Life has looked very different the past month or so. As a result of the Covid-19 outbreak, nearly every country as well as nearly every state in the U.S. has instituted some sort of stay at home order.
But what if you don’t have a home, per se? What if your home is on wheels? Such is the case with the more than one million Americans, including us, who call our RV our full time home.
As states struggle with the parameters of their orders and try to define what constitutes essential vs. non-essential businesses, full-time RVers are one segment of the population that has been largely overlooked.
RVers Feeling the Squeeze
There has definitely been a scramble among RVers to find places that will allow them to stay long term and wait out the Covid-19 storm. Some states have designated RV parks as an essential business and allowed them to stay open, although many chose not to accept any new reservations. Other states have ordered all campgrounds and RV parks closed. A few, such as Utah, have even banned camping on public lands.
So what’s an RVer to do?
We were lucky. We already were at an RV park in Georgia, in a rural setting, that we enjoyed. They allowed us to extend our stay for a month, which also allowed us to take better advantage of their cheaper, monthly rate. If that hadn’t worked out, we have three family members with acreage who would have gladly allowed us to set up on their property while we wait this out.
For others, many of them seniors who sold their family homes in favor of going on the road, it has been a stressful search to find a place. The RV site Campendium has been continually updating its list of campgrounds, and via their Facebook page is updating camping restrictions state by state. They have been an excellent resource for RVers looking for a place to land.
The Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) has also been publishing updates on camping restrictions, although there information doesn’t seem to be quite as readily available as Campendium’s information.
If you’re one of those who haven’t found a spot to hunker down yet, go over and check out Campendium. Find somewhere as close to you as possible, and start making phone calls. The RV community knows the struggle other RVers are facing, and we’ve found through our experiences so far, people are trying to help each other out as much as possible.
How To Keep Your Sanity While Living in a Small Space
Tiny living definitely takes some adjustment, especially when you are sharing your living space with a spouse and/or children. A lot of us tend to be pretty outdoorsy, which helps stave off cabin fever.
But what about when you’re told to stay home, and stay in?
Locking yourself up inside 300 square feet or less for weeks, or potentially months, on end sounds like a recipe for insanity, right? Especially if RV parks close down their recreation facilities.
For us, getting out and taking a daily walk has been our key to keeping our wits. There’s a mile-long trail at the back of our RV park, and some days we’ll walk this loop in the woods three or four times. Or, there’s an abandoned housing development next door which has provided us with a quiet, isolated place to get some fresh air.
We have also taken in the trails at a local state park, which luckily the state of Georgia has decided to allow to remain open.
They key is, wherever you might happen to be, find a place to get out and walk. Whether it’s in a park, along a river, in the woods or just around the campground, getting fresh air, sunshine and exercise every day will help keep you both mentally and physically healthy (because we all know, if we’re just sitting around holding the recliner down, the call of the fridge is relentless!!).
Luckily, there’s now a light at the end of the tunnel, and it looks like the virus might just be dying down. Some states are already making plans to open up in the very near future, while others will follow shortly.
Our fingers are crossed that everyone remains healthy and safe, and that life can return to something that feels more normal very soon.
After all, the road beckons…
