Month: August 2019
Campground Shower Mishaps
One of the questions I am asked frequently is “Where do you use the bathroom and take a shower?” First, I usually explain that we have a bathroom in our camper. It has a sink, toilet, and shower that even has a tub (not that any of us could comfortably “bathe” in it, but it’s there). I explain that we can definitely shower in it and that it’s not too bad, except that the hot water tank isn’t huge and we sometimes have to take military showers. Then, if there’s time, I will tell them some stories about my mishaps in campground bathrooms.
When we started full-time RV living, we had my youngest brother, Isaiah, and our nephew, Kawika, with us. So at the first campground we stayed at, Kawika took his shower necessities and went to check out the men’s bathroom. He came back and raved that the shower was awesome and it was so great to use a real shower. Naturally, I decided that I needed to see for myself.
Later that day, I get everything ready – my towel, my soap, my clothes, etc. I walk across the campground to the shower house and see that it’s actually a pretty neat setup. The stall has a separate area to keep your clothes in so you can change in a dry spot when you’re done. The shower portion of the stall has a shelf for my toiletries and it’s a decent sized shower. Nice!
I proceed to shower. Now, this is going to sound pretty dumb, but I started feeling like my feet were pretty wet. Yes, I know I’m in the shower and my feet are going to be wet, but I’m talking about an immersed in water kind of wet. I look down and… yay, my feet are immersed in water. In a shower that has been used by who knows how many people since it was last cleaned. On tile that I have no idea how well it’s been cleaned. Yuck. I start playing with the drain cover with my toe to see if I can get it to drain. No such luck. I finish up quickly and turn off the shower. After I changed, I glanced back to the shower and noticed it still hadn’t drained. I had effectively turned the shower into a shallow bath. Nothing I did seemed to fix it so I walked back to our camper and reported to the boys about my poor shower experience. They, of course, thought it was funny… and gross!
That shower catastrophe happened in Arizona. Our next stop was in Moab, Utah. Kawika again was our campground shower guinea pig. He came back and raved again about the awesome showers. The boys, again, all had good shower experiences. Then, again, it was my turn.
It’s 10:30 P.M. so there’s no one in there. I think, “Score!” The bathroom is huge and the shower stalls are large and have the separate changing area. Again, “score!” So, since no one was waiting and I didn’t have to take a military shower, I decided I would take the extra time to shave and wash my hair. I’m in the shower, with no water pooling at my feet, and that’s great. It’s nice and quiet in the bathroom, just me and my thoughts, and I’m lathering up my hair. That’s when the lights go out and now it’s not only quiet, it’s pitch dark, too. That’s alright, I’m calm. I walk into the changing section of my stall, hoping that would trip the sensor. Nope. I put my towel on and open the door and wave my arm around. That worked. Okay, whatever, back to the shower.
I’m back in the shower, alone with my thoughts again, when the lights turn off yet again. At this point, I’m still calm, but I can’t help thinking that this is totally the scene in the horror movie where the white girl is about to die. It makes me giggle, which is better than the frustration I’m feeling at having to wander back out of the stall to trip the sensor again. I finish up my shower and start changing into my clothes and the lights turn off again. I didn’t even bother trying to turn the light back on. I just finished changing and walked outside to Dave who had been patiently waiting for me and had no idea I was inside auditioning for a horror film.
I haven’t had any other shower experiences quite like that one, but I do tend to shower in our camper for the most part. It’s still more convenient than loading up the toiletries and clothes to change in to, walking to the campground bathroom, and then…walking right back because I forgot my towel. Oh well – it’s all part of the adventure!
RV Living: 9 things learned in our first 9 days • Off the Rock Adventures
RV Living: 9 things learned in our first 9 days
July, 2018
When we first thought of trying out RV living, we knew there were going to be a lot of things we were going to have to learn. We had never towed something that large and knew that would be a whole new experience on its own.
Added to that was the fact that we were going to be driving to a lot of places, most of which we have never been to, and all of them we’d never been to pulling 30 feet of camper behind us!
But, hey, why not? It’s all an adventure. So we did it anyway and I’m going to share the top nine things we’ve learned in our first nine days.
1. RV’ers are an overall friendly group of people.
We haven’t been doing this very long and already we’ve had lots of interesting conversations with people. We’ve talked about places we’ve been, where we grew up, where we should go, etc.
Sadly, there are some places where you can’t even smile and say hello to people anymore without getting a weird look, but an RV park doesn’t seem to be one of those places.
We smile and say hello to people all the time and they usually do the same. That’s the way it should be!
Sadly, there are some places where you can’t even smile and say hello to people anymore without getting a weird look, but an RV park doesn’t seem to be one of those places. Click To Tweet
2. Something really is always broken.
When we were doing research on RV living, I came across a blog post that mentioned that there’s always something broken on your RV.
Well, we’ve already experienced that. It was the day after we left the dealership (of course) and we were already a couple states away so we couldn’t just drive back and have them fix it.
We’ve replaced our bathroom door handle, fixed a drawer that bottomed out on us, and fixed the pull handle on our grey tank.
Something really is always broken in your RV! Click To Tweet3. Your battery doesn’t power your outlets.
Sorry, teenagers, but if we’re boondocking without our generator, no charged cell phones for you! Lucky for them, we decided to buy a generator so we should always be able to use our outlets, but it came as a bit of a surprise that we wouldn’t be able to do so with just our battery (some RV’s might be different, though!)
