Uncategorized – Page 4 – Trailer Girl's Guide to Happy Camping

When The Last Nerve Rears It’s Ugly Head – Getting Back to the Happy Camper Mindset

This post is inspired by Victoria, who after reading my last post about backing the trailer and staying married suggested I follow up with how to get back to the Happy Camper frame of mind when communication goes south. Thanks for the inspiration!

Let’s face it. You’re spending hours on end in a car or truck hauling a big box of some kind behind you. Then, you have to set up said box. Once the box is set up, you’re climbing into it with the same person or people you’ve been on the road with all day. It’s not going to always be happy camping bliss. It is inevitable, you’ll get on each other’s very … last … nerve. The trick is to not let it ruin your trip. Here are tips I’ve learned from almost 28 years of marriage, 23 and a half years of raising kids, always a having a dog or two, and 15 years of RVing. If you’re into math and look at those numbers, the laws of probability will tell you, there’s a pretty good chance that things have gone sideways a time or two.

First the easy one– When the dogs are on your last nerve. Usually, when our dogs are driving us nuts, they need to have a walk. Their annoying behavior is usually cured with a walk, potty break, or some food. A tired dog is a good dog.

Now for the trickier things.

The kids– Our kids, now 23 and 19, went through all sorts of annoying phases along with times of being super travelers. We used to say they were either adorable or horrible and that there wasn’t really an in-between. Here are some things we found helpful:

Prevention– It’s probably some kind of bad parenting to not make your kids look out the window when you’re driving all over the country. We sold out! We bought a tow rig with a DVD player that they could also hook up a video game console to. It was a Godsend! There was one trip where we were traveling down I-5 toward Sacramento from the Seattle Area. It was the morning of our second day. We had seen about 752 farms and about 5 million cows (writer’s embellishment – maybe). My daughter looks away from the video screen and out the window and says, “Hey look! Cows!” like that was the first she’d seen of them. We felt like bad parents, but also sane parents, which, in the end, prevents further horribleparenting!
Leg stretching – Don’t only stop for gas! Sometimes stopping someplace more interesting like, dare I say, Walmart, where they might pick out a new movie for $5 can help. We liked stopping every now and then at those giant strip malls that have a Starbucks, Target, Barnes and Noble, Old Navy, etc. You can pick up all kinds of things that were maybe left out of your packing, get a snack, and distract everyone from the road for a bit.
RV Park Scavenger Hunts– When you need to have a little peace and quiet in the trailer, send the kids out (if they’re not too little!) on a scavenger hunt. Our favorite scavenger hunt was license plates. We would give the kids a walkie-talkie and keep the other with us. Then, we’d send them out with a clipboard, paper, and a pen and have them write down all of the different states they found. We’d check on them on the walkie-talkie and get a report. NOTE: We only would do this in RV Parks we felt were really safe!
Take an hour to take out the trash – It was toward the end of a trip. The kids were on my last nerve. I just needed a break from everything. So, I volunteered to take the trash to the dumpster. I was gone an hour! I wandered all over the RV park, looked at all the different rigs, looked at the plants, looked at the pool, etc. I felt much better when I returned to my trailer having stepped away for a bit.
Lock the kids in the trailer and go for a walk – Once again, we’d employ our walkie-talkie system and lock the kids into the trailer and go for a 30-minute walk around the RV Park by ourselves. It gave us a chance to talk without interruption and a nice break. NOTE: Again, we only did this in RV Parks where we felt it was safe to leave the kids alone.
If the kids are old enough, go out to dinner without them on a date – Once our daughter was old enough to babysit, we would occasionally leave the kids at the trailer and go to dinner alone. We would only do this in RV parks that were very familiar to us and that we felt were very safe.
Remember the 8 O’Clock Rule – We all would get along better when we have been well fed. See my previous blog for information about the 8 O’Clock Rule.
What my parents did – One summer in the 1980’s, we drove from Long Beach, CA to Michigan. My brothers and I were piled into the back seat of an Oldsmobile. We were motel-ing it in AAA 2 diamond or less motels. I had to sit in the middle on the hump, which, in theory, was supposed to keep my brothers from fighting. It didn’t work. My parents decided they’d pay us each a penny a mile to be good. My mom had a little demerit log and if we were bad, we’d lose a penny or several depending on the crime. If we never lost a penny, it added up to about $30 each which we got to use for spending money on the trip. This plan backfired when my brothers pooled their money to buy a noisy electronic baseball game that they played in the car. It drove everyone who wasn’t playing the game at the moment nuts! One genius part of this plan was when they would put us on “talking restriction” when were bickering. They would say, “No talking for the next 10 miles!” Inevitably, the bickering would stop. Shortly after that, the snickering would start. We thought we were getting away with something. After traveling with kids for all these years, I’m now certain our snickering was part of their end game.
If someone has a favorite, try to work it in – If there’s someplace that is a favorite, go! For instance, my son (and my husband) love In N’ Out Burger. If we can work that into a lunch stop, there’s a lot of contentment after lunch!
Find the humor in their annoying behavior – My all-time favorite tattle from my daughter, “Mom! Ben called me a knuckle scratcher!!!” NO one in our family knows what a knuckle scratcher is to this day! My son made it up in the heat of the moment. It still makes us laugh! Kids are hilarious! Find the humor!

When you and your spouse are on each other’s nerves – This is the hardest one to recover from. One of the things we have going for us is, we actually really LIKE each other and enjoy spending time together. It really helps! Here are some things we’ve learned that help us on any day, but especially when we travel.

