After purchasing the RV in late April, we crash-coursed everything we could learn while purchasing obscene amounts of stuff on Amazon, and watching a shit-ton of YouTube videos about how to own one of these.
Between the truck, RV, and umpteen different locks, our key ring looks like we’re some gatekeeper. It’s surprisingly easy to keep track of everything, though.
Derek was super nervous about towing such a big RV, but he’s found that it’s relatively easy as long as he pays close attention to the edges since it travels outside the lines quickly. Without a camera installed (hello budget!), backing up is a two-person ordeal, but we’re starting to get the hang.
Since purchasing it, we’ve stored the RV at a nearby lot while we packed up the house, and watched a shit-ton of YouTube videos about how to own one of these.
Now, this was the only weekend we had between then and our launch date to work out all of the kinks out, and we needed to make the most of it. Hopefully, we learned enough information, because it was cross-our-fingers-and-hope-we-don’t-fuck-up time.
On May 17th, we picked up the RV at the storage lot, parked it in front of the house for a few hours, filled it up with water, bedding, and other necessities, and headed 90 minutes up the foothills toward Buffalo Creek for some kick-ass MTB trails—and our first dry camping experience in the RV.
The drive to Buff Creek was uneventful, but all of the free spots (away from people) on the side of the long gravel road were already taken, so we drove as far down as a campground where we had tent-camped in the past. As it turned out, they had a few open spots, so we found the most level one, took about 30 minutes to back in (while holding up traffic), and started settling in.
In addition to reversing issues, we made a ton of mistakes getting set up and looked like total noobs, but after several back-and-forth attempts adding and removing blocks, we leveled everything from side-to-side and front-to-back.
Surprisingly, we remembered most of the essentials but forgot one major component: cash. After all, debit cards don’t mean shit when you’re in the middle of the woods, so you need cash to pay for various fees (unless you can find one of the dispersed spots already occupied).
Thankfully, the camp host was kind enough to let us park. Then, Jamie headed 90 minutes back into town to get cash, while Derek and the girls remained to finish setting up.
When she returned, everything was finished, and a dance party was in progress.
The next day, we picked up and drove an hour north to a campground near Golden Gate Canyon Park, which offered power (and heat!) — a bonus combined with the 10K+ elevation. It also allowed us some TV time, since we have not owned a TV in 6 years. We don’t miss it!
Overall, our test drive weekend was a success! The excitement is building, and we feel like we might actually pull this off!
