In August 2020 we decided that we might be interested in RV travel. During the height of the COVID pandemic we had to cancel a trip to the Florida Keys and then another trip to Banff that we were really looking forward to. Since we were avoiding flying and hotels we decided that perhaps RVing might just be the answer. We decided to rent one for a week and give it a try!
Spoiler alert: It turns out we were too type A to borrow someone else’s camper. Who would have thought?! We found a travel trailer on Outdoorsy and went to pick it it up for a week long camping trip to South Dakota. The camper was new-ish and clean-ish but when the owner showed us the bathroom we almost backed out of the rental on the spot. The smell was absolutely unbelievable. The owner apologized profusely and told us, “That’s just how camper bathrooms smell.” It was right then and there that I decided the RV life wasn’t for me after all.
Matt, being the rational person he is, decided we would still rent the camper and deal with the problem head on. We towed it back to our house, started packing it up and within the hour Matt had removed the toilet and was fixing a camper that wasn’t even ours. Turns out that the smell was not just how a camper bathroom smells. It was, in fact, the toilet leaking at the base and creating an ungodly smell because of a faulty toilet fitting. Whew. Enough about toilets.
We spent a week camping in the Black Hills National Forest and quickly learned a lot about dry camping in an RV. Our campsite had no water, electricity or sewer hookups so we had to ration the water in our tank and the battery level. The kids had a blast and we loved that they could be outside playing but then also get cleaned up at the end of the day and sleep in an actual bed. I have some tent camping skills leftover from my childhood but also love running water and have a hefty dislike of pit toilets. Being able to enjoy the outdoors but also having the comforts of home while traveling with kids really seemed like the sweet spot for us.
One of our long term family goals is to see all of the national parks before the kids graduate from high school. Visiting national park sites while RVing turned out to be a new experience for us as well. Instead of cramming in as much as possible since we flew to the the area and on a strict timeline, we were able to relax and take more time to enjoy and learn about what we were seeing. During our first RV trip we checked off Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore National Memorial and Wind Cave National Park from our list.
By the end of our week at the campground, we had gotten to know Guy and Sue, the camp hosts at Lost Dutchman campground. We have them to thank for the next step in our journey. As we were leaving they said, “You should check out Lance – they make a really great camper.” And starting on the drive home, that’s just what we did.
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