trailergirlsguide

A Fifth Wheel, A Washed-out Bridge, and an Angel

It’s taken a little over a year for me to get the permission from my husband (the driver) to tell this story. He finds it embarrassing. I believe that I have finally convinced him that this incident is in no way his fault. It was a series of unfortunate events on the backroads of Tennessee.

This story cannot be properly told without explaining my roots. My ancestors are from Tennessee. We can’t really figure out where they came from before Tennessee. They were so dirt poor that there wasn’t much in the way of records, family heirlooms, etc. that might have given us a clue as to where they came from before Tennessee. For all I know, they could have been hatched in Paint Rock, Tennessee.

My dad has told us stories that he heard from his grandfather and my grandmother about Tennessee. For instance, the nearest school was 5 miles away. So, my great uncle drove my grandmother to school at the age of 9 while standing up in their jalopy of a Model -T Ford. The other story – more relevant to this story is that the people in the backwoods of Tennessee, including my family, didn’t wait for the police or the school principal or whoever to take care of matters. Instead, they took matters into their own hands. For instance, if you were to trespass on my family’s farm, you might find yourself looking down the barrel of shotgun. It’s just how things were handled. My dad also had me convinced that this is still how things are handled in the backwoods of Tennessee.

Fast forward to modern times – October of 2022 to be more precise. We were going to meet my dad in Sweetwater, Tennessee so that we could explore the cemetery in nearby Paint Rock and he could share the stories of my ancestors buried there. On the way, we decided we’d stop in Pigeon Forge and check out the Great Smoky Mountains, Gaitlinburg, and of course, Dollywood. We were headed from Charleston, SC to Pigeon Forge, TN. My husband carefully checks Apple Maps, Google Maps, and a paper trucker map for directions – three maps. He plots our route and we hit the road. This three map system had never failed us.

On this particular day, our maps took us through the Smoky Mountain National Park boundaries which we thought was strange, but we kept going. What the heck?! It was a beautiful drive! Surely our maps – especially the trucker map wouldn’t give us a bum steer…

And then, it happened …. There was a sign …. A really big sign that said “Bridge is Out. Do NOT trust your GPS” (Or something like that). Unfortunately, the sign was placed at a fork in the road and it didn’t specify which direction the bridge was out. Apparently, if you were a local, you would have known all about it and tourists should have gone a different way. We pulled over into a church parking lot and consulted all of the maps and tried to decide which direction the washed-out bridge might be. After careful consideration and a whole bunch of guessing, we decided on the road that went to the right.

The road was a beautiful backroad with two narrow lanes and thankfully, no low bridges. We kept going about two miles down the road and then, there was the second sign “Bridge is Out – take alternate route” (or something like that.). We had no idea how much further up the bridge would be because the road was so twisted we couldn’t see it. Have you ever turned a fifth wheel and truck around on a narrow winding road? It’s not possible. It appeared that our only option was going to be to back up the winding road two miles to get back to the fork in the road. So, we did what every good Fifth Wheeling couple would have done – we just sat there … trying to figure out what to do do next.

We finally decided that the best thing to do would be to have me get out with my phone and start walking toward the bridge. Thank goodness there was at least a little cell service! I walked up and found a long driveway that we could probably pull into and then back out and get pointed in the opposite direction. But, with all of those family stories my dad told me about the people of the Tennessee backwoods, I was pretty concerned that we’d find ourselves in some trouble with the owners of the driveway and possibly end up with some bullet holes in the truck and the trailer. There had to be a better option.

I walked a little further up the road and found a church parking lot. I may have heard an angel chorus singing! Knowing it takes about 40 acres to turn a trailer around, I saw at least 30 acres and that would do! (OK – I may be a little off on the acreage, but you get the idea.) I headed back to the truck and the trailer feeling pretty proud of myself for getting us out of our pickle. I was stopped by a driver in a blue car who told me he knew we were in trouble and he had talked to my husband and was going to turn us around and lead us into Pigeon Forge. He kind of stole my thunder, but YAY!

My husband wasn’t far behind him with the truck and the trailer. I got back in the truck and we drove to the very church I had found and got ourselves turned around. The blue car driver got out and came to the window to tell us where he was going to take us and explained that he was an Uber Driver and a former truck driver. He’d go slow, make sure we had wide enough turns, and not take us under any bridges. The driver of the blue car had a name that I can’t remember, so I’ll just call him “Clarence”– after the angel from “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Clarence did a great job getting us out of our jam and getting us to Pigeon Forge, leading us on an equally pretty road that got exactly where we needed to be. When all was said and done, he didn’t even want to take any money for his efforts, but finally took a little cash for gas after a lot of convincing from us.

You have to wonder, what was an Uber driver doing in the backroads of Tennessee? It couldn’t have been good for business. I like to think he was an angel sent by God to protect us from ourselves… and some confusing signage. My dad later asked, “How did you think to call an Uber driver? That was genius!” We didn’t … he was sent!

Post script:

Here are some things we learned while in Tennessee – in addition to “even 3 maps might be wrong.”

The people of Tennessee are lovely. They are not like my dad described. Of course, we did our best not to trespass on anyone’s property.
Tennessee was much prettier than we expected! It was just like the song from Davey Crocket – “Greenest state in the land of the free.” I can’t wait to go back!
If you’re in a jam – call an Uber driver! You’ll look like a genius!

We Did a Road Trip and Stayed at a Hotel – Here’s What We Missed About our RV

Due to a series of unfortunate events, we took a road trip without our trailer. Our son was getting back from deployment, and we were determined to go to his homecoming. Since it’s the Marine Corps, we were given about 5 days notice of the actual return date. Of course, the actual date didn’t match up with the really great trailer trip we planned to take up to see him according to the preliminary window of return dates we were given. To make matters worse, the trailer was in the shop having some warranty work done, and wouldn’t be ready in time for the actual dates we needed it. We had no choice but to make the trip and stay in a hotel.

