I recently tried out an RV for a weekend getaway to Assateague Island in Maryland. While I’ve been camping many times in my life, this was the first time I’d ever driven anything bigger than a pick-up truck. This was 31 feet of shiny, rolling living space that was more luxurious than most homes I’ve ever lived in.
I can’t believe you don’t need a special license to operate one of these things. My main concern wasn’t the driving part, although I got butterflies in my stomach thinking of careening down the highway with my kids in the back. No, it was that I’d have to figure out how all the gadgetry worked. There’s a surprising amount of technology, though I figured the five-minute orientation I received would be enough to get me through a weekend. I would soon find out how wrong I was.

We picked the kids up from school in the RV and hit the road for Assateague. Once we got to the main highways, we eased up a bit and decided to hook up our iPod (the sound system was amazing). Halfway through Sly & the Family Stone’s “I Want to Take You Higher,” the music stopped. The lights on the radio (which was more like a command center with am/fm, satellite, CD, back-up camera, etc.) went out and smoke began to pour from the dashboard. As the smell of burning plastic filled the cabin, we pulled the plug and rolled the windows down. We never saw flames and the radio eventually began to work again on its own, but our iPod was not so lucky. Score: RV: 1, Us: minus one iPod.

When we got to Assateague we searched for a water station to fill our holding tanks and found one close to our site - a pumping station with a hand pump. Yay. I made the requisite hose hook-ups and began pumping. Standing outside the RV, the sounds of the running engine and the gas-powered generator were much louder that I’d realized from inside. Quite loud, indeed. Loud enough that I didn’t notice the drain valve on the holding tank had been left open and nearly every drop of water I pumped in to the tanks was flowing straight back out onto the ground.

I called into my family to check the tank levels on the control center. Still empty.  Great. It was maybe five minutes (and what felt like 5,000 pumps) later that I saw the puddle beneath my feet and put two and two together. I closed the valve and returned to the pumps. To this day my hands still smell faintly of pump iron.

On the road back home, the winds gusted strong across the open highway. I had a hard time keeping the RV on the road and worried most on that leg of our trip. There’s possibly no more sobering situation than struggling to control 15,000 pounds of hollow box in 40 mile-per-hour gusts with your family—the most cherished people in your life—relying on you to keep them safe.

It occurred to me as my knuckles whitened and my face reddened that three of the elements—fire, water and wind—had come to call. I braced myself for a run-in with earth that, fortunately, never came. But I still chuckled at the irony of how a vehicle designed to keep me safe from the elements actually thrust me closer to them.

Our time at Assateague was among the best experiences of my life and my family still talks about the trip fondly. (Read more about our time on Assateague here.) But now my kids want to know when we’re going to buy an RV. Our younger son wants one for his birthday. Truth be told, despite the few minor hiccups in our experience, I find myself checking out RV sales listings online when I get the time. Birthday, huh? We’ll see.

How about you? Any great RV stories to share?