Sometimes, you make plans, things don't pan out the way you want, other anomalies happen, and all of a sudden, you find yourself moving on. This is what occurred with our most recent boondocking adventure. The original plan was for two weeks, and we made it all of six days before heading out.
We had a couple lessons learned on this one. First and foremost is to make sure everyone stays in good healthy shape. Packing (since we're still in transition), and rushing to do so at that, in the hot and muggy summer did not bode well. Although we don't anticipate this step when we're on the road because we'll already have everything with us, it's still important when it comes to picking up supplies and re-organizing storage. Tack on trying to keep the RV at a reasonable temperature with a generator while you're consuming double the water you were expecting, as well as some immune responses to flying insects, and you may just have a bad time.
Secondly, over-anticipating supplies will still bring you short. As mentioned before, water consumption went up on the hot and muggy days. However, the potable water tank was running low after only a few days, even with bringing drinking water separately. Thankfully, there was a good amount of rainfall to replenish the latter, although you have to be careful about where you collect rainwater, as some states and municipalities have strict regulations, or have even made it illegal. Water isn't the only supply, though, as fuel can also be a concern. This isn't limited to gasoline and propane, as dry wood can be a problem, especially if it rains. Even with the RV, a campfire is a very good heat source, as well as a way to keep insects away.
This isn't to say that boondocking is coming off the internal compass, though. It's still very enjoyable to "get away from it all" for a while and go back to primitive ways and means. We've figured out that trying to do it for two weeks isn't going to work, but a couple nights is easily doable. It could also work well if we're ahead of schedule for our next destination. Plus, the beauty of the full-time RV lifestyle is that we aren't as easily tied to one place. Sure, we might reserve a campground site for a longer period to lock in a better rate, but if we want to pack it all up and go somewhere else, we can do that. A number of people our age don't want to feel tied to a location, so why not exercise this freedom?
After all of what we experienced, we're still looking forward to the full-time RV lifestyle, but our internal compass tells us to try to keep the boondocking to a minimum and enjoy the RV parks. Needless to say, once we're back on the road, we will certainly follow our internal compass.
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