We did it!! We finally ticked off “Experience RV” from our bucket list of experiences–must-try-once!

We rented a Cruise America RV and went on a short road trip to close by town of Ocean Shores with family friends earlier this month.

What is an RV?A recreational vehicle,RV, is a motor vehicle or trailer which includes living quarters designed for accommodation.Typical amenities of an RV include a kitchen, a bathroom, and one or more sleeping facilities!

Wikipedia.

Let me start by saying RV is an experience,that you should try for yourself before deciding on whether or not it works for you.

I have a lot to cover here, from my first RV experience to our trip details, hence I’ll be covering our trips in parts.

Part 1 all about the planning and the packing it took to make this trip.

Did it work for me? Let’s find out, shall we?

How it all started?

S had been talking about the doing a trip in RV ever since pandemic hit us all.It seemed one of the safest options when planning an-out-of-town vacation last year.

This February our first trip we had plans of renting out an RV and going on a road trip to Cannon beach in Oregon.For school reasons it didn’t work out and we did Seabrooks instead.

So when my friend Satya asked us to join them for a RV road trip we were all in!

“When you want something,all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it” ~Paulo Coelho.

Planning The Trip

While it was quite an adventure,a great extent of planning went into making this trip happen.

First step was researching the best RV’s for first timers,S had been doing his research for a while now,finally after comparing notes,the men decided Cruise America RVs were our best bet.

Once the dates were finalized,the same day RVs were booked.One has to be prompt with these bookings,they get booked in blink of an eye especially now in pandemic time.

After RVs were booked Kiran,Satya’s husband did most of the ground work from finding the best available campsites to booking them.🙏🏻

Dates-Finalized,RV’s-Booked,Campsites-Booked.Now came the strenuous part, what to carry for the trip?

Packing for the Trip

We had never been on a camping trip before let alone a camping trip in RV.

This is where Satya’s list, the holy grail of things-to-carry-in-RV came in handy!She had the tiniest detail down to the mop we would need to clean the sand from the beach written down.

While packing for an RV trip always work under the assumption that you are going to be far from shops and restaurants.Experienced people tow their cars along,we weren’t those people.

No car means you end up carrying lot more stuff to be fully prepared.Basically all the items needed for full functioning household not forgetting the torch,first aid kits,ropes,scissors etc.

If you have kids in tow then the stuff you carry just gets multiplied by 10 times.

So along with necessities they were the toys,books,board games,beach stuff etc etc!Thankfully RV had enough storage space to hide them.😂

The RV Is Here

Our plan was to start on Friday evening and drive directly to Ocean Shores ,stay over till Sunday morning,leave for the next campsite in Olympic National Park before reaching home on Tuesday.

On Friday afternoon S left with Satya and Kiran to pick up the RV from the rentals.It took them two hours with the paperwork and inspection before they got the keys.

After the handover, the men took it easy slowly driving the big RV through the city traffic.

We were running late,once S was home, it was pure chaos, cleaning and loading.

Even though the RV looked clean ,I cloroxed the place out for obvious reasons while S started loading the stuff in.

At sharp 5pm, we left home for Ocean Shores.

Exploring the RV

We were in such a rush that I didn’t take any pics of the interiors,and once it we had all loaded,it definitely didn’t make a pretty scene 😂.

The fitted bed cover just wouldn’t fit! S just threw things on the bed and I just decided to close my eyes and ignore the mess!

Thank god for google, here are some pictures of the RV model we rented and how pretty it should have looked!

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Storage Space

There is enormous amount of storage space in the RV, every possible space has been converted into storage allowing you to store about 2-3 weeks worth of stuff easily!

We had three beds,queen,bunk bed above the driver’s seat and dining table doubling as another spacious bed.

The kitchen had a microwave,refrigerator, gas range with 3 burners, exhaust, plug points! We used instant pot and toaster and it worked perfectly.The dining table could easily seat 4 adults.

A tiny bathroom and attached toilet with all the works! We stuffed the refrigerator with milk,fruits,precooked food and some frozen items!

You can’t have anything out in open once RV is on the move.So everything except the bedding had to be securely placed in the storage before starting.

First Reactions

V was excited and shocked at the same time.Excited that she was going on a vacation with her friends, shocked because RV was a lot smaller than she had imagined.I mean she was hoping to play board games on the floor,so imagine her disappointment 😆.

N on the other hand was running high on energy.She was excited and stayed excited the entire trip!😲

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Finally after all the chaos,the RV’s were on the road heading to Ocean Shores.

This is how we came about planning this whole trip.Here is the second post on all about our adventures in the campsite.

Until then, Be Kind, the world needs it.