The RV Edition: Expert tips and tales for hitting the road

Happy almost Fourth of July! 

Jeri’s just back from her new favorite island,Curaçao, and we’re happy to report she survived another round of air-mageddon. More on that below. And next week we’ll tell you all about why this jewel of the Dutch Caribbean is her new favorite island.

But first, let’s talk politics. As we’ve seen repeatedly over the years, social controversies can have big impacts on hotels and tourism in political hot spots when companies and travelers pull big meetings and events or personal travel to states or destinations over divisive policies dealing with issues such as gay marriage, race and transgender rights.

It’s too soon to say whether states like Texas, with one of the most sweeping abortion bans, will see fallout from last week’s landmark Supreme Court decision overturning Roe vs. Wade, which was followed by a second ruling that rolls back gun safety laws in the increasingly crime-plagued New York City. But travel companies are definitely studying potential implications, although few are ready to talk about them publicly.

“Clients are discussing what it all means,” our friend Joan Eisenstodt, a veteran meetings industry consultant based in Washington, D.C., told Travel Essential. Besides the politics, she said, companies are looking at things such as "how will they handle a person who is pregnant and has a miscarriage while traveling to a state that outlaws abortions (or in cases like Texas, even giving advice about abortions or related procedures), even if they are just there for business.”

So far, no big travel companies have joined the public lists of organizations vowing to help employees living in states that are banning abortions seek the procedure elsewhere. Nor have any big companies vowed (publicly, at least) to pull meetings from states whose abortion or gun safety laws they disagree with.

But one friend who drives between homes in Arizona and the East Coast told us after the abortion ruling last week that she told her husband “he better learn to drive fast because I’m not stopping or spending any money in Texas or Oklahoma."

And we’re betting a lot of people will be protesting abortion bans with their pocketbooks.

Stay tuned. We’ll be closely following how travel companies and travelers respond to these highly contentious rulings.

Back to Air-mageddon…

Last weekend, we saw yet another round of flight cancellations and delays as airlines continued to cut back their schedules. And airports are bracing for more chaos over the busy Fourth of July weekend.

Jeri got lucky, experiencing a surprisingly smooth and pleasant (albeit crowded) six-flight roundtrip trip from Albuquerque to Curaçao.

All of her flights arrived on time or early, although every leg –  save a late night flight from DFW to ABQ Monday night – was packed as the few open seats were quickly filled with standby passengers whose schedules were impacted by cancellations or delays. One of her seatmates told her she had been heading to Cali, Colombia, but turned around and headed back home to Dallas after discovering she wouldn’t arrive in time to make an already short tip worthwhile. Another passenger trying to get to Jamaica had an unexpected overnight in Dallas. Fortunately, he said, American Airlines did pay for his hotel.

And except for the seemingly always surly American Airlines gate agents in MIA, it was otherwise what Curacaons would call a “dushi” experience. (Yeah, go ahead and Google that one.) There was one minor incident, however, that caused her to violate one of our top travel tips – Be nice! – when a flight attendant messing with overhead bins in economy knocked into her, startling her when the collision ripped her glasses off her face. But she quickly apologized for making a snarky remark. And the next thing she knew he was sneaking her the better wine from the first class cabin.

TE Takeway: Keep your filter in-check. And ALWAYS apologize if it fails.

Oh, and don’t count on being able to escape the airport masses in your favorite club lounge. This was the scene Sunday at the MIA Centurion Lounge.

Living the RV dream: Tips and (funny) tales from two road-tripping veterans

Anyway, we’ve been talking enough about summer air travel hell. This week we have a special RV report from our friends and digital nomads Tracie Cone and Michelle Peterson, who we met up with this month at Trailer Ranch in Santa Fe, N.M. They joined some 65 million Americans who the RV Industry Association estimated went RV-ing last year, up from 46 million in 2020. And while some are predicting soaring gas prices could slow the booming RV travel trend, RVIA says sales of RVs just hit a record for May, with shipments topping 50,000. That's an 11.8% increase over last May. Still, the association said it expects the market to level off from 2021 record shipments of 600,240 vehicles. 

