#happycamper – Trailer Girl's Guide to Happy Camping

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Post script:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Too Much of a Good Thing – RVing Burnout

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Everyone Needs a Trailer Job

If you were to talk to my kids when they were between the ages of about 10 and 17, you would have thought they lived with Mrs. Hannigan from “Annie” and were suffering a hard knock life. They were sure that no one on the planet had as many chores as they had. I’m pretty sure they were wrong. When it came to our RV trip, it was all about family teamwork and making sure that no one carried the lion’s share of the work. Here’s how we worked it when we traveled with our kids.

The Planner – That’s me. I am an OCD planner. I like to have reservations lined up, meals planned, some activities planned and booked, etc. It works that I took this job because no one else wanted it or loves this kind of thing. My husband teases me on a big trip when I show up with a folder full of copies of our RV park reservations, waivers for things like white water rafting, printed out recipes, etc. Once we’re at an RV park, I grab all kinds of brochures for local things to do and see and add them to the folder. I get called, “Julie the Cruise Director.”

The packers – It has always been my job to pack the food into the trailer. Everyone is in charge of packing their own stuff. We have collapsible crates that we use for packing clothes and such into the trailer. We bought our first trailer when my son was four. He helped me pack his crate at first, but by the time he was five or six, he did his own. I made the kids lists so that they didn’t forget things. After a while, they didn’t need the lists anymore. We did, however, have to stop a few times for underwear. One time, my husband and I reminded the kids over and over to pack their swimsuits. They did great! My husband and I forgot ours … after all of that kid nagging we did!

The Driver – That’s my husband. No one else wanted this job … or was old enough for it most of the time. I drove some with our first trailer, but only on straight, flat roads, and never backwards.

The backing guide – In the early days, that was me and a walkie talkie. When my son got older, he did this some too. When he was about 10, he loved standing on the tongue of the trailer and guiding my husband to the hitch and did this with tremendous and kind of hilarious enthusiasm.

The car clean-up team – This was a kid job. When we arrived at an RV park, their job was to make sure the dog got a little walk and clean up the inside of the car. By the time we would arrive at an RV park, our car was full of snack trash, drink cups, and whatever activity the kids did to pass the time such as movies or video games.

Outside trailer hook-up & leveling – This is also my husband. When my son got older, he helped with this some. Now that we’re kid-less, my husband is on his own … with his auto-leveling system.

The inside of the trailer setter-upper – That’s my job and I love it! One of my favorite parts of getting somewhere is setting up the trailer and making it feel homey and cozy.

The Cook – That’s me. I plan and shop for all of the meals. I love to cook. I love the challenge of cooking on the road. I love my trailer job!

The Sous-chef – This is the cook’s helper. Usually, this was a kid. The sous-chef does whatever is needed (age appropriate of course). Cheese grating is a big one because I hate grating cheese.

The table-setter & Dog feeder – That job goes to whomever isn’t cooking or the sous-chef. In our first trailer, when the kids got older, we were very short on room. This job often went to whomever was sitting near the dishes drawer at the time.

The dish-washer – This was and still is usually me and I don’t really mind. I think that comes from my kitchen cleaning OCD I inherited from my mother. It was my job growing up to clean up the kitchen. She was a stickler for shiny faucets, clean stove, etc. Kitchen clean-up is all part of the dish-washing for me.

The dish-dryer – This job was always up for grabs. My daughter got it more often than not. Sometimes, someone else would put the dishes away after she was done drying them. It was like an assembly line from the sink to the dish-drawer. It worked well – especially when our trailer was so small.

The dumper – Mid-trip, that could be anyone that could tell the black tank handle from the grey tank handle. Our first trailer needed the gray tank dumped on an emergency basis sometimes. We’d hear from someone yelling from the shower, “The water isn’t going down the drain!!!!” Time to dump the tank. The short straw went to whomever was dressed in something other than pajamas. At the end of the trip, this is my husband. He makes sure everything is done right, tanks are cleaned, and all the hoses are put back where they belong.

