Forced to Boondock: What We Learned the Hard Way About Dry Camping

we're not baby our beers anymore now we're toddler our peers now that we've docked welcome back to the RV Odd Couple my name is John and I'm Mercedes long story short we sold most of our possessions in pursuit of freedom independence and adventure because life is so short it is and in this video we're gonna share with you our first time bone donkey we're gonna share the things that we did well and things that we learned the hard way and we are by no means experts in fact we're the opposite but I think that's what makes this so awesome is that we're gonna share that perspective and hopefully you are V veterans out there can give us a couple of tips because we still struggle just a little bit yeah with the help of the RV odd squad we have advanced from babies to toddler RVs we think yeah and just like anything else you cannot know everything when you set out as a matter of fact we're learning this is always something new to learn right but we did find out some things that we didn't expect we're gonna share those with you today so let's set the stage we were in Western Washington and we were headed to Colorado in four days so that is almost 1,300 miles in a very quick amount of time and we had never done that before right and so the first tip that we would share is prepare but know that you can't be a hundred percent prepared exactly you know we've never boondock before now mind you we started this adventure 9 a little bit more than nine months ago but we've only travelled on average three to five hours a two to three hundred miles each leg of the trip when we would stop for a couple of three weeks at each location this was the biggest hop that we were going to make since we started and both of us had a lot of I don't know it was just weird anticipation and these funny feelings about driving that long of a distance with such a large rig so I found myself watching a lot of YouTube videos about learning how to do long trips and tips and that sort of thing and that was really helpful because little things like have snacks that have protein instead of solid carbs meal plans so that you don't have to be eating fast food all the time we got fuel the night before we charged all of our devices there weren't a lot of Passport America places on our direct route so I had added about four hours of driving to save on camping it was a terrible plan but having the effort and the forethought and planning ahead of time does help a lot so it all started when we looked at our traveling mailbox and we have a letter from coach net which is weird because we've never used coach net come to find out with the purchase of a new Forest River they give you one free year of coach net we had no idea that we had coaching at that whole time and Camping World failed to tell us because they wanted to sell us a good Sam's policy right so the day before we left we're like let's just get roadside with coach net it's better to have it and not need it than vice versa and we asked the lady when is it active right we knew - leaving the next day she told us that it would become active at midnight that night so we were covered so yeah yeah so pay attention to those little signs and trust your gut it's there for a reason so then we set off on our journey first day of this long trip and things are not going right it's taken us forever to leave and then the tire minder starts beeping suddenly we were getting an o-5 signal from our tire minder we went to the booklet or the manual and we saw that we needed to change the batteries so luckily tire minder sends you extra batteries I went ahead and I Chad pulled over off to the side of the road in a safe place we replaced the batteries to all the sensors so we kept on driving it was strange about this trip is Mercedes and I kept pulling over every 15 or 20 miles cuz we just had this uneasy feeling right every rest stop we took a break every restaurant we would just pull over and I do a walk around on the rig and sure enough we pull into one rest stop and I notice a big bubble on the side of one of my tires we didn't even have to go to the bathroom there was no reason to stop at this rest stop and the location of the bubble was not an easy place to find right this was totally a god shot it's a god shop because when we pulled in the bubble was sitting on a place on the outside of the tire that was up near the rim but it gave me visual that I saw it right away and so he sees it and he tells me later that for a split second he considered to Katy I cannot tell her Sadie's like ah she's gonna she's gonna make us get stuck here work only 90 miles into our trip and I absolutely knew if I told her that was a bubble on the tire she was gonna force us to stay but better side of my conscious one I told Mercedes that we had a bubble and then suddenly we were really grateful that we had coach net that we gonna set up in high before we jump on the phone with coach net we tell him who we are we tell him what we're doing we ended up having to wait six hours at this red stop but it worked out perfectly because think about it we were parked on a rest stop not on the side of the road had we continued driving with the tire the way it was it would have popped either in Spokane or in these crazy mountains in Idaho so we stopped at the best possible time then when we were finally on our way we were kind of in a hurry and we're kind of trying to make up for lost time right so we had planned on doing about 360 miles each day of our trip we felt behind the eight ball right and it was a little frustrating sitting debts there but it was certainly the safest thing to do the other problem that we had is is that when the the tire company which was Goodyear showed up to replace our tire they did not bring us the correct tire we were running on earth rated tires they brought us an e rated tire I don't know why they thought it was a good idea to downgrade our time might not have had another F in stock right yeah so if they don't make it right we'll let you guys know the other thing that we learned from this hindsight is twenty-twenty when doing long trips like this it might not be a good idea to do them on a holiday weekend Labor Day weekend we didn't think about that so when we were trying to find places to stay we did encounter a lot of issues because a lot of places were all booked we did not plan on boondocking in this trip but it just unfolded that way cuz the tire it took so much of our drive time that we were just trying to make up for the lost time yeah that was probably my biggest mistake right we probably just should have stayed it was around six