freelancing can be a lot of fun.  You’ll have some misadventures along the way, especially if you try to be a pure freelancer who doesn’t even plan for  summer holiday weekends.  However, that will become part of your story.  After all, there’s most often a Walmart or a grocery store in the area that allows overnight parking.  Also, people who like to boondock on public lands are especially suited for freelancing.

Other than the boondockers, though, freelancers often end up paying more than their planning counterparts.  There are some great camping deals out there, but they generally go to planners who research campgrounds in an area and make advance reservations, sometimes months in advance.  For people on a tighter budget this is a bigger deal that it is for others.

Planning has it’s advantages but lacks the spontaneity some people associate with the RVing lifestyle.  Still, many of us simply enjoy working with maps and researching – looking for the perfect campsite and the best route to get there. They are able to land in some of the more popular spots on busy weekends.  Such travel is generally easier on the expense sheet; not only because you aren’t at the mercy of the campground owner who has the last available spot in the area but also because you tend to travel point to point rather than wandering between undetermined destinations.

If you’re on vacation, you most likely want to be a planner.  No one wants to waste precious vacation camping nights parked at a truck stop.  I think fulltimers are more likely to be planners, although there are a lot of fulltime freelancers out there.  Even then, though, most fulltimers make reservations for holidays, planning to arrive early and then stay on a day or two after all the poor weekenders have to return to the daily grind.   Even fulltimers who do a lot of freelancing tend to set a few hard dates and then freelance between them.

Fulltimers, more than most people, tend to march to the beat of their own drummer so there’s lots of wiggle room on this one.  Really, there’s no right or wrong way to do it – just “your way.”

Observation: Campground Serenity (or not)

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One recurring theme I see on the RV Facebook groups is the behavior (or better, misbehavior) of fellow campers. As ironic as it may be, going to many commercial RV parks is a poor way to get away from it all.

The worst crowding we’ve experienced was on the coast of Washington where people were parked next to one another as they would be in a parking lot. The beautiful Pacific was a short walk away and people were willing to be packed into a campground to be in such a prime spot near the beach. The house and city lot we sold a few years ago was just a modest place on an average property. I think, though, that in that Washington campground there were six RVs packed into a spot the size of that city lot.

Not only is spacing an issue at many campgrounds, but RVers want to be outside so there are lawn chairs and campfires everywhere. Thinking about the house we sold, imagine what it would have been like if day after day my five closest neighbors came to my back yard to each build their own campfire and, while being cordial to one another, didn’t want to spend that time together with their other neighbors. And, of course, each would bring their dogs who would be out of their element and tending to bark at one another and the other folks in my yard. Meanwhile their kids would be having a great time, riding their bikes up and down the roads and sometimes through where other groups are sitting.

So, people put themselves into the crowded conditions of the typical commercial campground and then complain about the behavior of others. Of course, they are right – people are being noisy and rude, acting as if they are at home with plenty of space to call their own. At the same time, if you pick a crowded campground for your get-away weekend you might want to remind yourself that you aren’t at home. If you don’t want to hear barking dogs, slamming doors, yelling kids, and even quiet campfire conversations next door you might want to avoid crowded campgrounds. If you do go to such places, well, remember that you aren’t at home where you can get away from all that kind of stuff.

Backing your 5th wheel

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There’s an interesting thread on the Escapees Forum about backing a 5th wheel.  Here’s a synopsis along with some of my own thoughts on the topic.

  1. If possible, always back from the driver’s side – doing it the other way puts more pressure on the spotter to give good directions
  2. GOAL: Get out and look – at the beginning of the backup for sure – then anytime you have any doubt whatsoever about where you are and what is behind you
  3. Look up – don’t get so focused on the ground that you forget tree limbs, etc.
  4. Your spotter needs to know that if they can’t see your face in the mirrors that you can’t see them – if you lose them, stop and wait until you can see them again.
  5. Your spotter’s responsibility is what is happening at the rear of the rig, the driver is responsible of that is happening at the nose of the pickup – watch out for other vehicles, etc. as you swing the nose of the pickup around to line up the 5th wheel.
  6. Remember that the “superior” people who seem to be the most entertained by your backing in are likely some of the worse drivers in the campground and need you to have problems to make them feel better about their own shortcomings (after all the worse golfer in the foursome is everyone else’s best friend).
  7. Pull forward far enough – with my shortbed/slider hitch combination that’s putting the rear of the 5th wheel 5 to 10 feet past the campsite
  8. Watch the camper tires and turn just tight enough for them to clear the edge of the campsite driveway as you begin backing into the site
  9. Once you get the tires on the side you are backing from into the edge of the campsite stop turning and start “following” the camper into the site with the pickup – imagine the camper is pulling the pickup

Feel free to add your tips in the comments to this post!