Doing everything together is not romantic – It took us 9 years of marriage to figure out that doing things that the other isn’t interested in alone or with another friend is OK. It now seems obvious, but we were a little slow on the uptake. For instance, my husband hates shopping. I love browsing in little boutiques and shops when we’re on a trip. He loves golf. I can’t hit the ball to save my life! So, he’ll drop me off in town for my browsing and he’ll go hit some golf balls or play 9 holes. Then, we meet up for the things that we actually like to do together. In our favorite “default” RV get away, I can walk to town from the RV park. We meet up for lunch and then, walk around in the art galleries together saying things like, “I could make that!” or “I might buy that if I had $10,000!” It’s fun!
Meet Friends– We have friends who we camp with, friends who stay in nearby hotels where we camp, and friends who will drop by for a day in some places we camp. It’s fun to have extra people and gives us a little break from each other, or at least a buffer.
Remember the 8 O’Clock Rule– (see previous blog post). We sometimes have to just not talk until we’ve eaten!
Don’t hash it out in the heat of the moment – Sometimes communication goes sideways. When this happens, we often need a cooling off period before we can talk about what went wrong. Sometimes it’s a few minutes. Other times, it’s after we’ve had a meal (because often the poor communication happens when we’re hungry). Sometimes it takes a night’s sleep, breakfast, and a cup of coffee before we can straighten things out. I have found that doing a verbal autopsy of the whole situation only makes my husband feel blamed and puts him on the defense. Whenever we have our heads screwed on straight and can actually think out what we say first it’s better to say, “Well, that went badly. What can we do next time to keep that from happening again?” Of course, on trips, it’s often been the whole backing the trailer and set up process that got us annoyed with each other. And, it’s often been the case where we were speaking two different backing languages. It’s helpful when he can say, “I need you to say ____ when ______.”
Only one of us can lose our cool at any given time – Somewhere in our relationship, we came up with an agreement that has worked well for us. That is, only one of us is allowed to lose our cool at a time. The other needs to either be quiet, say, “anything I can do to help?” (and not lose coolness when the answer is a gruff “NO!”), or just walk away for a bit. For instance, this could happen to us after we’ve arrived somewhere and he’s trying to get the trailer leveled and then set up the hoses. When I hear sputterings, that’s my cue that it’s my turn to be level headed. He does the same for me when I have a cooking tizzy or something. I have my fair share!
Choose your battles– Now that I’m in my fifties, I wonder why I ever got so perturbed by so many things. In my younger days, I let so many little things bother me! What a waste of energy! If, when things are going badly, you can think about the bigger picture of the trip, it’ll make that little thing you’re all worked up about seem less significant and not worth your energy.
Say “I’m sorry” and move on to something more fun – It seems obvious, but it’s sometimes much easier said than done.
Communicate your expectations – Some of our biggest rifts have come from not saying what our expectations were for a situation or a day and then expecting the other person to fall in line with this un-communicated expectation. For instance, I might expect that the day after we’ve arrived late at night, that we’re going for a big hike. I’ll set an alarm and try to get everyone rousted and ready to hit the trail. His expectation might have been to sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast, and then, plan the day over a cup of coffee. This could lead to me annoying him and me being disappointed. Had we just taken the 2 minutes the night before to say, “What do you want tomorrow to look like?”, we could have saved ourselves some frustration.
Let your gifts shine! – Everyone has a gift that they can use on an RV trip. Mine is planning and organizing. Before we go on a big trip, I have a folder full of reservations. I’ve googled what to do in the area. I might have reservations for activities, etc. My husband teases me about being “Julie the Cruise Director,” but also says that he appreciates the planning. My husband is a really good logical thinker-problem solver type. So, when something goes amuck or if there’s something to be figured out logically, we defer to him. I tend to think up too many different ways to solve it and make it much more complicated than it needs to be.
Get the Navigation Package! – I am horrible with directions! I always have been and I don’t see things getting any better as I get older. My navigating while he’s driving and pulling a trailer isn’t always a good thing – even when I’m using the GPS on my phone! When it came time to replace our 14 year-old Suburban with his truck, we got the Navigation package. Now, he gets annoyed at the Navigation system instead of me. It’s a beautiful thing!
If your marriage is trouble, an RV probably won’t save it – I’m not a professional counselor, but I’d say don’t buy an RV to save your marriage! Go to counseling and then get the rig! Or, do it simultaneously. Our trailer has been a blessing to our relationship and given us some really fun times and special time together. We had done a little time in the counselor’s office prior to buying our first trailer. The tools we got from counseling came in really handy on our trips and made the whole experience better.
Keep a sense of humor – I’d say that keeping a sense of humor has been one of the most important ways we’ve been able to get ourselves back on track. Most of the time, our annoying situation is funny after some time has passed.

No annoyance is worth ruining your trip over. When you’re in close quarters with people for long periods of time, there is bound to be some strife. Don’t ever let it ruin your trip! Find a way to get over it, around it, or through it! Then, just have fun and enjoy each other’s company! You’re on vacation dang it!

This post was inspired by a comment! If you have something you’d like to read about, please leave a comment. If I have an experience that is blog worthy, I’ll write about it!

Next Trailer Girl Blog Post – 40 Acres and Why You Need It

Parking the Trailer and Staying Married

If you’re looking for sage marital advice, you’ve chosen the wrong blog. This is literally meant to be a post about how to park a trailer or RV with another person and being OK with being inside of the rig together once it’s parked. Parking the rig can be the most stressful part of the whole trip. If you don’t have a trailer, maybe it’ll be of some help, but it’ll probably just be a little amusing.

We bought our first trailer in 2004. That’s when cell phone service was nickel and diming everyone by the minute and service was spotty. It’s important to keep that in mind when you’re reading this as you’ll wonder why in the heck we didn’t use modern conveniences. We did! They just weren’t 2019 modern. When we first got our trailer, we realized that we’d have to leave after work and that we’d get to our campsites late and we wanted to be quiet about it. So, instead of rolling down the window and having me yell which way to turn, we decided to get walkie talkies and some flashlights that had a glow stick feature on the end. That way, I could talk to my husband while he backed the trailer and point to where he needed to go with the glow stick – flashlight. This would help us do this task more quietly. It turns out that was pretty genius. What we discovered by not yelling was, it kept the tension down. I won’t lie and say it was a blissful perfect backing situation. It kept the tension to a minimum. Yelling tends to cause a rise in tension. Anyone who has kids already knows this.

Another thing we had to learn was to speak the same trailer backing language. That took years to master! I think after 15 years at it, he understands me even though I’m not using the language he would choose. I say things like, “The butt of the trailer needs to go more toward the driver’s side.” I also say, “Looks good enough for government work!” and “It’ll be fine!” That’s not something you should say when the person backing the trailer is an engineer and wants everything lined up straight and perfect!

Here are two trailer backing stories for you – the best experience, and the funniest. Neither of these experiences involve me on backing communications. I was on Kid-Patrol.

First, the best experience. After a super long day on the road between Redding, CA and San Diego, CA (I think this is the trip where we invented the 8:00 rule), we arrived at our campground exhausted. If I drove at all, it was probably for no more than an hour. He was seriously tired of driving and hungry. San Diego camp grounds are kind of party places. It’s warm at night and people sit outside of their rigs enjoying the evening. Thank goodness our next-door neighbors were doing just that. The neighbor got out of his seat, walked up to my husband’s window which was rolled down and offered to back him in. Our camping neighbor got him in one attempt. No jockeying back and forth. No pulling out and starting over. One perfect trip into the spot. It turns out, our neighbor was a long-haul trucker and was the perfect backing coach! My husband will tell you that to this day, that was the best trailer backing experience he’s ever had.

Now, the funniest experience. We arrived at a state park campground where we were meeting some friends. They were, of course, much more organized than we were and got there a couple hours before us and were all set up. When we arrived, it was dark, the kids needed to stretch their legs, and the dogs needed to be walked. Not to mention, it was after a full day of work and however long it took us to pack up and go. Our friend, Mike, offered to back my husband in so I could be on Kid-Patrol. My husband told me to let him do it because “guys speak the same trailer backing language.” Our friend, Mike, is an FBI (Full Blooded Italian) from Queens, NY, so he’s really good at yelling, speaking with enthusiasm, and hand gestures. He’s very entertaining! He didn’t use the walkie talkie. It wasn’t necessary. He got my husband all backed in and after putting down the jacks, pulling out the rear slide, and hooking up the electricity so I could start dinner, my husband started hooking everything eles up. When it came time to put the sewer hose in the receptacle in the ground, he couldn’t find it. It turns out, Mike had him parked with the wheels right on top of the sewer receptacle! Of course, that was discovered after I had set up the inside, started dinner, and the jacks were down. It was decided that we would move the trailer in the morning. Mike left a note on a post-it about “Mike’s trailer moving service” that we have in our trailer to this day (we moved it into the new trailer). We’re getting worried about it and I’m thinking I’ll frame it. It’s such a funny memory!

Here are some things that we learned in our backing communication that I hope can be a help to you:

Before we even begin backing, he gets out of the car and walks around the area where we’ll park. He checks out where the sewer hook-up is, where the electrical is, low hanging branches, etc.
Once he’s surveyed the situation, I get briefed. He’ll tell me, “We need to line up pretty much perfectly so the sewer line is in line with the sewer hook-up spot.” Or “You need to be looking out for that branch so I don’t hit it.”
Back in the day, we would use walkie talkies. Now, I call him on my cell and he has a hands free blue-tooth hook up in his truck. It works so much better than walkie talkies. I then, talk him back into the spot using my un-couth trailer backing language.
Once we think it’s close, he gets out and checks everything out to make sure it’s going to work, that the slides will come out without running into anything, etc.
Before un-hitching, walk all the way around the trailer and make sure everything is going to work. Don’t just look at the hook-up side.

