Coming Full Circle as an RVer

jklbus01

Advanced Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2024
Messages
93
Location
Lake Stevens
The first thing I’d like to say about moving from a tent to a recreational vehicle is to start where you are. Just get out there and enjoy the environment so many of us desire to protect.
The RV community is, in some ways, like our Toastmasters club. We meet up with the same group of people, generally, and we get to know other RVers. We belong to a couple of clubs that have meetings with other, like-minded people. And the atmosphere is always friendly and upbeat.
One of the most telling aspects of the RV community is the complete lack of judgement. Many times, we looked like the “poor white trash RV people” because of the condition of our very first RV, Gertrude. Yet, when I’d admit to my shame and embarrassment, everyone had a similar response: "It doesn’t matter how you get out here, as long as you get out here!” and “Start where you are!”
As time went on, I came to believe that myself. At some gatherings, friends brought tents (some of which fit on top of their small sedan!) Some brought camping trailers, and some brought apartment buildings—I mean, 5th wheels. Then there were those of us who drove our RV.
We went from being tent campers and, of course, using blue tarps because we live in Washington to owning a drivable RV.
Now drivable RVs come in three classes; Class B is a camper-capable van, like a Dodge Sprinter. Some are Class C’s, like Gertrude was, with the bunk over the cab. And finally, like our new RV, Windy, there are class A’s that resemble, and can actually be, a bus or a semi.
And of course, in RVing, size matters. That is it matters when you’re driving. Specifically, when driving your RV, not towing, again, size matters. But my experiences have all been with drivable RVs. That’s mostly because I’m terrified of trying to back up a trailer.
Driving our Class C, which was 28 feet long, felt much like driving a truck. It was easy to go forward, made both left and right turns fairly easily and took some time to learn to back up, both with and without help.
Driving our Class A at 36 feet is like driving a city block. The windshield begins at my left shoulder and continues all the way across to the other side, that I have to stand up and walk over to reach. My wife and I used to factor in being able to hold hands when buying a vehicle. In Windy, be wave and blow kisses. And it is not like driving a truck. It’s more like flying.
To begin with, there’s no hood in front of you, so you see everything. In every car and truck and even RV I’ve ever driven, everything I’ve ever driven had a hood. Having no hood is pretty freaky from 10 feet in the air.
On the one hand, we say, “start where you are.” On the other hand, it’s a lot easier to pitch a tent.
Before I end this, let me leave you with two pieces of advice. First, when you become an RVer, don’t go buying every gadget you see. I did that. From Christmas ornaments to sewage hoses, I bought it all. When we donated Gertrude to the Veterans, we learned how much of it we didn’t really need.
And finally, become an avid YouTube for RVs watcher. I jokingly say I learned how to do everything I did on Gertrude from watching YouTube, including how to drive. That, by the way, is true!
And being married to an Accountant, we track our spending.
In the 4 years we had her, I put $20,000 in repairs into Gertrude, $11,000 of which was me watching and learning to do the repairs. Today, I’m enrolled in RV Tech School. Where we go, that’s where we’ll be, shingle out front, meeting and helping other RVers. That’s coming full circle.
 
How we got here.

I grew up in family of six, we spent many summer vacations in tents, so when my wife and I first met I introduced her to tent camping and roughing it, her family had never camped, they were dairy farmers in eastern South Dakota and rarely left the farm.

A year into our marriage (now 47 years) I got into motorcycles my first at age 22 was 1979 Yamaha XS 750 special, big enough to haul both of us and gear around. We did several camping trips and our first long distance trip to Colorado to visit a couple we knew from my USAF years, which taught us how to minimize the load with backpacker gear, but a couple years into it and we started looking at cargo trailers to haul the increasingly necessary gear for month long trips around the country.

While I was looking at trailers my wife was checking out bikes she could hold up and stand flat footed. She had grown up with older brothers that had bikes. So it was only natural that she got her own, which doubled our carrying capacity. Several years passed with us averaging 10-25000 a year touring. Than came kids and camping out of station wagons until one of Mary’s Uncles let us try out his sidecar rig a 1978 Yamaha XS11 which was perfect for 2 young children and all our gear on both bikes. Life was good but the distance of our trips decreased due to children activities and our Chiropractic practice.

Kids graduated we had a little more time and money to resume our longer trips so we invested in bigger bikes, Moto Guzzi’s , which were are very comfortable long distance cruisers, but getting older after a few years we invested in a pop up camper to pull behind my bike.

The only downfall of this was we discovered the ease of driving all day 500-600 miles and the simplicity/ luxury of 5-10 minutes to set up and take down camp, but the real problem was, with all that space we could take all the tools and gear we wanted and we did. Lesson learned was, pulling is no problem, but stopping is.

Then we got into sport touring bikes which don’t handle trailers all that well, but are amazing on 2 lane back roads, so we back to tent camping, and did a combination, with sport touring bikes for shorter trips and the cruisers with trailer for month long trips.

Life was/ is good, but as our practice grew and got busier we couldn’t go as far. So we started looking at Toy Hauler trailers, I am no fan of pulling a 25-30 foot long rig behind a pickup truck. On bikes we would often pass these rigs and watch them getting thrown around in the wind driving across the planes. So I was T really interested in these.

