6 months on the road assessment

Size matters but not as much as we thought	Because we unexpectedly love boondocking, size doesn't really matter.  Since there is so much open space, if you can drive it there, there's lots of room.  However, we do appreciate the shorter length for maneuvering in most of the other places we've been and for more choices of campsites.  And when we're back home, it will matter again since there are fewer accessible boondocking sites in Washington.  Also because we pull our toad, we don't pull off to places along a route very often because we're too long to maneuver in many roadside attractions/markets/views etc.
After all the struggles to find the perfect RV, is this the right RV for us?	So far, I think yes!   BUT I still envy smaller and simpler (like vans and small trailers and airstreams with lots of windows and no slides).  But I love the room the double slides provide in the living area of our RV where we spend most of our time when we're in camp.  But the windows are so small and have bars across them so it doesn't feel like you're "out in nature".  The only window that is always wonderful (unless you're facing the sun!) is the front window.   I also hesitate to remodel and make it our own wondering if we might decide we want something else and resale value will be impacted if we aren't careful with the changes (or even keep the original furniture).   I think we're ready to remodel (change the things we don't like) but it's so much work to figure out what we want and research how to make it happen!  So until the pain of what we have outweighs the work, I think we're staying the same for awhile!   We are loving using the economical car to make day trips with.  We can't imagine doing this in a real gas guzzler.  We spend enough on sightseeing gas as it is!   I think the biggest regret of what we ordered as options was getting the upgraded sound system because of the following:   1.       It's huge - between the receiver/amplifier and  the subwoofer we've lost a lot of usable space for something we aren't using due to the following... 2.       We don't really use it for TV and it doesn't do what we really wanted which is to bluetooth from our phones to the surround sound speakers. 3.       We often don't have hookups (to electricity) so we are using a portable battery boombox anyway and they make quite good sound.
What are some of the issues you wish you could solve or hope to solve with this motorhome?	Here are some things that I wish were different about our motorhome (not in any particular order).  Also, I don't think we'll actually change (or be able to change) some of these! 1.       Smaller TV - the current one is something like 48" and covers the whole window!  So it feels oppressive when it's up (it's on a televator - which is good!) and just feels huge for the room. 2.       Replace couch with reclining love seat for more comfortable seating but retain ability to lay on the "couch" (our couch space is pretty short!). 3.       Booth dinette is uncomfortable and sticks out pretty far.  Would prefer cupboards and rolling table with chairs for more flexibility. 4.       Better linen/pantry space - it works but all of the cupboards (or restricted openings) make it a challenge to put anything wide and/or tall  into the cupboards.  I miss having one large cupboard that is flexible to make it a space that works best for your needs. 5.       A place to put the kitchen garbage.  Because we really need the cupboard space under the sink, we don't want to remove the shelf in order to put the garbage can there.  So it sits in the middle of our very small kitchen space! 6.       Need some sort of shade for the front window to keep down the heat!  The black shade seems to attract the heat rather than block it!  We'll probably invest in an outside windshield cover.
Pace	We have travelled as quickly as nightly (rare) and as much as two weeks (also rare).  We seem to like 5 - 7 days as the most relaxing but we mostly move on as we feel like it.  Sometimes we're happy to just hang around and not worry about where and when to go next and sometimes we are itching to move along for one reason or another.  If we are paying for a campsite, we'll often only pay for two nights at a time to make sure we don't commit to longer in case we want to move on due to boredom , weather or meeting up with friends somewhere etc.  We try to average around 120 miles per move but it's often shorter than that unless we're trying to get some place faster then it will be farther.
Lonelier than we thought	Of course we knew we'd miss our family and friends.  And before we started this venture I worried how we'd make friends when we're constantly traveling.  Others (on the forums) assured us we'd make many new friends along the way.  I think that will be true some day but so far we've made a lot of "could be" friends!  But you have to be with them in order to go beyond acquaintances  and  become friends!   When we stay at Thousand Trails, we meet a lot of friendly folk - for minutes at a time then they move on or we move on.  And we often feel out of place between the "older" retirees and the young working couples or families.  Within the last month or so, we've started connecting with Instagram "friends" which has been the best because we have an instant affinity (boondocking and living full time on the road) and we can stay in touch as we each travel our separate ways and reconnect when we're close again.  Even those we haven't met in person seem like friends as you discover what you have in common and personalities are revealed in posts.
Not camping in State, County and National Parks like we'd hoped	There are four main reasons for this 1) cost of state parks (in CA/WA at least!)  2) Many were  full or closed due to snow or off-season or you have to have a reservation   3) Plenty of free beautiful boondocking spots (in the SW)  4)  When Thousand Trails is nearby, it's easier and cheaper to just use that as a home base   Because of the cost in Washington State parks, we don't think we will stay extended times there when we're back home.  You pay a premium for peak season (when we're home) and for "popular" campsites (which seemed to be all the ones we want!).
