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!
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
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
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 8th 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
For as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to kids with special needs. As early as elementary school, my parents introduced me to a girl with special needs. In high school, I talked the teachers into letting me help in the special education PE class instead of taking a general PE class so long as I took all the required PE tests. I went on to study Therapeutic Recreation and guess what? You got it! I found myself working with kids with special needs during my studies. I now run a community based non-profit youth orchestra program. At some point, I realized, we had an oddly high ratio of students who had siblings with special needs and on top of that, we had a mom who was a Music Therapist. It was meant to be that we would start a music program for students with special needs. I love the time I get to spend with these kids. They’ve taught me a lot about life. Much of what I’ve learned, and am continuing to learn, can be applied to RVing.
I must put out this disclaimer. I am not a parent of a kids with special needs. I can’t even pretend to know what it’s like to live with the challenges of special needs 24/7. I am a person who gets the privilege or working with these kids for a short time each week. This blog post is written from that perspective. I believe kids with special needs are a gift. I don’t like to call them “disabled” because I don’t believe they are. Perhaps they are unable to independently do the tasks that are considered “normal” by society, but so what? These kids have super-powers that allow them to see the world and enjoy things in a completely different way. Here are just a few of the many gifts in the form of life lessons that I’ve received from these kids that have helped me enjoy life a little more simply and have a lot more fun.
1. Enjoy the moment– This may be the hardest one to apply to life when it comes down to it. You don’t find kids with special needs fretting about politics, their bank account, or the next thing they’re going to do. They enjoy what’s in front of them … in the moment. Often times, we fret about too many things we can’t control. In these times, we get irritated about things like politics, other people’s driving, comments on Facebook … you name it! We spend too much time trying to control things that we can’t. In the end, it’s a waste of energy and a joy-sucker.
When on a trip, I try to just enjoy what’s in front of me in the moment. I love watching kids run around in an RV park. I love National Parks and looking at the views, checking out their historic buildings, and taking hikes. It’s hard sometimes, but I try not let the stresses at home, things going on at work, politics on Facebook, or the news suck the joy out of my moments. One of the many gifts of RV travel is terrible internet access. Going off the grid can help me gain perspective on what to enjoy in the moment and the stresses that I can save for later or ignore all together.
On one trip (that wasn’t an RV trip), my husband and I went to Yosemite. It was January and we were planning to go snowshoeing. The weather didn’t cooperate. There was no snow on the ground and none in the weather forecast. So, we left our snowshoes at home and packed our hiking gear instead. Just before we left, my father in law was diagnosed with cancer and was hospitalized. My mom was also starting to have mysterious health problems. After talking with both sets of parents, it was determined that there was nothing we could do to help and that we should continue with our plans and go on the trip. If you’ve ever been to Yosemite, you probably remember the terrible cell phone reception. What a blessing that turned out to be! We had good reception on our hikes when we got to the top of things (like waterfalls) and at the hotel. This is where we’d return the calls and check in on the parents. The poor cell phone reception allowed us to compartmentalize the crises going on, enjoy the moments, and then deal with the crises when we were ready to do so. We lost both my father in law and my mom shortly after the trip. People asked us after the trip, “So…was it a… good trip? Was it ruined..?” We both agree that it was a good trip and that it allowed us to enjoy moments instead of fret over things we couldn’t control.
2. When it gets to be too much, take a break – Kid with special needs can become easily over-stimulated. In this fast-past world with information bombarding us all the time, we could all learn to become more aware of when we are becoming over-stimulated. I think that those of us without special needs have become desensitized and a bit numb to it all. We don’t realize how overwhelmed we’re getting until it’s too late or we’ve spun ourselves into a grumpy tizzy and wonder how we got there. One of the beautiful things about RVing is the ability to get away for a weekend fairly easily. When work, life, and the world get to be too much for us, we escape to a happy place … which is pretty much anywhere our trailer can go with us. We keep a copy of “Office Space” in our trailer for when we’re escaping work stresses. Inappropriate language aside, the movie is hilarious. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to go “Office Space” and smash a piece of office equipment! Taking some time out and poking fun at what stresses us, can be good for us and make Mondays a little better.
