Our home on wheels

After a few days on the road, we're starting to settle into our slightly-smaller-than-our-apartment-in-Manhattan home. This baby is 25 feet long, comes complete with A/C, a fridge and freezer, microwave, stove, two sinks, shower, full size bed, and a luxurious changing table / car seat hookup for the little one (also known as a dining room table we converted).

Driving it around isn't so hard - just take everything slowly and it's no big deal. We've found it to be just like a rental moving truck. Complex parking maneuvers require someone to jump out and direct, but otherwise it's straightforward, with a low-gear mode for mountains - even 15mph switchbacks descending mountains in AZ and CA have required almost no brakes, really! - and cruise control for interstates.

We've learned a lot about RV'ing in the past few days as well. It turns out there's a complex set of decisions you need to make and local rules you need to navigate when seeking a spot to shut down each night: Somewhere near where you want to end up, is there a campground with "full hookups"? If so, you're money. If not, do they have water, or do you need to rely on bottled water & your water tank? Do they have electricity, or can you run your generator? (Some places have specific generator hours, or are "no generator" grounds. Generators are super loud!) Do you have enough gas to run the generator long enough and get to the next gas station? If it's been a few days, does the place have a "dump station"? (Yep, you can't go too long building up sewage...) Do they allow you to hook up to their water supply to refill your water tank, or do you need to skip a shower?

And finally, you really have no idea whether there will be phone service when you get there. In our five nights so far, we managed to do three in a row with no service, which makes things like finding points of interest, planning the next day, and locating a running route interesting challenges. A combination of old-school maps and park brochures, along with winging it, have seen us through so far.

It is pretty cool being able to drive pretty much anywhere and relax in comfort. I had imagined you could just shut it down and sleep anywhere too, but all towns, cities, and parks we've been through have laws against overnighting on streets and parking lots, so there's not quite full freedom with this.

Overall, we're loving our decision to go with a rental RV for an epic trip like this, especially with a little one needing frequent feeding/changing stops. It's allowed us to get to some amazing places, roast marshmallows over a fire, and even heat up a leftover chimichanga for dinner.

Traveling this way has also made us realize how little space we really need to live comfortably. We have absolutely everything we need in our little metal box. Next step tiny house? Haha, you never know...