Savoring Downtime – Tips for Maximizing the Off-Season
10 tips for RVers who have their home on wheels buttoned-up for the season.
Image Caption: Photo: Getty Images
This may be the slow time of year for the RV lifestyle but it also may be the best time for determining the success of your RV travels in 2022.
Not only that, this so-called “downtime” can be a great time to recharge yourself, take care of needed medical appointments and checkups, and nourish and refresh relationships with friends and family.
For many, this is the time of year that the RV is in storage or parked in the driveway or under a shelter.
If that’s the case with you, now is the time to start thinking about next year’s RV trips, and you may just find yourself coming out of the winter season with a new vitality and excitement for the RV lifestyle.
As for my wife, Jennifer, and I, we use our RV year-round. As you are reading this, Jennifer and I will most likely be at our brick home in Michigan with our RV parked in the driveway in its special place, plugged into a 30-amp hookup that I installed.
Our RV is a small Class C motorhome, and when we are home, we use it as a second vehicle. Naturally, because we live in a region of the country that gets very cold, the motorhome is winterized, with tanks emptied and antifreeze running through the plumbing system.
We use our RV for around-town shopping, running errands, and visiting friends and family. Plus, Jennifer and I usually get away for two or three winter camping trips each season. We do love winter camping, but during the warmer months, we’re on the go in our RV about 75% of the time.
So we savor this downtime at home.
Here’s how we use it. And while the way we do the RV Lifestyle is certainly different than the way you may do so, I hope these ideas and tips will help you enjoy downtime as much as we do.
Tip 1: Annual Checkups
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We make annual appointments with our home-based doctors, dentists, and healthcare providers for December and January. We book all of them well in advance, knowing that we are always home for the holidays. We get any tests we need done during that time, review and renew our prescriptions, and take care of things like dental procedures and routine things like doctor visits that keep us from developing problems when we’re out on the road.
We do the same with Bo, our Norwegian elkhound, making sure he sees the vet for a comprehensive checkup, necessary vaccinations, and grooming.
Tip 2: Catch Up on House Maintenance
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If you are not a full-time RVer, chances are your sticks-and-bricks home needs some attention. Whether painting, repairing, or replacing things, this downtime lets you either DIY or oversee the work of a contractor.
Tip 3: Nurture Your Relationships
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For us, RV downtime is intense family and friend time. Though we arrange visits and time together with them year-round, this time of year is when we can really connect best.
Plan grandkid dates. Family suppers. Dinners out with friends. This is, for us, perhaps the greatest joy of RV downtime.
Our time together feels less rushed when we are not faced with all the decisions that come with RV travel. Relationships deepen. We love catching up with those we love and enjoy spending time to ground us and add new vitality to those relationships.
Tip 4: Get a New Style
Change up your look. Try a new hairstyle. Get some new clothes. Go shopping with friends at familiar stores again. Get a facial, a manicure, or a pedicure. Indulge yourself at a spa. Grow a beard. Or shave off the old one.
Do some personal maintenance and transformation. Many gyms let you buy weekly or monthly packages. Take some exercise classes. Consider joining a national health-club chain so you can continue working out when you get back on the road.
Tip 5: Organize Photos
If you are typical of most RVers I know, you took hundreds, if not thousands, of photos last travel season. Organize them. Delete the duplicates and bad shots.
Think about printing them up. For the past couple of years, we’ve used a company called Mixtiles to make high-quality prints from our smartphones. They are quite affordable and come back framed with adhesive strips that firmly stick to the walls of our RV but do absolutely no damage when I pull them off.
And every year during RV downtime, I do that. I pull off the old ones and put up new ones.
Tip 6: Create a Photobook or Calendar
There are lots of online sites that will let you make gorgeous photo books (they make great gifts). We like making a calendar for the New Year with the 12 best photos we took the previous year as the cover image. We’ve had good luck with Shutterfly, Mixbook, and Snapfish. The downtime gives you time to do this and it’s really quite enjoyable.
Tip 7: Master New Technology
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Technology is perhaps the biggest driver of the RV lifestyle these days. Dig out those user manuals you got on the walk-through when you bought your RV and spend some time learning how to work things.
Master the convection oven that came with your microwave. Do an inventory of all the gadgets, gizmos, and appliances in your RV that use battery power and learn about what solar power, a larger inverter, and lithium batteries would mean to your style of camping.
Tip 8: Do Some RV Remodeling and Renovation
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Take a look around your RV. What should be updated? Do you need a new mattress? Better internet connectivity? Or is there a major project calling you as a DIYer, like replacing a sofa with a dinette, adding more storage, a larger fridge?
Tip 9: Plan for the Upcoming RV Season
It may be your downtime for RV travel now but right now is the best time to start planning your trips for 2022.
First, identify the biggest must-visit destinations for your 2022 bucket list. Now find the campgrounds and RV parks where you will want to stay and make reservations!
I can’t stress enough how important it is to reserve your favorite spots as far in advance as possible. Many new RVers are joining the lifestyle so competition for sites in popular places is intense.
Many campgrounds in popular areas are already sold out for the big holiday weekends around Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day next year.
Tip 1o: Follow the 330 Rule
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The 330 Rule is simple: You stop when you have driven 330 miles or it’s 3:30 p.m.
The idea is to get somewhere while it is still early enough to explore, chill, and enjoy the place when you’re not wasted from driving mega miles.
In our early days, I looked at the daily driving mileage as a challenge. The more the better. I kept trying to set another personal best. It’s 735 miles, by the way. Silly. Stupid, really.
Is there anything worse than pulling into a campsite after dark? Less mileage and stopping early is our new mantra.
Now, while you have time, get out a map or an app or whatever you use and start planning next year’s trips with the 330 Rule in mind.
So there you have it: Some of my tips on how to savor the downtime so that when you start traveling again in the new year, the RV lifestyle will be even more enjoyable. Happy trails!