Upgrade: Macerator Pump

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One of my lessons learned this summer has been that I need to make peace with water/electric only camping. As Thousand Trails members we’ve had to decide between sites we liked for one reason or another and sites that offer sewer hookups and not much else. Of course, beyond that we’ve been in several campgrounds (Thousand Trails and others) where full hookups are simply not available. My earlier feeling was that not having full hookups was going to be fairly unusual and it wasn’t necessary to make any special plans for that possibility. These days, I’m thinking it’s more common, especially in the west, and that I need to have an approach for dealing with partial hookups on a somewhat regular basis.

Our stays are generally 10-14 days. Our black water tank is plenty big enough for that, but our gray water tanks tend to fill quicker and need to be emptied during our stay. One could tow a blueboy through the campground to the dump station, but in some parks the dump station is unreasonably far from the campsites. Some campgrounds offer honey wagon service but it can be rather expensive.

Here’s a quick update on the macerator/blueboy approach…we’re now on the road with our 40 gallon blueboy aboard. I was pleased that I could stand it up on it’s side and have room for it in the 5th wheel bay. We’re in a CoE campground with water but no sewer hookup so we’re using the macerator/blueboy combo (and likely will be for our next few stops). It’s working exactly as I hoped. When we arrived we ran our R/O machine to make some drinking water. It creates a lot of “brine” water. We filled our kitchen tank doing that, so I dumped it using the macerator. Then, since we’ve been in this campground we’ve done three small loads of laundry (“small” is the watchword using the washer/dryer combo we have). The three loads plus bathroom sink usage filled the front grey water tank to 3/4 so I dumped again. I ended up making two trips to the nearby dump station to empty the two grey water tanks. I’m quite satisfied with this approach. It saves dragging the blueboy through the campground and is easy enough to do. One thing I like is that when I pull the dump valve the waste water stops at the pump until I turn it on. Then, when the blueboy is full, I can just turn off the pump and the water stops. This works great for multiple trips.

Let me add that I’m not planning on using this approach for black water unless it is absolutely necessary. Since the macerator does it’s thing for solids I think it would work, but the idea of holding the water hose as it pumps the “stuff” into the blueboy sounds rather yucky to me. I’ll stick with pumping shower/kitchen water.

My motorhome versus 5th wheel story

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The sure-fired, guaranteed, spirited discussion topic among fulltiming RVers is, well you know what it is: which is best for fulltiming, motorhome or 5th wheel.  The obvious thing is that both are quite suitable.  After all, there are thousands upon thousands of people happily and enthusiastically traveling and living in both.

Note: after 6 years in the 5th wheel we did make the move to the motorhome. Here’s my article comparing the two.

Still, there are advantages and disadvantages to both.  Just for fun, here are my comparisons (note: I’ll update this list when I come across more “pros” either way):

Motorhome

  1. Easier to park and set up – important for people who move often or are challenged by such things. One thing that helps is that the driver is sitting right up front over the wheels – and the steering on a mothorhome lets the driver turn the rig very sharply
  2. Lends itself to the famous “in motion passenger pit stop” and it’s less famous cousin, the “honey grab me a soda from the fridge” in motion request
  3. Better for “bugging out” from a rest area or Walmart parking lot if things sound a bit strange outside
  4. If you tow a car you have a small, economical daily driver – also nice for scouting out the campground for sites upon arrival
  5. Most comfortable travel vehicle
  6. It provides the famous, “we don’t have to even go outside if it’s raining when we arrive” advantage
  7. While there are more steps to get inside, once inside it is all one level