By now, you might be wondering about the feature photo for this blog. That was our last camping trip. Yep, after 15 years, we’re still screwing up! We had driven in traffic and it took us longer than expected to get to our campsite. We were considering invoking the 8:00 Rule, but there were no restaurants around the camp ground and we packed food to make for dinner. We could make it. We did a great job backing the trailer, lining up the sewer stuff, making sure we could get the slides out, etc. One thing we forgot – walk all the way around the trailer. As it turns out, the other side of the trailer hung over a little hill that sloped steeply down. The jack couldn’t reach the ground! My engineer husband Macgyvered that set up. As it turns out, it was surprisingly stable and held for the entire weekend.

Here’s the best piece of advice for staying married, friends, whatever while backing a trailer – have a sense of humor. Don’t let the stress of getting parked ruin a trip. Also … it wouldn’t hurt if you’re buying a new rig and a backup camera is an option to get one. We don’t have one and we’re still at it after 15 years. There are T-Shirts for this that say, “I’m sorry for what I said when I was parking the camper.” That’s because it’s a challenge that needs to be met with humor.

I hope that’s helped. If it didn’t help, I hope it at least entertained you a bit. I’d love to know what you’d like to read about. If you have something you’d like to hear someone else’s experience about, I’d love if you’d leave a comment. If I have an experience with your topic that is blog worthy, I’ll write about it! For now, thanks for reading!

Next Trailer Girl Blog – 40 Acres and Why You NeedIt

Choosing an RV Park

Let me begin by telling you about Fishermen’s Bend. We were driving from Seattle to Southern California and were passing through the Sacramento area. We were just staying one night. Before the days of Yelp and Google reviews, one had to rely on RV Park Guides. They were kind of like the motel guides you can get from AAA, but without the diamonds to tell you nice the place is. My husband picked it because it had a pool and he thought it would be nice for the kids to go for a swim after a long day in the car.

The RV park was eight miles off the road. That should have been our first clue. We drove into the RV park and it had a very strange, kind of creepy vibe. Being newbies, we tried to ignore it. As we drove through, people who were sitting outside of their trailers stared at us. We began to notice that most of the rigs in the place were pretty run down and some had flower pots and add on porches. Having pretty much only stayed in State Parks, we found this odd, but weren’t really sure why. Then, we drove past the pool. There were kids in it, but the water was a funky color. That’s when I said, “This is too weird.” My husband responded with, “Yeah, it reminds me of that Stephen King book ‘Deliverance.’ Let’s get out of here.” We bailed and found another place down the road right off of the with newer looking rigs and decided to stop there. We took the kids to the pool where they lasted about 5 minutes because it wasn’t heated and the water was icy cold. The rest of the evening we kept to ourselves inside the trailer and we left first thing in the morning.

What we learned later was, Fishermen’s Bend was full of migrant farm workers. There’s nothing wrong with people actually living in an RV park. With all the live ins, it made us look like aliens because no one else ever stayed there. Hence the stares. To make matters worse, it was a poorly kept, very run-down park. This park taught us a lot about how not to choose an RV park.

Luckily, choosing an RV park has become much easier since the Fishermen’s Bend days thanks to advances in the internet and RV parks finding it important to have websites. Yelp and Google reviews are a help too but, they can be deceiving. You never know who writes these things! Here are a few pointers that we use that have served us well.

First, you need to figure out how it is you want to use the RV park. Will it be a destination spot? For instance, will you be staying for a week near a National Park? Will you just be staying a night and not even need to un-hitch. Will you be bringing kids that will drive you nuts if you don’t dump them in a pool for an hour or so? Do you have a dog with you (some RV parks have dog parks)? Will you need to do laundry? Do you need full hook-ups? Are you like my brother and prefer a boon-doggle on a fire service road someplace? Do you need a bunch of trees to block the view of the neighbors? These are things to take into consideration.

We do a lot of one night stays on the way to someplace else. In those cases, I find us a nice big pull-through and we don’t un-hitch so that our get-away is faster in the morning. When we are on a trip, I usually pony up the extra $20 or so to upgrade the site. In most cases this gives you a little more room. Sometimes it gets you something really cool like a fire pit and a gilder swing. Sometimes, you wonder what you just paid for until you go for a walk and see what the little sites are like.

For destination places (and by “destination” I mean places you’re going to stay for longer than a night or two because you’ll be exploring the area around the RV park). I go on the website map and look at all of the “premium” sites. Then, I call and ask, “What one of the sites available for my dates would you choose if you were going to stay in your park?” I’ve gotten some great help this way. People at the parks will ask more questions like if I’ll be traveling with pets. Maybe then I’d like a spot on an end with more grass. Is the park on a lake or near water? I always try to get a waterfront site. In some of my favorite places, I’ve had to learn to call 375 days in advance so I can get one of my favorite sites.

Here are my rules of thumb for choosing an RV Park when you’re going someplace new and you don’t have any recommendations from someone who has already been.

Figure out where you want to go and Google “RV Parks Near _____” – see what comes up. Begin your search with what comes up.
Always look at the RV park’s website– If they don’t have a website move on to the next place on the list. It might be Fishermen’s Bend!
Check it out on the map – If it’s too far off the road, it might be creepy.
Check the amenities – Do they have the things you’ll need like hook-ups, laundry, etc?
Once you’re on the website, look at the photo gallery – if they don’t have a photo gallery, what are they trying to hide? If they do have a photo gallery, look at the park. Is it well kept? Do they have a picture of the restroom and showers? Not that you’ll ever use them if you have your own. But, if they’re not clean in the photos, move on. Are there big rigs in the photos? Newer and bigger rigs often mean that more people are using the park for vacation purposes. It changes the vibe of the park and it’s fun to visit with people in the park who are traveling like you are.
Read the reviews – I always read a few of reviews with the most stars and one or two of the worst reviews. Most of the time, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Call to make your reservation – When possible, call. You’ll get help finding a good site and you’ll get an idea of the customer service you’ll receive at the park. The exception – KOA’s do most of their reservations online. The cool thing about KOA’s is you get picture examples of the sites and a really nice list of the amenities of each site.
Check the website for things to do in the area – One of our most fun trips was a serendipitous trip to Auburn, California. This was our Gold Country trip we took that we had to plan in a hurry because Whistler, BC was on fire. Everywhere was booked. I clicked the “things to do” button and found out about white water rafting in the area. It was an awesome rafting trip! We had a fantastic time exploring the area, rafting, etc. If the RV park doesn’t have a button for this, check websites like TripAdvisor or the local Chamber of Commerce website for things to do.

When you’re staying in a State or National Park, things get a little trickier. In Washington, many of the state parks have photos of the sites. It’s very helpful because they are persnickety about how long your rig can be in each site. Also, you can see if you’re going to have an issue with low hanging trees. Depending on the size of your rig, you may want to avoid state park type sites that aren’t for RVs as you can run into problems with trees getting in your way.

Another fun thing we’ve discovered while RVing is many RV parks have cabins for people to stay in who don’t have an RV. We like traveling with our neighbors and they don’t have a trailer (yet). They have stayed in the cabins or at a close by hotel. It might be something to think about when you’re working on your travel plans.

Recently, vintage trailers have become a thing. Some parks are now putting renovated vintage trailers in the parks and you can stay in the trailer. There’s a park with lots of vintage trailers in it that is on my bucket list! I need to stay there and go for a walk through the vintage section, but stay in my own trailer with all of my modern creature comforts!

Using these rules of thumb, we have found some great RV parks. We’ve met some really great people and we’ve also learned about new places we want to visit by hearing about other people’s experiences. I love RV parks! I love going for walks and looking at other people’s rigs. I love chatting with people who are on trips. I love hanging outside of my trailer in my camping chair. I love the experience! I hope these tips help you have a better RV park experience.

