The full-time RV lifestyle may look like a full-time vacation, but I can assure you there is substantial work involved. That means we need a rest day about once a week. Campgrounds are excellent places to find a little piece of quiet and we know how to take full advantage of it, but there is a difference between a campground and an RV park. Check out the video at the bottom of the page to get a visual.
At an RV park you'll find full hook-up sites: power, water, and sewer. That makes RV living just like being in a house, albeit a small one that rocks whenever one of the occupants so much as breaks wind. You also pay a lot more for your site and have far less room. In fact, you might be close enough to your neighbor for your RV to rock when they break wind.
In contrast, a state, county, or national park campground probably won't have full hook-ups (although we have encountered a few). If they offer any it will most likely be power and maybe water, but having a sewer connection is rare. What does that mean for daily life? You learn to be very conservative. You might not get a shower everyday, but I think on a backcountry hike, smelling like wet moose can be beneficial.
This trade off means it is wise to think ahead about what kind of campsite you prefer in terms of hook-ups because that will in turn drive your decision on what sort of rig you need. Knowing our preference for national parks, we chose a fifth wheel with large enough water tanks to get us through five days of dry camping. We also added an inverter with four batteries and a Honda 2000 generator. Kevin explains this part on our FAQs page because the only thing I know about electricity is that it is the main ingredient in lightning, which I avoid, and camera batteries, which I need.
But we still haven't answered the burning question: "What do you DO in a campground?" We try to enjoy it. The kids run around. We walk the grounds in search of stuff to explore and/or photograph. State parks are often centered on some kind of natural beauty like a waterway or forest land that offers good short hikes. Sometimes we find a decent biking path and we go out for a ride. If the weather is nice we sit outdoors to work and eat. In Anacortes, Washington we picked two gallons of wild blackberries right on the city bike path that ran through the RV park, then rode our bikes to the Saturday morning farmers market in town. If we are indoors it is because we need the computer or, in Joel's case, stable lighting conditions for shooting stop-motion projects. Or lately, we are just inside because it is really cold.
Rest days are not all chillaxing and no work. They often are our best opportunity to do laundry and cleaning, plan meals and shop for groceries. This is also when Kevin can get some serious work done and I can write the travel articles that I actually get paid for. When we have a backlog of experiences to share I might write and queue up several blog posts to cover the upcoming week.
So that is a rest day, and on that note, I have some resting to go do.
-Jenni
At an RV park you'll find full hook-up sites: power, water, and sewer. That makes RV living just like being in a house, albeit a small one that rocks whenever one of the occupants so much as breaks wind. You also pay a lot more for your site and have far less room. In fact, you might be close enough to your neighbor for your RV to rock when they break wind.
In contrast, a state, county, or national park campground probably won't have full hook-ups (although we have encountered a few). If they offer any it will most likely be power and maybe water, but having a sewer connection is rare. What does that mean for daily life? You learn to be very conservative. You might not get a shower everyday, but I think on a backcountry hike, smelling like wet moose can be beneficial.
This trade off means it is wise to think ahead about what kind of campsite you prefer in terms of hook-ups because that will in turn drive your decision on what sort of rig you need. Knowing our preference for national parks, we chose a fifth wheel with large enough water tanks to get us through five days of dry camping. We also added an inverter with four batteries and a Honda 2000 generator. Kevin explains this part on our FAQs page because the only thing I know about electricity is that it is the main ingredient in lightning, which I avoid, and camera batteries, which I need.
But we still haven't answered the burning question: "What do you DO in a campground?" We try to enjoy it. The kids run around. We walk the grounds in search of stuff to explore and/or photograph. State parks are often centered on some kind of natural beauty like a waterway or forest land that offers good short hikes. Sometimes we find a decent biking path and we go out for a ride. If the weather is nice we sit outdoors to work and eat. In Anacortes, Washington we picked two gallons of wild blackberries right on the city bike path that ran through the RV park, then rode our bikes to the Saturday morning farmers market in town. If we are indoors it is because we need the computer or, in Joel's case, stable lighting conditions for shooting stop-motion projects. Or lately, we are just inside because it is really cold.
Rest days are not all chillaxing and no work. They often are our best opportunity to do laundry and cleaning, plan meals and shop for groceries. This is also when Kevin can get some serious work done and I can write the travel articles that I actually get paid for. When we have a backlog of experiences to share I might write and queue up several blog posts to cover the upcoming week.
So that is a rest day, and on that note, I have some resting to go do.
-Jenni