5th Wheel

  1. More room inside – important for people who stay in one place longer
  2. The “house” and the vehicle are separate – really important when the vehicle has to go in the shop – you don’t have to get a motel room for, say, a transmission rebuild
  3. Cost of maintenance on tow vehicle is generally less – doesn’t require “big rig” service oil changes, and camper tires are less expensive
  4. Depending on your taste, startup costs are generally less
  5. Greater variety of floor plans
  6. More stable when driving in windy conditions (assuming a well matched tow vehicle and 5th wheel)
  7. Propane tanks can be removed and taken to a refill station
  8. When you want to upgrade you can upgrade the tow vehicle and 5th wheel separetly rather than having to greater expense of trading motorhomes
  9. A 5th wheel is easier to level on sites that are unlevel front to back – you don’t have to worry about putting the front tires up on blocks or having them dangling in the air if using an automatic leveling system
  10. Here’s a real biggie: a husband towing a 5th wheel is somewhat less likely to drive off without the wife aboard. 🙂

Here’s our story: when we began our search we set a budget for our fulltiming rig.  We started off looking mostly at diesel motorhomes but soon became discouraged that the nice ones were over our budget.  We began pricing bigger pickups and 5th wheels.  It became apparent to us that we had a better chance of staying under our budget while getting something we liked if we went the 5th wheel route – and we did.

A big influence on us was the living space available in the 5th wheels as well as the better floor plans.  We wanted a normal living room set up, including a more natural location of the television.  Most motorhomes we looked at didn’t offer such a floor plan.  A lot of 5th wheels didn’t either, but some did.

Now that we’re fulltiming, I admit that there have been times when I wished for a motorhome/towed vehicle.  The truck uses a lot of fuel, towing or not.  When we arrive at a campground, I really dislike driving around with the 5th wheel in tow while I cruise up and down narrow roads trying to pick out a campsite.

Most of the time, though, I’m convinced we made a good choice.  We like the living space the 5th wheel provides.  We think some of the advantages of the motorhome are minor at best.  After all, we would have to stop motorhome or 5th wheel for the driver to make a pit stop – not to mention that walking around in a motorhome in motion is somewhat dangerous and likely illegal.  We haven’t had to set up in any downpours, and if we did, we’d just get a little wet moving from the pickup to the camper where we’d wait it out.  Also, we don’t do camp Walmart or stay in rest areas so the possibility of needing to make a run for it from some undesirable situation really isn’t that great.

Then, we’ve had the pickup in the shop three times now, once overnight.  It was nice not having to take our whole house in to the shop and vacate it just for new radiator hoses!

Maybe, someday, we’ll join the motorhome crowd.  When we do, we’ll enjoy some of the advantages of living and traveling in a motorhome.  At the same time, though, I think we’ll miss some of the pluses of our 5th wheel.

RVer Beware: Campsite Envy

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We’ve all done it.  We arrive at the campground ready for a pleasant, enjoyable stay.  We find our spot, get settled in and then take a walk.  Just across the way, we see it: the best campsite in the entire campground.  Almost always it’s occupied but we can’t help but wish it was our camper nestled in that perfect spot with the great view of the lake or the nice big front yard (or maybe just closer to the bathrooms!).

Before we even know it we’re not as happy with our site as we were just a few minutes ago.  We’ve fallen prey to “campsite envy.”

It’s happened to us often enough that I coined the term.  In fact, we developed an unwritten policy: we aren’t going to give in to campsite envy; instead we’re going to appreciate what we have and not let campsite envy diminish our stay.

Only twice have we pulled up stakes and relocated to a different spot.  And, yes, both moves were to considerably superior campsites that just happened to be available.  Generally speaking, though, we think it’s better to not get started with the campsite shuffle.  For one thing, it’s most often more work than it’s worth.  For another, our enjoyment of a campground is seldom centered around our campsite anyway.  We enjoy the activities at the campground and sightseeing in the area surrounding the campground.  We like meeting the neighbors and sharing a campfire.  Who knows?  The neighbor you move away from as you give in to campsite envy might have become one of the best friends you’ve ever had!

So, if it’s early in your stay and the perfect campsite opens up it might make sense to make the move.  Otherwise, it’s not that big a deal anyway.  Make a note for future reservations and get on with enjoying the campground.  Don’t give in to campsite envy!

What is a fulltimer?

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There are some never ending debates in the RV world.  For instance, among avid RVers toss out the question, “Fifth wheel or motorhome?” and you’ll find yourself in an opinionated discussion.  Ask the fifth wheel crowd, “How big of a truck do I need?” and the rest of the evening will be filled with discussion.

And, if you want to have some fun, ask “What is a fulltime RVer?” and you are in for an entertaining conversation.  The crux of the matter is whether just living in a RV makes one a fulltimer.  Obviously, there’s a difference between living behind your grandmother’s house in their 1947 Airstream which is sitting up on concrete blocks and traveling around the country in a high dollar RV.  The question is, does the first person get to wear the “fulltimer” label?