The trip was a 10-hour drive. This is much easier to do in one day when you drive a little Subaru and not a big truck and trailer. We decided to make a mad dash for it and try to make it a quick turnaround. And, that we did.

I could end this blog post right here and just say, we missed our creature comforts from our trailer. But, since you probably are looking for something to read while you eat your breakfast or something, I’ll expand. More specifically, here are the things we missed:

Our closets and drawers – We had to pack suitcases! The horror! We are not used to that! In our trailer, everything has its place. It’s the same with my suitcase, but it’s all squished into one suitcase sized spot. First world problem, I know, but I really love my trailer storage.
Our medicine cabinet – Our toothbrushes and toiletries live in there! Getting them out of toiletry bags and trying to share the tiny counter space in the hotel was a challenge. We’re just not used to that!
Our TV – We know how to work it and we know how to stream our favorite shows on it. The hotel TV was fine … if you like reruns of “Friends.”
Our food – When we are on an RV road trip, we don’t eat out much – except for lunches when we’re out exploring. This really helps keep us from getting “road trip gut” (that nasty, bloated feeling like the “Very Hungry Caterpillar” had when he needed to eat through a nice green leaf toward the end of the book). It also is much easier on the budget to cook some of your own meals.
Our bed and pillows – Again, we’re used to them! Hotel beds and pillows are just weird.
The air conditioner vent – This may seem like a strange one, but I find hotel air conditioners annoying. They’re loud, they come on whenever they feel like it, they blow the curtains around … they just bug me! In our trailer, we leave the air conditioner set at one temperature and have it run constantly while we sleep. We have the perfect temperature and some familiar white noise. And, the best part, there’s a vent that I can point straight to my head while I sleep!
Our dogs – We had to board them for this trip. We normally take them on our trailer trips. They love trailer trips, riding in the truck, and exploring new places. It was sad not to have them along.

Really, the hotel was fine aside from the dead bug collection in the elevator (they promptly vacuumed the bugs up when we told them about the collection). It was also during the awkward post-COVID time when the hotels were not sure how to handle things. There was no maid service happening. So, the fun parts about hotels – like leaving your towel on the floor and having a new one when you get back from exploring – were not happening. This made us miss our trailer even more – even though I’m pretty much the maid service for our trailer.

We love our trailer and love exploring the United States in it. We love America’s diversity in landscape – desert here – beach there – mountians there …. It’s awesome! RVing is a vacation lifestyle choice we’ve made 18 years ago and we’re glad we made it! Perhaps it’s the creature comforts that keep us going. When we do the math, owning, storing, and maintaining the trailer isn’t saving us a whole bunch of money on vacationing – maybe even none! We’ve even thought about maybe selling the trailer and traveling like “normal” people. Those thoughts never last more than a few minutes because we remind ourselves why we RV and what we’d miss if we didn’t have it. This year, with diesel prices going crazy, we’re taking shorter trips and are finding lots of new places to explore within three or four hours of home.

If you’re questioning your decision to start or to continue RVing, maybe it would be a good idea for you to think about all the little things you love about it and what you’d miss if you traveled like a “normal” person. I bet your creature comforts will come into play and you’ll love your RV just a little bit more. Happy Camping!

Too Much of a Good Thing – RVing Burnout

It happened. I never thought it would. I burned out on RV’ing. It was on day 91-ish of our almost 4-month trip. We were on RV park number 18 where we were staying for close to two months. It was hot. I had just made the round-trip walk to the laundry room (also known as the sweatshop for its lack of air conditioning) that was eight campsites away – yes, I counted. I realized I…was…done!

To be fair, we were moving from Washington State to Florida. We decided to take an epic RV trip to make our way there. We had set up to have our movers haul our belongings and our realtor meet them at our storage unit in Florida to watch them off load the truck. On our trip, we received word that our moving truck had been broken into which caused a fair amount of phone calls and coordinating. While we were in our longer-term spot, we found out that, as a result of the break-in and our desktop computer getting stolen, we also had bank fraud problems. So, we were trying to take care of stressful life things from the trailer with two dogs, the laundry room eight sites away in a town we’d probably never choose to live in. Oh, and we had no internet so we were running everything through one bar of hotspot on our phones. It was probably the worst possible way to conduct life’s business.

To be even more fair, the RV Park we were staying in was the best part of the town! It was its own community with lots of great amenities like golf, water aerobics, dog park, etc. The people were great. I was taking golf lessons. My husband was playing and practicing golf a lot. We made friends in the RV park! I’d highly recommend the RV park. It’s a short drive from a lot of cool places.

Nevertheless, I was done. It was after one of my 8-site walks to the sweatshop when my husband walked into the trailer to find me laying on the bed sprawled out and not moving. I was hot, burned out, and soaking up some air conditioning. He asked if I was OK because it’s rare to find me not moving and awake at the same time. I told him, “I believe it’s day 91 and I’ve decided my limit is 90 days for a trailer trip. I’m done.” As it turns out, it was going to be a few more weeks before our house was ready for moving in and I was going to have to suck it up … buttercup… like I used to tell my kids.

I’ve had some time to think about my RV burnout and here’s what I have come to learn and some things I’m going to put into place for future long trips to prevent it.