The trash taker-outer – This was often my son. It’s a good job for an 8-year old boy. In our first trailer, we didn’t think through the trash situation and only had room for a little wastebasket under the kitchen sink. 4 people and a dog = a lot of trips to the dumpster with little bags of trash.

The dog-walker – It depends on the time of day who gets this job. I get up in the morning and do the morning shift. After that, it’s up for grabs. Of course, if we’re somewhere where we can take the dog for a hike or out to whatever activity we’re doing, all the better.

The laundry boss – That’s me. I try my hardest not to do laundry on a trip. But, when we were traveling in a 25-foot trailer with two kids, it was often impossible on a two-week trip. When we ended up in a laundromat, the kids helped more. Most of the time, it was just me and the RV park laundry. On a two-week trip, the time spent in the laundry room of an RV park was often welcome quiet time.

Trailer-tidy – This is everyone’s job. In our trailer, everyone is to make their bed and are in charge of keeping their stuff picked up and out of people’s way. In our first trailer, our bunkhouse room was where all of our little trailer closets were. There were four bunks used by only two kids most of the time. The kids used the bunks that weren’t getting slept in as added storage sometimes (to my shagrin). My daughter was an avid reader and couldn’t go on a trip without a crate of books. How could she possibly choose two or three books to pack on a trip? She might change her mind! Her crate could be found on her non-sleeping bunk. If anyone’s stuff was in someone’s way, we’d say they were “oozing” and it was time for them to clean up. Did this always go smoothly? Nope!

Cussing day – That’s what we call sheet changing day. It’s always been my job to change the sheets. The name for this came about because, in our first trailer, changing the sheets was difficult, and painful! The queen bed was actually a short queen and the mattress was wedged into a rear slide out that was exactly the same size as the mattress. I scraped many a knuckle on the wall trying to change the sheets almost every time. Our bunkhouse room had all of the basement storage underneath it. So, it wasn’t a full height room. By the time we sold the trailer, no one could stand up fully in the bunkhouse. When the kids were little, it was perfect. When I changed the sheets on the bunks, I invariably hit my head on the crank for the antenna, scraped my knuckles on their walls, knocked the curtains down … you name it. Sometimes, a bad word or two slipped out. Now, we still call it cussing day, but it just means we’re changing the sheets. No cussing happens anymore because the sheets are much easier to change on our walk around queen bed.

When the trip was over and it was time to break camp, everyone was in charge of cleaning up their stuff. The kids were in charge of taking care of the dog and setting up the car for their ride. I cleaned up the inside of the trailer. My husband took care of the outside of the trailer.

On big trips, we tied a spending money allowance to the chores our kids did. This helped with the “enthusiasm” for the chores and some of the whining about them. Our trips and our chore system was far from perfect. Our chores at home were similar and were met with the same “enthusiasm” and whining. At home, as they grew up, we had them do more and more of their chores on their own – like laundry. It might have been easier to just do the darned chores ourselves. Where would the life lessons be in that? Everyone has their own tolerance for dealing with kids and every parent has to choose which battles they are willing to get into with their kids. In the end, I’m glad we stuck out the chore battle.

Here’s the thing. Our kids our now 21 and 24. As they grew up and got jobs, they were always very employable. My son liked doing things like yard work and odd jobs for people. He had a little business we liked to call, “Odd Job Inc.” People would tell us what great workers our kids were. When my daughter babysat, she was often the first sitter that anyone would call because she not only took great care of the kids, but the parents came home to a tidy house and a cleaned-up kitchen. Now, my son is a US Marine and my daughter is an EMT. I’m not 100% sure that all those chores we made them do taught them to be independent, but I’d like to think so.

When my daughter went off to college, during her first year in the dorms, she once said incredulously, “There are people here that don’t even know there’s a lint catcher in the dryer!” I said, “you’re welcome.”

