Earlier this week I headed out to the county landfill, pick up a load of free compost, take it back to my community garden plot, and spread it. Returning from the landfill was when I first noticed the RV dealership on Pulaski highway, and that got me to thinking (ergo the recent brainstorm about fulltiming in an RV).
Wednesday afternoon, I went out to the dealership myself while Lex was at work just to see what was available. I was so impressed by the RVs I saw, that I started talking to Lex about the possibilities.
We spent Sunday visiting a couple of RV parks, Morris Meadows and Bar Harbor. We LOVED Morris Meadows, but their long-term RV sites are nigh on impossible to snag. They’ve had residents there for over 30 years! We put our names on the pages-long waiting list and left rather dejectedly. We then headed from Freeland, MD in N. Balto. County to Abingdon in Harford County. On the way, we stopped for a lovely Easter lunch at an Italian joint and then hit the road again. By the time we got to Bar Harbor, we were beat. We were also decidedly unimpressed. Despite the fact that the park is right on the Bay (well, the Bush River, actually), it’s SO cramped and crowded and not nearly as tidy and well-organized as Morris Meadows. And did I mention vastly more expensive? Morris Meadows’ nicest long-term spots are under 300 a month, while the craptastically small sites at Bar Harbor are $850 during the summer and $700 during the off season. As I researched things, I discovered this wasn’t really unusual. Most RV parks are priced like Bar Harbor. One of the reason it’s so hard to get into Morris Meadows is because it’s so danged cheap.
Lex had a fierce headache, so when we got home on Sunday, she sacked out for a few hours. In the meantime, I continued to research RV parks, state parks, and national parks trying to sort out a way we could live until a spot in Morris Meadows actually opens up (which could be a good long time). From April until the end of October, it’s not an issue. We could bounce around among three state parks and a national park in the area. The parks are cheaper than the private parks, but not by much. The cheapest one by far is Greenbelt Park, operated by the NPS. It’s open year-round (the state parks aren’t) and is a mere 16 a night, half of what the state parks charge, and a third fo what the private parks charge. The problem is we can only bunk down there for 14 days at a stretch, then we have to move on. It’s also a heck of a drive through some pretty frantic traffic. Also, the sites don’t have full hookups, so there’d be some “roughing it” involved (which is relative when you are talking about an RV).
Basically, to do this until we are able to get (and afford) a long-term site, we will have to be REALLY flexible, open to what’s called “boondocking” at sites without full hookups from time to time. That’d really be a gypsy life, and the only big problem with that is Lex has to be able to get 3G mobile broadband wherever we go if she’s going to be able to work. This is a very populated area, but there are still dead zo nes. In short, further research will be required before we can really commit to this, not only in regards to the site, but also in regards to affordability. If we can’t get a reasonably-priced long-term site, then this isn’t going to be the cheap affair we thought it would be. There are other options out there, I’m sure, like camping on private lands (somebody’s farm, for example) in exchange for some rent. Just have to connect to those sorts of opportunities, and they aren’t well advertised. I may have one connection at school. I’ll have to approach her about the idea. Again, it would mean being without full hook-ups, but it would make the whole affair more doable.
We realized that since a long-term site won’t be forthcoming as quickly as we thought, a tow vehicle will be needed right away, not later on down the line when we could afford it. I’m trying to figure out a way we can get an RV that meets our needs and afford to trade in Lex’s car for a big old pickup truck (like Ford F250 big) and still afford site rent. I know there’s a way to do it; I just haven’t found that way yet. And if you know me, you know I”m good at discovering the cheap and the free, so I’m determined to stick with it until I come up with something both Lex and I can live with.
This evening, after Lex gets off work we are going to head over to a couple of the RV dealerships not far from us so Lex can look around and see what we’re getting into. It’s one thing to look at photos and floorplans online; it’s another to step into the vehicles and get a real sense of the scale and the quality. They aren’t as big as they look online (they tend to photograph things with panoramic or fish-eye lenses to make them appear larger than they are), but they are bigger than you’d think. I’m just hoping she isn’t disillusioned by what she sees. I’m inclined to think she won’t be, but a lot hinges on whether or not she feels claustrophobic inside a trailer. I don’t, but then I’m not nearly as tall as she is. The headroom is pretty good as far as I can tell, but then I don’t have a good sense of what it’s like to be 5’10″ tall. If it makes her feel like a giant, I imagine that would be a dealbreaker. I’ve already got her to compromise on a number of points: smaller trailers that are more affordable and require a lighter (less expensive) tow vehicle, giving up some amenities that can ONLY be found in the biggest of the trailers (in particular a washer/dryer). We’ve looked at a lot of makes and models and floorplans, but I don’t know that we’ve fastened onto the “perfect” home for us just yet, though Lex is pretty hyped about this one.
One of our stipulations is that there has to be room for an “office” (translation: a desk). That room could come in the form of an actual installed desk or the space where we could install one ourselves. Lots of trailers stick in these easy chairs, which I think are a tremendous waste of space. We could just yank those out and put in the desk. This one that Lex likes also has a little bunk bed slide out, and bunk beds can be taken down, too, and a little “office” could take their place. We also want at least a queen sized bed and a kitchen with some counter space. And the whole thing has to weigh in at less than 12500, the limit of the towing capacity of a Ford F250 or a Doge Ram 2500. This one fits that bill, but of course, it’s just one of many out there, and we’re not in a big rush to go buy one today, so we’ve got time to look and change our minds a hundred times.
