"We live in a mansion!" Well, not really, but the house does seem bigger after spending time in the van. ;-) The felines settled back in... they are sharing space, sitting on a chair by the patio door. They both slept on Joan's side of the bed last night. And the best part: we all slept in this morning.
"The morning routine" came back easily. The fur babies were patient while I prepared their breakfast. I took Murphy outside - he walked around our courtyard a bit, then settled down on some pavers in the shade. Nothing I would call "cool," as it was already 90º at 8:00 am. Coming back inside was his idea this morning: "Whew! It's hot out there," he told Stella. Then, they both got a Churu treat, sharing it off a spatula at the same time.
Joan went to work on laundry. No, we don't have a washer/dryer in the van. Yes, people have asked. The bathroom (with a shower) makes an airline potty look spacious.
There is shopping that needs to get done today; staples (like cat food) that we knew would be enough to make the trip need to be replenished. This is serious - I used the last of hard kitten food on breakfast! Stella is not worried - she knows Mom and Dad will provide. Or, if necessary, she can always snitch some of Murphy's food. Yes, they each get their own, but it is a regular occurrence to have them start with their own food, then switch... like junior high kids trading lunch.
We enjoyed our trip. It took a few days to get into the swing of things. I participate on a RoadTrek owners group on Facebook. One of the participants there was moderately appalled that we stayed in a KOA on our last night out - she was touting the 50% off that Passport America offers and said that is what they use when they travel. Yep, we are aware of PA - we have a "lifetime membership" that we bought years ago. For those who aren't aware of how it works: Passport America does give you 50% off a night at specific RV parks; the parks can put "exclusions" on when it can be used... such as: not on weekends, only during the off season, no holidays, etc. You have to check the information at each park to see what their exclusions are. A park can stop offering that Passport America rate at any time.
We used Passport America regularly from 2007 to 2020. Then the big "RVing boom" during the pandemic - RV parks were full, only the less desirable places had to offer 50% off to fill sites. The number of parks offering PA declined. The exclusions increased. The lifetime membership meant we didn't have to pay the annual fee for it, but we used it less. To the point where we quit looking for parks along our route - for us, it is more important to be where we want to stop for the night.
Here's a breakdown on the type of RV parks we used on this last trip:
4 nights in casino RV parks
3 nights in county parks
2 nights in a membership park (Hart Ranch)
1 night in a fairgrounds
1 night in a KOA
2 nights in Love's RV Stops
Will we use Passport America again? Sure, when it is convenient. For those who don't travel by RV: campgrounds and RV parks are not all the same; some are definitely nicer than others. Some are what we call "Camp Deadend," where the majority of rigs in there look like they couldn't move. Some are true "resorts," where they offer all the amenities (like swimming pool, hot tub, sport courts, restaurant, activities). Some are literally just overnight stops.
Our needs for an overnight vary: sometimes we just want a safe place to park; or an electric plug-in; or full facilities like electric, water, and sewer. Or cable TV. Or a nice shower. We like a level site (you'd think that would be a given, but it isn't always); a paved site is a plus. When we had bigger rigs and were towing, a pull-through site was a must. So, it varies. Our RoadTrek is nicely self-contained, so dry camping (no hookups) is easy when it isn't blisteringly hot out. Sometimes we need to put on fresh water and dump our holding tanks - then, it's good to have a full hook-up site. But, anyway you look at it, a Class B campervan is a great "traveling conveyance."
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