How Can it Take This Long?

I am astounded at how long it takes us to get anywhere in our RV! Traveling 200 miles is a long, long day. We usually stick to 100 mile jaunts and may shorten that as we head to new areas. Currently, we’re motivated to leave New England and hit warmer areas. I do enjoy forty degree weather, but would like to avoid freezing temperatures and snow. It isn’t RV friendly.

So, why limit our daily trips to 100 miles? The answer is that it takes us a good three to four hours to travel that far.

I can hear the astounded gasps out there. Why? How on Earth could it take that long?

Good question! I’ve been wondering that as well. 100 miles should take less than two hours, right? Well, yes, if you’re in a car, it should. Let me break that down for you (and me), so that we can both think with it.

Well, firstly, getting set up to go takes time.  Simply putting the car on the tow dolly takes twenty to thirty minutes, because you need to strap it down and follow various important steps. Plus going through the twenty-item checklist for leaving is a task as well, especially if we’ve been in one place for any length of time. Everything needs to be restowed.

Then we usually have to either fill up with gas, water or propane and sometimes dump our gray and black water tanks. And sometimes we have to do all four things. Each action takes twenty minutes, which doesn’t take into account any extra travel time involved to fill up.

Then you have to remember that when you tow a car with a tow dolly, you are limited to a speed of 55 miles per hour. But we tend to go 50 on the highways and average 40 mph overall.

So, it all takes time! Writing this all out for you has helped me to better understand it. Now, I’m thinking, how do we sometimes manage to get from point A to point B in only three hours? We rock!!

Laura Sherman

My husband and I have been married since 1993 and we have three amazing, talented, bright children! I’m known as Laura the friendly ghostwriter and have written almost twenty books and hundreds of articles. Dan and I are so excited to be able to homeschool Cole, Camille, and Serena on the road and wanted to share our experiences with you.