Sometimes a person needs to take a step back in the middle of the trip. I remember one time, we were on the second to the last day of a 10 or 12 day trip. We were traveling in our 25-foot trailer with no slides-outs. The kids were on my last nerve. Normally, taking out the trash isn’t my trailer job. This night, I volunteered. My husband got the cue and didn’t worry when I was gone for an hour … taking out the trash. I needed a break.
3. Routine is a good thing – Kids with special needs like their routines. In our music groups, we have a certain order for the songs. If we skip one, the students let us know! It’s important to them that they have the routine. With RVing, I have routines! For instance, I get up every morning, walk the dogs, get back, and have my coffee. I like this routine. It gets my day started right. I have a routine for cleaning up and preparing the inside of the trailer for travel. If this routine is interrupted, bad things happen! Doors don’t get latched and fall off the tracks. Refrigerator bars don’t get put in and food gets spilled in the refrigerator. I forget to put the toilet tank deodorizing chemicals in the toilet. Don’t mess up my routine! Routines are important!
4. Change your perspective – One of the most fascinating things about kids with special needs is how they look at things. This is especially true of kids who have autism. I have watched kids who are playing with a set of egg shakers, for instance, and instead of looking at them from the perspective of sitting on the floor and looking down on them, some kids will get at eye level with the egg shakers and look at them from where they lay – on the ground. I can only guess at why they do this, but for some reason, the change of perspective brings on a new kind of delight. Simply going on a trip can change your perspective and your attitude. Let’s face it, sometimes when you’re RVing, things don’t go your way. Tires blow out, tow vehicles break down, lunch takes forever and makes you later to your destination…stuff happens! I try to change my thinking from “this is a bummer” to “what are we learning?” or “what’s funny in this situation?” or “what’s going to be funny later?” Sometimes, I just think about dinner and how I’m going to change up what I’m making because we’re going to get to our destination late. I have to admit, my ability to have a better attitude about things going sideways is much better when I’m on a trailer trip because my perspective changes as soon as we leave the house!
5. Be helpful – In the photo for this blog post is Jacqueline. She has autism. She’s also a trailer girl. She takes a special bus from school to our group and gets there early. She is my “side-kick.” She helps with set up and seems to enjoy it. There are other students who come early and ask, “Can I help?” RVing has chores. One thing my husband and I have learned over 28+ years of marriage is when one of us is flustered or frustrated, things go better when the other stays calm and asks, “can I help?” In our family everyone has a trailer job. We’ll talk more about that in my next blog post.
6. Laugh easily – Jacqueline, and many of our students with special needs have low humor thresholds. By this, I mean they find things funny … a lot! Even when they maybe aren’t funny. Finding the humor in things is always helpful – especially on vacation. Things go wrong – or not as planned. Was there anything funny about it? Look hard … there probably was! To this day, we still laugh about backing our trailer at the Canadian border. (See previous blog post about our doomed Canada trip). We have lots of little mishaps from our trips that are funny, at least to us.
7. Enjoy people! – One of my favorite things about kids with special needs is how they love other people! They find delight in bumping into someone they know at the store. They don’t worry about the other person’s background, what kind of car they drive, if what they’re wearing doesn’t match … they don’t care! They are the most wonderfully non-judgmental people! They care that the person is happy to see them too. What if we all just enjoyed other people because they were people? Not because they think like us Not because they “belong.” Not because they are popular. Just because they are a person. What a different world this would be!
I love people! I find them entertaining. I love people watching. One of my favorite things to do in my trailer is to sit at my dining table and watch other people in the RV park. They are so entertaining! I like visiting with people when I’m out walking the dogs or taking out the trash. Just this last trip, a kid taught me a new word when describing his dog, “suspicious-ist.” I love this stuff!
