Life on the road is so different from a weekend away or a 2-week vacation. In so many places, campers come to a campground for a period of time and stay there most of the time fishing, relaxing, and talking. One such set of campers were these 2 brothers-in-law on Lake Erie. Campers who stay in one spot the whole time have their campfires, regardless of the weather.
On the other hand, our mode of travel is to settle for a few days, explore all around us, and move on. We often don’t return to our RV until dinner time so always need to have food that can be eaten cold or quickly warmed up in the microwave. We stay current with the shows we like to watch when the sun goes down or relax with good book on our kindles.
To accommodate this type of lifestyle, we stay current with grocery shopping and cooking, haircuts every 3 weeks (thank goodness for Great Clips), oil changes every 5000 miles (Barney handles this), and paying bills through online billpay through our bank.
We used to call these days our down days, but then Barney wisely figured out that sometimes we need really down days so we can relax and recharge.
vehicle challenges and lessons learned
Not all days go smoothly, and not all campgrounds are easy to set up in. Here are some lessons learned.
staying stable
When we were setting up in a state park in Iowa, the ground was slanted. As Barney was setting up and starting to unhook the RV from the truck, the RV started to slide, and he almost had a catastrophe. When we got home, he ordered this device to go between the RV tires so they won’t slip. This picture also shows how we have to put risers under the tires on one side to get the RV level. The chock in front of the wheel is the type large trucks use since we had run over a smaller, plastic chock and left it behind. Yes, lessons learned.
tires
Then we have the tires. In a campground just outside of Laredo, Texas, Barney found a nail in one of our RV tires. Oh oh.
Luckily (!), a Discount Tires was in town close by to our campground, so we went in to talk with them about what we needed to do, made an appointment to put on all new tires, and on the morning we were planning to leave, Barney put on the spare tire, and we drove into town for new tires.
narrow spot for Barney to navigate
Later on during our trip when we were in Monument Valley, a truck tire found a long bit, and we heard the air escaping when we stopped for gas nearby. The KOA campground manager had a card for a local business specializing in tires. He said to come on out, and he could fix us up. Again Barney put on a spare, and we drove off on dirt roads.
more vehicle problems and more new friends
When we were staying at a campground in Terlinga, just outside of Big Bend National Park in Texas along the Rio Grande, we had a problem with the water pump in the RV and the brakes on the truck.
First the water pump. When we’re driving or staying at a campground that doesn’t have water hookups, we need our water pump for fresh water. At this campground, the pump stopped working. Since we were going to be driving for a few days and then going to Death Valley that had no hookups, we needed the pump replaced. If we were in a town large enough for such supplies, Barney could have changed it. Instead he found a mobile RV repair guy who was able to drive an hour and a half one way on Easter Day to help us out.
Now the brakes. We had had a little problem backing up for a day or so, but thought we were okay (silly people). We hooked up to start driving for our next adventure, and heard some horrible noises. Luckily we made it back to the campground and our site was available for the next few days.
Then Barney talked with Leon, the owner of the park, who was well versed in RVs and truck problems and helped Barney figure out that the problem was a brake pad that had fallen apart and needed to be replaced.
Leon knew the owner of the auto parts store in the closest town 80 miles away. One part was in the store already, but the other had to be ordered. He offered to drive Barney to pick up the part as soon as it was ready since he already had errands to do in town.
challenges of nature – wind
Twice on our southwest swing 2019 trip we endured wind storms. The first was in Terlinga outside of Big Bend National Park. When we first got to the campground, we saw this 5th wheel all by itself with its doors and windows open in the field next to us.
On the day before Easter, a fierce wind storm blew through the campground. Barney made it into the RV as it was starting and almost couldn’t get the door closed. We quickly shut the windows. When it was over about 5 minutes later, dust was everywhere. Luckily it was time to clean the RV anyway.
Our second round of wind storms happened when we were at Death Valley. Here’s what the campground looked like.
One night the wind was howling through the mountain passes with nothing to stop it. The wind was so fierce that we pulled in the dining room slide out. Without this space, we weren’t able to use the Murphy bed, so Barney slept on the flat sofa, and I slept on the dining table bed. Neither one of us slept well that night because of the noise and the uncomfortable beds, but we made it through okay.
insects
So far we’ve had 2 encounters with unpleasant insects—1 inside the RV and the other outside.
First event. On our northern Midwest 2018 trip when we spent a few night in Pentwater, Michigan, along Lake Michigan, we picked up some fruit flies that just didn’t want to go elsewhere. It took us weeks of putting vinegar and honey in a bowl, covering it with plastic wrap, and making a few slits in the plastic wrap.