90 Days is my limit – We will now plan our extended trips within a 90-ish day window. It was really plenty for both of us.
I am not full-timer material – My RV dream was once to sell everything except what we really loved, put the stuff we loved in storage, and take off for a year. I have learned that I probably couldn’t handle that trip. I need a place to go home to after the trip and an itinerary. I have newfound respect for people who do this full-time RVing thing – especially the ones who do this with kids. My kids can tell you, I would have made a horrible homeschool teacher! My hat’s off to you for your patience and perseverance. I’d probably be in jail.
Slow the trip down! – 18 RV Parks? What were we thinking?! We regret trying to get from Washington to Florida too quickly. We thought we needed to be in Florida sooner that we did. In the future, we’ll have a 3-5 night minimum at any stop depending on what’s there to see and do. There will obviously be some stops that should be one-nighters on the way to someplace better. On this trip, we wished we had scheduled more time in most of the places we stayed.
As much is possible, stay in vacation mode – We really had no other choice than to deal with our moving break-in and bank fraud. We were also working on our mortgage process and had to keep dealing with that. This is too much un-fun stuff to do on an RV trip. It’s total buzz-kill! Since we’re never planning to move again, we should be able to avoid the moving fiasco on the next long trip. Life happens and we’ll have to deal with whatever comes up, but we’ll try to find more vacation-fun type things to do to off-set it.
Don’t stay in one place too long – We were in one spot for two months. This was a new experience for us. While we enjoyed getting to know people and getting involved in the activities at the RV park, we really felt the desire to move on and explore someplace new. We are figuring our maximum stay at any one place will be a week. Of course, there will be exceptions depending on where we are, who we’re visiting, and what’s going on in life but, this will be our general rule.

In all reality, our trip was really great! Apart from the moving stress, I’d do it again while spending less time in the last RV park and more time in many of the others. We really had a blast and loved getting to see so much of our beautiful country. We visited several National Parks. We also visited Las Vegas, Albuquerque, San Antonio, Galveston, New Orleans, and several of the top tourist vacation spots on the gulf side of Florida. This blog post is not a complaint. It’s more of a lessons-learned share.

We’ve been in our house for six weeks now. I love it! I Iove where we live! Guess what – I’m ready for another trailer trip! I’ve been bugging my husband about going on a little three-night trip. He’s not completely over his burnout just yet. So, we wait. We’ll go soon enough, I’m sure!

Photo Note: The fussy kid in the photo is my daughter (now 25 years old) one night when she was just done! This is one of four in a photo series. In the last photo, she’s asleep with her head on the tray of the highchair. It’s one of my favorites because it tells the story she couldn’t articulate. She was just done!

Next Trailer Girl Blog – From Freezing to 100 Degrees – Packing for Multiple Climates Without Losing your Sanity or your SpaceT

Cleared for Takeoff – My Checklist for Getting the Inside of the Trailer Ready to Roll

Note: This post is to help with your routine for getting the inside of your trailer ready to hit the road. Not the outside – that’s my husband’s job. This would be the routine you implement when you are just getting ready to leave the house or the campsite. See my earlier blog posts for setting up the inside of the trailer kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, etc for that information.

Of course, many of the things I do to prepare for takeoff is because I made a mistake in the past – like forgetting to latch a door and while we were on the road the door came off its rollers. Things like that. After 17 years of RVing, I believe I’ve made enough mistakes to make me a bit of an expert on getting the trailer or RV ready to roll. Here’s my routine. I hope it helps you. For reference, we have a 5^th wheel with three slideouts. I’ll write this as if we’re leaving a campsite in the morning.

Kitchen/ living area

Finish my coffee – one should never attempt to get ready to roll without being properly caffeinated. If you’re one of those healthy decaffeinated all the time people, go ahead and skip this step. I’m not one of those decaffeinated types.
Wash up all of the breakfast dishes – and put them away. Don’t forget to empty out the coffee pot. It’s pretty gross to come back to old grounds in your pot.
Wipe down the counters and put anything on the counters away securely in the cupboards.
Shove my throw pillows into the dishes cupboard – This is a fairly new step for me. I had never done this (even though it had been suggested), until recently. Our 5^th wheel has a pretty frosted glass cupboard door where I put the dishes. One time, the dishes crashed into the glass and scratched it up. In another rig, one of my Corell plates hit the cupboard door with such force that it slid out and shattered all over the floor. Shoving the throw pillows on the shelf between the dishes and the door keeps all of this mayhem from happening. Note: if you have a dog in your trailer, you might want to lint-roll the pillows before putting them in the cupboard. Another thing we learned the hard way …
Take out the trash – if you’re just going to another campsite, this step may not be necessary.
Put the refrigerator bars in – Our refrigerator has these built in and we have to remember to set them up. If you don’t have refrigerator bars, I highly recommend them as a way to keep things from sliding and falling out when you’re on the road or when you open the door. You can get them at Camping World or Amazon. They also make cupboard bars that do the same thing in the cupboards if you’re having problems with sliding in your cupboards.
Put everything that’s loose away in the living area.
Eject any DVDs or games from your consoles and put them away.
Secure your TV for travel. – Ours has a Velcro strap.
Unplug any devices and stow your cords.
Wipe down table, end tables, etc.

Bathroom

Change the towels and put out clean ones – Especially if it’s the end of the trip. It makes it feel less depressing because I’m prepping my trailer for our next trip.
Put away anything on the counters or that’s loose in the shower.
Clean the shower – If we’re going to another campsite, this is one that can be skipped.
Clean the sink and counter area.
Clean the toilet – If someone is outside taking care of the tanks, wait until the black tank has been dumped for this. Then, remember to add the toilet chemicals and step on the flusher to add a few gallons of fresh water into the black tank.
Latch any doors that have latches including the shower door.

