Happy [belated] New Year! Although we haven’t quite reached a year of RVing yet, reflecting on 2022 has us feeling nostalgic about our beginnings. The most exciting milestone being that we’ve officially gone coast to coast in our rig!
Last summer we left our home base on the gulf shores of Florida for our first RV excursion. We had spent the spring months learning how to use the RV and feeling ready to spread our wings. For our maiden voyage, we were heading to Atlanta, GA- a 500 mile stretch of road that would take us about 8 hours to complete. That’s quite a long haul for a first jaunt, but if you’ve ever driven the Florida peninsula into rural Georgia, you know there’s not a whole lot to see past Orlando. It makes sense to just keep going. We picked the perfect camping spot in Stone Mountain Park and nothing was going to stop us from getting there. Not even a broken air conditioner.
Well, that wasn’t exactly the problem. The air conditioner wasn’t broken. The onboard generator needed to run it, however, WAS. It started fine, seemed to run fine, but the moment we put load on it by turning on the AC, it refused to run. We pulled off for some brief troubleshooting and discovered it was overheating. Fortunately, just like any other vehicle, there IS an air conditioner up front that runs off the engine. So we resolved to make do and got right back on the road.
Between the the summer air, full sun beating directly through our gigantic panoramic windows, and the heat radiating from our Ford F53 powertrain, the engine air conditioner wasn’t doing much for even the front of the cabin. It was definitely not going to keep the 30ft interior space cool. The increasing heat back there didn’t help matters up front.
We sweated the whole 800 miles and just like that, we had our our first hard learned lesson in RV life- if you’re going to power your rig exclusively off electrical hookups, you still need to run your generator at least once a month to keep it in working condition. By the time we reached our destination, the thermostat in our rig read 91 degrees. But we made it to our destination! This was also our first drive with a tow vehicle so we were relieved to have made it in one piece. Sweaty. But relieved.
Stone Mountain Park is named for the massive stone mountain at its center. The mountain is a quartz monzonite dome monadnock. Boy is that a mouthful. The elevation at its summit is 1,686 ft above sea level, although it continues underground for NINE MILES. The whole park is a beautiful space to see, full of hiking trails, protected wildlife, historical buildings, a golf course, and even a small theme park with a laser light show to end each day. The park itself has an interesting, if not sordid, history that’s still evolving today.
Part of the reason we chose Stone Mountain as our first destination was actually their campground. We started RV life living within the city of Tampa. Although we love cities, we didn’t choose this lifestyle to continue living in them. We were ready to spend some time in nature, but hesitant to jump straight into boondocking. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, “boondocking” is when you camp without hookups to electricity, water, or sewage. Although boondocking IS the style of RVing that’s most attractive to us, we were brand new to the lifestyle and not ready to jump into it quite yet. Knowing this, we were pleased to see that Stone Mountain Park offered camping amongst nature while offering partial hookups.
We got to spend a week living beneath trees on the lakefront while having access to electricity and unlimited water supply. The setup gave us the chance to start experimenting with water usage and conservation, as there was no sewer hookup. No sewer hookup means that although we had access to unlimited water-in, we would rely entirely on our RV’s grey & black tanks to hold the entire week’s water-out. Every hand wash, shower, dish wash, and toilet flush would have to fit in the tank.
Over the course of our week long stay, we learned that our normal water usage fits quite well within the holding tanks- a pleasant surprise! Aside from some modifications to the process of showering, we didn’t have to make any other changes. If you’re wondering what happens when the holding tanks reach capacity, check out Dumping Your Tanks.
Enough talk about dirty water.
We truly enjoyed our stay here. We hiked a different trail each morning before it got too hot. During the peak heat of the day, we stayed cool at our campsite beneath the shade of the trees and got our work for the day done. When the sun began to set each night, we’d get a campfire going, listen to the cicadas serenading, and roast dinners kabob style. As an extra treat, we got to spend some time with family in the area. A week is long enough for us to enjoy a spot so by the end of it, we were itching to move on.
Next stop- Nashville, TN!