Summer Vacation Day 4: Moving Our “House On Wheels” To New Hampshire

If you’re just checking in, I’m trying to get back into the habit of writing every day.  That means brief daily updates on our summer camping trip.  If I’m being honest about our camping experience you should be amused by my misery.  Here’s the first few days of our trip:

• 9 Hours of Driving
• Gilmore The Merrier
• One of The Greatest Roller Coasters I’ve Ever Ridden

Yesterday was mostly a driving day.  We were relocating from Connecticut to the White Mountains in New Hampshire.  One of the upsides of a driving vacation is the ability to stop and visit friends.  Friend and fellow blogger (as well as frequent podcast guest) Seth Miller lives in New Hampshire, right along our route.  Small New Hampshire towns don’t handle 65 foot long vehicle/trailer combos.  So, Seth’s backup plan was to meet us in nearby Portsmouth where we parked at a Home Depot.

Portsmouth is a cute coastal town where you can see Maine across the water.  As a kid we would drive through Portsmouth on our way to visit family in Canada.  It’s grown up quite a bit since I was a youngster but it still has a very “small town” feel downtown.  We walked around for about an hour with our dog, catching up with Seth and watching the original Route 1 drawbridge raise and lower.

I did a spectacularly bad job taking pictures during our walk.  There was ice cream, a long walk along the waterfront and some time where the girls poked their head in some consignment shops. There was also some pretty excellent ice cream at Izzy’s, including an Orange Creamsicle, which was sort of like a blended root beer float but with orange soda.  Highly recommend.

The time went by quickly, but “moving day” with the trailer only has so much flexibility.  Setting up the RV in darkness is not a fun prospect.  And, as we’ve learned the hard way, many campsite offices close early (think, 6 pm).  That can make it a real pain to get to your campsite if there are any issues.

Along the way we ran into two issues.  First was our scheduled fuel stop.  I mapped out a rest stop on the Mass Pike that seemed perfect.  Unfortunately, when we arrived there we found that the gas pumps were not built for RVs.  Unlike the majority of rest stops we’ve visited, the pumps ran perpendicular to the highway.  Even if I had managed to maneuver into one of the narrow slots and not get stuck trying to turn, I’d block all the traffic passing through the rest stop.  Thankfully, we found another gas station in a remote part of our drive that was easy to maneuver.

The other snag was when we parked at our campsite for the night.  I often wonder who designs campsites and whether they put any thought into the sorts of campers people plan to park there.  Our campsite was nicely shaded and centrally located.  The only problem was when we backed the trailer up to the logical parking spot we were nowhere near the sewer hookup. Even with an extra 10 foot extension I happened to have with me I was still 10 feet short of the hookup.  That “only” cost me $50 to fix with even more gear I purchased from the camp store.

The Final Two Pennies

Connecticut marked the eight state on the map that our family has camped at.  It surprises me how quickly we’ve racked up the states even though we haven’t done that much camping.

We’re planning to hang out in the White Mountains for a few days to show the kids Mount Washington.  And, we may even get a lazy day around the campsite at some point.  My body definitely needs it!

Did you enjoy this article?  Please share it! There’s plenty of ways to do that below.

You can also follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 

And, I hope you’ll check out my podcast, Miles To Go.  We cover the latest travel news, tips and tricks every week so you can save money while you travel better.  From Disney to Dubai, San Francisco to Sydney, American Airlines to WestJet, we’ve got you covered!