Bedroom

Secure anything that’s loose
If there’s a TV, secure it – In our old trailer, we had a latch thing we had to put in place.
Make the bed – Change the sheets depending on where we’re going next and how long the trip has been. If it was a quick weekender, I’ll just change the pillow-cases. If we’re just going to another campsite and it’s only been a few nights on the road, I’ll just make the bed without changing the sheets.
Latch any doors that have latches
Close doors with hinges

Now the floors

Sweep out under the slides with no carpet – Two of our slides have no carpet and I run the broom under sweeping for little things that can get stuck under them. Getting things stuck under slides can be a costly mistake and can damage the slides or the floor.
Vacuum the floors and carpets – We have dogs so, sweeping the trailer is futile. The dog hair just transplants itself into another part of the trailer. I vacuum. Of course, if you’re boondocking, this could be a challenge without electricity and some of your floor clean-up will have to wait. Having a Swiffer might be a help if you can’t vacuum. We almost never stay anywhere without electrical hookups.
Vacuum under the slide piece of carpet – Our living area has carpet under the dinette and the theater seats. I lift up the carpet that hangs over onto the floor and moves with the slide and run the vacuum under this. This will prevent anything like a small pebble, dog kibble, or whatever from getting stuck under there while the slides come in and prevent floor and slide damage.
If there is still dog hair floating around, Swiffer.
Mop if necessary – I really hate mopping even though I do it in the easiest way possible. I use Bona hardwood cleaner (even though the floor is vinyl – it still works). This is spray that you spray on the floor and mop up with a mop that has a washable microfiber end. It’s really easy and does a great job.

After a visual sweep of all of your rooms double checking that you haven’t left anything out:

Put some snacks in a handy place so you can reach them on the road – I hate it when I forget this step!
Put some drinks in the truck for the road
Grab whatever you’ll need in the truck on the road – Purse, phone, sunglasses, magazine … whatever.
Put the dogs in the truck
Pull the slides in
Put the steps up
Lock the door
Use the “big potty” – That’s what we call the RV park bathroom. You don’t want to use your RV bathroom because A) you just locked the door and B) you just cleaned it.
Help the driver hitch up as needed – I am in charge of helping pick up chalks and leveling blocks and I also am in charge of doing a visual check on the trailer. I check to make sure the cord is plugged into the truck, the emergency cable is on, all the windows are shut, antennas are down, etc.

Hit the road and have a great trip!

Note: This is just our routine. My husband could write his own blog post about what all he does outside. This list is just how I do things on the inside. I hope you found it helpful.

Next Trailer Girl blog post – Too Much of a Good Thing – RVing Burnout

Eeyore – Why You Need Some of His Attitude on The Road

I was one of THOSE Moms! I used Disney videos to babysit my kids so I could do things like fold laundry and make dinner. As a result of listening to Disney videos in the background of my house chores, I got to know them pretty well. At one time, I was able to sing all of the words to Davey Crockett, knew all of the words to “Under the Sea”, and knew when “The Wiggles” came on in the morning so that my son would be mesmerized for 30 minutes and I could clean up the breakfast mess. Really, without the Disney videos and Disney Channel, the house would have been a wreck, we would have all worn dirty clothes, and we probably would have starved. Winnie the Pooh was a favorite of my kids’. As a result, I also got to know Winnie the Pooh and all of his friends pretty well too. My Winnie the Pooh character is Eeyore. You might think Eeyore and RVing are an odd combination. I hope to convince you otherwise.

First off, I believe that Eeyore is the most underrated cartoon character – ever. (Well, at least up until about the year 2004. They may have invented a more underrated cartoon character since then, but my kids went to school and I wouldn’t know.) I have heard people say that he is a downer, clinically depressed, and brings a dark cloud with him everywhere he goes. I believe those people have only ever looked at pictures of Eeyore. They’ve never bothered to listen to him. Have you listened to Eeyore?

Eeyore is probably one of the most flexible, roll-with-the-punches, characters out there. His house collapses into the river and floats away. What does he say? I couldn’t find the exact quote, but it was something to the effect of “I guess it was time to move anyway.” Did he sit on the shores of the river and pout? No, he saw that there was an opportunity to find a new place to live and got on with finding his new digs.

How about this quote from Eeyore, “Funny thing about the rain is that it always stops eventually.” Think about that. When was the last time you were on a RV trip (or any day) and it was raining or you were just having a day where things weren’t going your way. If you think about all of the things going wrong, it’ll just annoy you more and cause stress. If you were to think about it as having an end, it might not look so bad, right? At the end of a rough day on the road, I am always thankful for it ending and getting to have dinner, or having a glass of wine, or having some ice cream, or just going to bed and have a do-over the next day.

Here’s another Eeyore-ism that I love. “They’re funny things, Accidents. You never have them till you’re having them.” This is a lot like how we learned everything we know about RVing – by making mistakes (aka accidents). If you’ve followed my blog a while, you’ll know that we ruined an awning getting it stuck in a tree, have had to back the trailer at the Canadian border, broken things that we haven’t latched correctly, and have had a host of other “accidents.” This is how we learn. We are currently on an extended trip and we’ve learned a whole slew of new things about pacing ourselves, paying attention to where an RV park is on a map in relation to area attractions, and how early we need to get up in the morning so we can avoid the 8:00 dinner rule while on the road.

One of the greatest inventors of all time, Thomas Edison would tell you the same thing. While visiting his winter estate on this trip, I saw a quote from him where he started it, “I am always afraid of things that work the first time…” He also said, “I have not failed, I’ve found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” We can all learn from Eeyore and Thomas Edison about “accidents” or mistakes. They can’t be 100% avoided and they teach us what to do differently the next time … or the next time after the time we try do the same thing the same way again again …. (Sometimes we take a few times to learn). While RVing is arguably one of the best ways to travel and see the country, it is fraught with challenges and opportunities for “accidents.” How you look at them will make all the difference in how your trip goes.

“Thanks, but I’d rather stay an Eeyore.” Eeyore wants to be Eeyore. How many times have you walked around the RV park and wished you had those neat chairs or that Blackstone grill? How many times have you watched the guy down the row back in and get it right on the first try after it took you about 27 times to back in and get it straight? Giving yourself a break and doing things the way that works is OK. There’s no one way to do this RVing thing. What you probably don’t know is, the people with all of the great gear have been at it 17 years and had dysfunctional equipment when they started. And the guy that backed in and got it right the first time? He’s a truck driver and backs trucks to loading docks all day every day.

