Week Two Learning Curve: Moving to a New Campground

Week Two

We survived the first week living in our RV and are on the week two. Colton initially requested a few days off from work as we settled into our new home, but he is now back to work. Unfortunately, finding an internet connection has been a struggle. Since we have not ventured too far away from home, Colton can drive to work until we are able to remedy the internet situation. Meanwhile, the kids and I have working hard to establish a routine. We are gradually making progress.

Unfortunately, week two brought our first big meltdown of the journey. Rylen started feeling homesick. He misses his friends and is already sick of camping. Completely uprooting our lives is quite an adjustment, and homesickness is inevitable. After having a heart-to-heart conversation, he came around. Soon we will have a whole new adjustment to prepare for.

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Week Two Moving Day Challenges

Heading into week two and it is time to push our endeavor further away from our comfort zone. We departed the Big Sioux Recreation Area and headed south to Newton Hills State Park in Canton, SD. As this is our first time moving to a different campsite, arising challenges were inevitable.

Our first step, even before we left camp was to sanitize our freshwater tank. Since we mistakenly assumed our first site had a water hook up, we did not bother with the sanitation process. Instead, we focused primarily on settling into our new home. Now that was time to move, we needed to figure out a way to sanitize the tank. Our solution was to carry 30-gallon buckets to the spigot near the outhouse, fill them with water, bring them back to our site and add the sanitation solution to the water. We then syphoned the water from our hose to the tank. It was an undertaking to say the least.

More Challenges

Once the tank was filled with the cleaning water solution, we hooked our truck up to the 5th wheel RV and made our way for our first trip to the dump station. Since we clearly had no idea what we were doing, we pulled the freshwater valve to empty the tank of the sanitation solution and completely flooded the freshwater fill station. We weren’t even in the right location! Not having anything to “dump”, as we did not use our toilets or sinks the entire week, we promptly left after the accidently flooding.

Before our trek to the next campground, we visited the weigh station – several times. The result was consistent, our RV exceeded our towing capacity by about 1,000 pounds. After spending weeks purging everything we owned in our house and packing only our essentially, we were again going to have to purge. This was a painful realization. The amount of downsizing required to simplify your life is not an easy task.

An Unfortunate Event on Week Two

Our drive to Newton Hills State Park went smoothly. While we are still only an hour away from our friends and family, this was a big step. We managed to hookup are RV to the truck, sanitize our freshwater tank, rinse and fill our water tank, back into our new campsite, and set up the rig. First moving day officially in the books.

Colton decided to go duck scouting with his buddies the next day since we were only an hour away from our friends and family. The boys stopped by their shared storage locker on the way to drop off and pick up a few items. Upon arrival, they discovered that some of the storage units had been burglarized. Unfortunately, ours was one of them. The thieves had searched our unit but found very little to take. Hopefully, it was a waste of their time and effort. We were lucky that we chose not to store many valuable things there, but it still makes me sick that our unit was targeted just a week after we moved.

The Best of Both Worlds

Right now, we are living the best of both worlds. We are on week two of homeschooling and living fulltime in an RV, but we are also in a familiar area close to family and friends. Our campground this week has more to extracurricular activities to offer than the last site. With school in session, the campground is virtually empty. The kids and I took the opportunity to explore the park, rent banana bikes, and to reconnect. My parents also decided to stop by for a visit. It was an incredibly experience to slow down for a bit from the hustle and bustle of daily living and enjoy the company of loved ones.

How Quickly Things Can Change

After a much-needed boding experience, we endured a temperature fluctuation resulting in unbearably warm conditions I counted forty bug bites on just one arm. As you can imagine, between the bug bites and the heat, we are all a little on edge. To protect ourselves from the elements we have confined ourselves to our tiny home. Now we are irritable, uncomfortable, and in close quarters. A recipe for disaster.

We are on week two and I am beginning to miss my private shower. Lylah and I went to the shower house tonight and she panicked about crickets in the shower stall. As I am trying to get rid of the crickets, she spots a spider and starts screaming. As a large spider scurries under a bench, Lylah absolutely refuses to take a shower in that stall. After collecting our shower supplies and relocating to the adjacent stall discover a worm and a copious amount of blood on the ground. At this point some mysteries are better left unsolved. All I can say is shower shoes are a necessity, and this is the reason why.

After Lylah and I left the shower house, we ran into a literal wall of bugs. They went up our nose, in our eyes, and I definitely ate a few. They appeared out of nowhere and I am now convinced that we are living in some sort of biblical plague. We aren’t throwing in the towel of fulltime RV living, but the past couple of days have really tested whether or not we are cut out for this lifestyle. To be honest, I never anticipated feeling homesick. I love traveling and this has always been my dream, but I am beginning to miss the luxuries of home.

To read the full story about our first year as Fulltime RVers and life on the road, check out our book – Coming Soon!