The first month of our nascent adventure was spent collecting information, fantasizing and planning. I have already described some of the planning and fantasizing. The information collection involved a lot of Googling of “RV fulltime” and scanning the offerings at Amazon for relevant books. The book that seemed to be closest to the center of my target was Steeles on Wheels by Mark and Donia Steele (Capital Books, Inc., 2002). Yeah, it was a bit dated, but the subtitle grabbed me: A Year on the Road in an RV. Bullseye!
The Cover
It arrived a few days later and I immediately started reading. It was everything I had hoped for and more. It turns out that they had made their RV decision – fifth wheel – for the same reasons we had (one engine to maintain, no car to tow) and had taken a dog with them on the road! Bringing our dogs along on our adventure was something that we (a) had to do and (b) really didn’t want to think about. The Steeles had some pointed advice to offer on that topic.
The organization of the book was charming. Mark or Donia would author a chapter about their adventure, in more-or-less chronological order, alternating with chapters of practical advice on fulltime living in an RV. And sprinkled in, for comic relief, were chapters ostensibly penned by Cleo, the pup, written from the perspective of a dog.
What I learned:
- A rookie driver is dangerous. Mark “dinged” his RV in the first week on the road by misjudging the proximity of a steel post during a refueling stop. I am generally a fine driver, but my weakness is cutting corners too closely on right turns. I have run over many a curb by cutting the corner too tightly. I even seriously damaged my old BMW by encountering a high curb during a right turn. Cutting a corner too closely when hauling a 40-foot trailer was all too possible.
- Some RV parks are more welcoming to dogs than others. And parks in general are more dog-compatible when they are not packed. Having convenient places to walk the dogs will be very important to me when selecting RV campgrounds. I say “me” because Jett has already made it clear that dog walking will be my responsibility. She will be too busy brewing coffee.
- Not every dog enjoys the RV lifestyle. They had to find another home for their dog before the year was up because he got too nervous meeting new people (and dogs) nearly every day.
- A good way of categorizing expenses (which I have already adopted) is this:
C – Campground fees.
D – Diesel fuel and other road expenses, including vehicle insurance.
E – Entertainment.
G – Groceries (i.e., anything consumed in the RV).
H – Health care.
R – Restaurants (i.e., anything consumed away from the RV, including drinks).
S – Sundries, including toiletries, stamps, membership fees and small items for the RV.
U – Utilities, including propane, mail forwarding fees, internet fees and telephone.
X – Other. Gifts, major vehicle repairs, dog expenses and anything else that didn’t fit elsewhere.
- Every town, no matter how small or off the beaten path, has something of interest. You just have to look. Like the late summer snowshoe softball game in Tomahawk, WI. Really.
- It is fun to keep a journal of your travels and to mark off each state that you have visited on a map of the United States. But – and this is important – it is not an official visit to a state until you have had sex there.
The Steeles reported that their monthly expenses from their first year on the road averaged out at $3,900. That was in 2002. They were appalled at that number, but I will be thrilled if we can keep it below $4,000.
Some of the informative topics were things I had not thought about. “How Do You Get Your Mail” talked about mail-forwarding services, for example. I expect that we will be able to transact most of our financial affairs online – something the Steeles could not do. But we will still have some mail. I added that to my list of things to arrange.
“What Do You Do All Day?,” “How Do You Find Campgrounds?,”How Do You Decide Where To Go?,” “How Do You Find Doctors?” and other similar topics were all very thought-provoking. This was going to involve more work and planning that I had originally thought. But the Steeles were obviously so thrilled with their lifestyle that nothing they said convinced me that it was either impossible or a bad idea. To the contrary.
Before I was halfway through the book I realized that Jett needed to read it, too. When I suggested that to her, she asked that I read her the first chapter (my eyes are much better than hers for reading – I don’t use reading glasses, a fact which constantly annoys her). I was very happy to do so. I haven’t read her the entire book yet, but I will.
Some of the chapters have been made obsolete by technological advances. The Steeles faced a constant struggle to find pay phones and ways to connect their laptop to the internet. Cellular phones and WiFi have mostly solved those problems, which makes fulltiming even easier for us than for the Steeles.
Anyway, it was a great book for us. I don’t know if the Steeles are still on the road, but by the time Jett and I head out to look for America I intend to track them down and see if we can meet. I want to thank them in person. And maybe loan them one of our dogs.