Another sweet Eeyore take-away, “A little consideration, a little thought for others, makes all the difference.” Of course it does! This applies to RVing on so many levels – driving, parking, and at the campground. This actually could solve a lot of the word’s problems as well, but that’s a blog for another day…

Eeyore’s flexibility, self-awareness, and ability to recover from mishaps make him the ideal road trip buddy. Bring his attitude along on your next trip! I’ll leave you with this last quote, “I might have known,” said Eeyore. “After all, one can’t complain. I have my friends.” Whether your friends are on your trip or not, it’s a blessing to have them … and remember that you do. Counting your blessings is always a good idea – especially when you’re traveling. Happy travels!

Next Trailer Girl Blog – Cleared for Take Off – My Checklist for Preparing the Inside of the Trailer for the Road

How Orange Rocks Can Help You Sleep Better in Your Trailer

If you’ve been following my blog lately, you’ll know that we’re on an extended trip to Florida from Washington state. We’ve been on the road now for two and a half weeks. We traveled through Utah and that’s where it occurred to me that orange rocks helped me sleep … like a rock!

If you’ve never traveled through Utah, I highly recommend it! It’s an RVer’s paradise! There are 5 spectacular National Parks and I love them all! My favorite of the Utah parks is still Zion National Park. This time around, we went to Capitol Reef National Park – the one in the middle that we hadn’t been to yet. It’s beautiful and there’s a lot to see and do. There’s plenty of hiking. And, if you aren’t into hiking there is a great adventurous scenic drive through what used to be THE road connecting one side of Utah to the other. I’m so glad they re-routed to road. We would have never gotten a trailer through there! Actually, even if you are into hiking, you’d be remiss if you didn’t do the scenic drive as well as all of your hiking. Anyway, the park is beautiful and you’ll be outside pretty much the whole time you’re there. Ah.. fresh air! I love it!

After our stay in near Capitol Reef, we traveled on to Kanab, Utah to explore parts of Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. National Monuments and forests are much more dog friendly than National Parks. We were able to take our dogs hiking on all of the trails we explored and it was great fun. It’s in Kanab where it dawned on me how much these rocks were helping me sleep. Maybe that’s because straight out my bedroom window was a giant orange rock!

I really love hiking. I love the adventure of it. The awe of what I get to see at the end of the trail – a waterfall, a slot canyon, another really big rock, a fantastic view … whatever! I love it! I also am a huge fan of wearing out my dogs. When we’re all tired, no one is pestering anyone.

In Capitol Reef, we took our dogs on the three miles worth of trails they are allowed. The next day, we found a doggie-day-care and hiked on our own and got a great view of the Fruitas Valley and some really gorgeous orange rocks. Capitol Reef is really spectacular! The dogs were pretty perturbed we got all of our hiking gear together and then, left them in a kennel. I’m not really sure we’ll ever get away with that again. They love hiking too.

In Kanab, our first adventure was to go see Dinosaur Tracks. We thought, “easy peasy – family friendly! We won’t bother to pack a bunch of water. It’s just two miles.” That was our first mistake. The second was thinking it was “easy peasy.” As it turns out, the trail is poorly marked and we got pretty lost. Of course, it would have helped if we paid a little closer attention to the photo on the map that described the hike. That was our third mistake. Once we got to the right trail, we did alright. There was a lot more rock scrambling than we expected, but we finally made it to the top of the rock where there was indeed, a dinosaur track. Notice I said “track” and not “tracks” as the trail name suggests. We only found one track. It’s said to be real. I didn’t ask questions. I just took pictures to prove we were there!

The next day, we decided that we’d take the dogs on a hike out to Peek-a-boo Canyon. Being the clueless people that we are, we didn’t know that you have to enter a lottery four months before your visit to see the famous “Wave.” That turned out to be just fine. There’s plenty to see without The Wave. That’s how we came to choose the Peek-a-Boo Canyon hike. This hike was listed as moderate, mostly flat, four miles out to the rare treat of getting to walk through a spectacular slot canyon. Then, of course, four miles back. There was a catch – the terrain. The terrain was mostly soft sand. Now, smart people take a tour in a four-wheel-drive van and get dropped off at the beginning of the slot canyon. Fun people rent Off Road Vehicles and drive them out to the slot canyon and then, explore the canyon. Then there’s us …. I’m not sure what kind of people we are… crazy? ….Motivated by exercise because we ate too much?….Spent too much time in the truck and lost our minds? … I’m not really sure but, on that particular day, we were the only people of our kind on the trail. There were lots of smart and fun people… just none of whatever kind we are.

If you’ve ever hiked on soft sand, you’ll know that it feels like you take about three steps for every one step worth of travel. It was exhausting, but totally worth it for the slot canyon. I think there is still sand from that hike in my hiking shoes. Toward the end of the hike, the dogs started pulling over into the shade, laying down, and then tried refusing to move. They were pooped out before the hike was over, and so were we. We eventually made it back and had to give the dogs baths because they were such a mess from all the sand and dust. (For me, happy camping means keeping as much dirt outside of the trailer as possible.) My husband has a Garmin watch. It said it would take him four days to recover from that hike. But, guess what – we slept well!

After Kanab, we went to Las Vegas. Guess what we found! More Rocks. They call them “Red Rocks,” but they look kind of orange to me. We did a hike in Red Rock Canyon and had a great time there too. Of course, we slept great again.

One might conclude that it’s the orange rocks and the fatigue from hiking that helps us sleep so well in our trailer. Here’s the secret that’s in the orange rocks. You don’t really need orange rocks to sleep well on the road. You need fresh air, a change from the ordinary, and a comfortable bed. My trailer is the perfect place to crash after a day of hiking or even doing some city slicker touring. We’ve got comfy chairs to flop out in and have made our bed really comfortable with a nice mattress pad, quality sheets, and comfortable pillows. (Remember, you’re on vacation! Don’t skimp on the creature comforts in your trailer.) Whatever it is that draws you to RV’ing whether it be the great outdoors, hiking, fishing, checking out cities, or just getting away. I hope it gives you a break from the ordinary and helps you sleep like a rock and recharge.

