My First Big RV Adventure

My First Big RV Adventure

Written by Nancy Carter, Making My Own Lane

My dream is to travel the United States, over a four or five year period.

With my new lifestyle, I don’t have to do it quickly. I can take my time, take in the local sites, and explore places I wouldn’t normally have done.

A trip for me used to be hopping on a plane and taking the fast route to get to a destination so I could get where I wanted and get back quickly enough to get back to work. I lived for my vacations.

For my first trip, I decided my ultimate destination was Bar Harbor, Maine. 

I’m familiar with the East Coast, with lots of friends and family along the way if I really got stuck in a situation where I needed help.

About 1,500 miles each way. 3,000 miles total. On my own, although my fur family does provide great companionship and entertainment.

My trip was 3,700 miles, 41 stops, 111 nights.

As I continue with this blog series, I will fill in with more details of the great places I got to stay on my journey. So bookmark this blog and check back weekly for the updates!

I chose my rig for ease of travel, whether I stayed a couple of weeks in one campground or I stayed in someone’s driveway for a night or two. (see choosing my RV)

I designed this trip so I could experience full-time RV life

Campgrounds with electricity and water or moochdocking at someone’s house, or a Harvest Host where my solar provides my electricity and I brought my own water with me. I wanted the experience of living in my RV and loving the good as well as experiencing the inconveniences, like maintenance and repairs.

Here is the breakdown of where I stayed:

KOA 3 campgrounds, 1 night each

Harvest Hosts 8 places, 1 night each.  Including one I stopped at twice!

State Parks 3 campgrounds, 1 night each

Friends and Family 4 driveways, 12 nights total

Thousand Trails Campground 14 campgrounds, 87 nights total

KOA and State Parks I used as stopovers to get a destination.

Harvest Hosts started the same way, but they actually turned into amazing destinations and experiences that I could only have through Harvest Hosts.

Friends and Family were certainly destinations. I loved staying “with” them, but still having my own bed and all my clothes! No living out of a suitcase this trip! I think I have proven that I am the best house guest ever!

And Thousand Trails campgrounds. I did buy an Adventure membership, which allows me to stay in more places, for longer, with larger booking periods. Which so far has worked out really well for me as a solo female traveler.

I am adopting this lifestyle to travel as much as possible, while staying within a budget so I can continue to do this. I’m not trying to get away into the woods, alone. But as I travel out west, I am sure some boondocking  - staying off grid with no reservations, electricity, water or sewer, is in my future.

The truth is, I love meeting new people and having activities available. From Saturday afternoon porch ice cream socials, to Saturday night murder mystery and dinner, or sip and paints or wine tastings, to hayrides, live bands, shuffleboard and bingo, or just enjoying hiking in nature.

You can do it all, or do none of it. That’s the beauty of it, to me. I do what I want to do.

RV travel can be a little scary

I was more than nervous, downright scared, to do this, especially as a solo female traveler. I felt like I was stepping out of my comfort zone every day. It was exhilarating. Conquering old fears, like driving over large bridges, and conquering new fears like driving a 28-foot RV, and learning where and how to park almost anywhere. I had to learn that my rig would not tip over, even though it sometimes felt like it, and I had to drive in some pretty mountainous areas (for a girl from Florida), like the Pocono, Catskill, Berkshire, and Appalachian Mountains.

Some highlights of my RV road trip

It took two and a half months to get to Maine. What a luxury. I drove up the southern coast, taking my time and stopping all through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina at old plantation houses, lighthouses and deserted islands, learning about bees and mead, driving over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel, finally reaching Assateague Island to spend the night with the ponies. Cross another item off of my bucket list, but I do plan to go back again someday.

Then another white-knuckle experience the day I loaded my house on to the Lewes/Cape May ferry for the trip to New Jersey. And I survived it all. Not that I didn’t expect to, but again, I stepped out of my comfort zone almost every day.

I visited places I hadn’t been since I was a teenager, climbed 1200 stairs to see beautiful waterfalls, and stayed at a reindeer farm on my birthday. I felt like I was in summer camp, and it was great.

My most joyful day was when I crossed the Maine state line. I literally cried. I had made it, and I had such a feeling of well-being, until I was about 5 miles away from my campground. But that’s another story. Everything always works out in the end, doesn’t it? And there was lobster.

I climbed mountains and learned the history of the old carriage trails and the unique geography of Bar Harbor. All this while adding places to my list of places to see later on.

Right before I started my adventure, I learned I needed to be back in Florida by October 1st. 6 weeks earlier than I had planned. Another lesson learned - you need to be a little flexible sometimes.

So the trip home was 2 weeks long, with stops to see family again. I learned that I could drive 5 hours a day and still enjoy the journey.

If you would like the list of all the campgrounds I stayed in on my way to Maine from Florida and back, click here.

What I learned from my RV road trip

My preferred way to travel is to drive 2 to 3 hours a day, between 10 and 2, Monday through Friday. I found the traffic was light, for the most part, and the traveling was easy.

Driving an RV is a lot different than driving a car, and I found I got tired of driving a lot faster. No matter how many true crime podcasts I listened to. I love getting to some place early enough that I have the time to still explore the park, or area, without feeling like I was losing an entire day to travel.

And I missed my friends and family in Florida. A lot. I have never been away from my daughters for as long as I was on this trip, and I have decided that traveling a little faster and being away from “home” for no more than four months at a time helps with the home sickness.

I do feel like I set out with a plan, and I did it. Maybe the sense of accomplishment won’t be as strong for each trip I take over the next few years. But, each trip will have its own circumstances and challenges, so I believe that each trip will continue to bring the joy that doing what you set out to do brings, and I can’t wait for my next trip!

I’m getting better at living in a 200-square foot home on wheels. Better at organizing my RV in a way that works best for me, and working through the challenges of making a living on the road.

I’ve learned if you really want to make it work, you will. Just remember to enjoy the journey.

Thanks for reading!

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