Larry Statham, RV Life on the Road, Part 2

Larry Statham

What did I learn from traveling by RV that I would not have learned if I had stayed home?

The question about learning is really open to what your interests are in life, for retirement adventure, and what you may discover after you get on the road. 

I remember asking my mom and dad about places they had visited. My curiosity led me to  articles in National Geographic and other magazines about places that had historical significance, such as the Revolutionary War, Civil War, Indian Wars, National Parks.  In putting together a travel itinerary, we always tried to encompass as many sites as possible along a route to a destination, taking into account the possibility of summer storms, aggravating road construction and detours, and always planning refueling stops.  Some accidental treasures may be discovered along your path.  We discovered Springfield, IL, after seeing a billboard on I-70 heading east, that beckoned the traveler to see Lincoln’s law office, his grave, and his home for 14 years, as we were on I-70 heading east. (Below right, Lincoln monument in Springfield, IL) We stayed four days and were intrigued.  Cahokia Mounds, just east of St Louis, is likewise a historical treasure that we found and visited numerous times but the first visit was an incidental visit, not planned.

There is far more to see and visit if you are a full time RV’er than a summer or vacation weekend traveler.  And after 11 years we still are not finished and know that the USA holds many more interesting places we want to visit, not just drive through.  Unfortunately, Washington DC was not as open to the tourists during our travel as it had been a few years before we began to travel due to 9/11 and security restrictions. Likewise, the pandemic led to many closures as well.  Federal budget constraints have impacted National Parks’ availability. Even state governments have closed travel rest stops and some state parks, and private RV camp grounds have closed or added restrictions.  Complete planning and calling ahead can prevent disappointments.     

 Favorite places we visited.

VA and NC: Williamsburg and surrounding sights. Colonial Williamsburg. Yorktown Battlefield (left)  and Victory Monument. Norfolk, Hampton Rhodes, Richmond, Charlottesville with Monticello (at right), Fredericksburg Battlefield, and  Kill Devil Hills NC, for Wright Brothers Museum, NC  

FL: Key West, Truman Winter White house, beautiful white sand beaches, Ernest Hemingway House/Museum, and crazy naked walk around the streets in that town.  Beautiful sunsets in the Square.

Left, driftwood on beach at Jekyll Island, Georgia

ME: Bar Harbor, Kennebunkport, Arcadia NP.  A total surprise how beautiful Maine is. Be careful of very narrow roads.

VT: Bennington, Rutland, Montpelier, Middlebury, Vergennes, Waterbury, Stowe, Burlington, Shelburne

SD: Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park, Deadwood and Historic Homes and Museums, Spearfish trout fish hatchery

Montana: Bozeman, Livingston, Billings, Glacier Park and the nearby cities: Kalispell, Whitefish, Eureka, Somers, Lakeside, Polson; ghost towns; fantastic fly-fishing rivers. (Left, Larry, fishing)

WY: Little Big Horn Battle Field, Sheridan, Buffalo, Devil’s Mountain, Cody, Worland, Thermopolis, Greybull, Jackson, Teton National Park  

TN: Nashville, music attractions and many museums and old buildings; don’t miss Franklin and the many Civil War attractions there. Memphis and blues music history.  TN is divided into East, Central and Western by mountains and highways. There is much to see.

 

NY: Niagara Falls from the Canadian side is beautiful, Finger Lakes Area, Syracuse, Binghamton.

Crazy Happenings

My wife and I decided to rent a car to drive from Colorado Springs to Rapid City to renew her driver’s license in June of 2018.  I was just out of the hospital after a 3-day stay, so she was planning to drive.  She didn’t like to drive my Dodge Ram 3500 diesel truck, so we left our 5th wheel and pickup at our campsite in Fountain, CO.  We returned 3 days later to find a catastrophic, record hailstorm had hit the day after we left.  Cars, trucks, trailers, houses, restaurants, anything in the path of the storm, were heavily damaged.  There is nothing you can do for your truck, motor home or trailer if 4-5” diameter hail falls , except protect your head and your body. Stay inside.  

After such storms, an insurance company will assist with repairs or declare a total loss and pay you off.  Our insurance adjuster inspected all the damages and gave us a check for repairs to the RV and another for the truck.  Such a community disaster means there are hundreds of people getting repairs at the same time.  We were fortunate to already have an appointment later that month for some repairs.  We just added the adjuster’s report and check to the service order quickly and held our place in the queue for repairs. Many others travelers’ non-essential repairs had been cancelled.  The RV dealer’s lot was full of hail-damaged RV’s that also needed repairs.  Our RV and auto insurance carried a $500 deductible for each event but paid only a trivial amount of the costs of hotels and car rental during repairs. The truck required 58 days to repair, so we drove to Indiana to stay at a relative’s lake house while the trailer was in the shop.

