A Few Notes About RV Travel

While I've been spinning my wheels at Lemoore Naval Air Station, I have been reflecting on how RV traveling has been so far.  We’ve now been on the road since April 17th  and it’s taken a few weeks to slip into a routine.  Of course, Lynda having to return home for a week or so has been an interruption but also, perhaps, a good chance for us to catch our breath and regroup.

We have driven a little over 5000 miles since leaving home and gas has cost us an average of $0.30 per mile.

All in all, this RV traveling is good fun and there are a lot of things I really enjoy about it. BUT, it has not been as relaxing as I had  imagined!  Truth be told, I’m not sure why I thought it would be that relaxing to begin with, considering our travel schedule. We've made 13 stops in 37 days, not counting the 8+ days here at Lemoore.  So, we've been relocating every 2.8 days on average and, folks, I gotta tell you that there is work associated with arriving at a a campground such as:

• Unloading the scooter
• Hooking up that power cord
• Hooking up that sewer line
• Hooking up the filters and water hoses
• Setting the leveling jacks and closing the curtains

Then, when you go to leave:

• Loading up the scooter
• Unhooking, cleaning and putting away the power cord
• Unhooking, cleaning and putting away the sewer line
• Unhooking, cleaning and putting away the water filters and hoses
• Retracting the leveling  jacks and stowing the curtains
• Checking the oil and tranny fluid
• Checking the air pressure in all six tires

Dry camping (no hookups) has a lot of advantage, particularly when you're only going to be there for one or two nights. Because there are no hookups, set up is simple and preparations to get on the road again are easy.  Park the RV, set the leveling jacks, close the curtains.  You're done!  The next day, retract the leveling jacks, stow the curtains, check the oil and tranny fluid, check the tire pressure, and off you go!  You just need to ensure you have enough fresh water on board, and your holding tanks are pretty empty.  Oh, and if you want to run your generator, make sure you have plenty of gas.

What are some of the issues we've run into?

• Well, the cursed tire problems of course - these are well documented in other posts (ha)
• A faulty thermostat for the AC and Furnace, which I easily replaced with a new thermostat from the Camping World outside Flagstaff
• Oil change for the Trek - taken care of at a Wal-Mart with minimum fuss
• Pesky scooter carrier bottoms out, damaging the anti-tilt plate. I'm still working on this
• Scooter bogging down at high altitude / faster speeds - this seems to be a fuel starvation issue.  I tweaked the spark plug gap, put a divot in the gas tank cover to avoid a vacuum forming, checked fuel and vacuum hoses for pinches or obstructions. All seems well so far... 'lil scooter is running great.

I am actually very happy with our travels so far and can see how this could become habit-forming.  And its been good for me - I've already learned quite a bit about RV care and maintenance, and I've become much more relaxed about going with the flow when things don't go as planned.

Oh, and I'm much better about picking up after Barley and Sydney! Dog poop scooping will never be my thing, but at least I can do it now without gagging. 

I leave Lemoore tomorrow to get Lynda from the Fresno airport and resume our travels.  I am so ready to go!