Our First Trip:
Learning How to Survive in an RV during Winter
By: Meredith Miller
Published January 19, 2019
We made it – our first RV trip, and our first winter RV trip all in one! Let me tell you, all the things that could have happened, happened. Let’s start off with our plan to leave last Saturday morning.
I should first mention that since basically December 1st, Chicago-land had been experiencing a mild winter. No snow in December, lows only in the 30s. Perfect for getting an RV ready for a trip. So, naturally, the day we planned on leaving, it was McHenry County’s first Winter Weather Advisory and snowfall since November 2018. What are the odds.
It didn’t help that for some reason, the RV tail lights decided to stop working, then the headlights hopped on the bandwagon, where we then discovered the RVs past owners had installed the HID lights backwards. Randy had to rip the entire system out, and install a new lightbulb system. Then we had to run out and get a new trailer hitch/ball, all while the snow has started coming down more and more. This put us back from leaving at 8:30am, then 11:30am, allllll the way to us leaving at 11:00 p.m.
Anyways, finally on the road heading towards Fort Pierre, SD. Luckily, once we got past the Illinois/Wisconsin border on I-90 the snow was all south of us. We stopped around 4am to rest in a Cracker Barrel parking lot in the Wisconsin Dells, and continued on our way in the morning.
The rest of the drive went as well as expected. Nothing out of the usual; we stopped at a Love’s somewhere in Minnesota to get the tires checked/filled, fueled up, and our propane tank filled.
Fast-forward to I-90 in South Dakota. Temperatures are getting a little colder (like 20˚) and there is a fog surrounding the interstate so that all you see is maybe half a mile in front of you and off the sides. Supernatural would have had a field day filming an episode there.
We arrived at River View RV Park around 5 in the morning. Built on a hill, they boast the view of the Missouri River Basin. The fog was so intense though that the entire valley was covered and the hill edge looked like if you walked any further towards it, you’d fall into a sea of fog. Again, great Supernatural film location.
Obviously, since this was the first trip we’ve taken with the new-to-us trailer, something had to happen. Our brand new trailer tire picked up a flat piece of metal and went flat. Luckily, we think this happened not even a mile from the campground, when we had to turn around in a trucking-storage field. A quick trip to Walmart and a $10 story later, we have a repaired tire.
We’ve had the pleasure of experiencing a few sunny days here, which for South Dakota in January seems to be quite a rare occurrence. During the SD Tourism conference, the weather consisted of highs in the 20s˚ and lows in the teens. This poses a bit of a problem for the wet bay/water pipes if you’re not careful. We made sure that we had heated lightbulbs and a small heater that kept the wet bay’s temperature above 32˚at all times.
We also learned that, for obvious reasons, you can’t keep your water hooked up 24/7 during the winter. So water conservation – so we don’t have to bother the owners to come turn on the water tap every day – has been a lesson in this adventure as well.
To continue the saga, on Friday the temperatures dipped into the single digits, while it snowed 3 inches. I finally got to experience the biting South Dakota wind that I’d only ever read about in the Little House on the Prairie books. Unlike Laura Ingalls Wilder, we luckily have indoor plumbing because that wind STINGS.
Last but not least, our water heater decided to freeze up, which led to another one of Randy’s shining moments of the trip. He learned that there was a draft under the bedroom slide that blows directly onto the water heater pipes, so we spent the next hour waiting for the pipes to dethaw while we plugged the draft holes and aimed a heater under the bed.
I’ve learned 3 things while full-time RVing in Winter in so far:
(1) Watch the temperatures in your wet bay and water heater pipe area.
(2) Anything can happen while RVing – they’re literally houses on wheels. Plan ahead to spend at least an hour a day fine-tuning something.
(3) It’s absolutely such a cool feeling being anywhere in the United States, and able to say that you’re home.
Come see us at the Wyoming Governor’s Hospitality & Tourism Conference in Cheyenne, January 28-29th!
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I read your post about your 1st/winter RV trip, stating “everything that could happen did happen”; don’t worry, it didn’t! 😁 Granted a lot did happen, but you haven’t seen anything yet!
However that’s the fun of it, overcoming the obstacles. If everything goes perfectly smooth you don’t have as many stories to tell later!
Keep on wrting!
Yes and everything can be fixed! That’s the good thing. And I definitely wrote that too early – more to report! Stay tuned!
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