4. You really do want to deodorize your toilet after your black tank is dumped.
Oh my, there’s a lovely smell that comes out of your toilet if you don’t use the deodorizer. You’re told about an assortment of cleaners, accessories, filters, etc. at the dealership. It can all make your head spin, especially if you’ve never done anything even remotely close to RV living, like us.
But, trust me, you don’t want to forget to buy toilet deodorizer. And these other things, too!
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5. Since we’re on the topic, make sure your toilet bowl is empty before driving.
Does it sound like we learned this the hard way? Yes we did. When you flush, some water goes back into the bowl, like you would think it would.
Well, when you forget to minimize the amount of water that’s in the bowl and go driving for six hours, you can end up with a wet floor.
Luckily it’s all just water, but it’s still a good lesson to have learned.
Need help downsizing for RV Living? Check out this guest post I did for The Penny Pinching Globetrotter!
6. Boondockers Welcome is awesome!
We’ve signed up for a few discount and other RV programs, but haven’t been able to take advantage of them much.
We did use Boondockers Welcome for our first two nights away from the dealership, though, and we loved it!
You just pay an annual fee and you can search for places to stay in areas you will be in. You can stay anywhere from one to five nights, depending on the host, and some of them even have hookups.
We’ve met a few very interesting people just through this program and so far we think it’s great! (Update – I’ve done a review on Boondockers Welcome – we still love it!)
7. Plastic organizational bins are definitely your friend.
Our camper actually has a lot of storage space, which was a high priority on our list. However, a lot of them are somewhat standard cabinets like you have at your house.
But, your house doesn’t go bouncing down the road several times a week, so things generally stay put. With RV living, objects definitely may have shifted during “flight.”
So we’ve joked that we should be buying stock in plastic organizational bins. We’ve got them in all shapes and sizes and we’re still on the lookout for more.
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8. You really can bake in the oven!
I love baking and cooking, so having an oven that could fit a 9×13 pan in it was a must-have.
I really wanted brownies one day so I bought a box of brownie mix to test the oven. Well, I was home alone making dinner and decided I would try.
I remembered what they told me at the dealership about how to turn the oven on. Well, I mostly remembered.
So I did what all the RV’ing housewives from the 1950’s would do: I looked up a how-to video on YouTube.
After the video, I still didn’t know what the pilot looked like so I just kept reading about ovens and reached a blog post telling about the potential horrors of using an RV oven and how people often give up and just use it as storage. It mentioned using unglazed tiles in it to distribute the heat.
To my dismay, I didn’t have any tiles just lying around so I decided to skip the baking for that night. Of course when Dave gets home I tell him about what I read, pull up the blog post, and read the very next comment someone had written.
It said they just use a piece of foil to distribute the heat. That was something I did have!
I don’t know what future oven endeavors I will have, but I can say that my first effort was a delicious pan of brownies!
I did what all the RV’ing housewives from the 1950’s would do: I looked up a how-to video on YouTube. Click To Tweet
9. We really can do this!
We had no idea what we were getting in to when we decided to embark on our RV living adventure. Sure, we’d done our research, but we had very little experience with any of what we were about to undertake.
Luckily we both have the “go for it” spirit in us and knew that we could figure it out. So far, I think we’re doing a decent job.
I just continue to look forward to all of the wonderful things we’ll see and do while pulling our little house along with us.
Have you ever lived in an RV? Or want to? Let me know in the comments!
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It’s amazing how much to learn to RVing. We have thought about doing it too because many of our friends are and they are all having a great time doing so. I think we will stick to traveling by cars, and staying at hotels, resorts, bed and breakfast, and inns. I will share this post with my RVing friends.
Hi Jennifer. Thanks so much for your comment and for your share of my post! Yes, there is definitely a lot to learn, but it was worth it for us. We also like to stay at other fun places sometimes, too, though. Variety is good! Maybe rent an RV sometime to see how you feel about it. Either way, safe travels and have fun!
These are so helpful to know! My husband and I read through these together, as we have been thinking about finding an RV/camper or something to travel around in. I can’t wait to read through your blog more!
Hi Miranda. Thank you so much for your comment. We really love RV living and we did a LOT of research before we jumped in so I’m glad you found my information helpful for your planning. Good luck and I hope you love it!
We live in our RV full time and those plastic tubs are a lifesaver – even when you are stationary! Great way to keep mice and insects out of things. I even have a loaf size container for my bread that I store in one of my kitchen drawers with my spices. Love my plastic tubs!
Hi Natalie! Thanks for your comment. And yes, there are so many uses for plastic containers with RV living. We have plastic containers, baskets, etc. everywhere! Travel safely!
Thanks for all the info! We are planning on hitting the road in an RV in about 1 year, were getting our house finished up (remodeled) and will probably rent it out for a year. We are basically going to spend a year on the road and figure out where we want to be for good. We are very lucky that I work from home and the hubby travels the biggest part of the year so we are very flexible. I subscribe to your Blog and look forward to reading about your adventures
Thanks, Nikki! That’s exciting! I remember being in the planning stages so I know how it is to be planning such an adventure. We decided to go on our journey for similar reasons. We know where we’re going to settle for a while, but we now have backup places that we love. Good luck to you and thank you for subscribing!
I have no idea what RV life is like, but I do know I love the tiny house concept. My husband wants to convert an ambulance in the next few years into a liveable vehicle so we can travel across Europe in it without the expensive lodging. Your blog sounds really interesting!
Hi Melissa! Thanks so much for your comment. I love your ambulance idea! We love RV life, but we want to live in a tiny house someday, too. Sometimes I miss the “homey” feel!