Several kinds of water

When you consider RVing, you need to learn about the different kinds of water. There’s fresh, or potable water, that you drink and cook with and take showers in. There’s gray water, and that’s what washes down the drain after you do all those things. And there’s black water, which comes from only one place, the toilet.

You will soon learn that talking about water and its various forms, especially black water and how best to handle it, is a sort of, well, I don’t think obsession is too strong a word for a dedicated RVer. Horror stories abound about black water, the stuff of late-night comics and B movies. But the funny thing is that those things really happen. I really do know people who have been sprayed from the black water hose. Or whose black water dump overflowed. And from my personal experience, I can tell you that if you’re in snow country and your black water tank freezes and cracks, you don’t want to be there when it thaws.

Backing into sites

Tis is another favorite topic when RVers pull their folding chairs up to the campfire. Backing in to a camp site is not an easy thing to do. Unless you’re one of those who have that natural flair we talked about, you would do well to listen and learn from the campfire group and save yourself an assortment of humiliations.

There are aids available, such as walkie talkies. You take the wheel and your honey hops out with the walkie talkie and guides you neatly into place. Hand signals are fine for daylight hours, but you and your honey must agree on what hand signal means what before you start. Amazing how many couples get into what you might call heated discussions about what do you mean when you wave your arm like that?

Sometimes a helpful neighbor will wander over to help. Frankly, I was always a bit put off by that, implying as it does that I couldn’t steer my husband into say, the 11^th million campsite we parked in. Though I have to admit I did have my share of bumped trash cans and electric poles, and more than once steered him nicely in without remembering to check if there was room for the slide-out to extend. Smashed it into a pretty little maple tree, as I recall. 

Nowdays, however, many rigs come equipped with back-up mirrors, and all the hand-waving and walkie talkie action isn’t all that necessary. I think I might miss it just a little.

Consider batteries, satellites, and cable

Ever hear of boondocking? Also called dry camping, that’s what the guy down by the lake is doing. You can also boondock in a WalMart parking lot. You just pull up to a spot, turn off your engine and hop out to enjoy that flowing river. This means your rig is completely self-contained. You’ve got power and water and heat and anything else you want. But, ah, there’s the rub, for the means to obtain those things mean making a string seemingly endless decisions. You’ll want to burn some midnight oil and learn how many batteries you need and how long they will last on their own. And how about solar panels, converters, inverters? See what I mean? You’ll want to decide if you’re going to be doing boondocking at all, and if you are, how long you want to stay unattached to landlines (power), and what you’ll be doing while you’re out there. If you need TV and computers, lots of lights, etc. of course you’ll need more power. If you’re content to spend your indoor time minimizing electronics, you’re good to go.

Now if you’re the type who can’t imagine missing Desperate Housewives or Dancing with the Stars, many campgrounds offer cable hookups. Or you might go for broke and look into your own personal roaming satellite dish. Back in the day, the first time we put in a satellite system we attracted a crowd at the campground, all wanting to watch the Super Bowl. Now they are very common. Satellites, I mean, not Super Bowls. We lugged our huge dish out from under the rig where it was stored (I say “we” like I did it. Right). But in the same way our rigs kept getting bigger and better, our satellite dishes got smaller and better. Now they even set themselves up at the touch of a button. Hardly roughing it.

Full Hookups

This means you pull into a campground with water, electricity and a dump. All those folded up cords and hoses come out and find their places and their function to make you cozy and comfortable. Sometimes full hookups include a phone line, cable TV and wireless service for your computer. You can camp “bare bones”, meaning with nothing but power, if that, or go for the whole nine yards and hook up everything you’ve got. Your choice.

Speaking of campgrounds, just where are they and how do you find them? Aha, you probably guessed there are directories such as the Trailer Life Campground Directory, which comes out every year and lists nearly every campground in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The directory tells you if there are rig length limits, what kind of hookups, if the site is a pull-through or a back-in, whether you’ll need reservations and how to get them, rates the cleanliness of the restrooms, the ambiance of the park and the quality of service. Often it will tell you what there is to do in the area and where to get your rig fixed. The campground directory will become your RV bible.