But one of my bucket list trips was to attend the annual Mo-Kan Moto Guzzi rally In Missouri, but it’s always in late September and on a bike you need to pay close attention to the weather, as we’ve age we’ve become more fair weather riders , we’ve paid our dues ridding in bone chilling rainy weather, so we rented a 27 ft Class C and towed our bikes there and than decided to tour Missouri and North eastern Arkansas which was a great experience, but I didn’t care for driving that rig through the mountains and back roads to get to areas where we wanted to tour on the bikes. We also rented a camper van for another trip, with out a trailer, and while the ease of driving the 22 ft van was great we didn’t like the cramped feeling of the van.

So this July we purchased our first 23 ft 2019 Thor Fourwinds 23U with only 4000 miles on it which seemed a bit more manageable and allowed us to comfortably pull a trailer with our side car rig ( Mr.Wilson our emotionally needed Standard Poodle) rides in the side car,while Mary rides passenger.

While sitting by a fire one night recently we were discussing the evolution of our camping experience and determined that it’s been a long journey together, and we’ve reached the age that creature comforts like a bathroom, kitchen, and warm bed at night plus being able to travel 4-500 miles a day and be able to set up / take down camp quickly is definitely a step up and we’re going to try this set up for awhile, but I’m still looking for the perfect rig/ set up to enjoy our travels with.

A long pot but that’s our story on how we got here. Next adventure is looking into this Boondocking thing we hear about.
 
Last edited:
I loved your history story

I grew up in a family of six; we spent many summer vacations in tents, so when my wife and I first met, I introduced her to tent camping and roughing it; her family had never camped; they were dairy farmers in eastern South Dakota and rarely left the farm.

A year into our marriage (now 47 years old), I got into motorcycles; my first at age 22 was a 1979 Yamaha XS 750 Special, big enough to haul both of us and gear around. We did several camping trips and our first long-distance trip to Colorado to visit a couple we knew from my USAF years, which taught us how to minimize the load with backpacker gear, but a couple years into it and we started looking at cargo trailers to haul the increasingly necessary gear for month-long trips around the country.

While I was looking at trailers, my wife was checking out bikes she could hold up and stand flat footed. She had grown up with older brothers that had bikes. So it was only natural that she got her own, which doubled our carrying capacity. Several years passed with us averaging 10–25,000 a year touring. Than came kids and camping out of station wagons until one of Mary’s uncles let us try out his sidecar rig, a 1978 Yamaha XS11, which was perfect for 2 young children and all our gear on both bikes. Life was good, but the distance of our trips decreased due to children's activities and our chiropractic practice.

Kids graduated; we had a little more time and money to resume our longer trips, so we invested in bigger bikes, Moto Guzzi’s, which were very comfortable long-distance cruisers, but getting older after a few years, we invested in a pop-up camper to pull behind my bike.

The only downfall of this was we discovered the ease of driving all day 500-600 miles and the simplicity/luxury of 5-10 minutes to set up and take down camp, but the real problem was, with all that space, we could take all the tools and gear we wanted, and we did. Lesson learned was that pulling is no problem, but stopping is.

Then we got into sport touring bikes, which don’t handle trailers all that well but are amazing on 2-lane back roads, so we went back to tent camping and did a combination, with sport touring bikes for shorter trips and the cruisers with trailers for month-long trips.

Life was/is good, but as our practice grew and got busier, we couldn’t go as far. So we started looking at Toy Hauler trailers. I am no fan of pulling a 25-30 foot long rig behind a pickup truck. On bikes, we would often pass these rigs and watch them getting thrown around in the wind driving across the planes. So I was really interested in these.

But one of my bucket list trips was to attend the annual Mo-Kan Moto Guzzi rally in Missouri, but it’s always in late September, and on a bike you need to pay close attention to the weather. As we’ve aged, we’ve become more fair weather riders; we’ve paid our dues ridding in bone chilling rainy weather, so we rented a 27-foot Class C and towed our bikes there and then decided to tour Missouri and North Eastern Arkansas, which was a great experience, but I didn’t care for driving that rig through the mountains and back roads to get to areas where we wanted to tour on the bikes. We also rented a camper van for another trip, without a trailer, and while the ease of driving the 22-foot van was great, we didn’t like the cramped feeling of the van.

So this July we purchased our first 23-foot 2019 Thor Fourwinds 23U with only 4000 miles on it, which seemed a bit more manageable and allowed us to comfortably pull a trailer with our sidecar rig (Mr. WWilson our emotionally needed Standard Poodle) rides in the sidecar, while Mary rides passenger.

While sitting by a fire one night recently, we were discussing the evolution of our camping experience and determined that it’s been a long journey together, and we’ve reached the age that creature comforts like a bathroom, kitchen, and warm bed at night plus being able to travel 4-500 miles a day and be able to set up/ttake down camp quickly is definitely a step up, and we’re going to try this set up for awhile, but I’m still looking for the perfect rig/setup to enjoy our travels with.

A long pot, but that’s our story on how we got here. Next adventure is looking into this Boondocking thing we hear about.

We were tent campers and international travellers. Every 2 years, we'd take a trip over seas and go camping in the mean time. But COVID hit and we couldn't go overseas, so, having saved for that, my wife decided she wanted a bathroom and a warm bed. I said we spent Athens on an RV. But we fell in love with the RV life. Now we own our second RV, a 36-foot Class A Thor Windsport. We go out at least monthly for 11 months of the year.
 
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