Newbie in Oregon

[jthistle]

Hello,

My name is Jessica and I am a complete Newbie! I'm even a camping hater, which is one of the reasons that I bought an RV. Sorry if that offends anyone. My husband and I were in fear of losing our home, so we decided that we were going to buy an RV and full-time. On the day that we were going to pick up our beautiful - new to us - Country Coach Affinity RV, we got a call from our mortgage company saying that they were going to remodify our mortgage at less than half what we were paying before!!

So, we are keeping our house and doing part-time RVing while we go racing. My husband races a sprint car. If you don't know what that is, you can go to You Tube and enter in Jesse Thistle Sprint Car and you will probably find our races. He is the white #4 car. This does not mean in a couple of years when our kids move out that we may not decide to rent out the house and full-time. We will see. My husband is kinda considering joining the Sprint Car - World of Outlaws Tour, (google it if not familiar) which would take us all over the nation. I'm in, if he so chooses. I decided to be a great wife on this. We are young, but self-employed so can work from the road.

Anyway, I know nothing about RVing. I have only cooked with propane a couple of times while I was a girl scout leader for my daughter's troop. I camped as a kid and hated it, (still do) but I am good with the luxury of a nice RV. I must have running water, flushing toilet and a real bed, which in our new RV happens to be a Sleep Number bed. Crazy, huh? Thank goodness that our RV came with all of the manuals. They will all become our RV Bibles until we learn the ropes. I am blessed with a husband that likes luxuries too. I never expected when he told me on our first date that he didn't enjoy camping and i was so thrilled, that we would be considering full time RVing a few years later. But it's ok, again, I'm in.

I am open to any tips or advice, (criticism if you must, but minimal would be nice) that anyone could give me. I hope to find some great ideas here from all of you experienced ladies. Thanks in advance!!

Jessica Thistle

[Birdie]

Welcome to the forum Jessica. You know that camping is what you make it. I did tent camping once! Sounds like you will do some more propane cooking. That, too, can be what you make it. I made biscuits for breakfast this morning in my oven.

How old and how many children do you have? Any pets to go with you? I am sure your hubby will fix you up with a nice toad to get around when you get there! Looking forward to traveling down the road with you.

Ask away with questions and expect that you will get various answers and then you need to figure out what will work for you. Expect to see you down the road!!

[longdog2]

Some people camp with their RVs and some people live in their RVs more like it is simply a house on wheels, your choice. Sounds like you will always want to have water, sewer, and electric hook-ups when you travel although if you have a generator and use the holding tanks for water, gray water, and sewer, you can pretty much live that way too for a period of time. Using propane to cook and bake is really not much different than having a gas stove and oven. You will need to learn how to use the systems and that is not hard to do especially if you have the manuals. Your lifestyle while out in the RV is pretty much what you want it to be. You don't have to go to the state parks and have campfires but you may eventually decide you want to try that too. It is not like living in a tent. Welcome to the forum.

[BirdbyBird]

Congratulations for getting the bank to work with you on the stick house. That must be a relief for the kids and all of you. Not that full timing in an RV isn't an exciting adventure and it is neat that you were thinking ahead but choices and options are preferred. There is camping and there is traveling in a house on wheels. In the right unit I don't thing you will experience too much "camping" pain. You do begin to sort through material belongings and decide what "things" are most important. I always remind myself of the small living spaces in cities like NYC and San Francisco.... and in comparison some of the RV rigs begin to look big.

[Sandersmr]

It does take all kinds. I prefer the camping on wheels, or even camping in the tent, to the living in an RV parking lot, er resort But all are welcome to the RV community. And it will be interesting your take as y'all begin taking trips in the RV.

And congratulations on saving your house. I know that must have been a relief to you.

[jthistle]

Hi All,

Thank you for the responses! It is nice to have a place I can go to talk with women that can give me some advice and help when I get overwhelmed with this. We definitely are going to think of this as taking our home with us rather than camping. The RV we bought is actually much nicer than our house really and is quite comfortable. We are getting acquainted with the systems and are practicing by taking overnights in the backyard. I wondered if that was silly or not but it's easier if you have a problem in the backyard that far from home.

We have 3+ kids, 16 yo son, 15 yo daughter and a 9 yo daughter, a German Shepard and a Schitzu as our travel companions. The Shepard probably makes us not good candidates for RV parks, which is fine. We probably aren't good candidates for the parks anyway with all the kids. We are kind of cheap too and are considering saving $ as much as possible by just boondocking at the race tracks we travel to. Of course, we have to do more practicing in the backyard to make sure we understand everything before we get to that.

I'm okay with a campfire and sitting out at night watching the stars. But I love that when I have to go potty, I have a working toilet! I imagine that we are going to be able to enjoy many family weekends before our teens move on and maybe even eventually become full-timers. Options are great!

Jessica

[AlmostThere]

Hi, Jessica, and welcome. I live in SW WA. What part of OR are you in?
I think you have a great attitude towards RVing. we kinda think alike as I also love my amenities.
After tent camping for many years in Alaska, camping (?) in an RV is such a luxury.
I think you will be just fine. Life is good, enjoy the ride!

