15 Things We Learned on our First RV Road Trip

My friend Jordi and I recently rented an RV for a three-day weekend road trip. We have both
spent a little time in an RV before, however, we never dared to try it out by ourselves. We learned so much
in the 4 nights we spent in our 25’ rental RV. Our first night we planned to stay in Anza Borrego Desert
which is about a two hour drive from Costa Mesa, CA where we rented the RV. The second night we
booked a rad campsite in Joshua Tree which was another 2 hour drive. Planning for the last night was up in
the air as we decided to wing it and decide later if we wanted to extend our stay in Joshua Tree or head
back to OC, a little closer to home. With high hopes and dreams of one day traveling extensively in an RV,
Jordi and I decided that a weekend adventure was necessary to get our feet wet…if only we knew what kind
of wet that was.

1. Buy Firewood Local

Firewood is expensive! If you buy it at a grocery store, or gas station it’s about $6 for a measly bundle
that burns faster than a cheetah with its ass on fire. If you can find a local provider $20 will get you a
stockpile large enough to last the winter. We found a local guy on the end of our trip and spent $10 on what
previously had cost us $50+. There was a huge sign that said firewood in front of the house. Initially when
we pulled up we were a little sketched out, but after a quick knock on the door we were glad we did. The
guy was very nice and we saved a ton of money.

2. Use paper towels as a buffer

Without a doubt there will be so much rattling and clanging you will start to wonder when you picked
up a 3 year old with a knack for making noise and banging things together. This can easily be fixed by
stuffing paper towels in between pretty much anything that is rattling. This simple and easy solution saved
us from a constant headache. Make sure to secure EVERYTHING down while driving too, otherwise you
will hear clunks and thuds from things moving out of place along the ride.

3. Bring a cooler and drinking water

The refrigerator in this RV was really small. Having a cooler stocked with ice, water, and beer (cheers!) makes life a lot easier. Make sure to bring your own water as drinking out of the onboard tank is not advisable.

4. Do NOT bring boxed wine

This is a lesson we learned the hard way. Don’t judge, the Black Box is pretty good!  You may end up drinking 4 bottles (one box) your first night, and be moving as slow as a sloth the next day. Stick with the old fashioned bottles so you can see how much you are drinking. It goes down all too easy after a long, stressful day of driving in a 12 ft wide RV.

5. Know the dimensions of your RV

This may seem simple, but these measurements are extremely important. I can only imagine what
kind of disasters can happen while traveling if you don’t know how long, tall and wide your rig is. The man
at the rental office was almost shocked to hear us recite the size of our RV, which leads me to believe most
people do not actually watch the intro video.

6. Check out sites like HIPCAMP to find super cool private places to park

There are tons of amazing places to park that don’t involve planning 6+ months in advance and
setting alarms on your phone to book the minute a site opens. Hipcamp offers tons of really great options
all across the US. There are RV sites as well as places for standard camping. If you want to stay somewhere
off the beaten path with a lot more character use this link to get $20 off your first stay.

7. Stay longer

Moving around to different places every night seems like the thing to do when you are on wheels. We
found that spending more time in each place is not only more economical, but also more enjoyable. We
packed a lot into this short trip and it felt like we were constantly rushing to get to our next destination.
You will also save tons of money in gas by staying put a little bit longer!

8. Research before you go

It’s always good to know your surroundings. Galleta Meadows was a quick ten minutes from our
campground in Borrego Springs, which we would have missed completely had I not researched ahead of
time. It was a really neat area with statues scattered about. Galleta Meadows is a great spot for a quick quiet
adventure.

     Don’t take off down a random road on a whim unless you are prepared for some impromptu off roading that makes you want to sh*t your pants. You may just end up in a pile of trash and burnt rubbish in an area that looks like it only exists for crafting up a batch of meth. Basically, if you see a sign that looks really pretty and says Salton Sea Beach its best to just keep on driving. It’s tempting, but DON’T DO IT!

9. No shoes in the RV

This may seem silly to mention but you will thank me later! The RV we rented was 25′ long and it got dirty super fast. Get a mat for outside and leave the shoes there. You may also want to purchase a handy little vacuum that plugs easily in the cigarette lighter (there are numerous options online). It helped us clean the floors quickly and easily when Sven’s cat food got scattered everywhere. Again, as mentioned before, make sure to secure EVERYTHING before heading to your next stop.

10. Bring disposable gloves

DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT PICK UP THE SEWER HOSE WHILE DUMPING! You may end up almost choking to death on the stench of your own feces or worse… I’ll leave that part to your imagination, but I wasn’t joking before when I said we got our feet wet. Make sure the hose goes about six inches into the dump pipe before releasing the lever to dump the tank as well, an inch or two just wont cut it. You will want disposable gloves to handle the sewer hose. The thick plastic ones seem like a good idea until you are forced to pull them back out of the storage bag to reuse. Disposable gloves are better for this purpose.

11. Use drinking water stations to fill your fresh water tank

This still amuses me a little bit. Every campsite we visited with hookups had a “drinking water station” which we used to fill our fresh water tank. I’m still unsure why they say not to drink the water from this tank as the source clearly says drinking water, maybe one of you can enlighten me on this.  We were perplexed and stood around for a few minutes before deciding this was the right move.

12. Get up early

It is absolutely worth getting up early to catch the sunrise. I’ll let the photos speak for me on this one.

Sunrise over Joshua Tree Desert.

13. Get levels

One of the campsites we visited was not level. Make sure to bring levels with you. I don’t know about you but its not easy to sleep when your head is tilted downhill.

14. State beach campgrounds are expensive

This could just be another “perk” of Orange County but we found out the hard way that staying at a state beach costs a good bit more than other sites. The site we got was not ocean front and still cost us a hefty $65 for the night. This particular camp ground also charged our friends $15 to park their car for about 2 hours on the campsite we already purchased. Say what? The madness!

15. Go for it, and when things don’t go exactly as planned, laugh it off

The trip was a lot easier than we had anticipated. Prepare yourself with the knowledge on how to
hook up power, water, and sewer. Learn how to use the generator and heat and you will be just fine. It’s not
rocket science, if we can do it so can you! Jordi and I had the most amazing adventure. We cannot wait
until we can purchase one of these bad boys and hit the road indefinitely.

The best ways to learn anything is to do a little bit of research an then immerse yourself. We made
sure to learn the basics before setting out, but we still learned a lot along the way. If you are planning your
first RV road trip, I hope these tips make your life a little bit easier. Traveling is so much fun if you are
prepared and have a good travel buddy. Remember, don’t take yourself too seriously, everyone has to start
somewhere. If you fail, and things go wrong, laugh it off and do better next time.

If you are interested in taking a road trip down the California Coast check out this post!