Today marks the end of our seventh day on the road, and we’re still having fun! That said, the learning curve has been steeper than most of the roads we’ve been driving on. Prior to this week, I had towed an RV exactly TWICE, once when we bought it, and a week before our trip when we went on a ‘practice run’ without kids. HO! Like that even counted.
Now that we’ve been on the road for a week, I wanted to share some things we learned this week that might be relevant to other RV newbies. I call this segment TODAY I LEARNED:
TIL: Kids Need Practice.
We bought this fancy ‘piggy backer’ for our 20 month old to use, but we never actually used it. It's just a metal bar attached to backpack for him to stand on and ride as a piggy back. It seems simple and awesome enough (the branding is legit) but Xander doesn’t know how it's supposed to work, so it is a struggle. Our first time using it resulted in tears and tantrums. Our second time ALSO resulted in tears and tantrums, but he did calm down and ride it for like a tenth of our mile hike, which I am going to count as a victory.
TIL: Twisty Routes on Maps means Hills.
That’s the only reason people put twists in roads. If people can build straight roads, they do. We were wondering why a particular route on google maps was twisting, only to quickly realize that it is because there are hills to circumnavigate. This may seem obvious. It was not immediately so to us.
TIL: August in the Midwest Kind of Sucks for Birds.
Ebird assures me that there are birds to be seen here, but not really any that I haven’t already seen in migration season in Central Texas. It’s interesting that all the birds that funnel through Texas in late April end up dispersed all over the place, but the thing is I’m a spoiled brat when it comes to birding. I live in Texas, and not just Texas, but Travis County Texas, where I had seen 226 birds before even starting this trip. So far the weirdest thing I’ve seen is a fish crow. I’m excited to head further north and east and see new things like a great black-backed gull!
TIL: A Cooler is More Reliable than a Fridge.
The fridge needs to be plugged in or use propane to run. I suppose we can just pump propane into it while we’re driving, but that kind of freaks us out, so we turn off the propane while driving. This makes the fridge less than reliable. The injected molded cooler? It’s been ice cold this whole time. We’re more comfortable keeping meat/dairy/anything in there than we are in the fridge at this point. We might get over our fear of the propane supposed to be running while driving… but ice is nice y’all, and they have it at every gas station ever.
TIL: Adults can be Adults in a Trailer with Kids.
It is in fact possible to have adult time in a 30 foot trailer. It is very quiet, and there are curtains involved, but it is possible. Recommended, in fact.
TIL: State Parks are 100X better than RV parks.
All the state parks we’ve visited or driven through (we stopped at Beaver Bend in Oklahoma for lunch) have been beautiful, and far from crowded. I keep reading on the internets that the national parks are flooded, but as of August, 2021, the State Parks are not. Also, they have been substantially cheaper than RV parks, which are really little more than glorified gravel parking lots with a PVC pipe nearby to drain my poop into. The parks normally don’t have full (poop) hook ups at the site, but for us (dedicated birders and wannaba naturalists) this is a fair price to pay.
TIL: Emptying the Black Tank Ain’t that Bad.
I mean, don’t get me wrong. The day after I ate pork for the first time in a year (a nopalito, pork and red sauce burrito, you say Lupita? How can I say no!?) the smells coming out of there were absolutely not kosher, but hooking up the tank, and emptying the sludge isn’t that bad. I’ve never got any gunk on me, and using the gray water to rinse the black hose helps with the smell. We do have a hook up to spray out the black tank, which I think helps crud (shit) from building up.
TIL: Water Pumps are for Water Tanks
My darling Raquel in her infinite wisdom was under the impression that our auxiliary pump was to help increase water pressure, but it is in fact NOT! It is used to send water from the freshwater tank throughout the RV, and is only needed when the RV is not hooked up to water, and is using its reservoir of water. We might have burned out the the pump if I had been a bit less bossy. Good for me?
TIL: Our trailer is ALMOST Too Heavy for our truck.
We can pull it, and the truck isn’t overheating or anything, but god damn does the fuel economy suck. I am trying to get into the 10 mpg club by shedding what weight we can (I have my eyes on those super durable, super sturdy, suuuuuper heavy stairs that the previous owner installed) to make towing this rig a bit more economical. Right now, we’re riding dry, and it would be nice to be able to flush the toilet if we stop at a roadstop. It was probably less than prudent to bring a box of paperbacks to sell…
We keep hearing on the FM radio that hospital beds are full because of Covid… and people are STILL refusing to get vaxxed or wear masks. Why? It’s obviously not a hoax. People are dying. Why not get vaxxed? Because you’re scared? The vaccine isn’t filling up hospital beds. Covid-19 is.
TIL: Cooking Outside is Awesome.
It keeps the RV from getting hot, and prevents so much mess. I love it. I love it so much. I don’t want to cook inside ever again. Recommendation: only cook outside in the SHADE.
TIL: Leo really likes Fungus.
We watched this Fantastic Fungi documentary, and Leo is obsessed. Every mushroom, mold, or lichen we see, he demands I take a picture so we can identify it on iNaturalist. I love this kid. He walked a mile today without complaint, while his brother demanded “pick me up! Pick me up!” on loop (he needs practice, like Leo had).
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