Next Trailer Girl Blog – Parking the Trailer and Staying Married

Backing the Trailer at The Canadian Border – Our “Doomed” Canadian Adventure

There are trips when you just wonder, “Why are we doing this?!” This was the case for our doomed Canadian adventure. People even asked, “Are you ever going again.” Our answer, “Of course!”

We had a wedding to go to the night before our trip, which threw us off of our trip packing routine. We thought we were all organized and packed up. We headed toward Whistler, BC in the morning the day after the wedding. We made our usual Starbucks stop and were on our way.

In an effort to try to avoid pulling a trailer through downtown Vancouver, we thought we’d take a more costal route. That was our first big mistake. The route was twisty and narrow, and we weren’t 100% sure we weren’t going to have turn around, which made driving stressful. If we had to turn around it would probably mean unhitching, turning, re-hitching, turning, unhitching, turning, re-hitching … until we got turned the right way lest we jackknife. Luckily, that didn’t happen. Much to our relief, we made it across the border without any incident and had some really great scenery on the way. We underestimated how long it was going to take us get there and we had to stop for lunch. My husband went back to the trailer, to get his wallet and guess what… no wallet. That’s right, it was in his car all locked up safe and sound in the garage at home. I had put all of our passports in the glove compartment so, we didn’t notice the lack of wallet until we needed lunch.

Of course, I had a wallet, so we weren’t without money for the trip. He had a passport, so he wasn’t without proof of identity or citizenship. We had that going for us anyway. Being wallet-less just meant that in order for him to have any spending money on the trip, he’d have to get it from me. He wasn’t a fan of that set up. That’ll teach him to double check on his wallet! Being wallet-less also meant he was driving without a license. Our plan, if we were to get pulled over, was to try to explain our situation to the police officer and then further try to explain that the world was safer if I wasn’t pulling a trailer. For the record, I really can pull the trailer … as long as the road is flat, and I don’t have to back it.

We got to our RV park and set about having our great Canadian adventure. The RV Park is situated right on the river and next to the bike trails. It’s really a perfect set up! We keep the car parked most of the time and just ride our bikes everywhere we want to go. There’s also a great putt putt golf course in the RV park. We love it there! Our next-door neighbors have a time share in Whistler, so we crash their vacation and have a lot of fun.

For a long time, I had a skin bump. The doctor said that it was nothing, but to watch it. If it were to ever change size, color, or hurt I was to go to the doctor. That night, it turned red, got hot, and hurt like heck! By the next morning, it was worse. So, my husband took me to the ER in Whistler. That was an adventure in and of itself. As it turns out, if you’re American and have an emergency in Canada, all you need is your credit card on a lanyard so you can swipe it into each door you walk through at the clinic. You may think I’m exaggerating, but I literally had to get it out at each department I got sent to. As it turns out, I had an infection that needed a little minor surgery, and several days of IV antibiotics. So as not to ruin our vacation, the doctor did everything on an outpatient basis. That was great, but the rub was, I had to have an IV port in my arm the whole time and had to go in and get the antibiotics squirted in each day. But, it got better. Cool!

The day after that, the rain started. It pretty much poured for the next few days. That ruined all the bike riding and had us watching movies, visiting the u-paint ceramics place, and trying to find anything indoors to do. During one rain break, we did manage to do the hike to the train wreck, which seemed a little apt as our trip was turning out to be a bit of a train wreck. I do recommend the hike though.

Apart from the rain, we had a good time with our neighbors and made the best of it. The sun came back out on our last day. We ran around Whistler and did everything we wanted to do outside that week … in a day. It was a really fun day! The IV port was out too! Freedom!

It was time to leave and we all agreed we really needed to have a do-over on this trip. When we got to the border, the line was huge! It was so long, I had time to go back to the trailer and make sandwiches and bring them back to the car. I took a walkie talkie with me so that my husband could tell me if he was going to pull forward so I could hang on. It worked. I think we moved a whole five or six feet while making lunch for four!

When we were getting closer to the border, we watched the lines to decide which one was moving the fastest. The one on the far right was doing the best. So, we headed to that line. That was probably our biggest mistake of the trip. What we failed to notice, (or if we did notice, we were clueless) was that the far-right lane was the Nexus Lane. Once we got to the border patrol guy, he let us know that if we didn’t have the Nexus pass, we weren’t allowed in the lane. There was no negotiating him. He wasn’t going to let us through without the pass. Oh, and by the way, you can’t purchase one in the line. I asked what he suggested we do. He said, “Just turn around and get in the other lane.”

Of course, if you’re towing a trailer, turning around is no small thing. There were about six cars behind us, jersey barriers, and some turns. This was going to be next to impossible. I grabbed a walkie talkie so I could talk to my husband when I needed to direct him to back up. I proceeded to start talking to the other cars in the lane asking them to back up. Luckily, everyone in the lane behind us thought the border patrol guy was ridiculous and was really nice about turning around. Then, what to do with the jersey barriers? They were the plastic kind. So, I just moved them. The trip had gotten so ridiculous that I was cracking up laughing the whole time I was moving them. Once we got pointed into the lane to the left, I had to go over and sweet talk the people in the next lane to let us in. They were also nice and let us in. We left the jersey barriers right where I put them when we had to move them. Mr. Nexus could put them back how he wanted to.

When we finally got to the right booth, the border patrol lady asked us a bunch of questions including “did you buy any produce.” My husband, Mr. Honest, tells her everything we bought, including apples. Another mistake. Then, there was a whole conversation about whether or not they were British Columbia Apples. My husband started laughing, which I’m sure she didn’t appreciate, and said, “I don’t know, but are you hungry? I’ll go get you one!” She let us go.

When we returned home and told people about our trip, they asked us, “Will you ever go again?” Our answer, “Of course!” Here’s the RV moral of the story – Never let an ill-fated trip make you give up! We’ve had all kinds of mishaps along the way and have always managed to stay the course and have never turned around and gone home. There are a few places where we may never stop again … like Barstow … but that’s a story for another time. The key to surviving mishaps is laughing. Find the humor in the situation. There are very few situations where there won’t be something to laugh at or a silver lining to find. RVing takes a lot of laughing. Start now!

For a little Epilogue, we have never been back to Whistler. We booked another trip up there but, we had to cancel because of wild fires. Whistler was on fire! That led us onto one of our best serendipitous trips ever to Auburn, California. That was one of the only places we could find a reservation during the dates we needed. We ended up having a great trip where we toured the gold country of California and went on the best white-water rafting trip we’ve ever been on. See, we didn’t give up!

Not every trip is going to be RV bliss! Most of them will be fun or funny! Have fun with your trips and all of the goofy things that crop up along the way.

Next trailer girl blog: Choosing an RV Park – Learn From Our Mistakes!

The 8:00 Rule. Why One of Our Favorite Vacation Memories is From Cracker Barrel

We once thought we could make it from Redding, CA to San Diego, CA by dinner time. We were wrong, very wrong! When we arrived at our RV site in San Diego, there were fireworks going off from Sea World, which meant it was 9:00 p.m. We had not eaten dinner. We had not set up the trailer. We were tired. We were grumpy and very road weary.

Setting up the trailer that night wasn’t our best family togetherness moment. We were snapping at each other. I was trying to hurry the process verbally, which is the opposite of helpful. Then, we had to make dinner. By the time dinner hit the table, it was pushing 10:00 p.m. And that’s when we made up the 8:00 rule. The rule states that if we can’t be set up with dinner on the table by 8:00 p.m., we must stop for dinner. Anyone in the family is allowed to invoke this rule.