Next Trailer Girl Blog – Eeyore – Why You Need Some of His Attitude on The Road

That time Walla Walla, WA tried to Pretend it was Florida and Failed

The state of Washington has some places with great names. For instance, there is Deception Pass, Cape Disappointment, Grand Mound, Concrete…the list goes on. One of my favorite names of a town is Walla Walla. It’s fun to say. It’s a neat little town with cute shops, wineries, a fort, and an entertaining RV Park.

The day we came into Walla Walla on this particular trip was a day that had a high wind warning from the National Weather Service. We were hauling down the road with white knuckles trying to get parked before things got really bad. We did it and we were really relived!

After a quick lunch, we decided that we’d walk around town. If you read my previous blog post, you’d know that I was overstocked on wine and doing my part to get through it. I couldn’t justify wine-tasting or wine-shopping. So, I browsed any cute shops that were open while my husband occupied the many “husband benches.” All smart towns with cute shops should have husband benches for the husbands to sit outside and drink their coffee and scroll on their phones so the gals can shop in peace. So many benches, but unfortunately, so many closed shops. One shop owner told me that many of the stores close at 2 p.m. – sort of a Walla Walla standard time. Needless to say, with so many closed shops and too much wine in the trailer, our walk didn’t take too much time. It was back to the RV park for us! Good thing the RV park was entertaining.

I really love RV Park Four Seasons in Walla Walla. (Note: That’s really what it’s called – I didn’t get the name backwards.) It’s really close to Fort Walla Walla (of course it was closed!) and is well maintained with friendly people running it. The best part about RV Park Four Seasons is the collection of what I like to call “Objects d’Art.” Yes, it’s artsy alright! There are statues of all kinds of animals and they are so fun and kind of hilarious to look at. Additionally, this time around, there were a few actual live turkeys. Pretty cool.

My dogs need lots of exercise. In our normal lives, I usually walk them three miles a day. When staying in an RV park that’s a lot of laps if you don’t actually leave the park. I didn’t actually walk three miles in the RV park, but I did make several laps and get to know many animal statues. There was a rooster, a dinosaur, a bear, a cougar, and more! Considering that we are in the process of moving to Florida, this time around, I found the alligator particularly entertaining – especially considering the total alligator infestation going on in Washington state. (Really, the only alligators in Washington are in the zoo and my friends keep warning me about the alligators in Florida – like I’ll get eaten by one if I move there.) This particular gator was coming out of a dried man-made river bed looking very intimidating and ferocious. And, it didn’t move at all – just like a real alligator!

Another entertaining “object d’art” was a fake palm tree. I wondered if it was real, but upon further inspection noticed it was held into the ground by four bolts and painted kind of white on the trunk. Very tropical…

The other thing my friends keep warning me about Florida is the hurricanes – like for sure every hurricane, my roof will blow off. If you’ve ever lived in Washington state, you’re no stranger to windstorms. Washington windstorms knock out power, knock trees onto houses and cars, and mess up the cable. They can be pretty brutal. The windstorm that was predicted for that day came and it was hellacious. With it came a lot of dust and poor visibility on the roads and a lot of crashes. While having dinner in the trailer (cooked on the stove – not grilled as we had planned since grilling in a windstorm is pretty impossible), it started raining. Rain, wind, palm tree, alligator …. Hmmm …. With the exception of the palm tree, aren’t these all the things I’m being warned about in my move to Florida? Perhaps we had driven so fast we were already in Florida?? Naw! – it was 27 degrees when I got up in the morning to walk the dogs. We were still in Washington. Nice try Walla Walla! See ya later alligator!

Next Trailer Girl Blog Post – Why Orange Rocks Can Help You Sleep Better in Your RV

Extended Road Trip – Wondering if we Got it Right….

We recently sold our sticks and bricks house in Washington state and are in the process of purchasing a new construction house in Florida. It won’t be ready for three months. So, being sort of homeless and loving the RV life like we do, we’ve decided to take an epic road trip South and East. Since we’re not really full-timing and we have a moving truck taking our house stuff to Florida, we are wondering how we’ve done on our preparation for this epic road trip…

Packing was hard! – We knew we’d have freezing temperatures as we left WA and hot and sticky temperatures as we arrive in FL. How the heck does one pack clothes and shoes for that. I for one, opted on the side of packing more summer than winter clothes. It seemed like a perfectly logical choice to me. Well, we are five days in and I’m wishing I would have packed a couple more winter type layers. We even poked around in some shops looking for another cute layer that would work in FL on say … Christmas that wouldn’t be too bulky in my already stuffed closet. No dice. So, as we sat in Idaho in 37-degree temps, I was madly washing my grunged out clothes I wore for moving and cleaning the house so I don’t run out of clean warm clothes.

While we were preparing to move, we read a checklist from the movers. It had important tasks on it like filling out the thing at the post office to change your address, turning off your utilities, and eating the food you can’t move out of your fridge and freezer. We thought, “Naw…. We have a giant RV fridge and freezer. We don’t need to worry about that!” In fact, we made EXTRA food to put in the freezer! There’s something we got wrong! As it turns out, you can’t over stuff your trailer freezer! Something happened where our LP and electric got confused and didn’t know what to do and shut off our refrigerator. We re-set everything and read the manual (a fine time to get around to reading the manual!) which said, “keep things away from the back of the freezer so that air can flow.” OOOPS! With the freezer being so jam packed, we had a “jammed in the back of the freezer” situation… also, some melted ice cream, which was the biggest bummer. We pulled out some meat that we had marinating, but then hit a windstorm which made grilling pretty impossible. When it was 37 degrees and windy our meat had to wait. We’ll get to it … and it’ll be delicious!

