Three weeks ago, we pulled out of Moss Beach and shifted this trip into drive. We return our rental trailer at 2:00pm tomorrow, bringing our “R-podyssey” to an end.
Checking out an older model RV at Bodie Ghost Town in the Eastern Sierras.
But when I read back over what I’ve written, it doesn’t really capture the whole story. Every day of this trip has been so full, and this blog barely touches the surface of what we saw and experienced. So, in our last few posts, we’ll share a few observations, adventures, and misadventures that we haven’t talked much about until now.
Let’s get the ball rolling with…
Top 5 Things We Wish We’d Known Beforehand
- Pack less. Much less. What the hell were we thinking? I brought four pairs of shoes, including cowboy boots, and all I’ve worn is my hiking sandals and shower shoes. We’re bringing back two big Tupperware bins of food we never used. And when exactly did I expect to fly the two drones I packed?
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Follow the Rules of Threes. An RV podcaster I listen to has what he calls “The 330 Rules”: Don’t drive more than 330 miles in a day, and stop driving by 3:30 pm. We’ve embraced these guidelines, after realizing that long days and late arrivals suck. To them we would add a third rule: Unless you’re just passing through, stay in any campsite for at least three days. It’s so much more relaxing than having to hitch up every morning. Of course, that means focusing on a smaller area of the country, vs. trying to see too much in a single trip.
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You can go a long way without hookups. When I planned the trip, I expected we’d need to recharge batteries, refill water, or dump sewage tanks every 2-3 days. That’s one of the reasons my itinerary had us changing campsites every day or two, and choosing places because they had hookups, not because they were beautiful spots to camp. The truth is that we never ran the battery below 2/3 full, and only needed to dump and refill tanks weekly. Next time, we’ll stay where we want and prioritize hookups only when we really need them. (Disclaimer from Maureen: Having electrical hookups to run the air conditioning during the hot weather at the beginning and end of our trip was really nice!)
Hiking with Zora in the Bridger-Teton National Forest outside Grand Teton.
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National Parks for cars, National Forests for dogs. The scenic National Park roads (Going-to-the-Sun in Glacier, the Yellowstone and Grand Teton loops, Tioga Road at Yosemite) were gorgeous, with breathtaking views at every turnout. I’m glad we drove them. But our two best hikes of the trip were both in National Forests, where Zora could join us and we had the trails almost entirely to ourselves. And we saw a lot of National Forest campgrounds that seemed just as nice as some of the places we stayed in big parks like Glacier and Yellowstone. We’re currently in a KOA (see item 3 above) an hour from Yosemite, but on the drive down to that park yesterday we passed several lovely National Forest campgrounds that had plenty of sites available. Next time…
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People are mostly terrific. We’ve enjoyed meeting people from all over the country, and our campground hosts and campsite neighbors have been universally friendly (or at least not actively unfriendly). I’m sure that many of them have wildly different world views from our own–as soon as we left the Pacific coast, we saw an awful lot of Trump signs and Ten Commandments billboards. I also realize that we’ve been afforded more than a little bit of white privilege, and travelers who don’t look the way we do might get a very different experience. But, in such a grim and gross political environment, it’s been heartening to to see so much basic human decency.
In our final posts, we’ll share the top 5 (and bottom 5) memorable moments that haven’t made it into this blog so far, as well as some of our favorite photos from the trip–although that might have to wait for something better than rural KOA wifi!