It was years later and we were on a fabulous road trip. We were doing a loop that included Arches, Canyonlands, Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon, Zion, and Bryce National Parks. It also included Durango, CO and a ride on the Silverton Train. We had car trouble before we got anywhere. The fuel pump on our Suburban was on it’s way out. We had to keep pulling over and let it rest. It was super fun the time it made us rest on the way to a lunch stop (not!). We could see McDonalds, but couldn’t get there! This was getting annoying! My husband made some calls and found a Chevy dealer in Kingman, AZ that could get the part and get us fixed up. GREAT! We were stuck in Kingman, AZ without a car for a couple of days, but we survived. As it turns out, lots of Chevys have their fuel pumps go out on that stretch of road and the dealership regularly takes families and tows their trailers to the KOA in Kingman. Which, brings us to another rule: Always rent a car if your car is going to be in the shop for more than 24 hours. We could’ve seen some cool ghost towns and had some fun. Instead, we watched movies on a tiny TV really loud so we could run the air conditioner. It wasn’t really fun.

The part took longer to get to the dealership than expected. They fixed it as fast as they could to get us on the road, but it was later than we should have been leaving. Of course, our goal was to make it in time to be set up and make dinner. We were driving through all of the beautiful canyons looking at the red rocks. Or, I should say, my husband and I were looking at the beautiful red rocks. The kids had seen enough rocks out the car window and were staring at the clock on the dash of the car with updates as to what time it was ever ten minutes or so. And, you guessed it! They invoked the 8:00 rule. They were delighted! Not only did they get to “boss” the parents, but they got a break from Mom’s cooking.

We found a Cracker Barrel in George, UT not all that far from the RV park we were aiming for. When we drove up, the grown-ups were really happy to find RV parking. When we got inside, there was no waiting (a bonus when it’s 8:00 p.m.) and our kids got their first look ever at a Cracker Barrel menu. They weren’t really used to that many choices – especially where starch is concerned. They were thrilled! They also loved the table games. I can’t say Cracker Barrel is my favorite restaurant, but we really had a great time there that night.

We arrived at the RV Park much later than expected and someone on the staff had to wait for us to arrive. We felt bad about that, but he was nice about it. He helped us find our spot and our set up in the dark using our quiet voices went really well. There was no grumping at each other. Once we got the trailer set up and got inside, we were relaxed, satisfied and ready for bed. It got our next leg of the trip off to a great start.

We still invoke the 8:00 rule on each other – even at home. It has turned out to be one of our family’s favorite rules.

I tell you this story not because we are some perfect family that can write a book about how to be a family. We really can’t! This just happens to be one successful thing that we came up with as a family. I hope it’s gotten you thinking about what might help your family. What kind of power can you give your family members to help keep the peace and make your trips more enjoyable?

Next Trailer Girl Blog Post: Backing the Trailer at The Canadian Border Our “Doomed” Canadian Adventure

Don’t Burn Your Biscuits – Dealing With Weird RV Ovens

When we were buying our first trailer, there was some weird RV oven shortage. RV dealers tried to tell me that I only really needed an oven for cooking Thanksgiving dinner and that all I needed was a microwave with a convection oven. Wrong … on many levels! First of all, I love to cook! I need an oven! I’m famous for my cookies! I can’t not have an oven for them. And secondly, who in their right mind cooks a turkey in an RV oven?! Actually, truth be told, cooking Thanksgiving dinner in a trailer is on my bucket list although I would cook a turkey breast – not a whole turkey. However, it’s not on my husband’s bucket list. He thinks I’ll totally lose my mind trying to do it and he can’t bear to watch. I beg to differ … and I’m also losing… We did have Thanksgiving on a trailer trip once. We had it in a restaurant. While taking off my coat to sit down, I accidentally smacked my hand on a tray of wine the waitress had for another table. The wine went all over one of the people sitting at the table. Very embarrassing. This wouldn’t have happened if I could have cooked in my trailer because I have stemless wine glasses (see holiday shopping blog post)! I digress…

On our first trailer trip ever, we stopped at a McDonalds and got the kids Happy Meals. Thank goodness we did! It took us forever to set up the trailer because we were newbies. Then, I decided I’d make us what we now call “Trailer Pizza.” Trailer pizza, for normal people, is a garlic, chicken, and rosemary pizza – delicious! I was feeling so gourmet! I set the oven for the temperature I cook it at home, got it ready, and baked it just like I would at home. The bottom got so burned it was inedible! We ended up scraping the topping off and having that for dinner. Stupid trailer oven!! Here’s what we learned.

RV ovens run hot on the bottom. DUH! We noticed. The heat doesn’t disperse evenly and it makes cooking in the oven a big challenge. My dad had already come across this problem and let us know a great hack. If you get some cheap tiles and cut them to fit into the bottom of the oven, the heat disperses more evenly. It’s not perfect, but it helps a lot.

I also heat the oven up a little higher than I want. When I put the food in, I turn it down a little lower than I’d actually like. The oven stays pretty hot, but then, doesn’t end up firing up to keep it at the hotter temperature. I also set the timer for about half the time that I’m planning to bake. Then, I turn the pan and cook for the other half of the time.

Before we bought our first trailer, I was a Pampered Chef Kitchen Consultant, which is a fancy name for Sales Person. Lucky for us, kit enhancement month where I got to buy whatever I wanted out of the Pampered Chef catalog for half price, was the same month we acquired the trailer. I stocked the kitchen with Pampered Chef! Crazy as it sounds, I included in my trailer kitchen with a pizza stone, and square baking stone, and a round baking stone. The stones help disperse the heat even more. We now leave a pizza stone in the oven and bake everything in another stone on top of that.

Tiles on very bottom of the oven. The heating element is above the tiles. The pizza stone lives in the oven and we put other pans and bakeware on top of it. It’s as even as we can get the heat!

We love “fancy breakfast.” That’s when we break open one of those Pillsbury tubes of biscuits or cinnamon rolls, scramble some eggs, cook up some brown and serve sausage, and make a little fruit salad. Fancy, huh? We had trouble burning the bottom of our biscuits and cinnamon rolls, until we figured out that we could flip them over like pancakes about 3/4 of the way through the baking (after we turn the pan 1/2 way through the baking, of course). They look weird, but they’re cooked perfectly! I haven’t had the heart to flip over my cookies. My kids will find cookies that are a little crunchier on the bottom and say, “these must be trailer cookies.”

Another problem with RV ovens is their size! We have had to adapt some pans to make them fit – like bending up the sides of cookie sheets. Of course, had we measured before we bought the pans, we may have purchased the right size of pan! Word to the wise, measure first, then shop!

Over our 14 years of trailering, we’ve gotten things down pretty well. I’m proud to say that we can arrive at a campsite and get things partially set up enough to where I can go inside and start dinner. I can get our trailer pizza started and in the oven by the time my husband finishes up with the outside. We make salads while the pizza is in the oven and enjoy the views while we wait for the pizza to need to be turned, reset the timer, and bake the rest of the way. It’s a nice way to start a trip.

I hope this has helped keep you from burning your biscuits and made cooking in an RV kitchen a little better for you.

Next blog post – The 8:00 Rule. Why One of Our Favorite Vacation Memories is From Cracker Barrel.

Weird RV Closets and How to Pack Them

I’ve seen LOTS of Master bedrooms that look similar to this

So, you have your rig and you’re getting ready to pack. How exciting! Isn’t it great not to be packing a suitcase? That is, until you look inside a trailer or RV closet and you wonder how the heck you’re going to pack it. Here are some tricks I’ve learned over the years mostly from closet fails. I hope they are helpful to you. Let me begin by saying we’ve never had a rig with one of those fancy 5th wheel type bedrooms that have a big closet and a dresser. We’ve always had some sort of funky closet situation that we’ve made work.