8. If one sparkly happy face sticker is good, two or six is even better – At our music group, we just finished our summer camp. One part of our camp is crafts. We do a lot with those squishy stickers that are easy to peel and stick. I love the way the kids decorate their crafts with these! There is random, sparkly, gaudy, joy in their creations. What are the little things that bring you joy that you can add to your RV or collect along the way? I have my National Park pictures that I frame and hang in the trailer. I have also been collecting dishtowels from places we’ve been and hang them in the trailer. I change them out with each trip as a reminder of a past trip.
9. Eat the good stuff – At the end of our summer music camps, we normally have the kids put on a show with all of the songs and dances they learned. We culminate the show with a pot-luck lunch. Sadly, this year, we couldn’t do the pot-luck since sharing food during a pandemic is frowned upon. This pot-luck is always the best. Parents are smart and bring things they know the kids like. One dad drove through McDonalds and picked up a whole bunch of Chicken McNuggets and French fries. Another time, a parent brought a couple of pizzas. Another dad made his daughter’s favorite “taco pasta”. The kids’ plates are a testament to the foods they love. They have nuggets, fries, pizza, taco pasta, and the most colorful cookies available.
On trips, I like to eat the good stuff. I try to keep it healthy, but I also try to remember the fun stuff. For instance, I don’t normally have chips with my sandwich when I’m at home because I’m trying to eat healthy. I pack chips on trips! Maybe trips can have some delicious traditions. For us, our trip food indulgence is pie. We love to find pie on our trips. Perhaps it’s because I make the worlds ugliest (yet still tasty) pies know affectionately in our family as “pie salads”. Or, maybe the hunt is part of the fun. Maybe both. I recently made a dish that we often have on trailer trips and we were home. My husband remarked, “I feel like we should be in our trailer.” Trailer food should be the good stuff!
10. Dance like no one is watching – Anyone who knows me will tell you that I lack rhythm and coordination. There is no way that I could ever be trained to be a professional dancer. In our music group, we dance! We do goofy dances to goofy songs. We get out scarves and wave them around. We have ribbon wands we fling into the air. My kids with special needs and I boogie like there’s no one watching and it’s fun! We enjoy the movement. Stretching your arms and legs, wiggling, and flapping your arms like a bird is fun! OK, so I don’t get out of my trailer, crank up the music and dance like no one is watching. However, I do make sure I move! It makes the trip better! Walk, hike, wiggle to the music in the truck – just move! Have fun doing it! It also helps with the “eat the good stuff” advice.
11. When all else fails, get out the parachute – There are times in our music group when things go south. Kids have bad days just like us. They get out of sorts. They have trouble understanding why they didn’t get their way and get the big drum. There was one such day when all heck seemed to be breaking loose. We had one girl screaming in the corner, “I want to be a pirate!!” (We weren’t even doing anything pirate related). Another kid that was disturbed by her screaming and beginning to melt down. Another that couldn’t sit still. And, yet another, who was stimming (making strange sounds that help soothe himself). It was a fiasco! What did we do? We got out the parachute! As soon as we did, the focus changed to the big colorful thing in the middle of the room. The kids were mesmerized. We turned on music and began making the parachute go up and down together. They focused. They smiled. They worked as a team. At the end of the group, when asked what their favorite part was. Guess what it was. Of course! It was the parachute!
Sometimes that’s what we need to do on an RV trip … or in life… take a minute to find our parachute. Why are we on this trip? What is important? Who is important. In our 16 plus years of RVing, there have been some annoying moments. There have been kids melting down. Heck! There have been parents melting down. But, in the end, what do we remember? We remember who we were with and what we saw, did, and sometimes, what we ate. We remember the good stuff! Focus on the good stuff!
A parachute help our group focus.
I am grateful that I have the pleasure of working with kids with special needs each week. They continue to teach me things. They crack me up on a regular basis. They spread joy! It’s hard to come out of our music groups in a grumpy mood. You really have to try hard to be grumpy in that group. So, I don’t try. I enjoy the moments!
