The Accidental Trailerist Is Finally, Truly On the Road

How I Became an "Accidental Trailerist"

After 10 months of full-time RV living, we are finally on the road. I've promised friends and family that I would share our journey with a blog, and since I have only a vague idea how to blog, I'll approach it like the old way of learning to swim: JUMP IN! I figure finesse will come later, if I can just keep afloat while I learn the strokes.

Which is kind of how we found ourselves living in our travel trailer; we just JUMPED IN!

Last year, we found ourselves suddenly on our own (things can change unexpectedly), with an empty house we didn't really want and that was really too much work and took too much money to run for just the two of us. 

Meanwhile, we had this large travel trailer that we accidentally bought the previous year. I pride myself on being financially cautious and on making a dollar work hard, so I'm kind of embarrassed about how we came to have this trailer. Just heed this warning and draw your own conclusions.  Do not, I repeat DO NOT, go to an RV show just for fun, or just to look, unless you have seriously considered the possible outcome of your outing. If you do not have a plan, or if there is any chance you and your spouse could misunderstand each other, and you still persist on going to an RV show to see all those gorgeous rolling palaces, do not--did I say DO NOT?--take more than a little pocket cash. Do not take a checkbook, even if your account is almost empty (they take postdated checks). Do not take a credit card. And do not let them just see what kind of loan you could qualify for. Oh, and did I mention, do not buy an RV  for which you will have to buy a new tow vehicle, because what you have couldn't possibly pull something that size?

Anyway, 10 months ago, we packed ourselves into our travel trailer and headed for the Washington coast, where we spent 7 months in mostly rain while we helped my daughter and her husband during an international adoption of two special needs boys. Most of the time we lived in the trailer and were on hand to help with whatever they needed, except for a month or so that we moved into the house to take care of their first 3 children while they traveled to Ukraine 2 or 3 times. I say that because my son-in-law went twice, and my daughter 3 times (the third time to bring their new sons home). I went with her for that trip, and my husband and son-in-law managed to make it through 2 weeks of childcare, housework, cooking, and everything else. They sure were happy when we came back. You can read all about their wonderful adoption adventure here.

After that, we traveled back to the house, which is in Eastern Washington, where we spent 2 months on painting and repair (well, much of the time we spent waiting for the rain to stop), still living in the trailer, as we have a wonderful renter in the house. The house looked so good when we got done, we thought about moving back in, but we got over it. Finally, at the end of July, we traveled to northwest Montana, where we both grew up, and visited family and enjoyed a family reunion.  Last Wednesday, we finally took to the road. So, while we have been living in the trailer for 10 months, we've really only just begun our journeys. 

Please join us--we're not sure where we're going, but you're welcome to come along. 

Our Little Home

 

Here's our little house. It's a travel trailer. If a trailer is a fifth-wheel trailer, it's called a fifth-wheel trailer. One like ours is called a travel trailer. This one measures 34' from rear bumper to the front of the hitch (the trailer part is about 30' long), and has 2 slides (slide-out rooms). It's not a "Four Season" trailer, which we would have preferred but we didn't know what we were doing when we bought this. Trailers have varying degrees of weather protection, including so-called "Arctic" packages, with heated, enclosed water and waste tanks and better insulation to better handle cold weather--I'm sure they handle hot weather better, too. In a year or 2 or 3, if we decide this is the life for us, we will upgrade to more of a "Four Season" model with more full-time amenities. While I have seen people in Montana winter in something like this, it's grim. We did quite well last winter in Aberdeen, Washington, where it only occasionally freezes, and then only maybe down to 28F, and it's thawed by the end of the day. I don't believe we'll attempt wintering in any more severe winter than that, at least not in this trailer.

Behind the trailer you can see our tow vehicle. Here's another lesson learned the hard way: be sure to buy an adequate tow vehicle. When we bought the trailer, we had a Ford F-150. We knew it wasn't up to this job, so searched out and purchased a very nice Ford F-250. Unfortunately, we again didn't know what we were doing, and while it had a tow package, it really didn't have enough power and we were right there with the big rigs, crawling along, by the time we got to the top of any significant hill. So this spring, having learned more about what we really needed, we bought this 2002 Ford F-250 with a 7.3L diesel engine. It is our first diesel vehicle and we love it. It has the power we need, although we do miss the 4-wheel drive our previous F-250 had. Well, at least we're on the road with a capable tow vehicle, and didn't I just say we weren't going to spend the winter in cold, snowy places?