Next Trailer Girl Blog – Packing The Trailer the Lazy Way – What Things Should Live In The Trailer

My RV Kitchen – Sort of Minimalist – Sort of Not. My Favorite Must-Haves

I love to travel in my trailer and I love to cook. RV kitchens can be a challenge with their small sinks, minimal cupboard space, and their weird ovens. We are now on our third trailer and with each one, I have gotten more kitchen space. I am currently spoiled with a pantry bigger than my home pantry, lots of drawers, and plenty of room for my dishes and pots and pans. This wasn’t always the case. My first trailer had very minimal kitchen space and I became a master of making everything I needed fit.

My first bit of advice for anyone setting up an RV kitchen is to figure out what kind of RV cook you’re going to be. Are you an everything-from-scratch-kind of person or a pop-it-in-the-microwave kind of person. If you’re the later, you are only going to be challenged by your freezer space and you won’t need much in the way of cookware or utensils. If you’re a little more like me, an almost-from-scratch sort of person, you’re going to need to figure out how to pack your kitchen just right. Here is how I have set up my RV kitchen and how it’s evolved over the past 16 years of RVing.

Dishes – I hate paper plates! I am also not a big fan of plastic-y dishes and cups. I want everything to feel as much like real dishes and cups as possible. 16 years ago, I bought a set of Corelle dishes that I am using to this day. They make great RV dishes because they don’t break or chip and they stack compactly.

Mugs – Mugs are a very important piece of camping equipment! We have a couple of good travel mugs for when we need to have coffee in the car. Otherwise, we use regular mugs. After 15 years of use, the stoneware mugs from my Corelle set finally died. I have replaced them with some Starbucks mugs that look nice with my dishes. I keep them in a drawer. I find that mugs chip less in a drawer. If you store your mugs in a drawer, you need to measure your drawer before you buy your mugs. I looked a little weird when some kids I know caught me measuring the mugs at Starbucks. You need to make sure they’re not taller than the inside of your drawer and steer clear of the drawer catch thing (I’m sure there’s an official name for it). I lined the drawer with a non-slip liner and put a paper plate rolled up with some no-slip stuff around it in between the rows of mugs so they don’t bump into each other on the road. The paper plate set up was going to be a temporary measure until I thought of something classier, but it’s working! So, I think I’ll just leave it.

*My mug drawer set up. The thing in the middle is a rolled up paper plate with some non-stick stuff wrapped around it. It keeps everything in place.*

“Glassware” – I use acrylic “glassware.” I had some super cheap cups from Walmart for the first 10 years of RVing. They finally cracked and I sprung for some nicer ones from Crate and Barrel. They’re holding up really well. I also have stemless acrylic wine glasses (because trailers jiggle and you don’t want to spill your wine!). I found nice ones at Crate and Barrel.

Pots and Pans – My biggest piece of advice here is don’t cheap out! That’s right! Don’t go buying the cheapest stuff for your RV! Here’s why. You are on vacation! Your sink is smaller than your sink at home. You don’t have a garbage disposal. Your gray water tank is only so big. The last thing you need is your food sticking to some cheap pot or pan and to spend time and gray water tank space scrubbing! Get some good non-stick cookware for your rig. You can find decent T-Fal at places like Target and Walmart. Also, check places like Home Goods. Sometimes you can find higher end stuff like Calphalon at great prices. If your cookware has glass lids, store your lids on the pots or pans if possible. I have a rack for mine now and it’s working well. I’ve been traveling with glass pan lids for 16 years and haven’t broken one yet!

You need one “beater” pot – You should have one “beater” pot. Maybe one you’ve handed down from your home kitchen or bought used at someplace like Goodwill. I store my “beater” pot in the bench of my dinette. I use it when I need to cook outside or when I’m cooking something that might hurt my good pots, like clams.

