RV Tour

Greetings from just outside Fairfield, Texas. We’ve been traveling slowly in a wide arc around the Dallas metro over the past few weeks, and are now an hour-and-a-half southeast of the city. After a few nights that got down into the 20s, we’re crossing our fingers that we’ve finally caught up with some decent weather as high temperatures here are projected to be in the 60s and 70s with overnight lows staying above freezing.

We stopped by a cool site outside of Mineral Wells. This park used to be a landfill but has since been excavated. The digging exposed old layers of earth including some loose dirt and rock that contain fossils. These aren’t dinosaur bones, but tiny ancient sea life. You can potentially find shark teeth, but we didn’t come across any. We had some fun digging, and Charlotte was able to make a bracelet out of some of the bead-like fossils.

Our big adventure in November involved leaving the RV entirely. I flew to Las Vegas to meet some friends for a long weekend of fun, while Charlotte and Izzy stayed at a hotel and had fun exploring the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

With just a couple of adventures to report on, we thought this update might be a good time to give a little tour of our new home.

Our RV is a Reflection 31MB, manufactured by Grand Design. It is a fifth-wheel trailer, which means it hooks up to the bed of our truck, as opposed to a trailer that is being pulled behind the bumper. It is about 36 feet long and isn’t supposed to weigh more than 12,000 pounds. (I haven’t weighed our rig yet, so it is possible we have it overloaded.) It has 3 slides, that we can open up to expand the living area when we are parked.

Let’s start out in the biggest room, which is our kitchen/dining/living room. It takes up the rear third of the trailer and is to the left as you step through the front door. It has a slide on both sides, a tall ceiling, and plenty of large windows, so it feels pretty big and open. It has our coat hooks, pantry closet, reclining couch with heat and “massage”, dinette, electric fireplace, TV, kitchen island with under-mount sink, plenty of cabinets, three-burner propane stove, propane oven, microwave/convection oven, and fridge/freezer.

If we’re at home this is where we spend most of our time. Eating meals, washing dishes, watching TV, drying dishes, reading stories, putting away dishes, cooking, coloring, washing more dishes, and making crafts are some of the activities we do here.

The mid-bunk room is the distinguishing feature of our floorplan, hence the “MB” in the model name of 31MB. (The 31 is supposed to be the length, but the trailer is actually 36 feet long. Vanity sizing isn’t just for women’s jeans, I guess.) It is accessible through a pocket door directly across from the front door and from a sliding barn door from the kitchen.

This room was the selling point of this RV for us. We knew we were going to be working from the road, and wanted a spot that could serve as an office and separate bedroom for Izzy. There are two sliding doors that help to close off the room, even is sound isolation is minimal. We mounted a large ultra-wide monitor to the wall between the cabinets and added a chair and a small desk for a keyboard and mouse.

So far it has made a better office than bedroom. Isabel is going through some sort of sleep regression which started before we hit the road. She seems to be afraid of sleeping alone in a room. Given the two beds to pick from, she has rejected them both, electing to sleep on some cushions on the floor of the master bedroom. We’re hoping this phase passes soon! The mid-bunk room at least does a good job of housing all her clothes, books, toys, and craft supplies, along with plenty of other items.

Turning right from the front door is a hallway, which has our RV control panel, and two rooms at the end.

Through the pocket door on the left is our bathroom, with a large-for-an-RV shower, a toilet without a tank that flushes with a foot pedal, a small sink, and a couple of cabinets. It’s small, but it works and has much more storage than the bathroom at our old house which was several times larger.

At the end of the hall, through another sliding door, is the master bedroom. Charlotte has already done some decorating here, recovering the headboard and adding some bright patterned wallpaper to the area above it. We bought a memory foam mattress to replace the thin spring mattress that was included with the RV. The mattress and bed platform lift up on gas springs to allow for storage underneath the bed. We have managed to pare down our wardrobes enough to fit into all the cabinets and drawers.

Welp, that about does her, wraps her all up. I’ll spare y’all (been in Texas for over a month now, I’ve earned it) from photos and tortured descriptions of outside storage compartments, air conditioning units, and pin boxes and such. So until next time, see you on down the road.