You can’t move liquids – We ended up leaving a lot of cleaning supplies behind for the new homeowners. We gave liquids that we thought we probably wouldn’t use on the trip like rice wine vinegar, duplicates of item, the Costco sized olive oil, etc to the next-door neighbors. Of course, I packed all the wine! Then, people kept giving me wine as a going away gift. So, I kept packing wine! I’m not sure how many bottles I’ve ended up packing! Given that a gallon of water weighs 8 pounds and wine comes in bottles which are heavy, I figure that’s quite a bit of extra weight in the trailer. I have been working hard at doing my part to lighten the trailer load!

We completely filled the fresh water tank – Seems like a good idea, right? Well, as it turns out, with a trailer stuffed with clothes, wine, and extra food in the freezer, a full fresh water tank added a lot of weight. I could even feel how sluggish we were getting over the mountain pass from the passenger seat. As it turned out, we didn’t need all of that water because our RV park had a city water hook-up. So, we lightened our water load by using pumped fresh water from our tank and dumping it at the end of our stay. The trailer seemed much happier in towing. That is, until we hit the windstorm and I heard my husband say, “Hmmm… maybe it would have been a good idea to fill the fresh water tank to add weight to the trailer…” When we arrived two days later in Idaho after 9 p.m., our RV paperwork said, “Freezing temperatures expected. Unhook all hoses by 9 p.m. Not responsible for any damage to RVs.” THAT would have been a good time to be stocked up on fresh water and propane. We used the water sparingly and ran our electric fireplace (that I used to think was over the top) and had no major problems. We have learned that we need to pay a lot more attention to the weather in our next spot so that we prepare the trailer properly.

We made reservations – We actually planned our trip out and have reservations for every night. As we discovered last night as we pulled into Wonderland RV Park near Capitol Reef, I messed up and only made a one-night reservation when I meant three nights. The RV park owner was super nice and actually called Thousand Lakes RV park down the road and got us the other two nights there. As it turned out, the spot they had available for us has spectacular views! This has been one of the best mistakes I have ever made! Now that we’re settled, I double checked all of our reservations to make sure I didn’t make any more reservation date errors. I’m happy to report, we are good to go on the rest of our reservations.

*The dogs (Chevy and Chase) are being good road trippers*

The Dogs – Of course, we had to figure out how to travel with our dogs. We have never taken them on a road trip that lasted more than a week and never much further than three hours away from home. Luckily, while we were in Florida checking on our house progress last month, we checked to see if we could find any place that carried our brand of dog food. No one did. We also checked major pet stores to see if we could find it. We couldn’t. We called the vet a couple weeks before we left and he was able to recommend a more readily available dog food and we were able to make the switch before the trip. That could have been a big problem. We also realized that we needed a “truck bowl” for them for water. Problem solved easily at a grocery stop.

We’re now on our 8^th night into this trip. I’d say things are going pretty well. We’ve had a few mishaps – mostly related to the cold that we’re trying to get away from. But, overall, I’d say we’re doing just fine! We certainly have plenty of food and wine! We finally got around to grilling tonight and it was delicious! The dogs are great road trippers. We’re having fun! Follow my blog for more stories from our adventures on the road.

Next Trailer Girl Blog Post – That time Walla Walla, WA tried to Pretend it was Florida and Failed

Why I love RV’ers

To say things are weird and contentious right now in America would be an understatement. I would say people are acting on their absolute worst behavior. The news outlets are loving it because some are misbehaving so badly, they’re creating sensational news stories that the news outlets can further sensationalize and get more people glued to their TV’s. Social media has people thinking they’re anonymous and acting without filters or any modicum of politeness or human decency. It’s a train wreck!

With all that has been going on in the world and having a job where social media advertising is a part of it, I’ve been spending much more time than I’d like on platforms like Facebook. It’s there where I had my little aha moment about RV’ers and why I like them so much. Everything sort of clicked into focus one day.

I am a member of probably seven or eight RV Facebook groups. If you’re not already, I highly recommend joining one or two (maybe not eight). A major portion of what pops up into my feed is about RV’s, National Parks, etc. It balances out all of the crazy political posts and bad news posts. It was around the time craziness in Washington DC – my friends on both sides of the isle posted articles, photos, memes and opinions about what was going on. Many of the posts were a sad and disturbing commentary on the great divide that is happening in our great country right now. That is, except for the RV’ers.

While Washington DC was falling apart, RV’ers are posting pictures, “Here we are all set up by the beach in Key West!” “Lookie here! I did a new modification.” “I bought new throw pillows. I love them!” “There’s snow on the ground, but we’re camping in our driveway anyway!” There were also the help posts. “Anyone know what this switch is for?” “Anyone know a good RV park near _____?” Other RV’ers comment with help, encouragement, and praise for great modifications and renovations. It’s refreshing! I would go so far as to say that RV’ers are example of what America should be like – helping each other out, encouraging one another, and building each other up.

In our 17 years of RV’ing, I have found this to be true throughout our experience. We have found fellow RV’ers to be incredibly friendly and helpful. We have had fellow RV’ers help back us in. We once knocked on the door of an RV park neighbor when we returned from the grocery store with a half-gallon of ice cream only to discover we had locked ourselves out. She made room in her freezer to temporarily store our ice cream and sent her husband out to help us with our lock out situation. Of course, if there are reversed situations where we can help a fellow RV’er, we do what we can.

In walking around RV parks, people are friendly. They say hello, wave, talk to each other’s dogs. They’re also chatty! I can’t even count the number of times my husband has gone out to do something quick like check a hose and come back inside 30 minutes later because he got into a conversation with the neighbor. I love chatting with other RV’ers as well. We’ve had people outside of our trailer kind of staring at it. Then, they ask, “How do you like your rig?” My answer is generally, “We love it! Want to see inside?”

