Posted in Blog Series

#1: Adventures in RV Travel

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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We are getting ready to take a trip in our RV! We’re going to play snow birds this winter. We don’t every winter, but we do most winters. We have a favorite place we go in Florida (a surprise for a later post). We’ve been working on our RV for a month to get it road ready and ready to accommodate us on the inside, along with our small dog, Betsy, and our yellow cat, Tigger. Everyone travels!

Getting a RV road ready is no fun. It’s a great big job. It’s a good thing my traveling companion is a good mechanic or the cost of getting the RV in good shape would be prohibitive. All that mechanical stuff is not much fun, though. The systems are complicated. Like a truck, but more complicated. I think there are a couple of other things we have to do and the RV will be ready to roll mechanically.

 

Our RV used to be considered to be fairly large but no more. There are some really big ones out there! Ours is only between 35-40 feet and is certainly not new, but it is nice enough. We have the conveniences we need. Plenty of room for two adults and pets. Unfortunately, I can’t help drive because I’m too short to reach the pedals! It’s a standard shift which is no problem for me but when the pedals are two feet away from your feet, not even cushions behind you help!

We hired a housesitter to live at our home while we are gone. He’ll be here the day we leave, but he’ll come by before to get the key, the instructions for the alarm system, and the other information he needs. I hope he doesn’t get snowbound here!

I’ve checked the weather on the day we leave. All clear! We just recently had a snow so I was worried. It’s always a roll of the dice when you leave in January. No way can you take the chance of getting an RV out on the snow. There would be danger in that. We would have to leave either early or late if snow was predicted either here or along the way. There is a mountain we have to cross between here and there but nice weather is predicted there as well, even at the top.

I hope you enjoy this blog series. I’m going to be doing lots of things along the way and when we get to our destination. I’ll be taking many interesting side trips as well. I’ll take all of you along with me. Maybe I can bring you some Florida sunshine and some laughs! I would love to hear your travel stories!

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Author:

Freelance writer, blogger, aspiring novelist. Former career as a college prof in finance. Encore career as freelance writer for a number of financial websites.

24 thoughts on “#1: Adventures in RV Travel”

  3. Thank you for participating in #JusJoJan while I was here. I hope you can avoid all danger on your way to Florida and I hope you have a great time. Travel safe.

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    1. Hello fellow snowbird! Where will you end up? On the way home, we will stay near Port St. Joe. Going to Florida, we won’t stop. We are on our way to a RV Park near Ft. Myers, Pine Island. What’s your destination?

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      2. Where are you traveling from? Sure hoping the weather is good for our travels. After a week in Destin we are headed to Ft. Myers for a week. (jan24-30). I nearly booked a site on Pine Island! (it looked very nice). However, I feared staying on the island would be too isolated and too far from sightseeing and beaching near Ft. Myers. So we will be staying at Tamiami Community, which is an over 55 community/RV park… then headed to Collier-Seminole State Park near Marco. We will head back to Illinois via the Atlantic side – sites yet to be determined.

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      3. I can’t believe we’ll both be in Ft. Myers. Pine island isn’t isolated. You have to drive about 8 miles to get to Cape Coral and then Ft Myers. We’ve stayed there for 5 years now. This will be year 6. There is so much to see. There are some barrier islands off Pine Island for day trips that are wonderful. We should keep in touch. Maybe you could come to Pine Island one day and we could take a day trip over to one of the barrier islands?

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      4. We have not stayed in the Ft. Myers area in the past. Would like to visit Cayo Costa SP, Captiva, Sanibel. Are those the barrier islands you are referring to? Will look forward to reading your RV Adventures blog. Perhaps I should do the same! Will keep in touch via our blogging.

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  6. Hi Rosemary! We fulltime travel in our RV and we have loved hearing about your adventures! We just left Pensacola, FL, not quite as warm but we want to return to lower Florida next year. Safe Travels!

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    1. Hi! I’m so glad you found me! I will be following your site with great interest! We are semi-experienced RV’ers, but you are very experienced! I will be reading every word, believe me. I need some monitoring devices for the RV so I can monitor the conditions for my pets when we are gone. Any tips? Thanks for reaching out! I’ll be reading you!

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      1. Hello! We are still very new to this world but I think we researched a lot before diving in. It depends on your setup for pet monitors. The two most popular types seem to be over WiFi or over Cellphone/data connection.

        WiFi is what we have. Essentially because unless we are plugged in (which usually has even a crummy signal in the park), the dogs are never unattended in the rv. It doesn’t use much signal at all so even a weak connection allows it to transmit. You still need to log onto the app on a mobile device. We use our cellphones. Piper NV is what the device is called and we found it on Amazon 🙂

        Some have been using cellphone connection. Your best bet would be to contact your cell phone provider and see who they partner with. Verizon has one and I’m pretty sure the rest do too.

        Sorry that’s a little bit to digest! I’ll be following your journey too!

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      2. Thanks for the info! No time to order anything before this trip. I didn’t know such things existed, but I will now know next time! Yes, the park signals are pretty bad. I do use a smart phone, of course. My dog will go most places with us, except for short trips, like out to eat. She recently had a seizure and we are afraid to leave her too long. I do set up a personal hot spot so I can supplement the WiFi signals when I need to. We use ATT. Nice to meet you. This will be fun!

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      3. If you have 2 smart phones and want to leave one behind… you can set it to auto answer video call. Make sure you have a room thermometer somewhere in view… it’s basically the original version of monitoring 🙂

        We use TMobile now but we just switched so I don’t know all their extra stuff yet, lol. It was wonderful to meet you! I agree! It’s not that easy to find someone like us!

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  7. I hadn’t thought about it before–but I suppose one of the advantages of FULL-time RVing is that we don’t have to get over that “road-ready” hump since we’re always living in it. 😉 I’ll look forward to following the journey

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