For now, however, Cone says demand for spaces at RV parks is tighter than ever. Still, they have no plans to abandon their RV life, Cone told Travel Essential in this insightful and fun Q&A.

How long have you guys been on the road?

Basically, for most of Covid. We were lucky to  have our Airstream before the pandemic hit and RVs became a hot commodity with long waitlists (up to a year for Airstreams). When we bought it, we hoped we would use it one weekend a month to make it worthwhile. Now that we are working remotely, it seems like we are always somewhere. Since we live in California there are many wonderful places for short trips, but currently we have been on an intensive tour of the Southwest since the beginning of May that won’t end until Oct. 15. So far we have spent a couple of days in Death Valley, two near Las Vegas visiting Lake Mead, three days on Lake Powell, four days in Monument Valley, two in Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument, a night in Bryce Canyon, three nights in Durango, Colo., and now we are finishing up a month in Santa Fe, N.M. Our decision to stay here so long was for two reasons: One, we came through last year when everything was Covid-closed and we wanted to experience it more intimately. Two: it’s nice to not have to fill up our truck’s gas tank every 250 miles with prices like they are. It seems like a luxury to be in one place. Last year we traveled 20,000 miles coast-to-coast and then up the California coast to the Pacific Northwest, moving almost continuously. 

We tend to stay off Interstates, which aren’t in the best of shape, and look for county roads and state highways that take us through small communities we might otherwise miss. How else would we have found Corsicana, Texas, home of the “World-Famous DeLuxe Fruitcake?” Or the Selma (Alabama) Flea Market and RV Park, which is neither (it’s basically a grassy field). Or the house in Medicine Bow, Wyo., made of dinosaur bones? Or even the  Napoleon Dynamite brick ranch house outside of Preston, Idaho (minus Tina the Llama)?

Do you ever get weary of the nomad lifestyle?

No. We had no idea we would enjoy life on the backroads of America so much. Previously when we traveled, we tended to take expansive trips to other countries – tequila distillery tours in Jalisco, Mexico, photo safaris in Africa, a winter trip to Moscow. But Covid has been a weird blessing. It forced us to slow down and see the beauty of our own country. In this time of such bitter political divides, we have been touched to meet a lot of people with whom we can agree on at least one thing: the U.S. is a unique and gorgeous landscape. When we get home to recharge and replenish, we are shocked by two things: how big our house is (it’s only 2,000 square feet) and how much “stuff” we have. We realize we can get by with a lot less. We have gotten to where we feel confined in one place when we are home and can’t wait to get back out and roam around.

Can you share some lessons learned, key tips for anyone planning an RV trip?

We try to generally plan a route and some key experiences, but we also have to be flexible. With so many new people out on the road, it has become something of a challenge to find campsites, especially in state and federal parks. So, what we learned last year is we need a better setup so that we can stay a night or two in places without hookups, such as federal BLM land, where you can stay for free for up to two weeks, or even a Wal-Mart or random casino parking lot. We also are members of Harvest Hosts, which is a vast network of farms, wineries, golf courses – even host homes – where overnight camping is available without hookups. We already had solar panels on our Airstream, but we added lithium batteries to hold a longer charge and power more things. We also bought a portable lithium-battery generator. We keep our water tank on the trailer full. That means means we can stay three to four days without hookups and still power our latte machine. We had planned to stay on National Forest land near the Grand Canyon, but Michelle is very diligent about calling for last-minute cancellations and was able to get us in the park, which was perfect for catching the sunrises and which we might have been too lazy to do had we been 20 miles outside of the entrance. But for an overnight between destinations, you can’t beat Harvest Hosts. We stayed at the Blue Heron cheese factory in Tillamook, Oregon, and at a winery in Las Cruces, N.M., last year (and stocked up at both places).

What’s it like trying to work on the road?

The key to working from the road has been to make sure I have connectivity, and that’s often a problem in remote places. For part of this current trip, I took vacation days because I didn’t want to fret over whether I’d be able to participate in Zoom meetings or even be able to check my email. I’m pretty sure that problem has been permanently solved with my recent, in-trip purchase of Starlink for RV, which just became available in May. (It’s the Elon Musk satellite internet service recently in the news because he dispatched many units to Ukraine). Anyway, the promise is I’ll have internet in any place I can point the dish to the sky. So far, it’s amazing, but I’ve only been using it in Santa Fe. Prior to this I used a Verizon jetpack, which needs phone service, and even with that the speeds are super slow and make for glitchy zoom calls. Other than reliable internet, there are no real obstacles other than looking out the window at something beautiful and knowing you have to finish a mundane task before going out to enjoy it.

