Top Lessons for RV Newbies

Guess what?  We have officially been on the road for 6 months!!  We’ve made a lot of mistakes during that time and we want to share our lessons for RV newbies.  A full-time RV lifestyle has a lot of associated costs too, and we’re breaking down some of our surprising expenditures. There’s a lot to share and before we get to those lessons for RV newbies we’re going to give you an update on our 6 months of full-time travel.

cold springs winery

The Journey So Far…

Originally, we expected to be on the road in the US and Canada for a year and a half and then we’d head overseas to see the rest of the world.  We have since changed our minds and will continue to travel in our RV for a full 2 years.  Our journey so far has taken us over 17,000 miles, through 27 states and 2 Canadian provinces as we traveled from Biloxi, Mississippi to Ajo, Arizona. Our #RVstreetcred map is filling up as we’ve logged 20 states and the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario that we have stayed overnight in.  That’s our rule.  If we didn’t sleep there, we don’t log it! 

At the beginning of our trip we traveled to a new destination every couple of days. This led to the following crazy expenses.  We spent over $4,000 in fuel, that’s for more than 1,300 gallons of diesel!  We also had over $1,700 in truck and RV maintenance, such as oil changes and diesel exhaust fluid.  For 35 RV parks over a 6 -month period, we tallied almost $6,400, averaging about $36 per night.  This is a little bit more than we’d like to spend but we haven’t spent but a few nights without full hook-ups.  

35 RV parks in 6 months have given us quite a range of experiences.  We’ve had some bad, some good, and some just plain ugly RV parks.  We’ve also found some gems in the middle of nowhere.  Here are a few of the RV parks worth mentioning so you can visit or run away from!!

Great Finds!!

Best Values

When you have a child and you’re a full-time travel family, you try to keep the excitement of the holidays alive.  We decided to spend Halloween in Roswell, New Mexico.  This was a great idea, not just for the aliens, but for the RV park we stayed in.  The Town and Country RV Park of Roswell was a great find and we ended up getting a super deal.  We expected to pay $186 a week for two weeks but when Chris checked in, the manager said “Oh, that’s too much”.  We ended up getting a whole week for free!  This was amazing because we would have gladly paid the full amount as the quality of the park was one of the best so far.  The park had nice, large gravel lots, immaculate facilities, and great internet.  

Another great value park for us was in Mountain Home, Idaho.  The Mountain Home RV Resort was just $31.05 a night and one of Corbin’s favorites.  He loved the wide paved streets because he could scoot and bike safely and fast!  We loved the large, concrete pads with lots of grass and trees.  The pool and laundry areas were also nice with restrooms that were cleaned 3 times per day!  Who does that?  Mountain Home RV Resort does.

Best Lucky Find

After we left Spokane, Washington, we headed to Idaho to pick up our new trailer Casper.  We needed an overnight stop and found a place in La Grande, Oregon.  Grande Hot Springs RV Resort was our best lucky find.  At $42 per night using Good Sam, we loved it.  It had long, level gravel sites with nice space between sites.  As it was near some geothermal hot springs, it had two good-sized heated pools.  Really nice to relax after a long day of driving! The campground has new owners who are investing in the place to renovate it and it shows. 

Favorites!

Best RV Park

Our vote for the best RV park we’ve stayed at to date is the Rocky Mountain RV Park in Gardiner, Montana.  Its location was awesome, just 4 blocks from the North Yellowstone entrance and the historic Roosevelt Tower.  The best part of the park?  The views. The views from our site were out of this world, Yellowstone on one side and beautiful mountains on the other, well worth the $62 nightly rate.  The sites have full hook-ups, decent WIFI, cable, and clean facilities.  They even have a mini-golf course!  Oh, and did we mention elk?  There are elk just hanging around eating grass and people watching.

Grand Prismatic

Read more about visiting Yellowstone NPS in this BLOG.

Favorite Road

Our favorite road was between Cortez and Telluride Colorado.  Colorado 145 was recommended by the Cortez Visitor’s Center. The drive was beautiful because it was fall and the Aspen trees were changing colors.  Gold, green, yellow, red, and orange.  Amazing.  And then the mountains in the background make it even more outstanding.  It’s one of the most scenic drives we’ve ever taken and the only road Suzannah wanted to pull over on to take photos.

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Favorite National Park

Arches National Park was at the top of the list for our favorite park.  The scenery was superb and every day was a new experience. We thoroughly enjoyed every drive in and out of the park.  There were hikes for all skill levels.  The sites varied from the New York City Skyline and Delicate Arch to the Fiery Furnace and the North Window. This should be on everyone’s to-see list!

very long rock arch

Learn more about Arches NPS in this BLOG.

Worsts. Period.