o'clock when they finished getting our tire fixed we probably should have just sat tight that night but instead I was sick and tired of sitting inside the RV on the side of a rest area and I wanted to get my miles in so I made the decision that we were gonna move forward and get as far as we possibly could and tried to hit our 360 mile mark so it's around eleven o'clock at night and we're driving through Montana and I want to sleep he needs to sleep and luckily we found a rest stop we hadn't planned to stay at that rest stop that night but we were so tired that it was one of those things out of necessity right and it was probably one of the best things that could have happened I was I told Mercedes go to sleep I was gonna drive through the night and just get us through this but you know she won that battle and I'm glad that she did I was tired it was probably unsafe to drive any further than we did so we pull in there this rest stop and there again we get another God shot right every space is filled cept there was one space waiting forest and so we were really excited to officially boondock the first time and I'm so glad that we stopped because I need John fully rested since he's the one doing the driving and when they say Montana's Big Sky Country isn't that the truth there's no lights and the highways as mostly reflectors and it was so dark by that time at night we had no idea we were right and when we woke up that next morning well show you it was gorgeous unbelievable plus when we pulled over and started setting the trek up truck up for the night man I've never seen stars so big and so bright as I did that night in Montana it was so beautiful so then the next day we set out we had gotten some rest and we changed our course that day we decided to stay at a RV park that day I couldn't find a good place to stay nearby with our Passport America app but luckily John had downloaded the all stays app it is it up it is a pay-for app but it was fantastic so I was able to find an RV park and again another God shot we got the last place once a gallon Labor Day weekend right and when we called this lady she said we have one spot left and I said you know can we just pull through without unattached RV and sure enough it was the biggest site that they had left so we just pulled into that spot for the night and it was perfect the simple act of taking showers being able to actually cook food and kind of reestablish yourself and replenish our water right I was so concerned on this trip that I emptied my tanks completely and I only filled my freshwater tank up to 25% just enough to get a day's right I wanted to keep that weight down as much as I possibly could so being able to stop in the middle of this trip and get showers and replenish our water get our bearings right was just perfect in the amount of time that we saved because John didn't have to disconnect the truck from the RV was awesome it was fantastic you know we pulled in I put in my sewer my water my electricity got everything charged up replenished my stuff dumped the tanks that we had built up the black tank for the first day's trip and that would be a big tip I would say if you're gonna do a long trip like that and you plan on boondocking some nights I would alternate having a boondocking night and a hookup night and a boondocking night and a hookup night like that it's so much nicer that way and now that we have the experience of boondocking one night right because you can't plan for everything I am finally starting to understand what my rig does now when I don't have sore and I don't have power and I can't run generators and I can't open my slides right you can plan for that but as you'll see coming up weed there was a few things that we hadn't planned for from now on we will and the next time that we take a trip I think we can probably go maybe two up to three nights of boondocking and rest stop areas right without having to do pay now I'm learning the limitations of my rig but what about the limitations of your wife it was fun awesome it really was and so we were still in Montana the next day we did something insane John drove through all of Wyoming in one day yeah we had just crossed the Wyoming Colorado border we found a rest stop that had one spot left it was loaded with truckers it was a great time to stop because it was around 7 o'clock at night if your vehicle is less than 20 feet just because you have a tiny 5x5 u-haul thing in the back don't be parking where the RVs and the semis are yeah I'd remember that most of these guys in trucks they're working guys we didn't even run our generator because we knew we were only sleeping there for the night so we never started the generator up and I had replenished all of our stuff so we didn't really need to it was nice though to open up the slides you know and move around our RV because it's our home on the we did not keep the slides open the entire time because sometimes when some eyes are trying to exit that can block their view so we just opened them up temporarily another thing that we did that really helped out when we were boondocking those nights is that we used paper plates one of the things we did find out is that living in an RV overnight with the slides pulled in can be tricky as much preparation as that Mercedes and I had done we forgot to put the coffee in an EZ locatable space right so good morning our first night of boondocking at a rest area and we just woke up had trouble falling asleep but Mercedes was where we couldn't get to because the slides were in so we had to open some eyes yeah yeah he's like there's not gonna be coffee this morning I'm like that's not an option she forced me to open the slides to get a coffee Mercedes has to have a coffee er she's kind of grumpy thank you baby you're good you're good to me so yeah don't just prepare the food make sure you can get access to the food and another thing that we did is we did instant coffee that time which that helped so there was less dirty dishes the fridge is easily accessible without opening up the slides but the kitchen drawers are totally inaccessible until you pop those slides out so baby steps for us I'm so grateful that we didn't decide let's go out and boondock for a week right we're doing it just the right way we're not tested it for a night then we took a break in a nice park for a night and then we Boone docked again and I think we're ready for two or three nights at this point and so now I want to talk about the three things that we loved about boondocking and then the three things that we did not like about it so the first thing that was awesome about boondocking for the first time is that it was so