Coming home is always bittersweet. It's nice to be off the road and on stable ground, but it's sad to be home back to the routine of everyday life. It was sad to drop little Kira off at her home with Jenn & Joziah. We had so much fun with her, she has the sweetest personality and just loves to have fun.
We thought this would be a good test run for renting RV's since we made our plans for this trip very last minute. We originally asked for a 31' Class C RV which we thought would be adequate for our daughters and their families plus pups if they all decided they could come. At the last minute they upgraded us to at 32' Class C, which sleeps 8-10 and has 2 slide outs instead of 1. Turns out it was a good thing because the crates we brought for the pups took up a lot of room, in fact they took up an entire bed. The rule is you must be buckled up any time the RV is in motion. But...they tell you they know people don't follow the rules. We did follow the rule for Kira.
We were frugal. We packed our cars up, drove to the Rental facility to load up the RV and get on our way. This was to avoid renting another day to bring the RV home to load as the RV rental facility more or less on the way to pick up Kira. It was a savings to be sure, but a hassel to off load out of our cars. Luckily our cars were safely kept in a gated area.
We planned our menus, activities and overall supply list well. However we did plan too many activities for too little time. That is usually the case with our vacations. We would have loved another day for each park we stayed in to enjoy it. Because we stayed in state parks we really didn't need an RV with a toilet and a shower as they are available at the parks. Don't get me wrong, I loved the RV, but we could have done with less for sure. I loved sleeping inside safe and fairly warm. Yes even with a furnace, it got cold at night. Not sure if this is due to the type of RV or just the nature of the beast. We had lots of blankets and I got to cuddle with Kira so we stayed toasty warm.
Having a kitchen was awesome. The refrigerator was perfect, the stovetop was great and the oven would have been great to use had we known how. It even had a microwave which was nice to have but we could have done without. We brought all our own kitchen supplies and did fine. They gave us a checklist to pack by and that helped a lot. A few things were left behind but nothing we couldn't make do without.
Our shampoo and conditioner mysteriously disappeared. We figured a crafty raccoon must have reached in and grabbed them...until we got home and figured out they must have dropped into the trash which was stored in the shower when the RV was in motion, then moved out to a different part of the RV when the shower was in use. This wasn't figured out until we unpacked. The raccoon story was much more fun to tell :)
The company we rented from was great. They sell you different packages with the cost of the daily rental. You are allowed 100 free miles per day and pay .29 per mile above that. Then you purchase one of three packages. The standard, the something better and then the works. (I forgot the real names) These packages have to do with what is supplied with the RV and what you will do yourself when returning the RV. The Standard (what we chose) is pretty much you get the RV, with full tanks (gas, propane, water) empty tanks (black (potty) and grey water). The deal is you are responsible for returning the RV exactly how you get it. You have to clean it, refill/empty all the tanks. With the Something better and Works package you pay them do some or all of that stuff, which can end up costing around $650. So we paid for an extra day costing us around $170, brought the RV home and scrub & dubbed it up, filled/emptied and saved $$$. Yes it was work, but very much worth the savings. It also gave us extra time on the last day of our vacation. Had we not extended it one more day we would have been rushing like crazy and most likely had to cut something out of our trip.
Is is a good way to take a road trip? Yes, heck yes! I would do it again in a heart beat. It was great. I hope we can do it again when more of the kids can come along. If we have more folks going it wouldn't be a bad thing to have a car following for those little side trips. Buying an RV may be something I would consider but I'd have to test different models out before I'd make a purchase like that. I can't help but think of my friend Lori and her Teardrop that she just recently upgraded to a Raindrop. So many styles to check out...
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