March Madness, Mayhem, and Jolly Roll
I'm finally back at #rollingandwriting after a break in February. I had truly meant to get the blog done but life seemed to get away from me. I guess that is pretty normal sometimes so I'm not going to sweat it. I loved visiting with my mother in Pennsylvania for two weeks this past month and now we've hit the road running as we get closer and closer to our roll-out date.
No that hasn't been pinned down but we know we have to be in Yellowstone for a start date of April 5th so preparations are underway. I believe we will be seeing a lot more of this white fluffy stuff when we arrive in the park but we are still excited. So what are we doing to prepare? Even living full-time in an RV you should plan ahead and be as prepared for odd weather, changing plans, and things like a virus that dictates how your roll. One important aspect of RV living is food. No, we don't stop and eat out when we are traveling, we cook. There is a huge difference between being on holiday in your RV and living in it full time. Eating out is a treat
and living on a budget one that we are careful about. One of the things I do to make sure we have food for any situation is store canned and dried goods. I keep several bags of dried beans and canned meat so that if we were to get locked in somewhere or couldn't get to the store for some reason, we would have staples to keep us going. A couple of bags of dried beans can go a long way in feeding two people who can't make a grocery run.
Food is not the only consideration when thinking of the long-term roll. The weather can change in a moment as we have seen so clearly this spring and being prepared for bad weather is a must. After spending last summer in Yellowstone we know that when we return we would love to do more hiking. We are told that April is cold and snowy and that May isn't
much better in the park so we decided we needed to gear up for cold weather hiking and some possible backcountry camping. There are several trails in the park that require a backcountry pass and an overnight stay to complete so on the advice of a friend we headed to a discount camping store and found some great buys. My first priority, (you can see this in the snow photo) was my feet. If your feet are cold and wet you will not be a happy camper so we searched for some tall, waterproof and insulated boots. You know it's mighty hard to find these for women anymore. Where's that pioneering spirit? I ended up buying a pair of men's boots that fit like a dream and keep my toes toasty.
Overall, the everyday-hero and I are pretty well supplied with warm clothing. We even have a pair of ski pants compression bagged in the back cupboard of the rig. I'll be hunting for a few more pairs of good socks as well before we roll but the clothing side of things are stitched up. Yes, pun intended. So what else could we need? How about a tent? Yes, a tent. I know we live full time in our rolling home already but there have been times when we really wish we could have pitched a tent and just stayed somewhere.
The summer of 2019 in Alaska was a big one. We drove two hours to Kinnecot and wished we could have stayed longer. If we had a tent and some minimal gear in the Jeep we would have stayed a night or even two in the area and done a lot more exploring. Even though the RV is our home, it can also be our home base if we are going to be stationary for an extended period of time.