RVing is a sport of many challenges; finding short-term accommodations, not necessarily easy with a rig 63 feet in length; keeping tanks up to snuff, and empty of contents; making sure important housekeeping tasks are done within range of appropriate places to do so (laundry, aforementioned tank service, any mechanical issues that might need periodic attention, groceries, to name but a few), and…making sure stuff stays where it’s supposed to!
Imagine, if you will, towing your home down bumpy roads: All your glassware, all your dishes, all your tschotkes, every dish, every glass, your pills, your razor, your shampoo—you get the drift!—will find the worst place to fall. We thought we’d foresaw most of these future pitfalls..and we did.
Most.
Clothes, normally quite stable on hangers, will leap off their bar, and end up piled on the closet floor. Your neatly arranged medicine cabinet will seem to have been put in a blender, and not-so-gently stirred into a Tetris pile of stuff, ALL of which will fall out when you open the cabinets. Dishes will be disarranged; forks, knives, spoons, all will be blended into a maelstrom of metallic objects, one of which will undoubted keep you from opening the drawer, till you pushitinpullitoutpushitinpullitout, till the offending utensil finally stops laughing at you, and gravity allows it to fall!
Luckily, socks, shorts, and other clothing items, once stowed in a drawer, ride out the rolling, bouncing storm, seemingly unaffected by the road.
Probably learned to do that in the dryer….
You quickly learn that everything, and I mean E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G, has to be put in small baskets, or bundled together, or stashed in sacks.
Books much be tightly stacked up, such that there is no wiggle room between the tomes. Ever wonder why pill bottles are often stuffed with cotton? Wonder no more: travel a few thousand miles, with bottles uncottoned, and you will end up with pill powder. Likewise, tools, games, books, DVDs, and food items…more on this, in a bit.
RV refrifgerators have door locks, and you’d think that’d be all you need…you’d be wrong! You have to use what I call, ’squeezy bars” across the shelves.
Now, we thought we were being pretty clever, minimizing the use of glass containers—for obvious reasons—and so we bought our maple syrup in this nifty little plastic jug, with a snap-on top. Worked fine, for about 17,000 of the 20,000 miles we’ve traveled, this year.
Until it didn’t.
About two weeks ago, we were engaging in what we call “Mission Slideout,” which is exactly as you might think. . Get to the spot we’re staying at, check the level of the trailer (VERY important: slides will not operate unless/until the trailer is balanced side-to-side).
In this instance, we weren't setting up for the night, but just stopping to put some stuff in the fridgeThat requires we open the door, drop down the stairs, and inspect the inside for any—WHAT THE @#$%&! is that???
When I get to the top of the stairs, I see a thick, viscous brown liquid, dripping out the bottom of the fridge, running down, and making a river along the base of the cabinets, and around the cabinet to the stairs to the bedroom. It’s late, we’re tired, and I disgustingly announce we’ll deal with it when we get to the campground.
By the time we got there, most of the liquid had disappeared to places God only knows, under the sills of the cabinets. When we open up the fridge, what had happened was the “RV-approved” fridge had shaken the shelves OFF their ridiculously-tiny ledges, and dumped their contents to the bottom of the fridge. All landed well, nothing broken…except the nearly-full QUART of maple syrup had turned upside down, and the nifty little snap lid…had become unsnapped.
Maybe about a pint remained in the bottom of the fridge under the rotter drawers (often called, ‘crispers,’ but we know THAT’S a lie), and it was quite thick, being refrigerated.
Great fun ensued, cleaning it up. a couple of tubs of hot water, an entire roll of paper towels, a few cuss words, and most had been cleaned up.
Except for the n to the unknownth amount that had drained into the basement…..
That led to me devising a better method to make damn good and sure the shelves don't come off their ridiculously-small ledges. You’d think a refrigerator, used in an RV, would be designed to already have that handy feature.
You'd be wrong.
And you know what? We STILL love this journey!
We’ve seen so much, conquered so many challenges, met so many wonderful people, that the occasional spilled syrup, the sometimes-jangled up clothes closet, the shaking of soda as you drive, are small potatoes.
1st-world problems.
We have discovered the depths of our love for one another, and grown so accustomed to being in close proximity, almost 24/7, that it’d be hard to imagine the larger confines of a stick-and-bricks.
(PRO TIP: Do NOT open a fizzy drink until your rig has been sitting still for about an hour. You're welcome.)
As we near our wintering grounds of Imperial Dam, nearly a year into this amazing, astounding, challenging, and joyful nomadism…we wouldn't change a thing. Except, put tape over the top of the maple syrup!
Here’s a smattering of places and things we’ve seen!
We hope you enjoy reading this blog, and we will continue to keep all of our fans—all TEN!—up-to-date, for 2026.