We do have a couple of worsts to point out.  You can find out about the worst RV park in Hop 1 Episode 6 or message us and we’ll let you know.  It was on our way from Pennsylvania to New Hampshire and was just an overnight.   We decided our worst road was in Maine of all places, at the beginning of our trip.  It concerned us because, with over 17,000 miles, we hoped it wouldn’t be bad driving the whole time.  We headed up to Canada from Maine on US 201.  Once we got past Jackman, the road was covered with frost heaves…mounds in the road formed from the freezing and thawing of the soil.  The constant up and down is not good for trailers.  The road improved once we crossed the border into Quebec. Thankfully!!

truck and travel trailer in a bad rv park

Lessons for RV Newbies

1. Slow Down & Stay Longer.

Traveling constantly is expensive and can eat up your money and can add stress to your time.  When you stay at an RV park for a week or more, you’ll find that many offer a weekly rate.  The weekly rate can be significantly cheaper overall.  You also save money on fuel and food, as you won’t be driving so much and will have time to plan meals instead of being too tired to cook. Eating out all the time is not good for your budget or waistline! If you spend more time in one spot, you can plan out and research your adventures for the area and not rush through to see everything and blow money on things that may not be worth it.   

2. Don’t trust RV park website pictures (see Episode 6).

Do your due diligence and make sure you look around. Don’t just book the first campground you see. A picture says a thousand words, but if the picture is not accurate you could be staying at an unsightly place. Maybe it’s what the owners are dreaming the place should be in 10 years but really it’s just a gravel pit.

Read the reviews of other customers as people will do a review if they feel strongly about it. If someone takes the time to do a review, it’s because either the campground was truly exceptional or they were unhappy. Use Google, Allstays or Campendium to assist your research.  (We are not affiliated with Allstays or Campendium. We just like their apps.) The apps are great for planning and show you what sites are in the area, internet, and hook-up quality, along with reviews and pictures that weren’t photoshopped by the campgrounds.  We use these apps at every location and cross-check the reviews.  

3. You DO NOT need everything you think you do.  

This is a trial and error thing for anyone starting out. We’re still shedding belongings! If you don’t use it now or haven’t in the last 10 years you probably don’t need it in your RV. You’re just carrying around extra weight and due to the lack of space, you may have to continuously move it around to get to the things you actually use. We have literally left items at every place we’ve moochdocked at.  We have stuff in boxes at our parent’s houses, and we’ve given things to friends because we just didn’t need it.  Oh, and we’ve also had small yard sales to get rid of additional items.  

We recommend you get the basics; sewer hose, water hose, tire chalks, and then fill up the propane tanks and head to a local RV park for at least a weekend. By spending some time in your RV, you’ll learn a LOT about what you need and what you can actually fit. Make a list of things you know you need and a separate list of things you think you need. Figure out where you will put everything. You don’t realize how small and odd-shaped the storage spaces are in your RV until you try to pack stuff in. And then get the things you need as you go.  We’ll have an upcoming episode on what we feel are must-haves and then things we’ve needed to get by.

4. Buy the trailer you need first and then buy the vehicle you need to tow it!

We did this WRONG! We’ll have an upcoming episode on this soon but the bottom line is to look at what you need in a trailer and then look at the rig to pull it. Look at more than one trailer as they are not all made equally. A bunkhouse in one could be a completely different layout in another trailer. The storage space in a 31 foot in one brand could be significantly less in a 31 foot in another brand. Make sure you look at the costs of both before you buy either, but really, if you get the wrong vehicle in the beginning it can get pricey and really impact your credit. 

The same goes for your trailer.  If you don’t get the one you need you may regret it, you’re going to be living in it so get what you need! We are sharing this because as newbies, we are 7 vehicles and 1 trailer into our trip. It took a while and many visits to the bank to get it right. Don’t do this to yourselves!!

 5. You can’t overestimate things!!  

You can’t overestimate how much money you could spend RVing, whether it’s full or part-time. From how many miles you’re going to travel, to how much fuel you’ll need, or even how much you’ll spend on food.  For mileage, a good rule of thumb for us is double what you think. We don’t show up at the RV park and hang out, we are out to see the sights. We seem to be constantly on the move to see different things so the mileage really adds up.  

For example, it’s a little over 1,600 miles from Biloxi, MS to Monmouth, ME. With all of the driving around we did at all of our locations we ended up being over 3,000 miles.  If you don’t plan for that then your pocketbook is going to get shocked.  If you’re going to an RV park and just staying there then you don’t need to worry as much. But if you’re going, going, going then make sure you pad your estimates!

BONUS TIP: National Park Pass

Our plans for the trip are to see as many national parks and monuments in the US as we can. With more than 2,000 to see, it can be expensive to get into a national park especially if you plan to go in multiple times. Some of the entrance fees are around $25 or more each day! The National Park Pass alleviates this cost. Depending on what category you fall in, you could pay $80 for an annual pass or it could be free! Check out the National Park Service website for more details and see how you can qualify.

Oxbow Bend Turnout

Click HERE for our National Park Toolkit!

Always more lessons

Our first 6 months of full-time RV travel have been amazing and we hope that these lessons for RV newbies help you make fewer mistakes than we did. It has been a fantastic journey and we’re looking forward to another year and a half of RV travel…and years of world travel. Thank you for being a part of our journey and remember to Hop On!, no matter where you’re going.

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