The "working" RVer'

Within a year of retirement and now owning our motorhome the desire to "use" it as much as possible is strong. As I had mentioned earlier much of my business life has involved travel. As it turns out many of my customer visits this last year were in easy driving range. So I had the choice of driving a company car and staying in hotels or load the coach and the wife and I would hit the road. This was a no brainer.

Detroit Airport

Airports or the outdoors, no comparison.

The woods of Michigan

Preparing a motorhome for vacation travel is one thing. With business travel all you need to add is your mobile office. The usual computer, charger, tablet, smartphone and paperwork from the airplane trip fits very nice in an RV, But there were a couple of other considerations. As business is mobile in our times you need internet access. Many campgrounds provide Wi-fi but it tends to be unreliable and slow. One answer is to take advantage of the free Wi-fi at local restaurants and libraries. A better answer (though not free) is to use a mobile hot spot. In my circumstance I use my smartphone which has the hot spot option and a good data plan. As my wife can travel with me and we would like to receive our home phone calls we also opted to bring our home phone. Now you may be thinking "idiot" your home phone won't work on the road. A year or so back we replaced our somewhat unreliable "land line" with an AT&T home air phone. The service was reliable and half the cost of the land line. The side benefit being the home air phone is really a cell phone transceiver on steroids. It works anywhere a cell phone works and has a stronger signal and better antenna. Simply subscribe to the service (currently $25 a month), purchase a standard "home" phone of your choosing and you can take your home phone with you. The fun part is when people call your house they have no idea you are hundreds of miles from your home. 

The last items that are different than the RV vacation is to remember to include your business clothing. While many of my clients would think nothing of a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt it is just not professional. Most trips I do not bother with a printer. The RV has plenty of room and even a desk area when I decide to take one. Working from the road is not difficult and actually more relaxing than using hotels. One simply needs to remember the communication challenges associated with not having a hotel room. Another consideration is transportation. A full sized motorhome does not fit well in many business parking lots and can be a challenge to parallel park. There are alternatives such as take a cab, rent a car, have a local associate (or even the customer) pick you up or bring a toad (a small car towed behind the motorhome). The advantages are many. For me it is having my own bed and the ability to fix meals that are more healthy and of less volume than the restaurants. If you want an evening adult beverage simply step out on the patio and pour. Morning coffee can be prepared as you would at your home with all the flavor of home brewed (not hotel) coffee.

Our first "trip" was a short three hour drive to Michigan State University in Lansing, Michigan. I had assignment as a consultant for one of the MSU football games. I know, tough life but somebody had to do it. We found an in city campground that was ten minutes from the stadium. The place had excellent reviews, large "on the lake" lots, power and water. All of this for $35.00 a night. They offered Wi-fi but it was spotty at best. Diane not being a fan of the sport opted to read, relax and catch up on some of her office work in a quiet environment. A local associate picked me up at 7:00 in the morning. We had a cup of coffee next to the lake and were at MSU by 7:30 ready for the days activity.

With a small like out the back door how can I complain?

The first trip went as planned. My wife spent the day relaxing I spent the day at a MSU football game. After the game I returned to our mobile house on wheels, not a used hotel room. I did a little fishing, (not catching, I have fishing down but catching seems to elude me) grilled some meat and poured our favorite beverage. Life was great. The evening time provided an opportunity to send a few emails that were related to the days "work" and kick back to watch a bit of television. Next was off to bed, my own bed.

The next morning we awakened to the sound of birds, not traffic. We were feeling a bit lazy so I opted to do some more fishing giving Diane a chance to wake up. After breakfast we decided to head back north. As I did my walk around of the motor home I discovered my left front tire had lost air during the stay. As it was low but not flat we decided to head to a nearby gas station to air up and check the tire. My first lesson on RV travel was delivered by the gas station. My tires require 90 PSI, the gauge said 50 PSI so all I needed to do was add 40 PSI. Unfortunately the gas station air system only went to 40 PSI. That was discovered after I connected the air to the valve and realized I was filling their system not the other way around. Now I am out $1.00 in quarters (for use of the air) and down to 40 PSI in my tire. Fortunately less than a mile down the road was a truck stop that not only had sufficient air, it was free and they checked the tire for me. Truckers are great people. At that time I made a mental note to purchase an air compressor for the motorhome.

We were treated to a beautiful color tour of the fall woods on our return to home. The air was cool, the sky displayed but a few white puffy clouds. Over all even though I had worked a couple of days I felt like I had been on a weekend outing. With our own motorhome, fishing, football and fresh air how could I feel any other way.