Enjoy your trips! Enjoy your moments!
Next Trailer Girl Blog Post – Everyone needs a Trailer Job
Storage is a tricky thing in an RV. Closets and cupboards are small, sometimes oddly shaped, and it’s hard to find a place for everything. I am a neat freak. I like having a place for everything and everything in its place. I hate looking for things and I hate messy clutter – especially in my trailer! I’m on vacation! Don’t mess up my space! In our 15 years of RVing and traveling with kids and dogs, we’ve learned a few tricks.
First and Foremost – Choose Wisely!
If you’re still shopping for your rig, make sure you’re thinking about what you’ll want to bring and where you might put things inside. When we were shopping for our first bunkhouse trailer in 2004, we had trouble finding one that actually had room for clothes and food in the length we were looking for. The RV industry has changed quite a bit since then and they are using storage as selling points. So, they better have it already! If you’re already in your rig and trying to figure this all out, keep reading. I’ll find room for your stuff!
Secondly – don’t bring too much stuff!
It’s not as easy as it sounds! Especially when you’re traveling with kids! The less stuff you have, the less you have to figure out where it goes. We travel around the Pacific Northwest. The weather is unpredictable. I always pack way more clothes than I need for any given trip – you know, just in case the weather doesn’t turn out to be what it says on my iPhone!
Here are our packing parameters. We have folding crates that we keep in the trailer and use for packing. We leave them in the living room at home while we’re gone. When our kids were little, we would give them a packing list and their crates, and they weren’t supposed to pack more than would fit in the crate. That worked great most of the time. There were a few trips where we had to make an emergency trip to Walmart for underwear, but for the most part, it taught them to be really good packers! My husband and I use the same rule. I have learned over the past 15 years how to pile over the top of the crate too. When we packed for a 10-night trip, I got all of my stuff in one crate …. Piled pretty high! Once our crates are in the trailer, we un-pack it into our closets and leave the crates in the living room of our house. (See my blog post about Weird RV Closets for more closet tips.)
We also use the crates for packing food but fill the crates up as many times as needed to pack for the trip. The amount of food we bring varies with our destination. For one of our favorite go-to get-a-ways, sometimes all we’ll pack is juice, coffee, and some breakfast food and figure out the rest when we get there. There’s a grocery store, a wine shop, and some restaurants that we like in town. Figuring our meals out while we’re there is part of the fun. For our 10-night trip, we packed like we weren’t going to see a grocery store outside of a camp store. It served us well!
Containerize
If you’ve read any of my blogs, you know that I hate jumbled messes. So, as a neat freak, I am also a bit of a container freak. I find stores like the Container Store inspiring. I’m weird like that! My love of containers has served us well while RVing. They keep things from jumbling while we’re on the road. Here are some of my favorites:
Clear Bins. I have them all over the place in our trailer! I love them! I can see what’s in them and they keep everything upright and tidy.
Clear plastic bins are my favorite way to keep things from jumbling on the road.
Sterlite or Rubbermaid Containers with drawers. These are great under sinks or in the bottom of a closet when you don’t have a drawer. Measure your space before you buy.
The drawer adds space to my storage under the sink.
Crushable Baskets– These squish into spaces as needed. We use one for our dirty clothes under the bed. After our trip, we bring in all the laundry. Our trailer has to live in storage. When the laundry is all done, we take the basket with clean laundry back to the trailer in storage.
I use a crushable basket like this for my dirty laundry. I bring the laundry home, wash up everything, and use it to return any of the clean laundry that lives in the trailer. I purchased this from the Container Store. Click here for shopping link.
Shower Caddies– Find one that works for your shower. My new favorite is one with knobs that make the suction cups actually stick. It’s worth the extra money. Our stuff stays put on the road. It’s no fun cleaning up shampoo goo out of the shower! In our first trailer, there was no place to put a shower caddy, and we had a plastic basket with a handle. It was full of shampoo, body wash, etc. It lived in the shower when we were parked but was put away in the cupboard when we were on the road. If you use this method, be sure to dry it out before you put it in the cupboard, or you could end up with a whole new mess. See photo below of my new favorite shower caddy from Bed Bath and Beyond.
