Our Last Night: A Recap in Raleigh

For our final night of our 2020 trip, we are staying in an “RV Resort” near Raleigh, NC just off of Interstate 95. The proximity to Richmond (where we need to drop off the RV) means we won’t have as much driving in the morning, and the full hookups will allow us to clean everything up and empty all our tanks easily. There’s really nothing to do here, it’s just a place for us to spend the night, so the girls caught up on more schoolwork and then we ate leftovers and watched The Witches on Netflix.

The preferred speed limit at RV campgrounds

Melina reading

Despite all of the insanity of this year (a world-wide pandemic, travel restrictions, a contentious election) and the past two weeks (a hurricane-turned-tropical storm), we have had a wonderful trip. We weren’t sure whether we would like traveling by RV, but in fact it suited us quite nicely! We all agreed that we would definitely do another RV trip in the future, and in fact Zach and I love the idea of a longer trip for the two of us sometime in the future in our retirement. With all this in mind, here are our takeaways on RV-ing in general and our notes for potential future trips:

• Zellie hates traveling in her crate. She pants constantly, and whines and scratches intermittently, occasionally letting out a few barks and yelps. However, on a few short trips at low speeds we let her out of the crate while driving, and she loved this set-up. She would sidle up next to Zach like a co-pilot in the cab, happy as can be. Ideally we’d love to have a solution where she is safely secured, but not in her crate. Maybe a doggie seatbelt? At night she did great sleeping on a mat on the floor without her crate. And she LOVED hanging out at the campsites and all the walks in new places.
• Diane’s motion sickness was almost non-existent in the RV! Having more room to move around a bit and to lie down was very helpful for her, and we only used dramamine once or twice early on. She did throw up once, but for two weeks and 35+ hours of driving that is a huge win!
• We assumed we would have cell service everywhere and that all campgrounds will have wifi. We were wrong. Next time we will download lots of books, maps, and travel guides before the trip in case we are in places with limited or no service. We also shouldn’t assume we can work or attend school on the road without checking first that we will have wifi.
• Things we wish we had packed: travel towels, quarters for laundry, boots for rain/mud, waterproof rain jackets (water resistant was not good enough!), and better first aid kit with more bandaids (my knees are all scraped up after falling off of my bike. I haven’t fallen off a bike since I was a kid and and did it twice in two days at the Disney resort!). Also a small grill and/or fire tools would have been very helpful. For traveling in a pandemic, we needed more masks. I lost a bunch of our really good ones at Hollywood Studios and we had to buy extras at Walmart. A box of disposables would have been great for the theme parks since they frequently got wet from rides and rain.
• Things we are glad we brought: electric griddle, back cushion for driving, oscillating fan for mosquitoes and drying shoes, hybrid bikes (my road bike was fine but not ideal on slippery and uneven ground), headlamps, metal plates and silverware (aside from the obvious environmental reasons, I have become too snobby to eat from plasticware for every meal for two weeks straight, so we bought mess kits and loved them).
• Sewer hookups at a campsite are worth their weight in gold not necessarily for the black water, but for the grey water. Since we were cooking and washing dishes for almost every meal and showering in the RV we filled up our greywater tank very quickly. I wish I had listed the hookups at each site on our itinerary for planning purposes.
• After our black water fiasco early in the trip, we learned to flush a little grey water first to make sure all the hoses are connected properly before flushing the black water.
• We needed a good place to put shoes in the RV. They crowded up the entrance and made it difficult to get in and out. Maybe a hanging shoe rack? Or a rain-proof one that sits outside the front door when parked at a campsite?
• We double-checked that our bikes were secured on the bike rack every time we drove, but we should have triple-checked. Diane’s bike somehow got dislodged and dragged by the RV for a bit near the end of the trip. Hopefully it can be fixed when we get home 😦
• Sometime in the future if Zach and I do this without the kids a small trailer would probably be perfect. It would be easier to drive and also would give us more flexibility to leave a campsite without messing with all the hookups.
• RV people loooooove Zach. Something about him just draws them in and begs them to tell him their life stories. Every single time we stopped for gas some guy would chat his ear off about RVs, travel, etc. At the campground here in Raleigh he has learned all about our neighbor’s plumbing business in New York and another camper’s method for slow-cooking meat with charcoal (the “snake method”).
• We thought a full-sized fridge was important in the RV but we never came close to filling it. Also, it was 1000% worth it to make a huge batch of salteñas and freeze them for this trip. They made great dinners and we never got sick of them.
• The 32 foot RV was the perfect size for our family plus Zellie. We could have gone a bit smaller or bigger, but wouldn’t stray too much in either direction for 4 people plus a dog.

In summary, we are hoping to be able to travel internationally again soon. However, if we are still living in a COVID-19 world for a while yet, another RV trip would be a great option!

Goodbye, Florida!