exciting I feel like I finally lived yeah we were on an adventure together we were going to brand new places neither one of us has ever visited before so it was an adventure right we're a team we were together we had we were going out into the unknown don't work it out and figure out as we go we were both a little stressed out starting out because we have never covered that many miles before but it kind of added to the adventure right of both of us having a little bit of fear and anticipation but as a team we got through it together well and that's the second one that we were a team and I think that was so good for marriage because it just brought us so much closer together yeah and speaking of being closer together the final thing that I absolutely loved about boondocking is that I was sleeping in my own bed yeah man remember when you RV full-time your home is with you this is a really cool concept right our bed is with us wherever we go and so it's absolutely wonderful having your home and all your belongings with you no matter where you go because you know where everything is in an RV one of the things that is a little uncomfortable is sleeping in a rest stop right now I'll tell you when we're in the middle of Montana that first night that was probably more apprehension with that one than anything else if there had been no one there my mind would have told me that there's a serial killer out there that stalks this truck stop and no one can hear me scream so having other people also boondocking that night made me feel more comfortable right and remember as soon as I got Mercedes and the baby in the house and I got Skippy all set my job at that point was to protect my family for the night and I thought of everything one of the things that was a struggle is that RV was really hot because we hadn't been running a/c in it all day so I immediately opened the windows but I knew only to open the windows and lock them in a certain level so as people somebody can't get inside the windows I went ahead and set up Skippy's blanket right in front of the door so that he would sleep right at the door I also went ahead and I had already had a pre plan on where I was going to keep the things necessary to protect my family and also that night I went to sleep with my fob autostart key to the truck remember we're still attached so if anything gets scary or hairy I can set the alarm off in the truck which is gonna alert my neighbors around me I would say the other mistake that I made was I pushed it too far right we had set this plan up to get 336 miles each day when we got stopped because of the ballooning of the tire and having to wait six hours I got up tight I wanted to stay be on time I wanted to stay you know and so I made some decisions that I probably shouldn't have made well and knowing your limitations - because you've done crazy 24-hour road trips in the past I was a lot younger man I'm realizing now I can't do the things that I used to do when I was younger I could stay up two or three days without sleeping one that when I was a younger man plus I have lower back problems in sciatica so I can't drive that far and before I start to become really uncomfortable in my seat so I think I probably learned most from this trip is don't push it and make sure that you have proper sleep not just the night before a couple nights before and all through the travel process thing that was not fun about boondocking was the resource management so managing electronics managing water and that sort of thing was a little bit tricky as just this is an area that we need to continue to learn and improve upon our rig and we love it it has a residential refrigerator right so I'm running off to batteries when I'm connected to the truck or when I'm plugged in it's fine but I can only be unplugged for a certain amount of hours before our food starts to go bad so everybody's rig is gonna be different and you're gonna learn as you go and what's cool about this trip is is that I know the things that I need to learn now I need to learn about how to measure my battery I know which things need to be charged in the truck in which things I can't charge in the rig I learned on this trip that a lot of my electrical outlets do not work when I'm not plugged in or running the generator right the only thing my battery's gonna run is some of the lights in the rig and the frigerator and the water pump everything else won't work so I learned that so these are things that are kind of I'm excited about now because when we did it the second night of boondocking I was more prepared Mercedes had a coffee already right the next morning you know and I had the things needed to be charged and you need to be charged and I knew what my limitations were with the resources that I had the other major tip I would give you guys is I am used to sleeping with a fan we got this geek air fan right and I'll tell you something one of the nice things about being in the truck stop running the fan kind of silenced the noise that you could hear is kind of like white noise right and the rig was so hot I never ever ever would have been able to go to sleep I could only open the windows to a certain amount right for safety purposes but I was able to run this and it's got a it's got five different levels of air but this thing is amazing I would highly suggest you get one it was a lifesaver for us because we couldn't run our generator when we was stopped at the truck stops electronics that are charged instead of them having to be plugged in made a big difference to as a lot of you know Mercedes and I started training other couples on how to build their YouTube channel right we're trying to help more people and recently we had one of our first students just knock a video out of the park and we're so proud of the work that they've done they've worked really hard to take a look at Mountain Beach's video on the new rig that they purchased hopefully you like it if you do like it subscribe to it and leave them a comment and tell them how good they're doing

Channel: RV Odd Couple

Views: 169,409

Keywords: rv living, boondocking, Boondocking RV, Boondocking truck, Boondocking Tips, Boondocking 101, dry camping tips, dry camping tips and tricks, dry camping battery power, free camping, free camping in colorado, free camping in Montana, rv life, rv lifestyle, dry camping, full time rving, full time rv living, fulltime rv, full time rv life, rv travel, rv living full time, full time rv living in a fifth wheel, full time rv living in a travel trailer, rv full time, RV, RVing, rver

Id: GNlhMgLSAx8

Length: 18min 29sec (1109 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 18 2019