What I Learned from 5 Days in a Rental RV

It was two hours dark already when it started to rain. Thankfully, we already had the the coordinates to our mystery destination plugged in as winter raindrops chased us down into the Grand Staircase.

“It is even beautiful in the dark,” I whispered, or tried to whisper over the wind and tire noise.

The high beams occasionally grazed the red walls sliding by like a sleeping leviathan. We came around a corner and a flash of lightning illuminated the cliffs and mesas that were opening up around us - but only for a second.

That moment had to last us until sunrise, when we opened the curtains to see where we had landed. It was worth the wait.

And now, RV life is completed - for the time being. We are home and settled with a snuggly cat and thank goodness. The question I’ve been getting a lot during the trip was, “Wait, what are you doing?? And why in a 30-foot RV??”

For the last 5 weeks, my partner, Jonathan, was tour managing for a British singer named Rhys Lewis (check him out!) who was opening for Julia Michaels. This was Rhys’ first US tour and he wanted to see the country in an RV. So Jonathan reserved a rolling home that would accommodate their team of four and set out on a 12,000 mile journey, criss-crossing the continent. The tricky thing with RVs though is that you generally return them where you picked them up. The tour started in Arizona and ended in Vancouver, Canada - and I eagerly volunteered to copilot the return journey.

Therefore, the RV was already settled into a “home” vibe by the time I climbed aboard last week. All the kinks had been worked out and there wasn’t much that I needed to do besides stow my stuff in a cubby and figure out where the silverware drawer was. 

With the boys headed back to the UK, we struck out into the rainy Vancouver night with no objectives, only a loose deadline/destination combo. We could stop at any park or town that looked intriguing, so we did.

Ogden, Utah ☑️
Mystic Hot Springs ☑️
Bryce Canyon ☑️
Red Canyon Park ☑️
Coral Pink Sand Dunes ☑️
Sunset Crater ☑️

All this had a two-edged feeling though. On the one hand, no agenda meant freedom to dawdle or skip along. On the other, I did sometimes regret not having full days to lounge around and get familiar with a landscape before moving on.

Brief backstory: when I first met Jonathan, he was shopping for a Sprinter van to convert into a mobile living arrangement. This was a huge bonus to me. But one thing led to another and life moved in a different direction. I still give him a hard time about pulling a bait-and-switch on me with the promise of van life. The prospect of living a pseudo van life for a little while was doubly appealing to me. A nice test-run to see if this was actually something we could do, I thought. But RV life - even one with no prescribed schedule - is different from the freedom and pace of actually living in your vehicle. 

For one thing, we (or rather, Jonathan) still drove late into the night and woke up early some days to maximize time on the road. And the whole point of van life, to me, is the ability to literally just veer off the road to go check out a cool rock formation in the middle of a field. This was decidedly more difficult with a 30-foot vehicle not designed for off-road activities.

BRYCE CANYON

Here are some of the pros and cons of RV life, in our experience:

PRO: Fewer bathroom stops! Having a toilet onboard (even a #1 only facility) was so nice. 
CON: #1 only. Truck stops and rest areas are still a frequent feature of the trip.

PRO: Fridge! We could keep actual food like cheese, eggs, fruit, veggies, and meats fresh and not have to rely on whatever meager “health” options are at the aforementioned truck stops.
CON: Fridge runs on propane. That means locating where to not only dump tanks, take on more water, and refuel, but also refilling the propane tanks along the way. Jonathan reports having refilled the propane tank three times total over the 6 weeks in the RV, which is not bad, but is an added expense and logistic to have in mind.

PRO: Real bed! I don’t like to think of myself as “high maintenance” when it comes to travel, but sleep is one of my priorities. Having a real mattress and real pillows was a huge plus, even if we did use our sleeping bags as covers. 
CON: Not exactly a quiet sleep. RVs are not airtight by any stretch of the imagination, so if sound is something that can keep you awake, be aware of where you park to overnight.

All in all, it was a great experience and opportunity to think more about what it would be like to live on the road for a while.
Short answer: YES, I want a location-independent lifestyle. But I definitely want to do it my way.