The picture above is not terribly unlike our current master bedroom. I would used my own, but the room is so small, it’s hard to get a decent picture. This is one hijacked from a trailer ad for a Kodiak trailer (same brand as ours). We’ll use this for our example of a “typical” closet as I’ve seen lots that are similar.

The first problem is, the closets are short. My husband is tall. So, if he wants to pack a dress shirt, the closet is too short for the shirt and it wrinkles at the bottom. So, if he packs a dress shirt (and by dress shirt, I mean something with a collar like a Hawaiian shirt – dressy is a relative term!), he hangs them in our bunk house closet/ coat closet that’s a little longer. If I pack a dress I fold it in half and hang it over the center of a hanger. I usually don’t bother with dresses though. I end up hanging up much more that I would in my closet at home. For instance, I hang up jeans, sweatshirts, etc because there are no drawers. Shorts are a problem if you need to stack them inside of your closet. During the traveling, they tend to fall over. I have been known to hang my shorts on skirt hangers. My family thinks that’s a little OCD, but it works!

Hangers are another problem. When you’re traveling down the road, you create an earthquake. Your clothes slide right off the hangers and make a big heap in the bottom of the closet – very annoying! I have found that the velvet covered hangers help keep clothes in place. You can buy these just about anywhere such as Target, Home Goods, or if you want a lot of them, Costco has a big box for about $10.

We have also had problems with our coat closet on the road. We would arrive at our destination only to find everything had fallen to the bottom of the closet including the hangers. So, we bought some hotel hangers from Amazon. Problem solved! Trailers should just come with these already installed.

Trailers should come with these already installed!

Small items like socks and underwear are also a problem if you don’t have drawers. In our old trailer, I put small sterilite drawers in each closet. Our current rig has some storage over the bed and I put baskets over head. You’ll want to measure your storage space and find something that works for you and what you need to store.

Shoes are another problem. I love the show “Big Time RV.” It makes me laugh every time they have ladies on there that talk about bringing lots of shoes on an RV trip! I love shoes just as much as the next gal, but when I’m on an RV trip, my rule of thumb is bring the functional shoes needed for the planned activities (i.e hiking boots, flip flops for the beach, dog walking shoes, etc.). After that, for “outfits”, unless I have a special occasion (rare on an RV trip!), I make sure whatever shoes I bring go with multiple outfits. Stinky shoes can cause major closet problems! All stinky or potentially stinky shoes should ride in the storage under the trailer or use the storage under a dinette seat for things like that. We put our hiking boots, back packs, and trekking poles in the dinette seat … after they air out outside.

Sometimes closets take on a little musty smell. The sneaker balls you can get from stores that sell athletic shoes are a big help. Speaking of stink … let’s talk about dirty laundry. Don’t put it back in your closet! EEEW! We use the under bed storage area (Lots of beds lift up and there’s storage under neath. We had drawers built in to our storage area for the laundry. I don’t love doing laundry on the road. So, when we’re on a longer trip, we fold our dirty laundry so it doesn’t take up too much space. In our old trailer, we had a cool hatch to the underneath storage area that we put our laundry in. We could also send our son in to smash it down when he was little.

When packing our rig, we use collapsable crates. We keep them in the living room at home when we’re on the road and then, unpack with them too. We used to tell the kids they could only pack what fit in their crates. It wasn’t long before they figured out they could make more than one trip to the trailer and fill the crate up two or three times! They also learned, they’d have to crate it all back in and put it away after the trip. At a young age, we gave them packing lists and had them pack themselves. This taught them a lot about packing and being responsible for their own stuff. I won’t say that it was a perfect system. I think we’ve had to stop and buy underwear on the way to our destination for 3 out of 4 of us over the years. I won’t say who forgot their underwear!

I hope this has helped you deal with your weird RV closet. RV closets are weird and not really ideal. Thinking through your wardrobe and storage needs (i.e. do you need someplace to corral your socks and underwear?) and then setting up accordingly will make your camping experience less frustrating where clothes are concerned. I’ll take a weird trailer closet over a suitcase any day!

Next Trailer Girl blog post – How we learned that the awning was the most expensive part of the trailer. A lesson learned the hard way.

Getting Ready To Roll

Don’t buy super nice thick towels!!! Buy these instead!

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat. I have no intention of telling you how to get your rig ready to go where hitches, sway bars, or vent covers are concerned. You can find plenty of good information about that just about anywhere! I’m all about the inside of the rig! No one tells you anything about that!

First of all, you need to put yourself into the mindset that you are preparing for a giant earthquake every time you drive your rig to a new place. You know when they say on the airplane, “Contents may have shifted during flight?” Your contents WILL shift during travel! So, figure out ways to store things where they won’t slide off of counters and spill, break, or get destroyed. For instance, I have a spot on my counter where I can wedge the coffee pot and the utensil holder in between the stove and the window valence and it doesn’t move at all. Inside my cupboards I use “cabinet binz” (available lots of places like the Container Store, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Home Goods) and put things that might spill like wine, olive oil, etc in those. My avocados ride in my napkin basket, and my bananas ride in the sink. Think about your stuff and how you’ll keep it from causing you extra work when you set up. Refrigerator bars and cupboard bars from Camping World are a big help too!

I have heard that Corelle dishes are supposed to be tacky. Whatever! They are the bomb for RVing! They stack nice and they are pretty hard to break. Although, we managed to put them into our new rig wrong (plates on a little shelf – don’t do it!). They slammed into the cupboard door and the door opened and they didn’t just break on the floor. They shattered! We lost 2 or 3 plates out of 8 or 10. We still have plenty, we rearranged them and haven’t had any problems since. We’ve been using the same ones for 15 years of earthquakes! In our newer rig, our mugs are in a cupboard. They have gotten more chipped. In old rig, they had a drawer and they fared better. In my next rig, I’m going to find a mug drawer and get new mugs! I figure after 15-20 years of use, it’s probably OK.

Line your cupboards and drawers with the rubber stuff from Walmart that keeps things from sliding. I forget what it’s called, but you can find it by the contact paper. (Also near by – the Corelle dishes!) It doesn’t actually stick down with adhesive so you can adjust it. It helps keep things from sliding all over the place.

There will be things you’ll have to straighten up every time you travel. For us, it’s the medicine cabinet and I’ve been deemed, “The Straightening Up Fairy” because I usually am the one who cares the most about things standing up straight. My OCD kind of works for other people sometimes!

When you are putting things into your rig to set it up, think about lessening your work load. You don’t want to spend a ton of time packing before a trip! All you want to have to load is clothes, food, and things you’ll use on that one particular trip. You don’t want to load pots and pans, towels, etc every single time. What a pain! It’ll suck the fun out of your trip!

Also, you’re going to be camping, or as we like to call it, “fake camping,” but that’s no reason to rough it! You just bought a nice rig so camping would be more comfortable. Don’t make it too much work or uncomfortable.

For instance, don’t put your hand me down beat up pots and pans in your rig. Most likely you’ll be washing by hand. The last thing you want to do is have to scrub stuck on scrambled eggs or some other stuck on food out of your pan. You don’t have to spend a ton of money on fancy name brand pots and pans, but do invest in some decent non-stick cookware. Also, make sure you have utensils you use frequently like your favorite type of cooking knives, garlic press, etc. – whatever it is that works for YOU! Cooking shouldn’t be more work than it is at home because you don’t have the right stuff! A lot of RVers use slow cookers. I have yet to have a rig where I have the space for one, but it can be a great way to have your dinner waiting for you after a day of exploring. One caveat to my “don’t use beat up pots and pans rule” is if you’re going to cook something like clams that will scratch up your pot. Then, put your most beat up pan under a dinette seat or in the storage underneath your rig, and get it out when you’re going to cook something that will wreck your nice stuff.