What do your bosses and colleagues think about you working from the road rather than your home office? 

At the beginning of covid, I think my colleagues thought it was cool. I would sit outside with my shiny trailer as the background on my Zoom calls. But two-and-a-half years in, I can sense that attitude has shifted, so I started using those fake backgrounds, or I blur my background. They probably still know I’m not slaving away in my home office, but at least I’m not rubbing it in anyone’s virtual face anymore. Also, I stopped posting photos on my general Facebook page and made a private group for select friends and family to follow our travel photos. I also set up a different Instagram account (@TheAluminaughties). I like to think I’m more efficient on the road because I don’t want to lose the privilege of working from it. For instance, if I’m in another time zone I start earlier and have big projects done before my West Coast colleagues wake up.

What is it that you guys like best about the RV life?

Freedom! It sounds cliché, but it’s so true. Something psychological happens when we are on the road. I think walls turn me inward. Maybe I worry too much about the mundane. But outside and on the road, I’m looking outward and having visceral experiences that take me outside of myself. Then at a more basic level, it’s seeing the way other people live outside of our California bubble, and also meeting so many people on the road with whom we have this same innate feeling of freedom in common that we bond over. We really do talk to a lot of fellow travelers about their experiences, where they are going, where they have been that we should see. We will share wine around a campfire and laugh and find commonalities like we are old friends. And then the next day they are gone, and you know you’ll probably never see them again, but it was a wonderful connection for that night, or maybe two. It can be bittersweet. We have met people that we stay in contact with and have become close friends. We also have made brief connections with people who will text us a warning such as “hailstorm ahead,” and people who have invited us to stay on their land when we travel through wherever they are from. When we started our travels two and a half years ago, I was depressed about the state of our country and the divisions in it. I think I’ve found hope that there are still things that connect us. Also, having an RV has allowed us to stay connected with friends and family during the pandemic.  We have been able to travel afar to see friends and family and visit with them safely outdoors and from a distance. We even spent three weeks in my elderly mom’s driveway in North Carolina, ending the longest stretch of agonizing time I have gone without seeing her.

What’s been the biggest surprise?

Basking in the kindness of strangers. When you roll through small towns with a giant silver trailer in tow (and you are two women), you invite stares and conversations. The lovely people in Corsicana, Texas, where the fruitcakes are made, brought out fresh-baked treats for our dogs. Or waking up to the quiet beauty of an unseasonable snowfall on the shores of Lake Tahoe. Or unexpectedly running into our neighbors 900 miles from home when we stopped at a grocery store. But I think the biggest surprise has been the confidence we have developed in our ability to problem solve. I remember on our first cross-country trip, when we left California with the rest of the country in front of us, it felt like we had just stepped off a high-dive and didn’t know how we would land. We were nervous, but we just kept going and meeting the challenges of the day – finding places to stay, finding the back-road route, talking to people we met – and it came to feel like no big deal. It wasn’t scary. It became natural to be alone, 2,000 miles from home in the middle of a grassy field that is the Selma Flea Market and RV Park in Alabama.

Any funny stories, or surprise highlights?

The Selma Flea Market was an interesting stop. We really wanted to see and experience the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the scene of so many civil rights struggles and celebrations, and where recently the funeral procession of Congressman John Lewis had so famously traveled. So, we were in the middle of this field, where we had something of a “reservation” but there were no campsites easily definable and no place to check in. But there was a woman on a riding lawnmower with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth some distance away. So we waved her down and she came pulling over on that lawnmower and we asked her where we should park. And she just swept her arm across the 15-acre expanse and said “anywhere.” And then we asked her how to get to “the bridge.” She sat there with a puzzled look, lawnmower still chugging, cigarette smoldering, like she couldn’t quite understand the question. Finally a lightbulb: “Ohhhh, you mean that bridge them people walked across?” Yes, that’s the bridge.