A second brush with insects came in Baker, Nevada, along Hwy. 50, the loneliest road in the nation on our return route of the southwest swing 2019.
After setting up our RV in the campground parking lot of the Baptist Church, we walked downtown to look around. While it looks like a cute little downtown area with lots of history . . .
the only storefront that was open was the historic International Cafe and Hotel.
The splotches are from Mormon crickets (commonly know as katydids) that started invading the town the night before. The big rigs driving through town smashed them.
The owner of the International Cafe and Hotel told us that thousands of them started coming into town on the highway, and we could still see them hopping in. Whenever we were in town, we saw these crickets moving through. Luckily they didn’t come up the hill to our campsite until the last day when we snapped this picture.
These crickets got their name from the Mormons who saw swarms of them as they crossed the Great Basin in the 1800s with their covered wagons as they pressed westward.
cold weather
Most of our trips have taken place in cold weather. In our northern Midwest 2018 trip, we had to become aware of campgrounds closing down because cold weather and snow were on its way. In Fond du Lac, we kept our water hose attached to the hookup every night, but on the last night, the temperature dropped before 32 degrees, and our hose was frozen onto the campground’s water outlet. We didn’t just want to leave since the water valve was open and water would go everywhere, so we had to improvise.
In a campground in Illinois, the owners had figured out how to keep their pipes protected so the campground could stay open all winter.
Campgrounds closing down affected our travel plans starting on the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, but in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, we were the last ones to leave right after the campground hosts.
Another really cold day was in Bodie, California, a mining ghost town east of the Sierras at an elevation of 8379 feet. The wind whipped around the corners of buildings, making the day feel ever colder than it was.
Another example of cold weather was at the Henry Ford Museum in Deerfield, Michigan.
snow
Cold weather is one thing, but snow is another. On our northern Midwest 2018 trip, we woke up to snow our last morning in Michigan as we were ready to drive to Door County.
On our southwest swing 2019 trip, we ran into snow 3 times as we drove north along 395 on the eastern side of the Sierras.
no water hookups
In our campground in Pentwater right on Lake Michigan (remember the fruit flies?), we had hookups for electricity but not water or sewer. Sewer isn’t a problem since we can empty tanks as we leave the campground, but it’s easy to run out of fresh water.
Long hoses were available to get water from the faucet to the RVs, but their hose wasn’t long enough for us. We (Barney) had to fill up water containers, carry them back to the RV, and use a large funnel to empty water into our fresh water tank. We had to duplicate this process when we stayed in the state park in northern Iowa along the Mississippi River.
electronics
Of course we have to have problems with electronics.
Between Ely, Nevada, and Great Basin National Park, we got our 2nd chip in the windshield. The first chip happened in Brownsville, Texas, and we found a Safelite in town. The closest Safelite to fix the 2nd chip was in St. George, Utah, so we made a detour when we left Nevada. St. George also had a Best Buy, so we bought a new tablet and ordered new cell phones from Amazon. Since we had spotty internet from St. George on to home, Barney didn’t get to set up his tablet until we got back to Georgia.
4-wheel drive
Our first-ever time to engage our 4-wheel drive was along Hwy. 50 in Nevada, the loneliest road in the nation. The RV was back in the campground in Fallon, and we were exploring in the truck. This picture is of Sand Mountain, just off the highway. Its ridden by sand boards (like snow boards), off-road vehicles, motorcycles, and whatever else can go down a mountain of sand.
finding an internet connection
Traveling to out-of-the-way places means that we don’t always get good WiFi connections, especially so I can work on the blog. We’ve gone to McDonald’s, Starbucks, grocery stores, restaurants, and public libraries.
talked to us about marketing our blog.
At other Starbucks, we enjoyed their treats and their WiFi.
celebrating natl. coffee cake day 
Barney review what I wrote—my favorite view!
In Bridgeport, California, north of Mono Lake and Mammoth along Hwy. 395, we didn’t have any internet at our campground, but found 2 markets nearby that let us log onto their WiFi and plug into their electricity so I could work on blog posts.
Christy was so welcoming and helpful 
And they had my favorite ice cream treat!
Closer to our campground was Twin Lakes General Store that had a backroom available for campers to play board games and use the WiFi.
of course, we bought treats to eat while we were there!
We even found a Mexican restaurant in Terlinga with good WiFi that wasn’t busy in the afternoon, and the manager said we could stay and work there.
The other spot we found in Terlinga with good WiFi was the local public library.
We’ll be adding to this post as we travel as we learn more lessons!
