I finally purchased my RV and got it all set up for my future adventures. It took some time for me to sell what belongings I didn’t want any more, store those items I wanted to keep, and give away what was left. But I’m officially living in my RV now.

Me and Maddie the day we picked up our RV. Let the adventures begin!!!

I finally got Maddie to go up the steps, but then she was scared to go back down. It took a lot of coaxing to finally get her to come out. She’s only three months so I can understand why she’s hesitant.

I really like how I set up my new home. I wanted it to be colorful and cheerful. I had initially thought of getting a van. But I found them to be too small and they didn’t contain a lot of things I wanted. My new RV has two slide outs: one out the back for the bedroom and one on the side for the living room. This gives me a lot more space. I will need it once Maddie is full grown. I also have a larger refrigerator and freezer. My kitchen has a microwave/convection oven too. The other feature I have that the vans don’t is a full bathroom. There’s lots of storage in my bathroom with a sink, toilet and shower. This means I have gray and black water tanks. It also means I’m much larger than a van. My RV is 24 feet long and 11 feet tall.

But it’s a Mercedes Benz!!!! I never thought I would own a Mercedes LOL! And it’s a diesel so I should get much better performance on the highway and better mileage.

I decided to stay close to my home area to test out living in my RV full time. I figured if I needed help, I’m close to friends or the dealership. So I headed to the Ojito Wilderness about an hour outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Ojito Wilderness is a desert badlands area. It is a wide-open desert with unique geography.

My first outing was designed to have me live in my RV off grid for three days. This would enable me to learn how to live without hookups for electricity or water. I basically needed to learn to use what resources I had on board my RV.

Let’s just say……..

I FAILED MISERABLY!!!!!

But I learned a lot!!!

Day 1

I wasn’t able to hit the road until late in the day. So I didn’t arrive at my destination until dark. I was able to get myself parked and my bed set up (it’s a slide out bed). It was so late, I decided to just make a sandwich and relax with a glass of wine.

Maddie was very tired after the long day of finally getting out of the rental house, getting groceries and then driving to the Ojito Wilderness. The last 10 miles of the drive was on a very wash boarded dirt road.

In the middle of the night, my refrigerator started beeping at me. I had it on battery, but the batteries died. I turned on the generator for a while to charge up my batteries again. After that I went back to sleep.

Two hours later my refrigerator was beeping at me again. Batteries died again…..

I realized I was supposed to put the refrigerator on propane when I’m not hooked up to shore power. So I switched to propane and went back to bed. I finally managed to sleep the rest of the night without interruption. Whew!

Day 2

I woke up early and decided to go for a walk. The Ojito Wilderness is a wide-open desert, so I let Maddie walk off leash for the first time. Of course she was happy as could be. We explored the unique canyons for a couple of hours.

When I parked at night, I didn’t even realize I had parked next to a dumpster. Oh well…

I decided to take a nap mid-day when it was warm outside. I needed to catch up on sleep after such a night.

I couldn’t get the propane stove to light. I tried everything! I just couldn’t figure it out! I looked at the tank levels and realized I was out of propane. How did that happen????? I realized running the generator so much used up what propane I had left. I thought my generator ran on diesel, but it’s propane. Ugh!!!

Live and learn!!!

So far my first outing out wasn’t going well at all. Since I was out of propane, I couldn’t cook a hot meal. So I had another sandwich for dinner.

I took another walk that evening. The weather was just beautiful. Not too hot or too cold and no wind. Just a perfect fall day. Maddie was happy to get out and run again off leash.

Now I also had the dilemma of how to keep my refrigerator cold. I had driven my RV to a new location within the wilderness area. I saw my batteries were recharged and I had enough power to keep my refrigerator going for a few hours. And it was cold enough at night, so the refrigerator was fine turned off at night.

That evening I realized I had filled my gray water tank. The way I realized it was my sink wouldn’t drain. My tank dashboard showed two gray water tanks but come to find out, I only have one. Evidently some parts used in my RV are generic for several models.

Things were getting better and better LOL!

My black water tank was clean as I wasn’t using my bathroom. I was afraid to deal with the black water! I knew all I had was water from the kitchen sink in my gray water tank. So I decided while I was out in the desert, I would empty my gray water tank and water the desert plants.

I thought I remembered how to drain it based on my initial walk through at the dealership. But I was wrong. I hit the wrong lever and emptied my fresh water tank. I didn’t realize I had done this until I got back inside to check my tank levels

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

After I realized what I had done, I was so upset with myself. Thankfully before I left, I had filled a 5-gallon water container. So I had enough fresh water for me and Maddie.

I read the manual and tried emptying the gray water tank again. No luck. I didn’t learn how to do this until I returned to the dealership and had them show me what I did wrong.

So now I was out of everything! I just went to bed…..

Day 3

After all my failures on my first outing, I decided to just pack up as soon as I got up and head home.

I did learn a lot on my first outing. I seem to learn better by doing. I remember things much better that way.

I have the confidence now to go out and try again. I am certain I will do much better off grid.

Stay tuned for my next adventure. Hopefully it goes better!