Not spending time outside in our camp as much as we thought we would	This could change as we move into summer BUT I'm surprised we don't use our camp as a living room as much.  Usually it's because of the weather or bugs but another factor is convenience.  Everything we want is inside the motorhome so you end up going In and out a lot and it's just easier to do everything inside unless you're ready to settle for awhile to read or take a nap on the hammock.  When we're travelling more frequently, it takes more time to set up and take down the outside area so we don't do that as much as well.    And this is an odd statement - the motorhome is so high off the ground, you don't feel like outdoors is an extension of your home like walking into another room.  It's like going from upstairs living area to downstairs family room.  Hope that makes sense but it surprises me how much difference that makes mentally about your space.
Managing weather and routes and places to stay takes more time and energy than I thought!	Because we don't like to drive in heavy winds and we prefer to not go up and down mountains if another route is available and not too far out of the way, we do spend a lot of time trying to find the wind and elevations on our planned and alternate routes.  Not so easy to do!  Not to mention where should we go and what camping options are available (preferably free, quiet, beautiful easy to get in and out and has data!).   And all that is nearly impossible to research without data (now I really admire our full-time RV pioneers who did it without cell phones, email and internet!).
Boondocking is so peaceful and RV parks are not	I always knew that my "space" was important to me.  From the office to home to the RV to camping spots - I need light and nature and privacy.  RV parks drive me crazy - everywhere you look, you see white 5th wheels and trailers and motorhomes (for some reason the darker ones are easier on the eyes in nature!).   When we boondock out in the middle of no and where with a few relatively distant neighbors, the fresh air, views, birds, and quiet are so relaxing and peaceful.  Every window produces a stunning vista or at a minimum of rocks and bushes!
Not as many bugs as I feared	At least not in the motorhome.  Flies every once in awhile and same with those darn stinkbugs.  But so far no ants, minimal spiders, no earwigs, and no mice.  Mosquitos outside in some places.  And I know when we're back in the NW and other parts of the country I'll get to deal with them again!
Colder and hotter and windier than I thought	It seems like we went from unusual (much needed) rain to much colder than normal (so we're told) and straight to mid-80's and skipped the part about low 70's!  We seem to be either too hot or too cold most of the time.  But almost always it's windy!  Southwest I guess!  And season?
Managing solar with a residential fridge, 48" TV and DISH with DVR recorder and laptops and phones takes more power than we thought!	Since we've never measured this before I don't know how we could have a preconceived notion but I guess based on others stating they have all this stuff and their solar/batteries handles it great.  The problem is there are many folks with minimal electrical needs but we are on the mid to high end.  While we don't plan to use microwave or blow dryer on batteries (and we always knew A/C was not an option except on the generator), we did hope we could last days boondocking before we'd need to charge the batteries.  Now we hope to recharge them daily via sun or generator.  We don't have enough experience on the new golf cart batteries and solar (especially in the NW with all the trees) to know if daily solar/generator will work.  Stay tuned!
Solar is good!	We didn't even wait to research solar like we usually do.  We just went to a place several people recommended and said let's do this!  So as we read and learn more about the different options, we wonder if we have the right setup but we're glad we didn't wait.  If it works, then all is good.  If it needs tweaking, then we'll get it done!   Before solar, we ran the generator 2 hours in the morning and 2-3 in the evening.  Now it is quiet unless we want to use the microwave or it's been unusually cold and we've had to run the furnace a lot.  Or cloudy days!
WIFI turns out to be not as important as we thought	We wish we had purchased a cell phone booster instead of a wifi booster.  It was great at first - we would not have had wifi at several parks without it.  But over time we found many parks claimed to have wifi but it didn't reach even our booster or you had to pay extra for it or it limited the sites we could choose.  When Verizon offered unlimited data, that was it.  We now feel so much freer and relaxed about internet.  It's a tool to use when we need it instead of monitoring to see if we have enough data to do the things we needed or wanted to do.
Gas prices are great in Arizona	And bad in CA.  And probably bad back in the NW when we go back for the summer.  This is still painful to pay when the prices go way up but if we continue to budget it pessimistically then we at least won't go over budget!  Oh, and I never paid attention to gas taxes in other states before.  I recently looked at a chart and Washington is like the second highest in the nation!
More crowded than we expected	Once spring hit, we are continually surprised at how busy and crowded places are.  We're talking about the middle of the week.  Someone said "rolling spring breaks" and that was part of it but now we're at the end of April and it seems everywhere we turn there are so many tour buses and visitors from other countries.  We think it would be very quiet otherwise as we haven't run into that many other Americans traveling mid-week.
Still trying to figure out what we want for this season of our lives	We are very grateful we can have this kind of exciting and awe inspiring life to see the wonders of this beautiful country and meet so many great people.  But its hard not being back home to help family as they go through moves and trials (and joys!) of life.  And to contribute in some way by volunteering etc.  I know we've said this lifestyle allows us to go where we want when we want but in reality, the distance makes it impractical unless we stay close (and/or in one place long enough) in which case it would make more sense to live in a house in a community and make shorter trips for family or adventuring.   So, it will be interesting to see how we reconcile these somewhat  conflicting desires as we move through the retirement years!