Silverware – Get a good set you like and a silverware organizer for the drawer. No one likes a jumbled mess in the drawer when it’s time to set the table. You can find inexpensive sets of silverware at places like Target or Home Goods.

Utensils – I used to sell Pampered Chef. I am all kinds of picky about my utensils and it’s probably the one thing I have gone more overboard on. I haven’t really given into the “it has to have at least two purposes” mentality for this. For instance, I have an avocado cutting tool. It’s important! I also have a tomato corer and two different sizes of graters. Very important! The one thing I am persnickety about is that everything has to fit in its intended place. So, it took me forever to find the right cheese grater that would lay flat in the drawer and not be a cheap, flimsy one. After a couple months of searching, I found a great Microplane grater with a handle that doesn’t stick up. YAY!

Organizing your utensils – I have all of the utensils that I use near the stove (wooden spoons, rubber scrapers, tongs, etc) in a utensil holder on the counter near the stove. I stow it in the cupboard below when we are traveling. For all other utensils, I have them in drawers organized by size more than function. That’s to prevent the jumbled mess thing from happening in the drawer. I also have my knives in sheaths so that I don’t cut my fingers trying to find something else. I hate bleeding…

Roll-a-Roasters – Don’t go camping without them! They don’t take up much space! You’ll be the envy of everyone at the campground! Roll-a-Roasters are telescoping roasters for use with a campfire. They have a little turning screw that you can twist with your fingers while you roast. They make perfect marshmallows! You can find Roll-a-Roasters at Camping World or REI.

*Roll-a-Roasters. Don’t go to a campfire without them!*

Small appliances – Our first rig didn’t have much space in the kitchen for things like appliances. Our coffee pot was only a 4 cup coffee pot because we could fit it in the cupboard. We didn’t have enough counter space to actually leave it on the counter while we were camping. Because of that, I have learned to camp without any small appliances other than a coffee pot. When we got a bigger rig, we got a normal sized coffee pot (with a stainless-steel carafe. It’s not breakable and it keeps your coffee hot longer). The coffee pot upgrade was one of the most exciting things about getting a new trailer for us. We left our 4 cupper in the old trailer when we traded it in with a note about why whoever bought the trailer needed that tiny coffee pot. Many people like having a crock-pot or an insta-pot in their rigs. Now that I have space for one, I’m not sure I want one in the trailer. I don’t even have a toaster! If I want to toast something, I use a pan on the stove. I’ve gotten used to my “trailer” recipes that don’t require extra appliances. To be a good “trailer recipe,” the recipe must be fairly simple, not require more than two pots or pans, not be something that you have to spend too much time cleaning out of the bottom of a pan, and of course, be delicious!

A good grill is worth every penny! – We have had some grill failures. For instance, on our first trailer, we bought a gas grill that was basically a giant grill pan on wheels. While it worked OK, our steak had strange grill marks and it wasn’t as good as over an actual flame. Our second trailer had a cool grill that hooked up to a gas spigot thing on the trailer and had a little grill shelf on the back of the trailer. It was a great set-up … except for the part where the grill didn’t work for beans! We had to be super picky about what we cooked on it and the outside temperatures and wind had to be perfect or it would take forever! On our current rig, we sprung for a little Weber gas grill. We love it and it cooks great! My husband is the griller. It was hard to get him enthusiastic about grilling on the first two grills. Now, he’s much more willing and enthusiastic about going out, setting it all up, and grilling.

Grill pan – Funny story, since we had those first two grills that were sub-par and we do much of our camping in the rainy Pacific Northwest, we decided we should have a grill pan for the trailer in case our grilling plans were thwarted by weather or a lack of enthusiasm by the griller. We frequently camp in a town that has two kitchen stores, a big grocery store, and a hardware store that sells some kitchen things. Do you think we could find a grill pan there when we needed one? NO! It’s an artsy town. Our working theory is, there are just too many vegetarians and they don’t grill much (clearly, they haven’t tasted grilled vegetables!). I found a decent T-fal non-stick grill pan at our local Walmart after we got home from one of those trips. It’s come in handy!

