One thing that just sort of happens, when you are an RVer, is that you spend more time outside. In my home in Texas, there were days on end that I didn’t step outside the house and thought nothing of it. In my RV, I would go outside just to not breathe the same air as my traveling companions. This was not because I didn’t like them, but just to change up the energy for a while.
We cooked outside a lot to avoid heating up the RV on warm days. Plus, grilling was less mess than cooking on the stove. Crowding around the little dinette in the RV at dinner time was cramped compared to sitting outside at a picnic table with tall trees or maybe ocean waves to enjoy. Bottom line, being outside when you live in a small space really expands your living in many, many ways so it is often the go to choice. My RV friend, Pam Lizardi, always says, “RVing is an outside sport!”
Being outside also means dealing with the challenges of ever changing weather. In one day you might be cold, then hot and back to cold again as the sun makes its trip across the sky and humidity influences how we perceive different temperatures. There is rain and if you aren’t able to go south for the winter, snow. In our first couple of months of travel, we found out how much weather really impacts RV life.
We began our second month of RV life with a trip to visit my cousin near Houston, Texas in mid August of 2017. We were only there for a couple of days before Hurricane Harvey threatened the Texas coast, and it felt like he was aiming for us specifically. Still relatively inexperienced in RV living, we knew we were not ready to face down a Category 4 hurricane in our RV. We decided to continue along the Gulf Coast and go visit a friend of mine in Fort Myers, Florida before the storm hit.
In Florida, we planned an off-season trip thru the Everglades and down to the Keys. It was hot and humid, but we got to see all kinds of amazing landmarks and beautiful views. The younger women even went snorkeling for the first time, off a boat sailing from John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. But as soon as they were done, we had to flee from yet another hurricane! Hurricane Irma was coming to Florida as a Category 5 and was threatening a direct hit to Fort Myers.
We were starting to feel like Mother Nature was mad at us for some reason. However, we had plenty of warning time, so we decided to go inland all the way to Nashville, Tennessee. We had not planned on going that far when we left Florida, but didn’t realize that most of our fellow RVers in Florida had decided to leave as well.
When we arrived in Nashville, we found most of those RV parks full. We had to stay quite a bit out of town which was hard on us, but we loaded in groceries as best we could for a two week stay. Space is very limited in an RV and that includes food storage and refrigeration space. Two days into our stay in Tennessee the remnants of Irma sent rain and tornados into our area for two additional days. That’s where we learned, truly learned, how much we all liked each other (or not as the case may be).
The internet was spotty, whether due to our location or the storm. So boredom and being in close quarters with very little options quickly stretched our tempers to the brink of all-out war. No Netflix to distract us, only a couple of boardgames I had insisted we bring saved us from killing each other outright. All the moisture in the air left us feeling sticky and damp even though I am proud to report our 35’ Bounder had no leaks in the roof. We all took turns rotating to the best “resting” spots in the RV and eventually found the spots we each liked best. Luckily, it was different for each of us.
The next time we were scheduled to stay indoors for more than 24 hours was a snow storm in Nashville a few months later. But by then, we had learned the secrets of staying sane when forced to stay inside the RV. So now whenever someone asks for my advice about how to decide which is the right RV for them to buy, I give them this sage advice: Imagine what it will be like to be forced to stay inside it for three, long, traffic-filled driving days fleeing a hurricane with wind and rain preventing you from even stepping outside for a minute. When you find one that you think you can do that in without living out a scene from The Shining, buy that one!
For more tips and ideas, check out A Gal’s Guide to RV Living available from Amazon.com.
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