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Slowpoke, here's the departure checklist for the trailer. Note that a lot of this stuff can be done simultaneously, such as one person working outside and the other inside.
Thank you so much! This will be incredibly helpful.
The problem with hotels / motels is you have to do a bedbug check. You’d be surprised at the people who get infested by these creatures and have to burn their luggage on returning home. Not to mention the cleanliness of some of these places. With and RV you don’t have these concerns.
RVing is for the adventurous, those who are not easily confounded by the daily maintenance issues of a one-bedroom apartment on wheels. A few maintenance skills and tools come in right handy.
We had been very happy with our 31' sloop in our younger days. When the time came to come back ashore, we began researching RVs. Rented a 27' Class C and spent two weeks on Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway, and found the 27' RV was easier to maintain and store our stuff than was our Newport 31. Yep, we were RV people.
Continued to research RVs for another year, then bought an Itasca Sunrise in 2004. It's been coast to coast and back, and we full-timed in it right after retirement, until we found this S&B. We had her remodeled in preparation for traveling through Canada to the Kenai Peninsula this spring. We refer to this as our "Scottish trip," because like Shakespeare's Scottish play, saying the name seems to jinx it. The last four years we've planned this trip and something happened that cancelled it. So we're not taking any chances.....
A few years ago, Spousal Unit thought pulling a trailer would be easier than driving a top-heavy Class A through the prairies, what with his Parkinson's and all. We bought a 33' Rockwood 2906WS. Gorgeous trailer, super easy to pull behind SU's F350. But we're not real comfortable in it, and our traveling cat hates it, where he adores the Sunrise. SU found out it takes much longer to prepare a trailer for departure/arrival -- the checklist we drew up for it is over three pages, where the Itasca checklist is only one. So we're chalking that up to a bad idea and selling the trailer.
Besides, we don't take the RV more than 300 miles per day, and I can easily drive that without my ankles swelling up. So we're back in our lovely Itasca, and planning the trip with our friends who live in a 40' Fifth Wheel.
It occurs to me that we now have some experience with Class A, Class C, pull trailer and Fifth Wheel. I have childhood experience with popup campers and a 30' Airstream trailer, and at least three homemade truck or bus conversions. Then all the tent camping and the various forms of sleeping outside curled around a rock or on the floor of a RATT rig during my Army days has definitely colored my preferences.
I much prefer driving my bedroom and bath to staying in a hotel. I know exactly who's been sleeping in my bed, and I don't have to get up in the middle of the night and get dressed before rushing to the campground public toilet and hoping I get there in time. The toilet is mere steps away.
If something should happen to Spousal Unit first, I would be very inclined to go with a small trailer and my F150 -- maybe join up with some other Texas ladies who pull highly decorated trailers alone and link up for good times. The trailer must have a good location for the kitty litter box and a good bathroom -- all else would be flexible for me. A trailer for a single person will work -- just didn't work out for the two of us.
bgrasser, the RV lifestyle is loving to travel without having to pack and unpack. It's enjoying both rural and urban locations, thanks to all the RV parks, but not paying urban lodging prices. Most people you encounter in RV parks are friendly and willing to help you if you have a problem or RVing question. It's a lower stress way of traveling, as long as you don't have to be at point A no later than X date.
RV life is not about the destination, but about the trip -- just like the difference between sailing and power boating: we sailors enjoyed the trip for its own sake, and we got to a destination when we got there. Power boaters were going somewhere to enjoy the destination. Cruising versus speed. RVers are cruisers.
It's not for everyone, but until one gives it a good try (like a two-week rental), one never knows.
As I mentioned early on, everybody’s mileage may vary.
Up until 2016 I had been RVing off and on since 1988, before graduating, so I thought, to a class c,
I had a better experience with a self converted Ford Clubwagon.
You don’t have to educate me about the RV experience, I’ve toured and chased many music festivals
throughout this country as well as across the border for weeks at a time.
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