A huge part of RV life is living in the unknown, and for someone like me who is typically a type A, I need to have control personality, it has been quite challenging. In fact, I’ve even had people laugh that I picked a lifestyle that was so opposite of me, and that is very true.
I like to think of it as this lifestyle is stretching me past my comfort level because it is.
Full time travel has become our life the past 2 years and so it’s starting to feel more like a normal life to us. Unfortunately, now I am the one judging in a nice way, others for being all consumed with “stuff” in their boxed homes and not making time for the rest of the things that should be mattering most.
One thing though that remains a constant in full time travel though is your ability to be flexible and go with the flow.
Let’s look at this because this is such a broad topic that can feel very minor or in our current situation can feel overwhelming and major.
The small stuff, imagine it’s travel day you are all packed up and ready to go which is a major effort. Just as you load up your children, animals and shut the RV door you realize something is not working on your RV to go?!? This could be a slide coming in, your leveling system might not work or even something so minor as another RV is blocking the way.
Regardless, this is a slowdown it is a set back to your travel day and as with anything in RV life it’s always a domino effect. So, your morning slowdown may put you in traffic, which leads to a longer travel day which puts you at your next camp spot after dark and so on. This may seem minor if you are reading this and do not travel but for those of us on the road it makes you feel as though you are not in control and in fact you are not!
Recently, we experienced our first major setback, and it had a domino effect like no other. We had damage to the back end of our unit which required us to put our RV in a repair shop. This one minor move reshaped our entire plans for the first few months of this year.
Here is what that looked like-
-Canceled RV reservations with no refunds
-Canceled appointments for the area we were headed to
-Paying for unexpected housing which was very costly
-Deductible payment
-Navigation of our children’s schedule
-Changing work schedule
-Loss of income since we did not have our RV
The ability to roll with these situations is paramount and I cannot stress enough how you will need to be flexible and willing to not fight with what’s happening, otherwise you’ll drive yourself mad.
Here’s my tips for overcoming this –know that no plan is ever definite in RV life, make sure you have extra time built into travel days and in general try to make sure you have enough time for the unexpected to happen when making travel plans. For example, if you need to be at a location on a certain date build in time before that to get there. Needing to arrive on a date and rolling in that day can be risky!
Overall give yourself and your travel partner and family grace, it’s not always easy but it’s always worth it!
With Love,
