Overview
Laura and I have been living on a 43 foot sailboat for
the past 13 years. We have almost always
enjoyed the boating life with the exception of being out in bad weather which
sometimes makes for uncomfortable travel.
After over 80,000 miles under the keel, we thought we might want to see
other places we couldn’t visit from the water.
About a year ago, we talked about “what’s next” and decided we wanted to
try RVing – driving the roads of America and visiting exciting and beautiful
places. Our thoughts were that RVing
would be similar to boating because we would bring all our stuff with us.
I have been to every state in the U.S. except for Alaska.
Our original plan was to buy an RV and
drive for 3 months from the east coast to Alaska – and back. While discussing our plans during a visit
with my sister Denise and her husband Tom, they offered their 23 foot travel
trailer which they hadn’t used in a couple years. We would trade our car for their pickup truck
and could have the rig for as long as we wanted. We accepted their gracious offer and started
planning.
During our Spring sail from Florida to New York, we talked
about the coming RV trip this summer. We
both realized that a 3-month, 10,000+ mile trip might be a little much to bite
off for our first trip. Instead, we
decided to try the Northeast U.S. and Canadian Maritimes for 3-5 weeks. That was a more manageable trip and, if we
didn’t like it, we would only be a few days from home.
Here is a map which shows our entire trip for 27 days.
Pros and Cons of RV Traveling (for us). During our trip, we frequently discussed what
we liked about RVing and what we didn’t like. Here is a synopsis of the notes we took during these discussions.
A part of boating we love is being able to “get away”. Sometimes when we leave Catskill for Florida, we won’t
see another person or step off the boat for a week. We knew this would be different traveling by
RV but didn’t realize how much. Many of
the campgrounds park the RVs very close to maximize their inventory. For example, in Hubbards Beach, our awning was
only about 2 feet from the slide-out on the camper next to us. Our last night there was Friday and the place
was a zoo. Lot of partying past 11pm and
very noisy with playing children and barking dogs. This was the worst experience of our trip but
other campgrounds were close. In Panmure
Provincial Park we would have stayed longer if it wasn’t for the barking dog
two sites away from us. Keep in mind
that this was August in the northeast and lots of people vacationing. Maybe April, May or September would have been
much different.
Refrigerator – No worries about the refrigeration in the
RV (much less complicated than the boat).
It was smaller but we had much more access to grocery stores than when
we are traveling by boat.
Repairs seem to be more reasonable on the RV than the
boat. When we had a problem with the
truck brakes, we had them fixed the same day for about $450. Of course, the boat doesn't have brakes but fixes on the boat are always more complicated and expensive.
The gray-water tank on the RV takes some management. On the boat, sink and shower water is just
pumped overboard. Also, the water tank on our boat is 200 gallons and lasts over 2 weeks if we try to be good. The RV tank was only 30 gallons and we didn't drive with it full because of the extra weight.
Our bed in the RV was thin foam and not comfortable. This could be remedied with a new mattress
The trailer did not have a slide-out which made it
somewhat confining. Our boat is 43’ long
and 14’ wide compared to the 23 X 8 foot trailer. We saw a trailer only a foot longer than ours that had just a small slide-out and seemed like a different world.
Parking the rig was much less stressful and complicated
than docking a boat. If you're not sure everything is lining up correctly, you just put the truck in PARK and get out to see. Much different docking a boat.
RVing is much better for sightseeing. When we are anchored or moored, we drop the
dinghy and motor into a marina or city dock.
This makes for much more complicated traveling – plus, we don’t have a
car.
Boating seems to be more closer to nature which surprised
us. An exception would be our hikes
through the woods which I really enjoyed.
When on the boat, we “live and die” by the weather while
traveling. I check several times a day
to make plans for the next night or two.
Traveling by RV the weather doesn’t matter so much unless you are trying
to make miles in the rain.
We love grocery shopping with the RV. You can bring your cart right to the door and
unload directly into the refrigerator or pantry. Traveling on the boat, we bring in the dinghy
then usually walk to a grocery store.
Taxi or Uber back to the marina where we move the groceries for the
third time into a dock cart. Then into
the dinghy, drive back to the boat, lift the groceries onto the deck, from the
deck to the cockpit, cockpit down the stairs then pack away. Each grocery bag has moved 7 times and we
usually buy a lot so we don’t have to do it very often.
Eating out was much easier with the RV (your right next
to the restaurants) and we did not eat as well as when we make our own food on
the boat. Part of the problem was we
both love seafood and we were RVing in the lobster / clam / oyster capital of
the world. How could we turn it down?
Boaters are more friendly than RVers. It seems that RVs travel in groups or tend to
be more introverted. Maybe this is a
result of the campgrounds being so crowded.
You make your own little world around your RV and it’s yours… Almost all the friends we made while RVing I
initiated by walked next door (or across the road) and introducing myself.
I don’t understand the concept of paying for showers in
campgrounds. Almost all of them charge –
sometimes as little as $.25 / 5 minutes.
One was a dollar for 5 minutes.
This is after you’ve already paid $30 - $50 per night to stay here. I have never seen a marina that charges for
showers. Nobody would stop there again. Add to this our trailer shower was tiny and
uncomfortable. The shower on our boat is
pretty much the same size as one in a house.
We like using our phones and computers to stay in touch with
friends and keep up with the world a bit.
Campgrounds seem to be less connected than marinas. Many places we stayed had limited wi-fi and
no AT&T coverage.
Expenses - As promised, here is a list of our expenses for the 27 days. Note that we did not try to limit our spending or use a budget.
Category
|
TOTAL
|
Dining
|
$ 571.03
|
Excursions
|
$ 239.47
|
Fuel
|
$ 934.69
|
Groceries
|
$ 419.89
|
Overnight
|
$ 921.68
|
Repairs
|
$ 561.93
|
Supplies
|
$ 414.42
|
Tol
|
$ 55.00
|
TOTAL EXPENSES
|
$4,118.11
|
Final Analysis
We enjoyed many aspects of RVing. The sightseeing was different from boating and beautiful. It was very relaxing (most of the time) and very easy compared to boating. For us, the crowds were a turn-off and, if we were to try it again, we would go during a less busy month.
Laura and I are planning our trip south to Florida this winter and will leave in 3-4 weeks. We are both looking forward to the trip. Since hurricane Dorian devistated the northern Bahamas, we might head to the southern Bahamas instead.
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