Displaced in Denver
When living the full-time RV life, there will inevitably be times where we need to leave our trailer and find other accommodations. It's much easier when it's planned, but sometimes it's an emergency situation. Either way, things can get stressful, so we've learned ways to best prepare for a displacement.
Because we travel all over the country, we don't have one specific ATC dealer where we bring our rig for servicing. Because we were in the Rockies this year, we decided to have our annual service appointment and other repairs taken care of at Complete Trailers in Henderson, Co, just outside of Denver. Ironically, this was the dealer that introduced us to ATC trailers in the first place. While I was researching RVs, I came across some of their videos on YouTube and liked what I saw. The rest was history. Granted, we didn't actually order our ATC from them because we were all the way across the country, but it was nice to be able to give them some business.
Besides the annual servicing, we had a laundry list of repairs that had been waiting until we got to a dealer. These are the repairs that aren't urgent and can wait a while, but we still want them done. First up was our bed platform, which had detached at the rivets again. We had wrongly assumed last year that the issue was that our hydraulic lift system was too weak, as everyone complains about the stock ones, but we installed stronger ones and yet again, months later, our platform is bursting at the seams. We asked the guys at Complete Trailer to perhaps double the rivets because we don't know what else to do. We don't even have an upgraded mattress or anything. We still have our stock mattress with a topper. So for this to keep happening is perplexing at best, frustrating at worst.
Earlier this year, we had heard that there might be a recall on our propane stove. It took a while to get around to us, but sure enough, we got the recall. It wasn't anything serious, at least not for us; there was potentially a faulty bracket keeping the gas line in place, but we had no leaks and had also recently been under there to replace our microwave and knew it was fine. We just needed to get it addressed at our next service appointment.
As we approach cold weather seasons, it was finally time to get our line heaters looked at. Back when we were staying in Williams, AZ, a snow storm rolled in, and we ended up having frozen water lines. This shouldn't happen because we have tank and line heaters, and so we did some tests and discovered that one of them wasn't working. Ideally, we would like all the heaters functioning properly before we winter camp for the holidays.
Next up was replacing the trim on the back of our trailer. The first damage was done very early on, but it was only cosmetic. Then, when we needed to be extracted from the soft soils of Spanish Fork, the corner got really bent out of shape. Still cosmetic, but at this point, there is no trim protecting the frame. If we ever jacked up that corner again, God forbid, the frame might take the brunt. We wanted the trim intact to provide that buffer, and therefore peace of mind.
Then we requested something that no RV service tech wants to hear: We needed someone to look at our black tank. Not only had we been dealing with a valve that was getting stuck (and has gotten worse since we last mentioned it), but we theorized that the issues might run a little deeper than that.
Those were the big repairs we wanted to tackle, and so we dropped our trailer off at Complete's service department with plans to be out of our home for a week.
Our first night, we stayed close by at the La Quinta in Henderson. It's always annoying to only spend one night in a hotel when we have lots of stuff to cart in and out: food, clothes, toiletries, pet supplies, laptops, and harps, to name just some. But after a long drive day from Nebraska and the stress of needing to get our RV and ourselves ready, a short drive from the dealer was necessary. La Quinta had everything we needed, including a fridge where we could keep our perishables cold. We were able to pick up some packages at a nearby Amazon locker and reheat our Sam and Louie's leftovers in the hotel microwave. It was a chill evening.
That chillness didn't last. The next day, we needed to check out of La Quinta and head to the Airbnb we booked for the rest of the week. What happened was, we had booked the Airbnb early on, before we finalized our appointment time with Complete, who told us they only book 3 weeks out. We didn't want to wait that long before finding a place to stay. The Airbnb was only available beginning on that Saturday, but we knew Complete might want us to drop the trailer off on a weekday, which was the case. We figured it made the most sense to drop the trailer off on the Friday before our Airbnb stay and just grab a hotel room for the night.
Why do we like booking Airbnbs? There are a few reasons. First, we and the pets are more comfortable having our own space. We've all done the apartment thing before and aren't thrilled with people walking up and down the halls. Tanner especially feels anxious when he doesn't have his own space. Second, Anthony and I use our displaced time to really hunker down and do work. We both have meetings and I have instruments that need to be set up, so we really need at least a couple of rooms. Third, our full-time insurance covers our accommodation expenses when we're displaced from our trailer, up to a certain amount. We're able to choose nicer places to stay and not need to worry about paying an arm and a leg. Fourth, they're just nice. If we're going to be out of our home-on-wheels for several days, we want to feel comfortable and actually enjoy where we stay.
The problem with our big switch that Saturday, though, was that we had a few hours to kill between check-out time at La Quinta and check-in time at the Airbnb. There isn't much we can do when we have two pets in tow, but we managed to find a park in Denver where we took them for a little walk. As if things weren't stressful enough for Lily, we decided it would be a good time to put her in her sling carrier that she had never actually used. That was an experience, but she's a trooper.
Lily wasn't the only one feeling stressed, though. We had been mostly traveling in rural areas for months, with a few small cities here and there. Suddenly we were thrust into a major metropolitan area and the stimulation was overwhelming. There was lots of noise, traffic, and city smells. It's crazy how quickly we gain sensitivity to those types of places. I used to be such a city gal, living for years in Boston and bouncing back and forth between there and NYC. Now, Denver was causing me all kinds of anxiety. We got through the day, taking our walk and running a couple of errands, but we were really thankful that we booked an Airbnb outside of the city, in the mountains of Evergreen.
You can see why I jumped on this Airbnb the second I found the listing.
So this was where we settled in for the week. We enjoyed cooking in the full kitchen, sitting on the deck, using the hot tub, and having space to spread out and get work done. We didn't go too many places because we don't like to leave the pets alone in Airbnbs, which is another reason why we really like to make sure we enjoy our accommodations. We basically hunker down in them for days. Not the best for exploring the area, but necessary for a major regroup while we wait for our RV to come back into our possession. When we're in the RV, we try really hard to balance a life of work, adulting, and adventures. When we're displaced, we don't have our usual home-base for adventures, and we don't have RV chores. There's no better time to prioritize work. That way, when we do get back into the trailer, we feel ready to take on the United States once again.
The week was mostly uneventful. We got updates on our rig, and it seemed like all the repairs and servicing were moving along efficiently. Our timeline seemed good; we'd likely be able to get back to our trailer at the end of the week, on a Friday, the same day we were checking out of our Airbnb. So far, so good. We even noticed that, the more we get displaced, the more practiced we are with packing and moving in and out of accommodations. On our final morning at the Airbnb, we were packed and ready to go in record time. It was looking like a good day...
...until it wasn't. Whenever we need to leave Buggy, I always remark that at least we still have half of our "home." We all feel comfortable in the truck, and at least the truck can get us places. This is the advantage of owning a travel trailer instead of a van or motorhome. When the RV needs to go into the shop, we can still get around without renting a car. But what happens when we don't have the trailer...and then we end up not having the truck either? We were about to find out.