We returned to Colorado 34 days later.  The repair facility towed our trailer into our space in the RV park, a few hundred feet away, since we still didn’t have our truck yet. As we began the setting up process (leveled it; attached water, power, sewer), opened our slides and turned on the A/C to cool it down, we noticed there were still many damaged RV’s that hadn’t been repaired yet.  They just aren’t prepared for that many RV’s at once.  Once we were all set up again inside, we went to lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant about 6 miles away.  

Before our lunch was served we heard very loud thumps and watched people rushing to the windows. Another monster hailstorm was occurring.  We went to the front door and looked out, staying away from glass that could be smashed by the large hail stones (again).  Car windows broken, door, hoods, trunks full of big dents, shingles flying, broken tree limbs covering the ground.  We dared not to go out and see the damage to the rental car.  We ate our meal, including a big Margarita.  We whispered our hope that the storm hadn’t hit the RV park again. We waited for the storm to pass and then saw the rental car was still driveable (damage everywhere, but we could see through the cracked windshield). Dollar signs flashed in my head.  $500 deductible on the car rental and another $500 deductible at least for the 5th Wheel.

We notified our insurance agent by phone of a second catastrophic hailstorm; she already knew about it after receiving other calls.  She said our agent would be calling ASAP.  When we arrived at the RV park, the damage was as bad as the first storm, and now it was raining too. I had to get tarps to cover the two broken A/C vents on the roof and another for the broken cover on the the roof refrigerator vent.  The entire roof, the sides, lights, and hoses were all severely damaged just a few hours after leaving the RV repair shop next door.  At the Colorado Springs Zoo, 7 animals had been killed and over 3,000 cars damaged in their parking lot.

Once we stopped the rainwater from coming inside, we drove our damaged rental car next door to tell the RV repair technician to book us again ASAP.  We would bring the insurance check and insurance over as soon as we got them.  He asked about damages. I provided him verbally with my list of the damages and he grimaced. Fortunately for us, we had a close friend in Denver who lives in a high rise apartment building with an extra bedroom. She was kind enough to offer it to us for the next month or whatever we needed.  That repair lasted 36 days.

At last, all was repaired and we were scheduled to leave for our winter RV park. Along the way, just outside Deming, NM, we stopped for fuel.  As I got out and put the fuel hose into our truck, I noticed the skirt of our trailer was hanging away oddly away from where it should be.  The repairs of the skirt had not been done competently: the sheet metal was not secured to the braces and the slip stream and wind had pulled the screws through the metal. My heart practically stopped. I immediately called the RV dealer who had completed the repairs and reported the obviously poor workmanship. He assured me he would cover the costs of complete repairs wherever I could get them done. 

There was one small trailer repair facility in Deming. The manager was gracious enough to take pity and stopped his project to make temporary repairs so we could continue our trip without further damage.  Fortunately, he agreed to do all my repairs after his busy season if I would drive back to NM.  Back we went, and he completed the job and was paid directly by the Colorado Springs dealership.  The 5th Wheel was restored to practically new: roof, A/C, vents, paint, lights, etc. 

This story had an unexpected ending. Due to the violent weather, poor quality control by name brand dealer’s service bays, and the general hassle of recovering from the storms, we decided to end our adventure of full-time RV travel. The decision was made, and we negotiated a deal in Prescott to trade in both the truck and the 5th Wheel.  On March 29th, 2019, we were owners of a new Subaru Outback Touring Model with a 3.6 R engine for mountain driving in Colorado. We drove away with all our household belongings in a rental van, and the car was delivered to us in Colorado Springs about 3 weeks later.    

Last Words

As difficult as some of our problems were, and I didn’t touch on all of them that occurred with the RV or the truck, we would do it all over again. We treasured our travels and the freedom we had to roam this great country.  I hope that never changes due to travel restrictions on types of vehicles or limited access or accommodations for RVs. For now, we will be traveling by car, train or commercial air and staying at hotels, VRBOs or similar.

Many thanks to our fellow travelers along the way. 

Editor’s Note: Larry has written a longer article about his RV experiences, including extensive information about selecting and maintaining vehicles and managing the logistics of RV travel. You can read it by clicking on this link: Larry Statham, Reflections on 11 years of RV Life on the Road.