Any scary stories/lessons?

As long as we are on the topic of the Flea Market, we had a strange encounter with a sheriff’s deputy who took over riding lawnmower duties later in the day and, despite 15 more acres of unkempt grass, decided to mow around and around our trailer. That was kind of unnerving, and it has become our bell weather as we decide whether other places are OK to stay: Well, we say, it’s not as strange as the Selma Flea Market. And let me add right here, that turned out to be a perfectly fine place to stay. And we met many nice people in Selma who were happy that we had stopped to spend time and money in a town that desperately needs an infusion. There is general confusion among some people as to why Selma is not more of a tourist mecca, like Birmingham, where we went next. I would stay at the Selma Flea Market again.

What’s a realistic RV for an extended trip? 

We are partial to Airstreams. This is our third one, and I think at 28 feet we have finally found the right size for two of us, two dogs and remote work. I’ve got my monitors set up on our dinette as a type this. Also, the quality of Airstream makes it perfect for two people who aren’t necessarily good with fixing things (and they hold their resale value). I think what a person needs depends on how they camp. I want a toilet and a shower. One of my besties and her husband have a Mercedes Sprinter van because they always boondock on federal and state land. They don’t have a toilet or shower, but they also don’t stay on the road for as long as we do. Plus, if you’re buying a trailer, you must consider what your vehicle will tow weight-wise unless you want to buy a big truck, which we eventually did. There is something for everyone out there, and lots of places these days to rent RVs so a person can get a feel for what works best for them.

What’s the biggest downside? 

On this trip, it’s the gas prices. It’s such a bummer. And it was why we beat feet out of California, where the price is a lot higher than in other Western states. But even if we were inclined to brave Covid and air travel – which we are not – buying gas is still cheaper than airline tickets and hotels. Also, in inclement weather, you’re trapped inside of 180 square feet with your spouse and wet dogs, so that’s a consideration. Though the idea is if you have wheels just go someplace with better weather, right? Also, speaking of the dogs, they are not allowed on national park trails, which is a bummer. So often we find ourselves getting up early to get them exhausted with a swim or hike so that we don’t feel badly leaving them behind in air-conditioned luxury with their favorite chew snack. They have gotten better about it, but we had to work with them, leaving for short periods and coming back to let them know they weren’t being abandoned and that we would return.

We all know RVs were big in 2020 and 2021,  but you said it’s even worse now?

The RV world has never been more crowded. There are a lot of people like us who are staying off of airplanes and cruise ships since Covid. It means a lot of competition for campsites, and long waits for some RV purchases. When we bought our most recent Airstream in 2019, the dealership literally had 100 units on the lot for us to choose from. And, like a car purchase, you could negotiate a lower price. Now there is nothing on the lots, a yearlong wait for the most popular models and prices are way up. Airstream is struggling not just to meet the demand, but with all of the supply chain issues facing every other industry.  We keep wondering when demand for campsites will slow down. The one improvement (to us) is the fact that kids aren’t being universally homeschooled anymore. During the first year of Covid there was no “off season” when kids were in school, so families were doing a lot more traveling and schooling from the road. They often weren’t familiar with campsite etiquette. Speaking of which: Don’t leave your outside lights on overnight, don’t cut through someone else’s campsite, pick up after your dog, don’t run your loud, exhaust-spewing generator at night, and observe quiet hours after 10 p.m.

Anything else people planning and RV adventure should know?

Travel with patience and curiosity. Be flexible. Our original trip out of California was going to be due east over the Sierra Nevada mountains, but a late snowstorm that demanded chains also brought unseasonably cool weather to Death Valley. So we changed course. Also, be kind. Talk to people who don’t look like you. My spouse and I are gay, and I can no longer even count the number of our fellow campers who have started a conversation with “my son is gay, or my niece is gay.” That might sound weird to your readers, but to us it’s just code for "We see you and we are cool," which is nice when you’re in the middle of the Bible Belt,  or anywhere actually. They are trying to be friendly. No matter what someone is traveling in, they are there to enjoy and experience the same things you are. So don’t be afraid of trying something new or taking off in new directions. You never know what you’ll wake up to.

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