When we first started talking seriously about buying an RV it coincided with an anniversary hike to Tallulah Gorge State Park in Georgia. It was May 2020 in the peak of the coronavirus, so there weren't a lot of things that were open. We wanted to get out of the house and away from the monotony of working from home and doing chores within the same four walls day after day.
After a hot an exhausting hike up and down thousands of stairs to the gorge floor and then around the rim trail, we decided to take a stroll around the campground. We wanted to get a peak at RV life and see if it might be something we could seriously enjoy. Will grew up in Wyoming, served in the Army and used to tent camp with his friends. My family owned a pop-up camper when I was teeny tiny, and I did a lot of tent camping in college. So neither of us were new to being outdoors. But camping in an RV was foreign to us.
We took a loop around the campground and noted the different types of motor homes, the accessories some campers had and the dogs around the campsites. And we started to dream about what it could be like for us. Two months later we bought a truck camper.
Our first truck camper trip
We spent six to eight weeks completely preoccupied with our truck camper remodel. So when it was finally ready to take it out, many campgrounds were booked. We had not thought ahead to our first trip, but we knew we wanted to stay close to home in case something went wrong. Will booked us at the Tallulah Gorge campsite because it had an opening. And it was actually a fitting place to take our first trip, since that's where the idea of owning a camper really began to take shape.
What we learned
Work off of a packing list. As soon as we got to the campground we learned that we had forgotten some things. We brought the hamburger buns, but not the burgers (head slap)! We had taken enough food that we didn't go hungry, but next time we'll double check that one of us grabbed the food we intended to take. While we're on the subject of food, we also realized we needed to stock the camper with salt and pepper.
I also discovered I had forgotten my tennis shoes and my ulcerative colitis maintenance medicine. Thankfully I had my hiking boots and would only miss one day of my meds since we were only there for two nights.
Our holding tanks are small. Our grey water tank is much smaller than we thought it was. On the first night we both took a quick shower (wet down your body, turn off the water, lather, rinse). Will filled the sink with soapy water to wash the dishes on both days. On the second night we were debating whether we should shower at the campground showers or in the camper.
Part of the purpose of our trip was to use everything to fullest extent, test the limits and see how everything works. The grey water tank monitor was showing 3/4 full on the evening of our second day. I took another quick shower and just after it read full. So Will trekked it over to the campground shower and we began to be more conservative for the remainder of our trip. We only had a couple of hours before bedtime and we were leaving the next day anyway.
On the way home I looked at our owner's manual and realized we only have a 15 gallon grey water tank. I ordered a collapsible dish pan to wash dishes outside. After all, who wants to go to the dump station every other day? I also stocked the camper with a spray bottle full of soapy water to help conserve water when washing our pots and pans. We figure if we can take a few conservative steps to prolong the grey tank capacity, we can take fewer trips to the dump station on longer trips.
Check your campsite surroundings. We knew there was a significant chance of rain as we drove to the campground, but we went anyway. We had waited two months since buying our camper to be able to take our first trip, and part of the reason for our trip was just to see how things work anyway since we're complete newbies. We backed into our campsite and set up. It seemed so easy. The door on our camper is on the back, not the side. And a few feet away from our door was a slope into our campsite. The morning we left we woke up to a muddy mess outside our door. Our door mat was covered with mud. Next time, we'll note things like this and leave more space between our camper and any potential mess that might occur due to rain. We also realized we needed a second outdoor rug. We already had one to put in our sitting area, but we came home and bought a second one to put outside our door to try to minimize the mess we'll track into our camper.
Test your propane leak and carbon monoxide alarms. We knew our alarms worked before our trip because they had gone off when the old generator (that we ditched and replaced) first started up and when we were painting the inside one day. What took us by surprise is when the propane leak detector went off after we had gone to bed on the second night. We jumped out of bed and pressed the mute button. I started opening windows and Will went outside to check the propane tanks, which he knew he had turned off but he double-checked anyway. The alarm kept sounding and we kept pressing mute. That went on for a few minutes, and then it just stopped. I had a very hard time going back to sleep after that and only slept for three hours that night.
The next day we did a little research. It turns out a variety of things can trigger the alarm. It's also recommended that the alarms be replaced every five to seven years. Guess what we just bought?
Be flexible. The best advice we can give for your first RV trip if you're newbies like us to be flexible. Things are going to go wrong. It might rain. You'll forget something. You might be ripped out of bed in the middle of the night by an alarm and end up too afraid to fall back asleep. But don't let the mishaps ruin your trip. We took a few walks when the sun was out, hiked up to Inspiration Point to catch a beautiful sunset, and enjoyed learning how our new to us camper worked.
Take a notepad and make a list of all the things you need to check on or buy when you get home and enjoy the moment. Like us, you'll learn what works for next time, and make adjustments. We're confident that with more trips under our belt we'll find what works and what doesn't as our truck camping adventures continue. And we'll enjoy many more beautiful sunsets like this one.
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