Does anybody have advice on getting ready for a trip ?

[stevek]

Seems like it takes me a lot of time and work, getting my Born Free ready for a trip.
You know... like loading, stocking up, checking everything, cleaning, etc.
Maybe I am just unorganized.
Any words of wisdom?
Thanks.

[bcope01]

Nature of the beast, plan on minimum of a day (and I have mine parked beside my home).

Bill

[Mike Jean Bandfield]

This all seems pretty elementary but it doesn't hurt to repeat it every now and then for those who are new to RV'ing.

First we setup as much RV dedicated housekeeping as possible. We have linens, pillows, towels, batteries, maps, books & dvds, grandkid stuff, bbq, folding chairs, first-aid kits, soaps/cleaning supplies, small vacuum, dishes, pots, pans, flashlights, a lot of tools, and some clothing (i.e., jackets, hats, rain gear), and even some canned and dry foods (i.e., salt, pepper, flour, sugar, soups etc.) all dedicated to the RV and permanently stored there and ready to go. We also have a cupboard in the garage that doesn't freeze and we can move all the freezeables easily from the RV to the warm cupboard and back to the RV as needed. I have read about people who also keep a set of travel clothes in the RV. This practice greatly reduces the amount of time required to get ready. Ever wanted a new set of pots and pans for your home?...put the old ones in the RV permanently.

We keep a set of 6 RV trip related checklists on a cell phone (Android) app called Simple Note (i.e., Kitchen [food/cooking/refer/pantry/cleaning and menu related], Chassis [ie., engine/genny/tires/batteries/], Electronics [i.e., PCs/phones/TVs/GPS/radios/batteries &chargers/cables/antennas/], Misc. House Checklist, and Personal [ie., meds, clothes, toiletries, etc]. The checklist feature of Simple Note makes it easy to clear and check lists and reuse them for the next trip. Before the Droid we'd keep the checklists as documents on the computer and print them out to use before each trip. I shared a number of these lists on Usenet 25 years ago and today there are many lists on the net that are very useful as a foundation for building your own.

We can add water and get away for a weekend trip within a couple of hours. Longer trips take more planning but the actual packing is not more than 2-3 hours.

When we come home the RV gets restocked as part of the storage process. Laundered things which belong in the RV go right back to the RV.

Mike

[David and Susan Bratt]

Lists lists lists - ours are still on paper
When one lives in a high rise condo in downtown Minneapolis one does not have the luxury of loading over several hours let alone several days. As much as possible is permanently stored in Rover - kitchen equipment, linens, travel books, first aid, tools, folding chairs and table - and even the little stuff - umbrellas and flashlights. We load everything into the car and transfer it all to the motorhome - sometimes in a parking lot. Groceries give us an opportunity to stop along the way.

[Dude]

Are you going away for a weekend or week(s)? I think that makes a difference.

Mostly I do weekend camping. One of the things I love about the RV -vs- my old popup is that I can leave a lot of stuff in there. I only need to pack my cloths for the weekend and food. For a weekend if I forget something I just do without or borrow from the group I normally camp with.

I am going on a week trip at the end of June. For that I will take everything out of each closet/drawer and repack so I know what is where. I will also use a list to make sure I have everything and plan out the schedule and menu.

[stevek]

Thanks everybody.
I have trouble packing for the long trips. Usually the 2 to 4 week trips.
About the time we are ready to leave home, I am ready for a nap.

Also I only drive about 2-3 hours a day.
Anymore than that, just too much stress, too much work.

How many hours a day do you drive?
Wonder what the average is?

[shilohdad]

I am like you, Steve. I don't like long travel days. It's supposed to be a vacation. Right? I will on occasion drive up to 6 hours, sometimes even a smidge more, if we REALLY need to just get someplace quickly. But once in our target area (our trips tend to be sight-seeing trips, not stay in one place trips), we try to keep travel time down to 1-3 hours per day.

I can also commiserate with you about wanting to take a nap after the packing. Luckily, we are retired so we spread the packing out over about a week. We may be a little OCD, as our packing list runs to almost 9 pages with 3 columns a page. I keep it on a Microsoft Access database. It is extremely detailed and shows exactly where in the RV everything is. The first trip of the season we inventory everything, as some stuff we don't want to freeze comes in for the winter. Subsequent trips involve mainly checking our foodstuffs, clothing, toiletries and meds. Everything else pretty much lives in the RV for the season.

Happy trails,

Joe

[rhyde]

So far we haven't used list. Typically, I start the refrigerator and fill the water tank the night before we plan to leave. We keep the rig stocked with the basics (bedding, kitchen utensils, toiletries, etc). We generally go for 2 - 3 days at a time and travel light, 2 - 3 changes of clothing. A couple DVDs from my daughters extensive collection, our meds, jackets if it might get cool and we're good to go. We pick up groceries on the way. I generally look over the map ahead of time (we have GPS but only use it occasionally) and pick out a general route. We generally like to putter along back roads and avoid 4-lanes and cities. We sometimes will drive 5 - 6 hours a day, stopping for anything that catches our interest.

With my retirement in 2 weeks, we'll be doing longer trips so I'm thinking some check lists may be a good idea.

[jeffcarp]

We wouldn't travel long distances ideally but I feel like that is really a stage of life issue more than anything else. As working parents with school age children, we have very distinct windows of travel. If our goal is to explore new places and we have a defined window of time that we can travel within, we have no choice but to push through and get there and home. I know many people in the forums say it is about the journey and not the destination and that is true until it is not true.

I find that this takes discipline to ensure that you understand your physical limits and get proper amounts of sleep in order to safely drive the RV for extended periods of time. No way would I jeopardize the safety of my family because I felt like I had to get somewhere. I try to plan our trips such that we do not drive more than 9 hours in a day but have greatly exceeded that a couple times. One time we drove from the northern atlantic coast of Florida to southern Missouri in a day which was about 13 hours. Last summer we left New Jersey and drove straight through to Iowa which was about 16 hours.