We’ve done hotel vacations. People are nice at hotels too, but it’s different. With RV’ers, there’s a bit more of a camaraderie. Maybe it’s because people can see what’s going on in the RV park from their windows. Maybe it’s because people who own RV’s tend to be a little more easy-going (because they have to be – RV’ing can be a disaster for people who have trouble dealing with things going wrong on vacation!)…maybe it’s because they’re on vacation … I don’t know what it is for sure. I just know I love it.

Winter has taken hold in the Pacific Northwest and to top it off, we’re working on retiring and moving across the country. All this to say that our trailer trips have been thwarted by our schedules, attic cleaning out, finishing up work, and crummy weather. We are most definitely suffering from trailer trip withdrawals! We can’t wait to hit the road! We’ll be taking an epic road trip in our trailer for our move across the country. I can’t wait! It’s helping my attitude to have this to look forward to. There’s a funny t-shirt that says something to the effect of “RV Parks – the only place where you can have a conversation with a stranger in your pajamas while holding a bag of dog poop.” It’s funny because there is so much truth to it. I can’t wait to be on the road again where I can see in-person some of the very best of America and its great people. I need my RV people fix!

Next Trailer Girl Blog – A Glimpse from our Epic Road Trip

A Few Of My Favorite Things – 10 Holiday Gift Ideas for RV Camping

This blog post is kind of a re-run. I am finding this 2020 Holiday Shopping Season to be particularly difficult. What does anyone need? I live in a state where restaurants are closed. Theaters are closed. People are working from home. No one is really going anywhere where they want something to wear that’s fun. Shopping is a challenge! Here are some ideas for RVers or your fellow campers. These have continued to be our favorite trailer items over the years.

Camping Chair – One of the best parts about camping, no matter how you do it is hanging out outside on a nice day or evening. It is 100% necessary to have a great camping chair. I just got my new, fancy zero gravity reclining chair from Camping World for my birthday this year. It is super comfortable. I tested it out on a 40 minute phone call with one of my Trailer Girls while at Camping World. I’m pretty sure the people who were shopping there thought I was obnoxious. (They may have been right!) My husband now has chair envy. Guess what he’s getting for Father’s Day….(He told me not to get it for Christmas because he won’t be able to use it on our winter trips in Washington.)
Weather station – we love our Lacrosse Technology Wireless weather station. We call it “The Guy” because there’s a little guy on it that tells you what to wear…. like you couldn’t figure that out for yourself. At any rate, we love “The Guy” and when our first “Guy” died, we replaced it with another Guy. Very important! I found one on Amazon.
Games – We have two favorites. The first is Bananagrams. We have to play this Parents vs. Kids so that it’s sort of fair and so that all of the tiles fit on the dinette table. If you have my daughter on your team, you’re sure to win! Our other favorite game is called, “Smart Ass.” I’m not kidding – that’s really what it’s called! It’s a board game we found while on a trip with our friends. It’s a blast! You can find it on Amazon. Other than the word “Ass” in the name of the game, it’s totally family friendly. I would say it’s best for 15 and up. It’s sort of an easier and more fun version of Trival Pursuit. I feel a lot less dumb after playing this game than Trival Pursuit!
Smart TV – This might be my husband’s favorite thing! We bought a TV that has apps for Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc on it. If you have decent Wi-Fi in your RV park, you can keep up with your Netflix shows, watch movies, etc. It’s great for nights when you just need to flop out!
Trailer Slippers – Mine are fuzzy on the inside with hard rubber soles. My husband thought I was spending frivolously when I bought a pair of slippers on a trailer trip one time. Then, guess what… He got slipper envy! By about 2 trips later, he had trailer slippers too! When I asked my son what I should put in this blog post, Trailer Slippers were at the top of his list too.
Trailer Coat – This might be best saved for a trailer trip purchase. We got ours at the top of Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. There are a lot of tourist places that have cheap coats for people who forget bring theirs for about $30. They’re nice and warm and shed water. They’re great for trailer use! In fact, when my first trailer coat that I paid $27.99 for, started to disintegrate after 10 years, I found a new one in Cannon Beach for $28.99!
Headlamp – If you don’t already have one in your rig, get one! It’s the best stocking stuffer! We often set up in the dark and it’s a huge help! There are all manner of these available at Home Depot, REI, etc. It all depends what you want it to do, if you want LED, etc.
Acrylic Wine Glasses – Mine are stemless because I’ve been fired from drinking out of wine glasses with stems in the trailer. My family says that after I have 2 sips of wine, I start talking with my hands more and the stems are dangerous for the person sitting across from me! My favorites came from Crate and Barrel. The acrylic part is super important because actual glasses would break on the road.
Silicone Dish Scraper – Sounds boring right? NO! Best thing ever … where doing dishes is concerned. If you’ve washed dishes in a rig, you know there’s no garbage disposal. So, you have the gross job of scraping all the goo off of your plates and into the trash before you wash them. I got mine at the Container Store and went back and bought one for my mom. I wish I could find the same one to show you all because, as she pointed out, the packaging says, “Fun to use.” That may be an overstatement, but it beats using a bunch of papertowels or filling your sink up with floating grossness from your plates.
Rolla-Roasters – Everyone that roasts marshmallows with me gets Rolla-Roaster envy! You put your marshmallow on it and there’s a little thingy (that probably has an official name, but who needs to be that technical?!) that you can turn with your forefinger and thumb to turn your marshmallow so they cook evenly. I love s’mores, so this is one of my all time favorite camping tools! You can get them at REI.

The best things about RVing really aren’t things, but the time together with family and all of the great places you can go and see. The things mentioned above are things that might make that journey a little more fun and comfortable. Below are some pictures of my favorite things! I posted links above directly to some of my favorite things. Happy shopping! My next post will be about getting ready to roll, I promise!