Last week, a buddy of mine and I attended a retrocomputing event in West Virginia. I’ve known about this trip for many months and my original goal was to have my van ready for the trip. While my van build is far from done, the interior is done enough to actually make the trip. Unfortunately over the past month the van has developed a couple of new issues, including a pretty serious seal leak around the rear doors and an intermittent power issue with the instrument cluster that prevented me from taking it cross country. The other issue was, the van “comfortably” sleeps one and could potentially accommodate two if those people are comfortable touching all night long. About a month before the trip, I decided it would be more fun, comfortable, and safe to rent an RV for the 2,000 round trip journey.

Even though traveling in a brand new RV is worlds different from driving a fifteen-year-old van converted on a shoestring budget, I learned several lessons during the trip that I can apply to future trips in my van.

One of the first things we realized was that storage was an issue. The Class B RV we rented was not as large as I thought it would be. All of the external storage cubbies had been filled with RV-related equipment, which meant everything we took had to be stored inside. All of the cabinets were filled with food, pots and pans, utensils, towels, and pillows. For things like Rubbermaid tubs, suitcases, and backpacks, the only storage options available were the beds and the shower. Preparing for bed meant unloading everything we brought out of the beds and into the floor; moving about the cabin meant moving everything off the floor and back into our beds. All of this shuffling has already caused me to rethink the way I’ve planned the storage in my van. While storage space of any kind in a vehicle is limited and finite, I can already see the benefit of things like under bed storage and hanging hooks.

For our journey I came with a list of sleeping options, most of which I’d gleaned from YouTubers. I told my friend that we could park and sleep at any Walmart, Cracker Barrel, casino, or Love’s. On the first night of our trip we began looking for a place to park around 9pm. The nearest Walmart did not allow overnight parking, we were a hundred miles away from the nearest Cracker Barrel or casino, and the Love’s we found was completely full. We tried parking at one rest area and when we discovered they didn’t have any compatible parking for us, drove 60 miles to the next one. It took us 3 1/2 hours to find a place to park mostly due to poor planning on my part. In the future instead of “winging it” and hoping to find a place to stay along the way, I would probably do a bit more research and make better plans before hand. This is one of the reasons I plan to keep my van as stealth looking as possible. It goes without saying that an RV stands out like a sore thumb when it comes to camping in parking lots.

Another thing I learned was that while staying in a vehicle for an extended period of time I felt like I was constantly in fight or flight mode. Every minute of our trip I felt like we were constantly using and running out of things. Our batteries, thanks to the Maxxair fan and overhead lights, were constantly being depleted. We were always using fuel for both the vehicle and the generator. The stove and refrigerator efficiently but constantly sipped propane from our tanks. Unlike my home, every time we turned on the sink or flushed the toilet I worried about how much water I had just used, and how much was left. Time in the RV felt like sand running through an hourglass. We were constantly adding gas to the tanks and worrying about the state of our batteries, which could only be recharged by the vehicle’s alternator and/or the generator (this model did not have solar). In my home, I never worry about running out of electricity or water. In the RV, it was all I could think about.

Finally, something I did not anticipate was how little time I wanted to spend inside the RV. Maybe this will change over time, but each morning when I awoke my natural instinct was to immediately exit the RV. Although we had the means to make coffee and cook breakfast, we found ourselves inside the local McDonald’s each morning, enjoying the comfort of their padded seats and spacious restrooms. We spent our time parked in a downtown area; had we been at a campground or further away from facilities we might have been more likely to prepare a meal or two inside the RV, but our proximity to restaurants had us dining out every night. On a longer trip or smaller budget I can see how concessions might have to be made, but this was a vacation for us and we had budgeted for meals. Over time I suspect I’ll get more comfortable doing more things or simply hanging out in the van, but on this trip we mostly just used the RV to sleep.

The RV we rented slept six and had tons of appliances and features (including the ability to stand up) that my van will never have. The biggest thing I learned was that despite all your planning, it’s hard to know what you’ll need, use, and want until you actually spend time in the vehicle. I’ve only slept in my van one night and would like to spend some more time in it before continuing my build to ensure I’m putting my time, money, and effort into things I’ll use rather than things I’ve simply admired in others’ YouTube videos.