I think the real problem is that the term “fulltimer” needs a qualifying adjective.

Think of the different kinds of fulltimers there are.  At one extreme there’s that person living in the 50 year old camper on the concrete blocks.  Then we’ll find people in more current rigs spending their winters in the sunny south and their summers in the moderate north, moving back and forth between campsites they may even own.  There are people who follow their jobs, moving when the work moves (and people who are workcamping from place to place).  At the other extreme are those who are touring the country.  Beyond all that, somewhere in the mix are people who are dreaming of becoming fulltimers and those who have had lots of fulltiming adventures but have now hung up the keys.

I propose that we just invite all of them into the fulltimers’ tent (not to offend you tenters who are reading this).  Then, when we want to be more specific, we add an adjective that clarifies just what sort of fulltimers we are at the present time.  In my examples above I’ve mentioned several kinds of fulltimers:

  • Stationary
  • Seasonal
  • Working
  • Touring
  • Wannabe
  • Usedtobe

I’m not trying to do a complete list here – rather, to move the discussion in a positive direction.  If you are a fulltimer, what adjective would you use to describe your fulltiming approach?

Just for fun, I’ve created this flowchart to help illustrate my thinking.

Of course, all of this is worth just what you are paying for it.

Fulltimer

 

Church hopping observations

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Borrowed from Wesley UMC Church webpage

Since retiring and becoming fulltime traveling RVers we’ve become church hoppers.   It’s quite a change from being the parsonage couple and attending our local church every time the doors are open.

As traveling RVers we’re on the move about seven months each year, changing churches every week or two.  We could visit the campground services or watch our home church online – and sometimes we do, but we like going to a local church.  Honestly, we miss our church family.  Going to church as perpetual visitors isn’t the same as being regular attenders.

Here’s our approach: after searching the web for an area church of our denominational flavor we look over the church’s web site for service times and directions.  We look for photos of people at a regular worship service so we have a better idea of the unwritten dress code.  Like most anyone, we just want to fit in and not be too casual or too formal.  When I was a kid people wore their “Sunday best” to church.  These days, not so much.  That makes it challenging to know just what to wear.  Also, we check the church calendar to see if there is a special event that Sunday.  If so, depending on the event, it might make us more or less likely to attend that particular week (VBS program, less likely – southern gospel concert, oh yeah!).  Often, the church with a website that provides us the above information is the one we visit.   By the way, the church that is still promoting last winter’s Christmas program in July automatically loses potential as a likely place for our visit.

If our own denomination has no nearby church, we look for a “sister” group, but really, we’re pretty comfortable in a wide variety of churches.

We try to arrive at the church just a few minutes early.  If we are too early we find ourselves sitting uncomfortably in a less than full sanctuary.  If we arrive late, we fear we’ll interrupt a service already in progress.  You’d be surprised at how often we’ve arrived at churches not knowing for sure which parking lot to use or even which door to enter.  That’s especially true with large churches with multiple buildings on their campus or with older churches that have an old sanctuary and newer buildings around it.

We’ve concluded that most churches are completely unprepared for walk in visitors.  They are comfortable with people who attend as a guest of a regular who is “showing them the ropes” but walk-ins are unexpected and unanticipated.  After being the ultimate church “insiders” we’ve realized just how uncomfortable walk-in visitors are during a meet and greet time.  Everyone is told to stand and greet those around them.  We stand and say a brief hello to those around us and then remain standing with fixed smiles while everyone around us has short private conversations as friends do at such a time.  Even churches that think they are friendly are mostly just friendly with one another, not with outsiders.

One eye opener for me, as a career pastor, has been the demeanor of pastors.  When we first arrive they come up to shake hands and smile, telling us how glad they are we have visited.  Then, they always ask, “Are you from around here?”  When we say we aren’t the light goes out and they quickly move on, sometimes with hardly another word.  I know how busy a pastor is on a Sunday morning, but this response to our not being “prospects” was surprisingly consistent wherever we visited and were greeted by the pastor.

Having said all that I want to add that, in general, we enjoy visiting churches.  As a retired pastor I often remind myself that I’m attending church as a worshiper.  I’m not there to look for interesting ideas or to “fix” the church.  In addition, we’ve been impressed by how many good preachers and singers there are.  We’ve enjoyed the variety and seeing the good that is being done in churches around the country.  It hasn’t been unusual for us to drive away from a worship service and remark to one another, “If we lived here we could be a part of that church.”