You know how you take your old, crummy bath towels, and turn them into garage towels? Don’t make your rig purgatory for garage towels! Spend the extra few bucks and get some quick drying bath towels. Whatever you do, don’t go buying some thick, luxury Egyptian cotton towels! You’ll never have a dry towel after your first shower! RV’s have a way of retaining moisture and it’s really hard to get your towels dry! Also, buy extra hand towels. When your entire family is using one trailer bathroom, you’ll be amazed at how fast it’s wet and clammy! YUCK! I live in the Pacific Northwest and do much of my RVing here. It is the land of cold, wet, clammy towels! An old RVer once told me, “Buy cheap towels!” I had no idea what she was talking about and totally dismissed it. It took me a while to figure out that she was trying to tell me that cheap towels dry faster. Now, they’ve invented quick dry towels that are a little softer and thicker than cheap towels. And, they’re not all that expensive!

Many trailer mattresses are funky sizes. You might think you’re stuck with whatever sheets are available at RV shops and dealers. I hate those sheets! They’re microfiber and feel horrible! If you’re a microfiber fan, cool! Skip this paragraph! I am a big fan of jersey sheets. They stretch and fit odd sized mattresses. On my short queen, I use full size sheets and the bottom sheet is nice and tight instead of being all bunchy. For the longest time the best ones I could find were at Walmart. (I hate going to Walmart! It is a necessary evil if you have an RV, I think!). My daughter recently found some at Macy’s in their Martha Stewart section. If you’re avoiding Walmart, check out Macy’s. The mattress itself is a whole other blog topic and we’ll get to that later.

When decorating/personalizing your rig, think about things that make you happy such as pictures of your family or places you’ve been. Think about things that will make you more comfortable like throw pillows or throw blankets. I think it’s hilarious that trailer brochures tout their bed spreads as selling points. They are the first thing to get thrown out the door for me! I love quilts, pillow shams, cozy throws for the end of the bed. The big thing is, your rig needs to be YOUR happy place! Anyone in my family will tell you that as soon as my trailer is set up and I’m sitting inside, I’m in my happy place and it doesn’t really matter where it’s parked. I know I’m away from the stresses of home and work and I start to relax just by sitting there! Part of that is because it’s set up how I love it! Do the same for your rig! Have fun! Happy set up!

Our cozy trailer master bedroom. I love it! (You don’t have to love it – I do! You should love yours!)

Next blog post: What to do with your clothes in those weird RV closets!

Trailer Shopping – What You Really Need to Know

I love RV shows! You might say I’m an RV show geek! My husband and I go even when we aren’t in the market. We love looking to see what’s new and are always on the hunt for what might be our “old fart trailer.” The “old fart trailer” is the ultimate travel rig that will be the one we travel in for months at a time without kids. Suffice it to say, we’ve seen a lot and we’ve noticed a lot of funny mistakes made by RV and trailer makers. For the purposes of this article, I’ll refer to the RV/Trailer/5th Wheel as a “Rig.”

Here are some things to think about before you begin your search:

How will you use your rig? Are you going to be a football game tailgater? Are you planning on Boondocking (no hook ups camping)? Are you planning to go to cities and stay in RV Parks? Are you a State/National Park Camper? If you are a State/National Park camper, be sure to check the RV sites lengths and amenities at your favorites. Yosemite is one of my favorite places on the planet. However, it’s hard to get a trailer in the park – especially in the summer. (We found other options for this, by the way! We still go!)
What will you be towing your rig with? This will dictate what you’re able to even realistically look at. For instance, if you’re planning on towing with a mini-van, a pop up tent trailer may be the ticket. If you have a one ton diesel truck, your options are much greater.
Where will you be storing your rig? How much space to do you have to store your rig on your lot? Are there HOA rules about storing RV’s in your neighborhood? Will you need to store your rig at a storage facility? One RV dealer actually tried to sell my brother a trailer that was longer than the space he has in his driveway. He had to keep assuring the dealer that he measured more than once and that the trailer the dealer was trying to sell him wasn’t going to fit and could he please see the one that was the right length?
Are you camping with kids? – They’ll need a place to sleep! How big are your kids? Our first trailer was perfect for our kids when they were 4 and 8. Then, when they were teenagers with longer legs and bigger feet, we were kind of cramped!
What do you plan to eat when your camping? Sounds like a question for after the shopping, but NO! When shopping for our first trailer, we found that many of the trailers we looked at had room for food or clothes, but not both! If you’re planning to bring boxes of cereal for the morning and eat out the rest of the time, that might work for you.
All the other stuff that they tell you in the RV books, magazines, etc about hitches, wheel bases, scissor jacks, blah blah blah! That’ my husband’s territory! I’m mostly in charge of making sure the inside is going to work for us.

So, you’ve decided what kind of camper (or as we like to call it, “fake camper”) you’re going to be. Now it’s time to shop! I can’t recommend highly enough going to an RV show. This is how you can get the best overview of what’s out there in the shortest amount of time. Here’s how to do it and not get completely overwhelmed.

Take the bag they hand you when you walk in! You need it for all of the brochures you’re going to grab!
Look only at what you’re interested in – That seems obvious, but if you’re looking for a 23′ trailer, don’t get distracted by the $200K motor homes. While it’s fun to look at the crazy stuff they put inside of them, it’s going to suck up a lot of your time and energy.
Take pictures of the make and model of the rigs you like along with the paper they have on the counter with the “show price.” By the way, “Show price” is kind of a lie. You can negotiate that price on the lot later.

Now you’re focused and have a plan of attack. Now, climb aboard the rigs that fit your criteria. Here are some things I look for when we are out looking for our ultimate rig and my system for inspecting and trying to figure out if the rig will work. So, far I haven’t found the perfect rig! The trick is finding out what your deal breakers are and how much you’re willing to bend on your plans.

First stop, the kitchen – I don’t need to go any further if the kitchen doesn’t have proper storage and enough counter space. I need room for dishes, pots and pans, and food. I don’t need a fancy residential fridge or anything super fancy. But, I like to cook. If there’s not enough room for me to cook, I move on! No need to look any more at that rig. I call those “Cracker Barrel” kitchens because you have to go eat at Cracker Barrel since there’s no room to cook. This term is not catching on….
Next stop, the bathroom – I can’t tell you how many rigs I’ve been in where there’s no place to hang towels! To me, that’s just stupid! In our first trailer, we hung a towel bar with 4 rungs over the bathroom door, which was fine for the 4 of us … until they were wet and in your face when you’re sitting on the toilet. I recently looked at a 5th wheel with a huge bathroom and guess what – no place to hang the towels or toilet paper within reach of the shower or the toilet. Ridculous! Deal breaker! Move on!
The living area – How are you planning to hang out? For my husband, it’s all about TV viewing. Is he going to be comfortable? Can he stretch out after a long day of driving? One mistake we made with our current rig was not flopping out on the couch when we were shopping. As it turns out, neither of us (and I’m vertically challenged) can stretch out in the living area. In our “old fart trailer” hunt, we’re paying much closer attention to this!
The kid area (Bunkhouses)– If you are going to be camping with kids, do your best to find them beds in your rig. I know that sounds obvious, but you’d be amazed at how many people try to fit 6 kids into a rig without a bunkhouse. We love this show called “Big Time RV.” It’s like “House Hunters” for RVs. Time and time again, we’ve watched them sell little rigs with no bunkhouse for big money to people with kids. It’s ridiculous to think that your 6′ tall 15 year old is going to fit on the dinette folded down. I promise, he won’t! For us, it’s important that one of the rooms, either where the parents sleep or where the kids sleep have an actual door that’s made out of wood? We laugh at the curtains they put up and call them “curtains of ultimate privacy.” They’re not private at all.
The “master bedroom” – for lack of better terms – where the grown ups will sleep. One HUGE mistake we made when we bought our current rig was not laying on the bed. We had a short queen in our first trailer and it worked fine. Being vertically challenged, I never worry about the length of a bed. Well, this rig has a short queen too. But the difference is, it’s bumped up into the nose of the trailer giving us a curved sort of headboard and making the short queen a little shorter. My husband has to sleep all scrunched up! A real queen is on the list of things we need.

