We live in the Pacific Northwest. To be fair, this is the first season we’ve done the full-blown winterizing for our trailer. In the past, my husband has just blown out the lines with an air compressor and left the faucets open. We only had a problem once. (I’ll tell you about that at the end.) It makes me sad to think that we can’t just take off whenever we want. It’s going to take a little more doing to take a winter trip, and a little more re-doing. It might be hard to talk the guy who has to do all this extra work into taking off for a weekend. You’re probably wondering how I’m even qualified to write this blog post. Like I said, I live in the Pacific Northwest. I moved here from Southern California 25 years ago. It’s dark, it’s cold, it’s wet … YUCK! Trying to keep in in good spirits in the winter has been a challenge since our first winter here. Here are some things I do. Surprise, surprise! Many are travel related!
- Leave town! – I try to get out of the area in the winter for a while (sometimes I even bring the family!). I usually use an airplane instead of a trailer in the winter. I’ve been on several mission trips to Nicaragua, visited my brother and his family in Southern California, visited my husband on his business trips to Florida, and this year, we’re going to Hawaii. Warm places and sunshine are good for the winter blahs.
- Drink coffee – You wonder why Starbucks is such a big deal in Seattle? Cheap anit-depressant in a cup. There ya go! It helps! Coffee with friends is even better!
- Plan our next trips – I usually have our summer trip planned and booked sometime in March or early April. Having this to look forward to is a huge help. I try to plan and book a trip for each month from March through October.
- Do fun winter things – A few years ago, we took up snowshoeing. We live about 40 minutes from some great snowshoeing trails. Going up to the mountains for a day of getting out in the snow is fun and makes us appreciate where we live a little more.
- Have hibernation days – We sometimes have lazy days in the winter where we hang out at home, watch movies, wear sweats, and just don’t go anywhere. We savor these days a bit because, in the PNW when it’s nice out, we feel guilty if we’re not outside working in the yard, hiking, walking the dogs, or otherwise just getting out.
- Catch up with friends – We have friends who we hardly see all summer because our schedules don’t line up. They’re out of town or we’re out of town. They have out of town guests or we have out of town guests. Whatever! Winter is a great time to call your friends and get together.
- Try new recipes and make notes about which ones will be good RV food – I love cooking. There’s no better time than when it gets dark at around 5 p.m. to try new recipes. It’s not like I can be outside working in the yard. I might as well cook!
- Get outside daily – I have dogs. They make me go outside. If I don’t walk them every day, I pay for it. So, every morning, I get up, look at the temperature outside and complain “It’s stupid cold!”, put on several layers, and take the dogs for a walk. Once I’m out the door and a few blocks away, I appreciate being outside and getting some fresh air. It also gives me time to think about where I might like to go in the summer….
- Get enough exercise – There’s nothing worse than hanging out inside and feeling like a blob! It adds to the blahs, messes up your sleep, and generally makes everything worse. If you’re snow-bound, you can probably find an exercise video on YouTube that will help. If you’re not, get out and walk or go to the gym. You’ll feel better, I promise!
- Go somewhere in the winter in your rig – If you can get out – go! We have a favorite spot that’s easy to get to. There are no snowy passes to go over or anything scary like that. We’ll go there in the winter sometimes just to get away. One time, we went and we didn’t follow the directions on the sign that said, “If it gets to freezing temperatures, city water will be cut off to the RV Park. Make sure you have enough fresh water in your tank.” That was a bummer … for me! I didn’t get to use my own shower and had to use the RV Park shower that you put quarters in. My son and husband found my getting flustered with the whole situation very entertaining. Now I know better! I’ll be asking about the fresh water tank! This year, we went out in March after our Snow-mageddan to Mount St. Helens. There was still snow in places. It was cold and we ran out of propane and woke up freezing. That wasn’t fun either. Another thing I have to remember to ask about…. The moral of these little stories – make sure you’re prepared if you’re going out in the winter!
- We’re considering snow-birding – When we retire, and if we’re still living in the PNW, we’ll probably be on the road most of the winter in warmer places. If you have this ability, I would highly recommend it! We had some neighbors when we first moved to the PNW that were snow-birds. We always knew when they were back because their swan planter showed up in the yard. They wintered in Florida and loved it. I thought they were old and crazy at the time. I now see the wisdom in their choice and plan to copy them in our own way!
- Go to RV Shows – Are you thinking about a new rig? Are you curious about some rigs you saw on some of your trips? Go check them out an RV show. We have gone to RV shows as total looky-loos. We’ll go find the most expensive rig and see what kind of crazy things they put in it. We’ll look at newer versions of our own rig. Whatever, it’s always fun to look! My husband was out of town for the Winter RV Show in Seattle. When our trailer was in the shop for our Memorial Day Trip and our trip got cancelled, he decided he owed me an RV show. There wasn’t one going on so, we decided to go look at Fifth-Wheels. In order to make it a little less exhausting, we picked out about 6 different rigs on 3 lots that we wanted to look at. That turned out to be a little dangerous. We ended up buying our Fifth Wheel while our old rig was in the shop! It was a little sooner than we had planned, but we are really happy with how everything worked out!
- Get professional help – If your blues are hanging on, please get help. Seasonal Affective Disorder is real. There are lots of ways to treat it. Hanging out and feeling sad all winter shouldn’t be an option.
So, you’re probably wondering about that time when we had the winterizing fail. It was our first trailer and our first winter with it. Sixteen years ago, RVs didn’t have as nice of sinks and faucets as they do now. Most of the sinks were small and the faucets were some version of the cheapest kind you can find at Home Depot. Our trailer was no exception to the crummy sink and faucet combo rule. I really hated the faucet because you couldn’t fit a pan under it to wash it. It was dumb! It was probably set up by someone who ate microwave dinners all the time. We forgot to leave the faucets open on the sink. My husband went to go pick up the trailer and there was our faucet, broken off and laying in the sink. YAY! I got a new faucet that worked much better! If you like your faucet, don’t forget to leave it open when you store your rig over the winter!
Hang in there! There are more RV-able months than months where going out is just too cold or too difficult. Find some winter fun, plan your summer, and look forward to being re-united with your rig!
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