Plastic baskets for cleaning supplies– Things like dish soap, Windex, etc. sometimes leak. If they’re going to leak, they should leak in a container that’s easy for you to clean out. Also, they’re less likely to leak if they can stay upright while you are on the road.
Plastic bins for anything liquid– I have things like olive oil, vinegar, wine, etc. in clear bins. This way, the contents of the bin stay upright and if there are any leaks, I can just clean the bin instead of my cupboard.
Nesting items – Put things inside of other things. Think nesting bowls, pots and pans, etc. I put my dry measuring cups inside my clear glass big measuring/mixing bowl. I can always see where they are.
Zippable Soft Containers – I’m sure they have a better name, but I like them because they’re squish-able. If I were to put whatever I have inside of my zipper container in a bin, there might be wasted space and there would be no flexibility for storing things around it. I use these for things like sheets. You could also put seasonal items such as hats and gloves in one so they’re not in your way in the middle of summer. I got mine from the Container Store.
Squish-able Zippered Storage keeps things together and tidy when they’re not in use. I use mine for extra sheets. It lives under the bed. Click here for shopping link
Make use of your nooks and crannies
If you’re like us, when you looked at your trailer at the dealer, you looked at the basement storage and thought, “Wow! Look at all of that space!” Then, you put your sewer hoses, water hose, chalks, a few chairs, and a grill in there and thought, “Dang! We could use more space!” Many trailers have hidden storage space. Here’s where to look:
Under the bed– if you have a designated “master bed” (some trailers have Murphy Beds), most likely there is some storage underneath. You might be able to lift the entire mattress and access all the space under your bed easily. In our last trailer, we had storage under the bed, but it was too hard to lift the mattress. So, we had drawers built into the bed. It was a great modification that was worth every penny we spent on it! Here’s what we keep under the bed: Dirty clothes, laundry supplies, and a mop. When we are on a trip where we’ll be doing some hiking, we’ll put our backpacks, trekking poles, and boots under the bed as well.
Under the dinette – If you have a booth dinette, you most likely have storage under the seats. In all 3 of our trailers, we’ve been able to lift up the cushions, to find a piece of plywood that lifts out to expose storage. We keep things that we don’t use very often in our dinette storage such as beach towels, a beat-up pot for cooking things like clams, etc. It’s also a great place to store things like board games.
Under the sofa – If you have a jack-knife sofa, you might be able to access storage under your sofa. We were able to do this in our first trailer. It was a little awkward to get at. So, it was best to keep things like extra blankets under there.
Add hooks – Our trailer has a funny little closet that is supposed to be a coat closet. They even went to the trouble of hanging a bar in it for hangers. Only one little problem. The closet is too small for hangers. So, my husband installed several hooks in there. Now we have a place for dog leashes, jackets, etc. We have also added hooks on one of our walls for hanging wet jackets and things.
Create your own storage
We are on a Facebook page for owners of our brand of trailer. It’s fun to see pictures of their modifications. Many trailers in our brand come with a table and chairs. People are building or buying benches with storage and replacing the chairs with these benches at their tables. I think it’s pretty smart! Our rig has a dinette with booth type seating. I love it. It’s comfortable and there’s storage underneath. Maybe there are other ways your can add storage to your rig.
No matter what size your RV is, you can pack it in a way that works for you. Just remember, before you traveled in an RV you probably packed a suitcase when you traveled. How did you fit a week in one suitcase? Maybe you car camped and you shoved your tent, sleeping bags, coolers, and everything in a hatchback. You can do this! You’ve got lots more space than your suitcase! How are you going to make it so its functional and fun? Remember, you’re on vacation! Have fun!