Stones – I mentioned before that I sold Pampered Chef. I have several baking stones in my trailer that I think are a big help to RV baking. RV ovens are weird. The stones (along with tiles on the bottom of your oven) help distribute the heat more evenly and prevent burning on the bottom. I have a pizza stone, a round stone (like a cake pan), and a 9 x 9 square baker.

Baking sheets – Before you buy a baking sheet, measure your oven! I have messed this up more than once! My husband has bent baking sheets so they fit. Another time I bought one that almost fit and we just left the oven door open a little. Lame! I should have measured first! After you measure, go someplace like Home Goods or a kitchen store. They’ll have a better size selection. Buy heavier metal baking sheets to prevent burning on the bottom. If you’re lucky, you might find a silpat mat to put on it that will help with clean up. I haven’t been quite that lucky…. Yet….. I love kitchen stores! It’s fun to always have something to look for.

Cute dishtowels and pot-holders you like – Don’t go taking your old, stained dishtowels from your house and put them in your trailer! Go pick out some that make you happy! You’ll be seeing them a LOT while you’re camping! Also, you’ll be using a lot of them if you cook! Most likely, you’ll need to hang them to dry somewhere like your oven handle and it’ll be out where you can see it. You want something you like there, not something stained and ugly! Lately, have been collecting cute dishtowels from places I visit. It’s fun to have reminders of past trips.

I am the “scullery maid” on our trips. That’s what my husband jokingly calls me. I don’t mind because he’s the “hose master” and the driver. This little division of labor gives us each some say in our areas. He has veto power over what we listen to while on the road, for instance. Saddly, there’s not much upgrading you can do with hoses, but he has the best he can find! He likes eating well on the road and doesn’t question my choices in cookware. It works! Although, truth be told, he did look at me a little like I was crazy when I put bread in a basket with a cloth napkin liner on the table! I finally had enough room for the basket and room in the drawer for a couple of cloth napkins. Time to get a bread basket!

Here’s my shopping list for setting up an RV Kitchen:

Serving:

Set of Corelle Dishes
Mugs that fit where you’ll store them
Acrylic “Glassware”
Set of silverware and silverware organizer

Cooking:

Set of non-stick pots and pans including; stock-pot, sauce pan, small sauté pan, larger sauté pan, and a skillet with higher sides than a sauté pan.
Non-stick grill pan
Beater pot
Set of nesting mixing bowls with lids (mine are stainless steel and I’ve had them 16 years!)
Pampered Chef Micro-cooker (great for cooking things like Costco chicken tenders that you’ll be putting in another recipe or for thawing the meat you forgot to take out of the freezer)
Pyrex type measuring cup
Nesting dry measuring cups
Measuring spoons

Favorite Utensils:

Chef’s Knife, smaller knife, paring knife, and serrated knife (I love my bread knife – works on watermelons too!)
Pizza Cutter
Rubber scrapers
Wooden Spoons
Rubber tipped tongs
Flat silicone covered whisk (for stirring in non-stick pots)
Regular whisk (for things like scrambling eggs)
Cheese grater (or 2!) – my favorite are Microplane with handles that help them lay flat in the drawers
Roll-a-Roasters

Baking:

Baking stones
Heavy baking sheets that fit in your oven

Other things:

Good Grill
Cute Dishtowels
Coffee pot with stainless steel carafe
Tea Kettle
Cutting Boards you like and that don’t slip while you’re cutting

A word about shopping. I am a big fan of brick and mortar stores. I like to touch things like mugs and glasses and see how they’ll feel in my hands. I like to feel the weight of a pot, pan, or a baking sheet. You can’t do that by shopping online! I also like to support small businesses as much as possible and will buy something at a small kitchen shop before going to a someplace like Target. I’ll even pay a few bucks more to buy something from small mom and pop shop than say, Amazon, to help support their business. I encourage you to get off your computer (when you’re done reading this blog post, of course!) and go to actual stores! It’s fun and you’ll be doing the brick and mortar stores a big favor! Additionally, you’ll be doing yourself a big favor by buying things that are more to your liking and that fit in your rig! Win-Win!

