RV Living

After a relative short drive from Sandpoint, Idaho to Glacier National Park in the northwest part of Montana, we rolled into the quaint little “town” of West Glacier and site #84 in West Glacier RV Park.  I say town in quotation marks because West Glacier appears to be a town owned by one concessionaire.  There is a cafe, a small market, a food truck and a very cool new miniature golf course that all have the same colors and motif.  Our campground was just down the road and follows true to that same palate and feel as the other buildings in West Glacier town. 

The sites in our campground were huge and this appeared to be a place for full timers and big rigs.  I would say nearly ¾’s of the RV’s in this campground were giant class A’s and large 5th wheels’ like ourselves.  One giant bus just down the road from ours looked like a tour bus for Coldplay with its all black exterior, tinted windows, four AC units on the roof and a matching 25 foot black sprinter van to carry all the kids in.  We never did get a chance to talk to them to find out their story, but there were at least six kids and maybe a grandpa and grandma?

After nearly a week on the road and four campsites under our belt, we were becoming more and more familiar with the turning radius of our 60 foot length and the set up and take down.   When we pull into a site, we usually send the kids off on bikes. As much as we would like both of them to help with the set up and take down, it just seems like it gives Juli and I a bit more room to work and less chance of dropping the 5th wheel on the back of the pickup truck. We actually saw this happen once to a YouTube RV family we follow...not good.

For setup, the jacks go down and we think we have figured out the self-leveling feature of our RV, which is pretty cool.  It does its own thing, raising and lowering the six hydraulic jacks for about five minutes until it finds the perfect balance.  Then we pull away the truck and hook up the 50 amp power, water and sewer line hoses.  We have had RV’s in the past and it really is quite easy and quick to become a fully connected tiny home.  The variable depends on how many neighbors come by to say hi or ask where you are from.  We do enjoy this part, meeting other travellers like us, but so far most are retired and have lots of time, no kids, no jobs, and lots of stories...more on that later.  

As evening approaches, and the kids show back up, Juli usually has dinner ready to go.  So far, we have BBQ’d quite often being that we have two different barbecues in our cooking toolkit.  We have the table top, wood pellet, Traeger that is good for smoking and slow cooking and the slide out  Suburban Grill (connected to the RV propane system) that is more like a cast flat iron grill/skillet for things like fajitas, bacon, pancakes, and eggs.  It’s been nice cooking and eating outside as the weather has still been relatively nice and warm.  I am sure that will change as fall changes to winter and we are still in the north, so we'll take it while we have it.  After dinner, it’s time for dishes, which I really don’t mind.  Life slows down on the road and you, or at least I, don’t mind the drone of washing dishes by hand.  There is no rush to get to practice or go back to the creamery to certify the pasteurizing vat.  We can play a game, plan for tomorrow’s adventure, read books or watch a movie before we all call it a night.