Life in an RV (for a week)

One of the most-oft questions people ask upon the return from a trip is "how was it?" I think we especially got asked this question since we've been back because 1) we went to a cool place, 2) we traveled with teenagers, 3) we traveled with teenagers across country for a week, and 4) we were in a confined, vehicular space of recreation for said week. 

To answer: everyone survived.

One of the handiest of things was being able to park when we wanted to use our space. On the first night, we parked in a Walmart parking lot somewhere in Arkansas and slept there:

Now, sleeping ended up being very hard for me. That's weird, because generally I can sleep anywhere at any time. I did not sleep more than two-hours at a time for the whole week; I would sleep, wake up, repeat throughout the night. In order to keep the rig cool, we had to run the loud AC unit (and sometimes generator). If someone so much as blinked, you could feel it when you were laying down in the bed. We had to sleep with all the doors open for air circulation and that was the longest amount of time that I had no privacy (and that Randall and I had no married-partner privacy). Trips to the bathroom at places like rest stops and Walmarts became the only moments of privacy any of us experienced for the week and that was more draining than I anticipated.

For most of our lunches, we tried to find a park to set up and eat. We'd stabilize the rig, pop out a slide, and folks could eat a lunch (hot or cold!). We did dinner that way a few times (I planned the snot out of meal prepping for RV trips).

A small, but super-convenient space

It was also handy that everyone could spread out during the drive. That was probably the most convenient part of having the RV. In a minivan or station wagon, everyone would be snug, crammed even, and sitting for what ended up being especially-long drives. In the RV, folks could sit on the couch or at the dinette and could lay down if needed. So in that sense, it served its purpose. The kids could watch movies on different TVs. Additionally, without the availability of a bathroom on board, we would have been stopping at 45 minute- to hour- intervals to accommodate my amazing ability to stay hydrated. 

We initially evaluated that renting the RV (through RV Share) would probably end up costing about the same as renting a car, driving, staying in hotels, eating out all week, etc. After we tallied totals, we probably spent a little more than we intended, but I also think we did the trip our way and it worked out the best it could have possibly worked out for our family. We will all have memories from the week that we will carry for the rest of our lives. 

I definitely enjoyed the freedom of just being able to park wherever and enjoy.
Here, we parked at a city-managed park, ate our lunch, and the kids played in the river for a bit.

And Randall and I have talked about getting our own little rig for retirement. I enjoyed the experience enough to not reject the idea in its entirety.