Regrets

-
We didn't know what we were doing when we started. That's not entirely unique in this lifestyle, but most people spend some time planning things and learning about RVs. We didn't have that luxury due to the compressed timeframe when our house sold.

That said, would we do anything differently if we could do it again? Yeah, we would. Would I term those "regrets?" Nah, not really. That implies that I'm dwelling on these things, and I'm not.


So while we don't regret the decisions we made, here are a few things we'd do differently if we could start over:
  • We would have gotten a Costco credit card a lot earlier than we did, which was more than halfway through our trip. We bought a lot of gas, so we might as well have been getting rewarded for it.
  • We would have signed up for Thousand Trails. We heard all kinds of mixed reviews on the program, but we're confident we could have saved money on campgrounds had we signed up early on.
  • Julie would have put the van up on a towing dolly early on. I, on the other hand, would not have. I've watched people messing with those things at campgrounds... no, thank you!
  • We would have purchased a museums/zoos pass. There is a pass that gets you into museums and zoos all over the country either for free or at a sharply reduced rate.
  • We would have installed a better fridge lock right away. This one is definitely a lesson learned the hard way!
  • We would have cut our losses on the van much earlier and purchased a 4WD vehicle. We were throwing good money after bad by the end.
  • We would have used our bikes more. We hauled them around most of the country and rarely used them, ultimately donating them to Goodwill in California.
  • I would have skipped solar. I knew there was no way I was going to get my money's worth on it — that wasn't the point — but it wasn't even worth it as a learning experience. In fact, faulty panels and a charge controller that went out just made things difficult for no good reason.
  • We would have bought a used RV. We wanted the peace of mind of a warranty since we didn't know what we were doing, but we didn't realize that getting warranty work done involved leaving the rig at a dealer for a month. I ended up doing all work myself anyway. We also came to realize that having a new RV didn't mean things didn't break. In fact, they arguably break more in a brand new RV as things shake out.
  • Speaking of which, I would have fixed things as they broke. I let too many things languish, which just created stress and let things stack up.
  • We wouldn't have gone to Alaska in August. Yes, we missed the bugs, but we also missed the sun.
  • We would have gotten an RV with no carpet. We have five people and two animals. It's not a carpet-friendly lifestyle.
While many of these would have saved us time, money, or both, I'm going to show myself some grace. For going from knowing nothing about RVs to living in one in the span of a month, we did pretty well for ourselves. We figured it out as we went, and we feel pretty good about where we've landed.

Will we ever do something like this again? I don't know, but I do know that I'll be far more prepared if we do!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Food

-
Image
As we traveled the country, we tried to experience local culture. We didn't have much time in each location, so we thought that one of the best ways to do this quickly was to partake of local foods. Therefore, in addition to our National Park theme , we also had a "local food" theme. As we hit each state, we ate a food famous in that state. Just an example; we didn't go off of this map We quickly came to realize that this is a very subjective endeavor. Before we started, I ignorantly assumed that each state would have one or two "famous" foods, making the selection process easy. Not true. First of all, most of what shows up on lists of foods by state is hardly "famous." It's more like "foods you will definitely find in this state and may or may not find elsewhere." Some states have a dozen such foods or more. Many states have the same "famous" foods (there is a lot of crossover with fruit and beef). Second, much of this food...
Read more

Lassen Volcanic National Park

-
Image
We have officially entered the Pacific Ring of Fire. Well, we've technically been in it for the past few months while in California, but none of the parks we've been to have been related... until now. Starting with Lassen, we're about to hit multiple parks built around volcanos. Other than Mt. Saint Helens and that one in Hawaii that never stops, I would have been hard pressed to name another volcano that erupted in this country... ever. But sure enough, Mount Lassen erupted numerous times between 1915 and 1921, doing quite a bit of damage to the surrounding area (there is a section near the mountain called "the devastated area," which is humorous because it's all grown back and looks perfectly normal now). We've had remarkably good weather for our park days, but as you can probably tell from the picture above, that luck ran out at Lassen. I'm guessing a lot of it had to do with us being at elevation, but the entire day was chilly and foggy. If we look...
Read more

My Family's House (by Jordan)

-
It all started out with our adoption. We've been waiting for about 3 years to adopt a child. When my dad put the house on Zillow someone's wife wanted to buy it in 10 minutes. But the husband promised his wife a pool. So they didn't buy the house. There were a few others that I can't remember. But finally Melissa and Tim stepped up! They bought the house. We left March fifth. Tim and Melissa have a daughter named Brook. We are on March sixth now and we are enjoying our time at Poinsett State Park!
Read more