Next Trailer Girl Blog – Those Amazing Gadgets, Why I Won’t Pay for Most of Them, And a Few That Have Won Me Over

Winter RV Blues – Tips and Tricks for Keeping Upbeat in the Winter

We live in the Pacific Northwest. To be fair, this is the first season we’ve done the full-blown winterizing for our trailer. In the past, my husband has just blown out the lines with an air compressor and left the faucets open. We only had a problem once. (I’ll tell you about that at the end.) It makes me sad to think that we can’t just take off whenever we want. It’s going to take a little more doing to take a winter trip, and a little more re-doing. It might be hard to talk the guy who has to do all this extra work into taking off for a weekend. You’re probably wondering how I’m even qualified to write this blog post. Like I said, I live in the Pacific Northwest. I moved here from Southern California 25 years ago. It’s dark, it’s cold, it’s wet … YUCK! Trying to keep in in good spirits in the winter has been a challenge since our first winter here. Here are some things I do. Surprise, surprise! Many are travel related!

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

So, you’re probably wondering about that time when we had the winterizing fail. It was our first trailer and our first winter with it. Sixteen years ago, RVs didn’t have as nice of sinks and faucets as they do now. Most of the sinks were small and the faucets were some version of the cheapest kind you can find at Home Depot. Our trailer was no exception to the crummy sink and faucet combo rule. I really hated the faucet because you couldn’t fit a pan under it to wash it. It was dumb! It was probably set up by someone who ate microwave dinners all the time. We forgot to leave the faucets open on the sink. My husband went to go pick up the trailer and there was our faucet, broken off and laying in the sink. YAY! I got a new faucet that worked much better! If you like your faucet, don’t forget to leave it open when you store your rig over the winter!

Hang in there! There are more RV-able months than months where going out is just too cold or too difficult. Find some winter fun, plan your summer, and look forward to being re-united with your rig!

Next Trailer Girl Blog Post – Going to Tourist Towns in Your Rig

Trailer Pizza (AKA Chicken,Garlic & Rosemary Pizza)

This recipe is one we made on our first ever trailer trip and completely burned the bottom of it in the trailer oven. We had to scrape off all the toppings and eat them for dinner! (See my blog post called “Don’t Burn Your Biscuits” for tips on how to deal with RV ovens). It became a trailer trip staple because I can get it going while my husband was outside getting the trailer set up. I can have it in the oven and side salads ready to eat by the time he gets done outside. It works great! We now officially refer to it as “Trailer Pizza” even when we eat it at home. Hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients

1 Pilsbury canned pizza crust
About 8 oz Chicken cooked (I use frozen chicken tenders and cook them in a Pampered Chef micro cooker with water in my microwave)
1 Sprig of Rosemary – chopped
2 Cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
2 – 3 Cloves Garlic
1/2 Medium Red Onion – thinly sliced
3 TBSP Olive Oil
1/2 Tsp Salt

Directions

Heat oven to 425 degrees
Pop open your pizza crust onto a cookie sheet and spread evenly over the cookie sheet (I use a rectangle pizza stone)
Mix together: Chicken, 2/3 of the cheese, Rosemary, Garlic, and Onions
Add Olive Oil and Salt and Mix together
Spread over pizza crust
Top with remaining cheese
Turn oven DOWN to 400 degrees and bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes check it and turn it (unless your RV oven cooks perfectly!), and bake about 10 minutes more until crust is golden on the bottom and cheese is melted. Depending on your oven issues, your cheese may not brown without burning your crust. If that’s the case, turn the oven down again and try getting the cheese to brown a little more.