We miss our church family and friends.  We’re very aware that there’s a depth of spiritual life that is best fostered by being a faithful part of a good church family.  Also, we’re glad for social media and the ability it provides for keeping up with what is happening “back home.”  At the same time we’re enjoying our travels and the many opportunities to worship with the larger Church with a capitol “C.”

Year in review: Random observations on our summer of 2013 Adventure

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In May, after spending a week at Lake Conroe, TX Thousand Trails we hitched the camper to the pickup and headed north on I45 to begin what we’ve called our “summer of 2013 adventure.”  On the first of November, after six months of travel, we arrived back at Lake Conroe completing our big circle and concluding our 2013 adventure.  All told we towed the camper about 4500 miles and, with all our sightseeing miles, etc. included we drove 10,000 miles.  We’ve had a wonderful time and the adventure lived up to all our expectations.

In a few days we’ll leave Thousand Trails and move to a commercial campground located about midway between Houston and Galveston.  That will be our “winter quarters” although we are planning on taking a month off somewhere along the line and head south for warmer temperatures and a change of venue…just because we can!

Here are a few random observations drawn from the past months of travel:

  1. I like planning and organizing.  Some fulltimers detest it.  They want to hit the road in the morning not knowing where they will be that evening.  If they are driving along and see something interesting along the way they change directions and follow their nose.  That doesn’t suit us.  We like looking at the map, planning the best route and knowing there will be a spot for us when we land at the end of the day.  For budgeting purposes, I had planned our entire summer, at least in theory, before we left Conroe.  With only a few changes, we followed that route and schedule all the way.  We liked doing it that way and we’ll probably continue that practice in the future.
  2. We like stays of longer than a week, but not as long as two weeks.  My rule of thumb is that, as fulltimers, we are going to spend every night somewhere.  For us, the journey is the destination so we are in no hurry.  At the same time, we are out on the road to see things we wouldn’t see otherwise.  The occasional one week stay was fine, but having to button down the camper and move every week, we realized, could become a bit of a drag.  At the same time, we had some longer stays in places where it didn’t take long to see all there was to see.  For those I mentioned above, it is easy to just move on.  For us, with reservations already made, we needed to stay put.  We’ve decided that, aside from nights when we are simply “in route” that we like stops of 10 or 11 days.
  3. The most dangerous time for any RVer is arriving at a campground.  As you arrive you are a bit tired and you are now off the highway and needing to maneuver campground roads.  You are looking at campsites and trying to take it all in, and, then you are landing the big rig.  There are tree limbs and power pedestals and ditches.   All this combines to increase the likelihood that something bad will happen.  Another of my new found rules of thumb is this: don’t let anyone talk you into trying to park the camper in a spot where you are uncomfortable.  This applies to pick-your-own-site and assigned site campgrounds.  Even if “people park campers as big as yours in that spot all the time” don’t do it if you have doubts.  After all, when something bad happens, it will be you who will pay for the damage, not the campground.  Happily, I learned the lesson without paying the price – but I came close; not once, but three times, and in the same campground!
  4. When picking a campsite, take your time.  Don’t think you have to take the first spot you come to.  Find a pull through site where you can leave the rig and take a quick walk around the campground.  We’ve learned to keep an eye out for the location of the dumpsters in relation to the campsite.  Who wants to listen to the lid of one of those things bang all day?  We’ve also learned to take the slide outs into consideration before backing in.  A tight fit becomes no fit at all if the slide will hit the power pedestal when extended.   If it fits it fits, even if it’s a tight fit.  If it doesn’t, well, it doesn’t.  It’s good to know that before you fight your way into the site.  We’re still learning this one: unless you like a nice bright campsite, it’s wise to notice where the street lights are.  We like to sit out and enjoy our portable campfire and watch the stars.  Twice now, as darkness fell, we realized the campsite was flooded with light.
  5. Let me provide a spiritual dimension to all this.  For years Jackie and I have stopped just prior to leaving on trips to bow our heads and ask the Lord’s protection for our journeys.  We have carried that practice into our RV adventure.  Each move has started with a prayer of thanksgiving for our stay and petition for a safe, enjoyable journey.  The Bible tells us that if we acknowledge the Lord in our lives that he will direct our ways (Proverbs 3:6).  We have taken that word of instruction to heart.