After you’ve approved of all of all the major parts of the rig, now look for the fine details and make sure you can live with things like:

Where you’ll have to put your trash can? – That’s a much bigger deal than you might think! For us, we had to figure out how to keep our hound out of the trash which meant we had to find a little waste basket sized trash can to fit under the sink in the kitchen in our first rig. Luckily, we had kids and it was their job to take out the trash. We kept them really busy!
Does the kitchen have a oven? – This is a deal breaker for me. When we were shopping for our first trailer, we were amazed at how many rigs didn’t have ovens! They tried to tell us we could use this microwave/convection contraption and that people only use real ovens on Thanksgiving.
Where will you put your coffee maker? – I must admit that I am completely and totally caffeine addicted and can’t start my morning without my coffee. Luckily, it’s the same for my husband. We were delighted with our current rig that we were able to purchase a full sized coffee pot and leave it on the counter when we’re traveling! The first trailer only had room for a little 4 cup coffee maker and we had to make two pots because every coffee monger knows the number of cups they advertise on coffee pots is a lie.
Where are you going to put your toilet paper? – We have yet to have a rig where the toilet paper can hang on the wall like a normal bathroom. But, we have a cupboard that’s close enough that we can keep it in there.

Now, LEAVE the RV show! Take your pictures, your brochures and GO HOME! Look through everything carefully. Talk over what you liked and didn’t like. Then, after you’ve had some sleep, go back to the dealer (You’ll have a business card if you spent more than 5 minutes in one rig. Try to get out of the show without it!). Look through the rig again and decide if you still like it. Maybe look on Craig’s list or RV Trader and see if you can find the same thing a year or two old. You’ll save a lot of money if you can find something gently used.

That’s a lot of information and a lot to think about, I know! I’m sure your brain is tired. You should probably take a nap before you start looking for your next RV show! Enjoy the search! Maybe in the meantime, find some “Big Time RV” re-runs.

Next blog post: Getting Your Rig Ready to Roll!

Why a Trailer?

That’s what someone asked us when they saw our first trailer parked in front of our house. “WHY?!” As if to say, “Are you insane?! What could you possibly be thinking?” I’ll tell you what we were thinking. We were thinking we wanted to go places where airplanes don’t land and hotels are scarce. We were thinking that we wanted our kids to have memories of family trips and adventures that they’d tell their kids. And, we were thinking that tent camping was getting to be a big hassle….

Let me tell you about our last tent camping trip. It was to Big Sur, California. We were to drive from our home near Seattle, Washington to meet our California family for a camping trip. Sounds fun, right? We spent an entire day packing our mini-van to the brim with camping gear, coolers, stuffed animals, favorite blankets, juice boxes, snacks, a TV/VCR combo, headsets that plug in to the TV/VCR thing, and enough VHS tapes to keep a 3 and 7 year old happy for 18 hours on the road and the parents sane. We were ready to go! It only took about 20 hours, but we were ready!

Our first night, we stopped at a hotel in Redding, California. When we got out of the van, it was 108 degrees outside. We now refer to weather over 100 degrees as “Redding Hot” in our family. My daughter had finished her book and we decided to leave Dad and little brother at the hotel to rest and we set out to find a new book. My husband suggested that when I get back that I park under a tree so that it doesn’t get too hot in the van. And, that’s what I did. Good job me!

We had a lovely evening! We went to dinner, played in the pool, and let the kids stay up late so they’d sleep in the car the next day. We did everything right! We got up early to get a good start for the rest of our drive. When we opened up the van, we discovered that we had about 1,000 new passengers. ANTS! It turns out, I had parked so that the nose of the van was on an ant hill. Way to go me! We stood there trying to figure out what to do. It wasn’t like we could stop at the hardware store, spray a can of Raid, and then lock the family up in the car. We found a can of hairspray and dishtowel and began a spray, kill, and flick routine and got as many ants out of the van as we could. We got on our way about 30 minutes later. That was only the beginning of a ridiculous day.

We lost the map when we got it mixed into our Denny’s menus. Then, a car came careening straight at us and crashed into the jersey barrier. We were a little shaken up and weren’t sure where we were so, we stopped for gas and a new map and flicked out some more ants. We arrived in Big Sur later than expected and tired only to have to unload the van and set up camp.

We got the tent set up while the kids played with their cousin, aunt, uncle and grandparents. The next thing was to blow up the air mattress. Of course, it popped as soon as we got some air into it. My husband had had enough and said, “I’m going to Monterey. Don’t wait for me to do anything. I’ll be back later.” My California family was worried about him. I wasn’t. I was sure he was A) buying a new air mattress B) getting a Starbucks, and C) standing with his feet in the ocean.

The rest of the camping went without any major incident except for the typical hassles of camping. For instance: fetching water to do dishes, heating water to wash said dishes, and finally, washing said dishes. It can take 30 minutes just to wash a cup! Oh, and let’s not forget how much fun it is to camp with a three year old who loves the dirt and try to clean him up in a shower that you have to feed quarters into. Not to mention, he was terrified of the shower and you could hear him screaming all over the campground! (That part, was a little bit funny and some of his shower commentary has made it into family vernacular!). We also really enjoyed having to take turns to go up to the bathroom to brush our teeth so that one of us could stay behind because our kids were in the tent – NOT! Then, there were some of my personal favorite daily tent camping chores like draining the water out of the cooler, filling it up with ice again, and loading all of the food in and out of the van ever time we needed to make a meal. We were really getting done with tent camping.

My parents were camping in a camper on the back of my dad’s truck. After the campfire, marshmallows, and hot chocolate, they’d just say good night and climb in. No taking turns to go down to the bathroom to brush their teeth. No blow up mattress. No cooler. It seemed so much easier.

On the drive home we started looking at what towed what. We made up our minds that we would begin the search for a trailer and a tow vehicle that this preschool carpool mom could drive. When we got home, we put the tent in the attic. I’m pretty sure it’s still up there having never moved.

We spent the next 8 months going to RV shows, checking out trailers on RV lots, checking out tow vehicles with passenger space, and crunching numbers. In the spring of 2004, we bought our first trailer and a Suburban we called, “Clifford the Big Red Burb.” That was the beginning of 14 great years of family trailer adventures that we wouldn’t trade for anything! Our kids are now 19 and 23 and we’re on our second trailer. We’ve done just about everything wrong over the years and have learned a lot!

I hope you enjoy this blog and I share what I’ve learned along the way (that you can’t find in my favorite Magazine, “Trailer Life” – you should subscribe! My first bit of trailer advice). Fair warning! This blog will be somewhat “girly” in that I know almost nothing about hitches, sway bars, back up cameras, etc. What I know and will be sharing are things I’ve learned that make trailer/RV life more comfortable and fun … like which kind of towels to buy if you want to use a dry towel …ever and how not to burn the bottoms of your cookies in your RV oven. The little things that make it more enjoyable!

Coming up in my next post: Trailer/ RV Shopping – The stuff you really need to know!