Next Trailer Girl Blog – Winter Blues – How Not to Get Sad When your Rig is Winterized

Setting Up Your Trailer – Making It Yours While Maximizing Comfort and Space

Decor

You buy an RV because you want to be comfortable when you camp, or as we like to call it, fake-camp. You’ve probably spent your fair share of time in a tent sleeping in a sleeping bag. That’s all fun, but you’re ready to be comfortable! You’re also on vacation. You don’t want to spend a bunch of time after you arrived setting up and straightening up.

We recently purchased a new fifth wheel. I have been having a lot of fun getting to make it ours and organizing cupboards and drawers. This is now the third rig I’ve set up and personalized. I have gotten way too many ideas of what to put into this blog post. So, I’ve decided to break it down into 4 posts: Décor, Kitchen, Bedroom and Bath, and Favorite Things for Storage.

Let’s start with décor since many of you may already have everything set up efficiently enough for you. We purchased our first trailer in 2004. RVing was nowhere near as popular as it is now, and décor was stuck in the early ‘90s. Trailers came in dusty blue or mauve. Bleh! Our sofa had mauve and burgundy flowers with green leaves. I hated it, but there was no good reason to pay big bucks to re-cover it. So, I had to work with it. I did everything I could to pull out the burgundy parts of the flowers and the green on the leaves. I used green and burgundy throw pillows and then, tried really hard not to look at the pink flowers for the 10 years we traveled in that trailer. Thankfully, the RV industry has gone more neutral in their design and it’s much easier to add décor touches that are actually yours – not the mauve version of you!

I’ve recently joined the Facebook group for our trailer manufacturer and have seen some over the top re-decorating including re-wallpapering, re-upholstery, painting, etc. I like to save that effort for my house and work with what I’ve been given in the trailer (since I had so much practice with the mauve and number). Keeping it simple will also save you money so you have more to spend on actually going places.

There are a few things to keep in mind when you’re decorating:

You’re preparing for an earthquake – OK so not a real earthquake, but when you hit the road, whatever you’re towing has an earthquake every time you hit the road. Don’t put anything in your RV that you are worried about getting broken.
Décor can add a chore to your set up if you let it – I try to avoid too much nick-knack type items that have to be taken out to set up when we arrive and put away when we get ready to go. I’m on vacation already! I don’t want extra chores! I save this chore for very special items, like a favorite photo of my kids.
You should love it – This is your vacation home! Only decorate with things you love. I love being in my trailer! It’s been a thing for all three of them! I love looking around at my “vacation home” and enjoying my surroundings. Of course, it helped to be sitting on the ugly mauve sofa so I couldn’t see it when we were in our first rig. If you can’t sit with your morning coffee and enjoy your surroundings, fix it! Find something you love and put it in your RV! For the record, in the featured photo of our sofa. My husband loves the “dead animal” pillow and I love the Pottery Barn pillow. I love the “dead animal pillow’s” colors and how it represents so much of our travels around the Western US. They’re sort of pulled together by the red leather pillows. We decided we didn’t care if it wouldn’t be approved by Martha Stewart. We love it – even if it might be breaking some interior design rules!

The biggest bang for your buck in décor are things like throw pillows, rugs, towels in a color you like, or a throw blanket on your bed or over the back of your couch. All of these things can be easily changed out if you get tired of them too. My mom was a super decorator. She would put new curtains in everything she touched, including my first trailer! It was a good thing! The first set of curtains faded quickly. She made some really nice ones with linings. Now, I’m seeing less curtains and more shades in trailers. There are often curtain type valances that are easily replaced with a little sewing know how. Don’t let curtains or fabric valances be deal-breakers when choosing your trailer.

