A Winter Camping Trip - Pre-Planning Day-3

Snow in Lynchburg - pic by DON Bobbitt

When you decide to use your camp year round round, but only occasionally during the Winter season, there is a certain amount of forethought required when you consider what to leave in your camper.

FULL-TIME CAMPERS

If you are a full-timer then there is no problem with your camper "stuff"..
Once you pull out, that's it! You are going to get by with what you have, once you pull out and it sinks in that you are not coming back to the old home place.
AS you travel, those first few days, you find out what you really need.
If you use and need a coffee pot, then you get one. If you like to watch TV, then you get one installed. If you need a pair of long-john underwear, then, the same thing, you get a pair.
In other words, you will get whatever you really need and can still get into your Camper.
A Full-Timer, at least after a couple of months on the road, is set up and prepared with what they really need to enjoy their life on the road..

PART-TIME CAMPERS

If you are a part-timer then the problem is a little more complicated, but you still get to load up your :"stuff" while your camper is near your home.
Oh, you might have to make a number of trips as you ready your camper for your vacation trip or even for an extended trip, but you do eventually get your camper loaded before you pull out.

2ND HOME CAMPING

OK, I just coined a new phrase for what I am actually doing. 2ND HOME CAMPING!

Having my Camper set up on what is essentially a Home Site four states and over 700 miles away forces you to take a very careful look at exactly what stays where. The thought process is similar to having a second home with only a small amount of floor space and storage available.

And therein lies my problem. We have a number of things in the camper that stays there all of the time. Things like dishes, linens, some of our seasonal clothing, and other such items that we feel we would not need in out Florida home.

And of course, rather than just hopping into a car and running to the camper, we do have certain things that we need to take with us on each visit.

Our method of preparation might seem a little strange. We have officially started a pile of "stuff" in the middle of the floor of our second bedroom. This pile, that will end up going with us, must meet two constraints.

First, it must all fit into the car along with my Wife and I. Secondly, it must include everything we will want to wear or use over our 2-3 weeks in Lynchburg Virginia.

Oh, and one other thing will be complicating what is in categories 1 and 2.
We will be there over Christmas. So God help us, our SUV will be packed tighter than a Tick on an Elephants Ass!

by DON BOBBITT

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A Winter Camping Trip - Pre-Planning Day-2

Lynchburg Snow - pic by DON Bobbitt

OK! After a few hours of chewing on the whole camping trip thing, there are several things that I definitely need to be prepared for if we are going to be problem free while there.

By the way, I have to mention that after our Autumn trip to Lynchburg, and before the temperatures really dropped down to freezing regularly, I asked my son-in-law to partially winterize my Camper for me.

1. He drained the Hot and Cold water lines to avoid the chance of any damage from frozen water lines.
2. He drained my fresh water tank for the same reason.
3. He had a friend come by and empty my Grey and Black Sewage storage tanks.
4. He drained my fresh water tank.
5. He checked that all of the slides were closed along with all windows and roof vents.

And, most importantly, he placed a 60-watt light bulb on an extension cord into the compartment where my Sewage and water tanks reside. Because I have my own AC power at my campsite, this will provide just enough heat to be my backup insurance policy against there being any kind of frozen water line or tank problems even under the worst weather conditions.

It is a great thing to have someone you can trust, to shut down and open up your camper for you. As I have mentioned in my article about Year-Round Camping, by strategically placing my camper near family and old friends, I have a second home to go to throughout the year and I also get someone I trust to look out for my camper.

Top that with the fact that my son-in-law has a camper of his own near mine in the same campground and I can have him "open up" my camper and have it ready for us to move right in the day we arrive.

On the negative side, with my camper sitting for the next year or so on a remote site, we did not leave a lot of our essential "stuff" in the camper.  So, my trip up will require us to pack a lot more "stuff" for our visit.

by DON BOBBITT, 2013

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A Winter Camping Trip - Pre-Planning Day-1

Lynchburg Snow - Pic by DON Bobbitt

Camping in the Winter
As you may remember from my other posts, I placed my 5th-wheel camper on a site in Lynchburg Virginia so that I could use it in the Winter.
Our goal was to visit our Kids and Grandchildren more often and at the same time save money by avoiding the high costs of hotel rooms and eating out far too often.

A Year Round Campsite
By placing our camper on a site, we got the best of both worlds. Our camper is getting used when it would normally be winterized, which is a great thing in itself, and  my wife and I essentially have ourselves a 2nd home to run away to for the cold half of the year.

And, oh yeah, we are retired to Florida, so we also have a place that we can go to, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and get a break from some of those HOT summer days.

PLANNING a WINTER STAY:
So, we will be wintering in our camper for a little over two weeks during the Christmas holidays.
What we will be doing until we leave, of course is the detailed planning that you need to do so that your trip is a comfortable one, even in the cold and that there are no surprises that might disrupt our stay.

For your entertainment, I will be writing a series of Blog Posts that I hope will be helpful to my fellow winter campers.

So, for the next few days, I will be sitting with my iPad next to me and writing down notes not only about the trip and the stay, but also a calendar of what we are going to do for entertainment in my old Home town.

by DON BOBBITT, 2013


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