[BirdbyBird]

I see a lot more Shepherds in the campgrounds than you would think.....they get by were the sweet Rotties and Dobie don't. Go figure those insurance folks. Sounds as if you will find yourself much more at home than you think. May of us tent camped in our younger days and believe us when we tell you that we can agree and on and appreciate many of the feature that our rigs provide for us. And campgrounds are filled with children particularly in the summer and the weekends. Just promise us that yours will be the well behaved ones. We all know that there are still some delightful children out there but then again every campground seems to have it's one loose dog and several wandering unsupervised children that haven't been told that it is bad manners to walk through other's campsites....

[jthistle]

Tent camping in Alaska is the reason I grew to hate camping!! I grew up there and my parents drug me to many remote Alaskan areas for camping. I don't even want to relive it! We will look at our RVing as more like a continuation of living. A friend asked me if we bought an RV because we like to camp. I said nope, I would have bought a tent if I like to camp. I bought an RV so I don't have to camp.

AlmostThere - I live in Creswell, a smidgie south of Eugene.

My Shepard really isn't very interested in other people. He is quite happy just right next to us. He doesn't want to miss a thing that we are doing. My Schitzu likes to visit though. As far as the other kids. Teens are teens. Sometimes they are great and sometimes they do really dumb stuff. I do my best to run down the don'ts but they can still push their luck. I would hope they wouldn't walk through anyone's camp sites.

I think we will be the kind to just drive and see where we wind up. RV parks probably won't be high on the destination list but you never know. We are still pretty young, does anyone see many 35-40 year olds in RV parks?

[longdog2]

I think maybe you have some misconceptions about camping and RVing that will get ironed out as you travel a little more. There are all kinds of campgrounds like state, national, county, etc--some have full hookups (water, electric, sewer), some just water and electric, and some are for boondocking with no hookups. There are also a wide range of RV parks from basic no frill with hookups to super deluxe RV resorts that cost a pretty penny. We have members that like each of the different types depending on their rigs and personal preferences for the particular trip. Your kids would probably like a park with a pool or lake. People with younger kids like places like Jellystone parks or my grandkids like state parks with a lake. Just depends. You'll have fun discovering what kinds of parks are right for your family. You may be boondocking if you go to the races so a generator will give you your electric and you'll have to live off your tanks and cook with propane. Some courses may even have hookups. Lots to look forward to in your travels.

[Colliemom]

Welcome to the forum from one old Girl Scout Leade Spent a r to another. Been there done that. I'm single person with no kids but started in scouting at the Brownie level and stayed with it for 20 years. Spent a LOT of time camping since I took campcrafters training and was on call for any troop in the county that was going camping and needed a campcrafter. Taught basic camping skills (pitching and storm lashing tents, fire building and safety, camp took safety, orienteering, campfire cooking etc. Really enjoyed all of it.

Now I have my own Travel Trailer, a small 18ft. Rockwood that I haul around during the summers here in MI, when I am on my days off from the local State Park where I work in summer. It had been a number of years since I had camped when I got the trailer and I love the idea of sleeping inside, out of the weather and off the ground. But it has also awakened the old Girl Scout camping instincts in me as well. I'm starting to think about different ways to cook outside again and try some of the things I used to do.

You will find you way into the RVing world as time goes on. Like the others have said, there are a lot of different types of parks and eventually you will find your niche. The whole idea is to just go and have fun and enjoy the great outdoors and of course the race tracks as you have mentioned.

So hop in and ask questions, read the posts on different subjects, take your RV and enjoy it. There is nothing better than sitting outside your "home on wheels" by a nice campfire, making smores and enjoying the fading evening as it falls into night.

[jthistle]

I am sure that I have some definite misconceptions about RV Parks and I admit that I don't know the first thing to do. But, I'm in it and it's too late to turn back now. I'm just going to jump in with both feet, learn as I go and try to have a blast!

We were lucky enough to find a really nice motor home that had all of the amenities that we wanted. We looked at some real stinkers! I went into them asking myself "Could I live in this"? If the answer was no, then we moved on. We are very happy with out find.

I was probably the world's worst Girl Scout Leader, in my opinion, being that I don't enjoy camping. But, I had a big happy troop of girls that didn't seem to mind that we didn't camp all of the time. We did a few good camps where I probably had them all fooled. I fooled myself really. Maybe some of those skills will come back to me. If not, at least I have all of my amenities in the RV and will probably get by.

I do look forward to coming here often to find information and get ideas. Thanks to you all in advance!

Jessica

[Sandersmr]

Sue - yay for you on the GS. I too have never had kids but have a niece involved in Scouts. I've been cleared by her Council to be a volunteer on overnight stuff and have offered the leader to take the camping training so I could help them on camping trips. She has been with the same troop as they have moved from Brownies, to Juniors to what ever it is they call the Cadettes these days and that troop has never been camping.

[Readytogo]

Welcome Jessica, you will find the way to use your new RV that best suits you. I use mine for vacationsrather than long term or to live in partly because when I worked I had no time to enjoy myself and "putter" around the house because my hours were so crazy. Wow, what a long sentence! As to the question about the ages in rv parks, you wull find more and more younger people embracing this hobby. Try a few of the parks that have the things the teenagers might be interested in (like other teenagers!). Im Wendy, in Alabama

[Rufflesgurl]

Welcome Jessica. For the last week I have been staying in my Class A MH at a local Rv park. There are kids all around me. This park is very close to the beach, pier, town and it has a pool,games, restaurant, store etc. Of course, it's the weekend so the families with kids will probably be leaving tomorrow.
Enjoy your travels.

Linda