Two weeks into an 8-week trip is just getting started. Still, it is long enough to begin to realize what you did well, and not so well in, planning a trip across the country. So in no particular order, here are some random thoughts on our trip so far.
1) The generator was a big waste. So far, we have only used it 4 times. Each of those times was at a Wal-mart parking lot on a day when we were traveling all day. Yes, it is nice to be able to produce 110-volt electricity to run the Microwave and let the kids watch TV while lunch is being prepared. But given the fact that the things weighs 145 pounds hanging off the back of the camper and takes up a lot of space that could have went to something more useful (like an easy-up awning to use at the beach next week) it is not worth that minor convenience. Plus the last time Missy wanted to warm up some leftover bacon for AJ, we were at a gas station filling up the tank and I just ran inside with my paper plate of bacon and used their microwave.
2) The laptop computer was a wise investment. In addition to paying bills online and keeping up this blog, we have several times looked up alternate routes and searched for things to do that we could not have done without a PC. My only regret is that we should have bought a cellular air card. The Wi-Fi at several of the campgrounds has been pretty weak. I have managed, but a cellular modem would have solved all my wireless connection problems.
3) GAS IS GOING TO BE OUR SINGLE LARGEST EXPENSE. Not lodging and not food for a family of 5. And it really peeves me to pay over $100 to fill the tank. It hasn’t happened yet, but just today I filled up in Stevenson WA. The truck was down to about a ¼ tank after pushing hard to get to Oregon on Saturday. The price was $2.93 per gallon and the pump clicked off at $99.90. The truck has a 40 gallon tank, but still…damn!
4) An old camper is still an old camper even if I have rebuilt most of it. I have been fixing small problems with the camper as we have gone along. The actual cable that connects the cable TV wiring to the port on the outside of the camper came loose. It took me an hour and a trip to the radio shack to fix it. A couple of the nails that secure the shower enclosure to the wall in the shower stall popped and I had to nail in new tacks and seal the nail holes with silicone caulk. One of the sensors that tells me how full the fresh water holding tank is malfunctioning. I will have to get in there with a multi-meter to figure out which one is broken and then order the part. Cannot really do that until I get home. And I still have not had the time to re-pack the bearing on the driver side wheels after the grease caps came off while towing. Still, with all those nagging little problems, the old girl has been drug almost 3500 miles in 15 days and has not had a single major problem. All the appliances are fine and we have towed through some pretty bad rain and she has not leaked a drop.
5) If we had a hard side trailer that didn’t require setting up a tent bunk end, we could have saved a lot of money by spending some nights in a well lit parking lot rather than a campground. We have passed several Wal-Mart parking lots near the interstate in resort areas and seen them packed full of travel trailers and motor homes at night. We saw the same thing in the parking lot to Wall Drug in South Dakota. The Cabalas in Rapid City had a place for campers to dump waste water and fill up with fresh water (as does every Love’s Truck stop) for overnight campers. I would not want to do it every night, but for the times when we are just staying for one night and pulling out the next morning, it would have been much cheaper. Since our camper is a Hybrid that has canvas covering the fold out beds, I am not comfortable with the idea of staying in an unsecured parking lot. But a hard side trailer with locking doors would be much easier. If we were to ever try a trip like this again (especially as the kids get older) I would like a hard-side trailer to make the trip. Camping in a parking lot in a hard-side trailer would also have made the generator much more useful. Even if I didn’t want to run it all night it would be handy to to re-charge the batteries in the morning before getting on the road.
6) Five people in a truck or camper everyday for 15 days does come with its own set of issues. But overall it has been better than I feared it might be. Yes, the girls bicker at each other and AJ gets frustrated with his big sisters and having to share everything. But they are all dealing with it okay. Since we have limited space, the number of things they have to play with is reduced. There are the community toys that have always been in the camper that they all have to share. And then each kid has a few toys that are theirs alone. Because the volume of toys is not nearly what they have at home, it is pretty easy to see quickly if someone has a toy that doesn’t belong to them. Truthfully, I expected these problems with sharing a limited number of toys. What I didn’t expect was how tiring it would become having to be a “parent” constantly. With work or school, there are times during a normal day when Missy and I have a break from some or all of the kids. Time during a normal day when we do not have to be a Mommy or Daddy. Those “times off” are much fewer with all of us so close together. Missy and I have fallen into a rhythm of taking turns giving the other one a small “break” as the frustration builds. It is basically the same thing we do at home, just with more frequency.
7) A quick word about budgeting and costs. Taking a normal 1-week vacation does not have much impact on your bills at home for the month. But being gone for 2 months does. Realistically we can expect our bills at home to be greatly reduced these two months since we are not there to use the electricity and water and so forth. For that reason, we canceled or reduced many of the services we use normally at home before we left. I unplugged everything that normally drains power. And left the thermostat set at 85 degrees. So for that reason we thought that we could take this trip for double what we normally budget for gas, eating out and groceries and other misc costs per week (as an example… if your weekly budget for gas, groceries and eating out is $400.00 per week our plan was to spend no more than $800.00 per week total). So far, we are a little over budget for these first 2 weeks. Mostly due to higher gas prices and the fact that we have covered a lot of miles getting to the Pacific Coast. But, it looks like things will even out these next 2- weeks as we don’t have very far to travel. Overall…we are doing okay. If gas was still 2 bucks a gallon, we would be great. As it stands we have less wiggle room, but we are okay.
That is it. If you have questions, post them and I will try to answer them as best I can.
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