That old Boy Scout motto comes in handy in the RV lifestyle, just as it does in the rest of the world. We may never know what’s going to happen in the next moment, but we can do a few things to help us deal with whatever comes along.
Here’s an example; we were parked at the Show Low Elks lodge campground when the campground host came to our door one morning to tell us that a construction crew had broken a sewer line near the campground and city workers had asked that nobody flush their toilets or use their sinks until repairs were made, which could be up to four hours.
Not a problem for us, we had lots of room in our black tank, and since we are in a full hookup RV site, I had the valve to our gray tank open, so it was empty. I closed the valve and we were just fine. I don’t know what the folks in the houses near the campground did, but for us life went on like normal.
We’re not survivalists, but we always tried to be prepared for whatever happens, so that things that cause inconveniences to others aren’t even a speed bump for us. We kept our fresh water tank at least half full, even in a full hookup campground, because we’ve had the water shut off for repairs more than once. We kept our fuel tank close to full, even when sitting still for a few weeks, because if the electricity went out, our generator could supply all the power we need.
We tried to be prepared for the unexpected when on the road, too. We very seldom made advance campground reservations because we like the freedom of not having to be on a schedule. But we usually had a general idea of where we planned to spend the night. Before we pulled onto the highway, I always had an idea of alternate stops, usually every 50 miles or so apart, along the way that we could get into if bad weather, traffic delays, or mechanical problems delayed us. These might be truck stops or RV friendly businesses, a city park or fairgrounds that allows RV parking, or an Elks or Moose lodge. That way we were never pushed to drive into inclement weather or past dark to get someplace.
We are also always aware of what is happening around us as we travel. If we saw traffic starting to slow down, we monitored the CB radio to find out if there was an accident or bad weather ahead, so we could find an alternate route or get off the road into a safe place until the problem was over.
As RVers, we usually had the ability to avoid or drive away from areas where bad weather threatened us. But if we happened to find ourselves in some ungodly place like Tornado Alley, a good weather radio would alert us to approaching storms. If we were in a campground that was new to us, we always found out where the storm shelters were, and if we happened to be in a Wal-Mart parking lot or some such, we tried to scope out a secure building we could hide out in if things got out of hand.
It doesn’t take much to be prepared, and when you are, it can negate ordinary inconveniences, and help avoid or survive potential emergencies.
It’s Thursday, which is when we normally start our weekly Free Drawing. Unfortunately, there will be no drawing this week while we work out an issue with the download codes to the free audiobook prizes. But we’ll be back next week with a new drawing.
Thought For The Day – Women always worry about the things that men forget; men always worry about the things women remember.