Next Trailer Girl Blog Post – Entertaining in your RV and our Adventure with Our Trailer at the Airport
When we bought our 2004 Frontier trailer, a guy from the dealership walked us through how to work everything. He reminded me of Barney Fife from the Andy Griffith Show – kind of high strung. He said things like, “When you drive – trailer brake first – car brake second” and “If it’s windy bring in your awning, it’s the most expensive part of the trailer.”
We listened, took notes, and dutifully tried to carry out everything that he taught us. When it was windy at night, my husband would get up, bundle up, go outside, and bring in the awning. It was a manually operated awning and kind of a pain in the neck. Lucky for me, I was too short to reach most of the awning parts so I couldn’t bring it in! (Now, we have one that goes in and out with the push of a button – much easier!). We wish he would have said, “Don’t get your awning stuck in a tree.” He probably didn’t think he needed to tell anyone that. Clearly, he didn’t know who he was dealing with!
It was one of the first summers we had the trailer. We were having a do-over from the Big Sur Family Reunion camping trip two years before that went so haywire it got us RVing. My brother and his family had even decided they were done regular tent camping and had bought a pop up tent camper. My parents came in their camper. My other brother and his family stayed in the Big Sur Lodge. We had a great time!
If you’ve never stayed at Pfifer Big Sur State Park, you should know that it’s a gorgeous park. It’s full of giant redwoods. A river runs through it. There’s even a waterfall you can hike to. There are no hook-ups for trailers. It was set up for tent camping. It’s famous for 1960’s camping complete with hippies and all manner of hippie shenanigans. Peace out man! In the 1970’s and 1980’s, when I was a kid, we tent camped there as a family in a canvas tent that smelled a little weird, but we loved our camping trips. Some of our best family memories were from Big Sur.
The cousins had a great time! The one holding the baby cousin is now 23!
The park was definitely not set up for RV camping. That’s where our problems began…
We were dry camping. We did pretty good on the water and sewer situation. However, we didn’t have a generator and ran out of juice in the battery. Thankfully, my brother had a generator and we were able to re-charge the battery. No big deal. We spent most of our time outside and things went really well. We thought we were pretty tough dry campers! The big problem came when it was time to leave.
We got hitched up and packed up. We said our goodbyes. My husband, an engineer, and a careful “how am I going to get out of here” type planner, had scoped out his route out of the park. There was a loop and we could get turned around. GREAT! Somewhere along the line, he had talked to the guy who drove the garbage truck. The trash truck guy suggested we NOT drive the loop to get turned around. We looked at it, and thought, “Nawww.. we can make that!” So, we gave it a go.
I got out of the car and we got connected on our walkie talkies. It was my job to make sure he wasn’t going to crash into anything. I watched the ground and sides of the trailer very carefully. Then, there was this tree…. with a branch sticking out….what were we going to do? So, he got out of the car, scoped out the situation, backed up a bit, re-situated the turn, and … that branch again! Repeat that process a couple of times and pretty soon…oops! The awning was stuck on the tree branch! We tried hanging off the branch. Other people in the campground came out and tried pulling the branch. It wasn’t going anywhere! It was just like the song “Going on a Bear Hunt” – Can’t go over it. Can’t go under it. Gotta go through it! And that’s just what we did!
Of course, the awning ripped and was ruined. It cost us $1,200 to replace it or something like that. We should have broken the refrigerator instead! It would have cost less! It was an expensive lesson. Here’s what we learned
Barney Fife, the trailer trainer, wasn’t kidding when he said the awning was the most expensive part on the trailer.
Listening to the garbage truck driver is a good idea.
Un-hitching and moving the vehicle until you can get the right angle is a good idea. Your time is worth it!
Like I said in my first blog post, we learned almost everything we know by making mistakes. I hope you enjoyed our little story and will learn from our mistake. Don’t get your awning stuck in a tree! Happy Camping!
Next Trailer Girl blog post – Don’t Burn Your Biscuits! Tricks for Dealing with RV Ovens.
Trailer Girl's Guide to Happy Camping 