14 Things I learned on my first solo trip

I’ve been RVing since I was 7 years old. My parents were teachers and we traveled all over the country during our summer vacations. When I married my husband, we continued the tradition for almost 4 decades. I’ve traveled in everything from pop-up campers, to travel trailers, to fifth wheel campers, and motor homes. I’ve done the RV life for almost 50 years. BUT, I never did the driving or setting up. When I was a child, my father did those things and after I was married, my husband took care of those chores while I took care of everything else. I made the reservations, did the navigating, packed everything, prepared all the meals, took care of everything inside…come to think of it, I got the short end of the stick. Nonetheless, while I knew what had to be done to set up, I never actually did it myself. I also had traveled across the country more than once, but I’d never taken the wheel.

I was kind of like that person who thought they could swim because they saw someone do it once.

So when my husband died in November of 2016 and I decided to start RVing again, I was very confident in my abilities and experiences as far as RV life was concerned. After all, I had thousands of miles and hundreds of campgrounds under my belt. How hard could it be?

I bought a 24 foot, class C motor home, spent weeks purchasing what I needed to stock up and then headed out on my first trip.

 

I was a little nervous, but determined to tame the beast, to master the challenge…I was woman, hear me roar!

Okay, you probably get the picture.

I climbed into my RV with my 83 year-old mother and started our 300 mile journey to visit my niece and her family in South Carolina. (I still consider this a solo trip as my mother was unable to help with anything and actually added some additional caregiving duties) Things went smoothly until the rain hit—I’m talking a hillbilly hurricane—and all the people in West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina decided to drive on route 77 at the same time.

That’s when things got a little twitchy.