One Cold Christmas and a BIG Milestone!
It's hard to believe, but today (December 30) is our 1-year RVersary! We don't count it as our travel anniversary/"nomadaversary" because we didn't officially launch until February 22 (we got a little sad and delayed), but December 30, 2021 was the day we finished packing all our belongings, closed on the sale of our house, and moved into the RV, which was stationed at its home-base at my parents' house. We'd love to look back with fond memories of that day, but it was actually one of the hardest, saddest days. We scrambled to get packed and barely had enough time to process the emotions of leaving our house for the last time. I had trouble fighting back tears as we signed the real estate documents. Then we had a mountain of unpacking and organizing to do in our new home-on-wheels, which was a much more daunting task than we expected. We managed our time extremely poorly, and we paid the price.
We're happy to say that this year, we're in much better shape. We're at our home-base again, winding down from wonderful Christmas celebrations and gearing up for our next season of travel. In fact, if all goes as planned, we will be finishing up our first day back on the road when this post releases! We may be in better spirits, but that doesn't mean our experience at home was all sunshine and rainbows. It was more no sunshine and lots of rain, minus the bows.
We set out on our 2022 travel journey knowing that we'd want to be home for the holidays. Anthony and I are the hosts of Thanksgiving and Christmas, and we love cooking for the family, even if it's not in our kitchen anymore. Initially we thought we wanted to forgo the winter camping and just rent a house for December, but ultimately we made the decision to stay in the RV. After all, it is our home and we wanted to be able to decorate and have our gift exchange where we were comfortable. We made plans for winter weather, but when December rolled around, the temperatures stayed mostly mild. We only had one dusting of snow one night. The rest of the time it rained...and by "rest of the time," we do mean most of the rest of the days of December. It was a very rainy month, so unfortunately a lot of our plans to enjoy the New England outdoors didn't pan out, and with the others, we just had to frolic in the rain! We really couldn't complain because we knew that in Massachusetts in December, the weather could be a lot worse.
That worse weather reared its ugly head on December 23, right in time for Christmas. We had escaped the worst of the artic blast that much of the country endured, and we watched with concern as our fellow RVers navigated unprecedented cold, windchills, and snow totals for their region. Suddenly New England seemed like a great choice for holiday RVing! But the warm weather was short-lived, and soon the cold caught up to us too. Granted, winter weather is in our blood, so single digits don't pierce our skin the way it might to warm-weather dwellers. We had plenty of propane and our electric space heater, and the only thing we had to watch out for was the strong wind gusts. We kept a close eye on the weather radar and thought we'd come out totally unscathed, but on the eve of Christmas Eve, an unexpected windchill soared in, and temperatures hit -14°F. We woke up to no running water due to our fresh tank freezing, despite having the tank heater on. Thankfully the lines weren't frozen and nothing burst, but had we expected a chill that cold, we would have taken extra precautions. So, instead of enjoying Christmas Eve day, we were out in the frigid cold, trying to insulate our underbelly with makeshift skirting. Anthony bought a bunch of styrofoam panels from Lowe's and got to work lining them around our trailer. There are a few materials you can use for this. Some RVers choose Reflectix and others buy skirts specifically for RVs. No matter what you choose, the goal is to keep the wind from rushing underneath the RV, where there is no insulation but lots of important RV parts, like tanks and piping. Oftentimes it's not the sustained cold that causes freezing, but the strong winds that whip under the RV frame.
This was our first time needing to create skirting for our RV. Last year we winterized through the depths of winter, so we didn't have this problem. This year we debated whether or not to skirt right away but instead waited to see if we needed to. We almost got through our whole stay! We had, however, already formulated a plan of action in case winter decided to wreak havoc. Anthony arranged the paneling so there were as few gaps as possible, connecting each panel to the next with duct tape. We didn't want to ruin our exterior paint by trying to tape the panels to the rig, so instead, we used heavy blocks and bottles (of RV antifreeze, ironically!) to try and keep the panels up. It mostly worked, but a wind gust here and there would knock some of the panels over, so we were constantly propping them up again.
The other step to warming underneath the rig is to use a space heater. Once the skirting was complete, we brought our space heater out and blew it toward our fresh water tank. The trick is to keep it at a safe distance so the tank doesn't heat up too quickly. We want a gradual thaw. We also needed to keep a close eye on the heater because space heaters can catch fire, and just as you aren't supposed to leave them unattended indoors, you really don't want to leave them unattended outdoors, where they shouldn't be in the first place. So we only ran the heater when we were in and around the rig, and since it was Christmas Eve and we had gatherings to attend, the heater was only on for a couple of hours. We weren't able to thaw our tank, and that night the "real feel" dropped to -2°F, so we resigned ourselves to the fact that we'd likely not have running water for Christmas. Good thing we were doing our celebrating in my parents' house!
We kept our paneling around the RV but didn't fret too much when one blew over. We just wanted to enjoy our Christmas. It's become tradition over the past several years that Anthony and I take the leftover turkey from Thanksgiving and make individual turkey pies, served with a heaping pile of mashed potatoes. It's our best meal of the year and a truly beloved tradition. The pies, gifts, and merriment were a welcome distraction from our water woes back in the RV, and we just counted our Christmas blessings that nothing had burst, my parents didn't lose power in the wind (you may recall that they lose power easily), and the forecast was saying we'd finally be getting a few hours above freezing the next day.
Sometimes patience is the solution to a problem. We awaited high temperatures the day after Christmas, trying to aid the warmth with our panels and space heater. We're pretty sure our cat Lily knew the tank had thawed even before we did, because she started begging for sink water. Sure enough, we began getting trickles of water out our faucet, and eventually those trickles became a flow. It took a while for our water pump to regulate, but by the end of the day, we had our water again and our system was working as usual. We knew it might freeze a little overnight, but we were out of the woods. The remainder of the week would usher in some wonderfully mild weather, perfect for hassle-free winter camping, and then later in the week, packing up and hitting the road once again.
Though we had some minor obstacles, our choice to stay in the RV for the holidays was 100% the right one. We got to be near family, which was the whole reason for coming home in the first place, and we still had our own cozy abode that we've grown to love over the past year. Leaving home and saying bye to family is always tough, and our month and a half of being stationary left us with a lot of packing and organizing to do, but we were so much better equipped than last year. The biggest change is that we were no longer marching into a totally unknown life. Now we have a year of RV living behind us, and all the lessons that year has taught us. We are ready for the next adventure and can't wait to share our stories with you.
Let Season 2 of our RV travels commence!
But first, we leave you with our 2022 recap, where we answer the most frequently asked questions about RV life and our year of travel.
Happy New Year!!