After 10 weeks of abandoning our fifth wheel to fix up a mobile home to rent and go on a cruise to Japan, the day to return to the RV finally came. Despite jet lag from a 10-hour flight between Tokyo and Los Angeles, where we spent six hours before finally leaving for Phoenix, butterflies flitted in my stomach like I was going to the first day of elementary school.
Memories of good times in the RV flooded my thoughts, amping up my excitement about moving back home. Unfortunately, rain kept us from picking up our rig early in the day. I waded through my workday. As soon as I finished, I loaded some of our belongings into Gulliver. Then we climbed in ourselves to reunite him with Tagalong. The clouds started to spit again as we left.
We entered the RV storage yard, dodging puddles from the rain, as we slowly drove to our rig. Exiting the truck, we readied the trailer for it to be towed. I had to pull out our checklist to ensure we didn’t miss any steps in the connection process as we were out of practice and still travel weary.
Parking the RV for the winter
Leaving the storage lot for good, we drove a short distance to the park where we stay for the winter. Bob masterfully backed into the same spot we’d occupied for the past four years, evidence of the experience he’d gained throughout our seven RV travel seasons.
In our haste to get the truck ready for this reunification before leaving for our cruise, we had neglected to load some crucial supplies into the bed of the truck, namely the 2-by-6 boards we use for leveling the trailer when one side is off. Every time we’d parked at this spot, we’d had to use a board under the driver side of the trailer.
With the truck still connected to the fifth wheel, Bob walked to the closest RV in sight. He asked the owner, who was conveniently outside, for a ride to his mom’s house at the other end of the park, where we had left the boards. I stayed with Gulliver and Tagalong, stoked to have the pair in my sight after our lengthy separation.
Bob returned, pulled the truck and trailer forward, and I placed one of the two boards in position to be under the two driver-side trailer tires. After three attempts at parking on the board, we were finally happy with the placement of the tires.
Pulling out his phone, Bob checked his Levelmate Pro app (which is connected to our trailer) and discovered that the addition of the board had made that side of the trailer too high. So, he pulled the truck and trailer forward again, I removed the board, and he backed into place sans board. Maybe the multiple attempts at parking our 18,000-pound rig had leveled the ground.
Setting up the RV for a long stay
After disconnecting the truck from the trailer (using another checklist), we finally got to open our rig for the final setup for six months. Because of that duration, and the intense Arizona sun, we wrapped covers around the trailer tires before installing X-chocks between them and going inside.
I opened the living room slideout, ecstatic at the thought of being home. My homesickness while working on the rental house had finally come to an end. Climbing the three stairs inside the rig leading to the bathroom and bedroom, I opened the bedroom slide, feeling even more at ease.
I waited for Bob to finish connecting the electric power cord, freshwater hose, and sewer hose outside before opening the kitchen slide and office slide.
With all the slides open, I began moving items from the truck into the trailer. It may not have been as painstaking a process as when we had prepared to vacate the coach for up to three months, but it took a couple of days, multiple trips, and significant effort to move back in. We had to remember where we had stored items, find homes for new things, put everything in its place, and unpack from our Japan trip.
We succeeded and are extremely grateful to be in our own space again with our creature comforts. We have a good life. We don’t want to take that for granted.
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