retrospective: month one
Miles traveled: 520
Number of stops: 7
Site locations: La Quinta, Newport Beach, Modjeska Canyon, San Bernardino, San Dimas, Orange, Anaheim
Our first month of full-time RV living has long come and gone, but I thought it'd be interesting to look back and see what was accomplished in those... exciting 30 or so days (and do so for other past months or milestones).
We originally planned on staying in Phoenix through Christmas, but I asked Chris if we could go out to California instead for the holidays ("yes, of course, I'll do anything you want," etc, etc), which shortened our renovation timeline a bit. We had been staying with his parents since the week before Thanksgiving. I really wanted to give them a break. They'll deny we were a burden, and I appreciate it when people are polite and lie to me, but, really, we were there for weeks mooching off their hospitality and knowledge, and we had brought along all of our junk and animals to their house, too.
scenery on the way to our first destination.
Getting the trailer to a place where we were happy with it before taking off was borderline miserable. It was the most work we've ever done in our short lives. And we were still miserable the first two or so days of camping because we were in a 80% complete home and pressed for time because of the holidays. But once we got over the initial ramping-up-and-acclimating phase, everything settled into place and our life on wheels seemed manageable. For the most part.
Following the renovation process we declared January the "month of leisure", and that was the best decision we could've made.
WHAT WENT WELL
1. Life seemed pretty normal. The trailer felt like a normal, real home. After only a month of living in it, Free Real Estate was just like any other place I'd lived.
2. Setting up and breaking down became second-nature. It's down to a science and can be done FAST if needed. We're Extremely Ready for a zombie apocalypse.
3. WOW there was a lot of space in our fifth wheel after loading it up. There's more space than we'll ever need. There are multiple cabinets completely empty because we don't need too many things, as it turns out. The process of purging our things - which I may make its own separate post - was surprisingly successful. This is probably much harder to do when you've lived in a single place for many years, but we moved a lot prior to this so we were already somewhat lean.
4. The cats have loved it. The dogs are fine with it.
WHAT COULD'VE BEEN BETTER
1. We didn't finish our renovations. Nothing that got in our day-to-day lives, of course, but I was met with frustration when I came across something that still wasn't complete. I kept putting things off because I, ironically, just wanted to be "done" with renovations.
2. This place got dirty - immediately. I need to find a better maintenance solution. Part of it is the animal hair, and part of it is that most of the places we've stayed (and will end up staying) are gravel/dirt instead of grass/pavement. Combine this with the fact we haven't figured out the best place for everything, so we're in a constant state of tidying up. Thankfully, it's only 300 square feet of tidying.
3. There was always. a. problem. Water leaked through the insulation on the underbelly when we were sanitizing our fresh water tank. The awning ripped when we brushed against a tree. The fridge shorted out every time we moved. I discovered the toilet leaking. The water pump broke. I've finally subscribed to the notion that everything will need to be replaced at least once.
ACTION ITEMS (+ how they've worked out)
1. Finish the renovations. Just get it over with.
This was mostly done. The bathroom sink that I'm going to refinish "soon" stares back at me every day.
2. Establish a routine. This is mostly to mitigate clutter: wash all dishes after every meal, do laundry when the hamper is full (and not when it's overflowing), put everything away the night before we travel so it isn't a hurdle for getting on the road.
We're still getting good at this.
3. Keep reminding ourselves that everything will break. It keeps some sanity.
We're perfect at this.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how the first month went. If we felt the pressure to maintain an already-running-business in the midst of doing this thing we're doing, it would've been a complete nightmare. Thank goodness we had the breathing room to react to problems as they came up, go to Disneyland, and sit on our butts and play video games all day.