So, my remaining time is short in my holiday layover location – in 3 days I will pull out of here and begin my trek southward.  More about the planning and preparation in a minute.  However, first I’d like to share how thoughts/priorities begin to change as you adapt to this RV way of life!

You know you live in an RV when:

• You have an urge to check your tank levels* at bedtime.
• Your new favorite reading is a road atlas, and your favorite app is RV Life’s Trip Wizard.
• You have a 3-way garter device securing your mattress cover to the mattress.
• Your dish drainer sits partially on your stove.
• The floor of your passenger seat has a litter box in it.
• When you drive by a gas station you don’t notice the prices, instead you are trying to determine if they have a propane tank for refilling your tank and if their ceilings are over 11 foot tall.
• You purchase chains for your house.

Yes, in a few days I’m pulling out.  After another overnight boon-docking stay at my daughter’s home, I will spend part of the following day with my cat and dog in the customer lounge at Camping World while I get my rig serviced and checked out to make sure it’s road-ready.  I’m happy to report that last weekend I started up the rig, Wandering Spirit, and she immediately warned me to consider changing her oil – LOL, I was way ahead of her – the oil change was already scheduled!

And then, making me even happier, the generator started up easily – good news since I’d had to invest some major bucks and warranty to get its jets. filters and pump replaced earlier this year. Long story, after initial warranty work on the generator I was told to run the generator monthly after driving the rig for about 30 minutes. Then when it gummed up again, I was told that driving it around probably stirred up stuff in the gas tank that gummed it up? – Learning, generators run off gasoline and share the rigs gas supply – so the quality of gas impacts the function of the generator more than it impacts the vehicle itself.

Anyway, all seems to be working well now.  And the forecast is looking good to get me over all the mountain passes and on my way into California without hitting snow or ice.  Since I’m feeling lucky, I scheduled my first night in California at a casino with an RV park – the fees were good, but they know that I’ll make up the difference in the slot machines.  The rest of the trip includes an overnight at a winery, visits with cousins and then a couple of state parks – a few days of camping in the desert and along the Colorado river in the sunshine!  I’ve planned through the end of January, which will see me crossing the state line from Arizona to New Mexico. 

My preparations included pulling my summer clothes out of storage and washing my winter clothes.  Next will be making those take/store decisions for the summer clothes. For the past week, I’ve been going through my original choices and pulling out the excess for putting in storage.  I will now focus on major house cleaning, which will be an exhausting 45 minutes.  By the time they pick up the propane tank, I will have the slide in and the mirrors out – and it will be wings up for flight.

I’m looking forward to being in places where I can set out my comfy camp chairs and use my tiny tabletop fire pit – and to grill my meals on my bar-b-que (imaging cooking without 25 MPH winds bringing the internal RV temp down to match the 30 something degree external temperature to avoid the smoke alarm going off).   My current location has served its purpose, I was here for the holidays with my family.  And I learned how to live comfortably in a tiny space. 

I’m ready to take my home on the road – and hoping I won’t have to chain it up along the way!

*For those unfamiliar with RVs, mine has a three-tank system onboard – fresh water, gray water (sinks) and black water (toilet).  My RV can go about 4 days until the gray and black tanks need to be discharged into either a site or public dump station.  I’ve got this activity down pretty well now!