In our new rig, we used mostly things we loved from the décor we put in our old trailer such as throw pillows, the quilt on the bed, pictures from the walls, etc. We are National Parks geeks and we’ve been collecting greeting card versions of the posters. I frame them and we hang them on the walls. It’s a cheap way to decorate! It’s also fun to decorate with souvenirs from our travels.

Hanging things on the walls is a bit of a conundrum. Trailer walls aren’t like the walls at home. For wood frames, we drill all the way through the frame and screw it onto the wall with 4 attractive screws. We’ve never had a problem with a picture coming off the wall. The rub is, when you go to sell your rig, you either have to leave the pictures or holes in the wall. What we did was, took the frames down, pulled the pictures out, and screwed the frames back up. So, the new owners of our trailer will have frames to fill with their favorite pictures.

*4 attractive screws are holding up my picture. This is a framed greeting card version of a National Parks poster that I framed myself.*

For our new trailer, I bought a metal sign that I absolutely love. It didn’t have a good way to hang it from a screw without compromising the design. I used command picture hanging tape and it’s working great. I’d be leery of using it with picture frames with glass. Trailers get exposed to such big temperature extremes. I just don’t trust the tape for something breakable. I’ve heard from others that they’ve had no problems.

*I thought the screw might compromised the great design. So, I hung it up with Command Picture Hanging Tape. Ghostly looking person in the window is me!*

Kids and general activity can cause a disturbance in the décor. There are wallets, cell phones, cell phone chargers, sunglasses, brochures for things to do, the pamphlet that the RV park gives you with all the rules, the paper with the code to the “big potty,” etc. All of that can clutter things up and drive you nuts (or not – I am a bit of an OCD neat-freak so these things drive me nuts). Here’s how we keep it under control.

Baskets are a big help– Our first trailer had open shelving. I didn’t want to see everything on the shelves. So, we put things in baskets. It looked great and our stuff stayed put. We also have a little basket for the keys and wallet so we can always find them. In our new trailer, I found a spot for a flat-ish basket. Our plan is to keep all of our brochures and RV park papers in it.
Magazine Rack – A magazine rack that can be attached to a wall is a great way to corral all of the miscellaneous paperwork, magazines, maps, and such that come with your travel. Just remember to clean it out every so often. When we were moving out of our trailer, I found things that were 5 years old. We probably didn’t need to save them.
Cute recycle basket – We had an issue where we had empty water bottles floating all over the trailer. We would also pile recycling into the corner of the counter and it looked awful and was also in the way. So, I bought a cute, small, narrow basket that fits by the door of the trailer. It fills up at least once a day, and we empty it (or when we had a kid along, we’d send him to the recycling. We kind of miss his recycling services.) It really helps to keep the recycling clutter down.
Trash can with a lid – One of the best splurge-ish things we ever bought for the trailer was a butterfly lid Simple Human trash can. We mostly bought it because at the time, we had a dog that liked to get into the trash and it was Daisy-proof! The beautiful thing about this trash can is, you can’t see the trash, it’s nice looking (as trash cans go), and it’s easily accessible for us to use. We also spend the extra money on the Simple Human trash bags because you also can’t see them! We really love our trash can! Weird, but true!

If you’re refurbishing a vintage trailer, or fixing up an older used trailer, you’ve got a much bigger project and might need to do things like sew new curtains, re-upholster, re-wallpaper, etc. That could be a fun project! I love this show called “Flipping RV’s.” Check it out! They refurbish old, sad trailers and do some great décor. You might find some inspiration. Even if you’re not into vintage trailers, it’s a fun show to watch.

If you’re still shopping for your trailer, when you step inside a rig you like, sit somewhere in it. Imagine yourself with your morning cup of coffee and decide it it’s worthy of becoming your vacation home. Think of what you might be putting into it that you love. Will it get along with the décor the rig comes with? Remember, it’s your vacation home! You don’t want to feel like you’re renting someone else’s vacation home.

Whatever you’re doing, I hope you love it and that it makes your trailer into your vacation home! Happy setting up!

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