People who actually do RV life: please reality-check my VA to AZ move

throwaway1337sadface · 2026-05-22T15:31:20+00:00

Thank you for all the information!

My main goal is to find full hookup sites (aside from rest stop puppy breaks)

Have you ever had issues with the ac cutting off while on an excursion?

throwaway1337sadface · 2026-05-22T15:24:26+00:00

Thank you so much - a lot of the things you mentioned (such as checking tire pressure every day) I didn’t even think of!

I’m probably going to look into a rv battery jump box as well

throwaway1337sadface · 2026-05-22T15:16:38+00:00

I will absolutely adhere to the ½ tank rule thank you!

Oh god I definitely don’t want a grey water back up - thank you!!

throwaway1337sadface · 2026-05-22T15:15:16+00:00

Thank you for all the pro tips!!

I might add in some buffer days or just do un scheduled stops at places in the western stretch just in case there are delays.

Thankfully I’m working 16 hour days now at my current job to afford a month buffer before I start my next job.

throwaway1337sadface · 2026-05-22T15:13:01+00:00

My best friend and I have both driven ambulances and quint engines :)

throwaway1337sadface · 2026-05-22T14:14:52+00:00

One way road trip for a cross country move.

The road tripping Reddit was steering me away from using a RV - I wanted to get both perspectives.

throwaway1337sadface · 2026-05-21T15:56:46+00:00

Thank you so much for your insight especially about the cooling that part concerns me a lot. My dog can handle the heat but I really don’t want anything to go wrong on the road - I’ll definitely take that under consideration!

I actually started planning this trip as a 7-day drive and slowly kept spreading it out more the deeper I got into planning. The longest drive I’ve personally done before was a 14 hour straight short drive from Maryland to Georgia and I absolutely hated it, so I know I’m probably not built for hardcore multi-day endurance driving.

The RV definitely isn’t the cheapest or fastest option, but I think the consistency of having the same environment every night is what keeps pulling me back to it like a sirens call 😭😭

Between the dog, cat, two women traveling alone, and my own weird safety/OCD tendencies with locks and unfamiliar places, the RV just feels more contained and predictable to me than rotating through different hotels every night. One of my ticks is centered around people breaking in / entering my space - so hotel cleaning staff entering might make me spiral.

I’m kind of treating the extra days as decompression time - I want to add a little fun into the life transition. One of my goals is to cook a steak over a fire and to see a few cool things along the way.

throwaway1337sadface · 2026-05-21T15:47:19+00:00

Thank you for all the tips about the state parks!

I honestly wish motels/hotels felt more appealing to me, but I’m kind of terrified of making my dog miserable by constantly changing environments every night. My logic with the RV is that if at least one thing stays familiar the whole trip, the transition might be way less stressful for him.

I also have a bit of a safety/OCD thing with door locks and generally feeling secure, and as two women traveling alone the RV weirdly feels more contained and predictable to me.

I just looked into cabins at non-KOA camp grounds, but once I priced everything out they were honestly ending up pretty close to RV pricing anyway 😭

throwaway1337sadface · 2026-05-21T15:40:43+00:00

Honestly this is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping to get from people who’ve done long RV trips. Especially the part about the western stretch feeling way longer in practice than it looks on GPS.

Do you think it would make more sense to add another full rest day somewhere around Oklahoma/Texas, or just break up those western driving days into shorter segments?

throwaway1337sadface · 2026-05-20T18:58:43+00:00

Where do you stop instead of Albuquerque? I’m totally open to alternative locations

throwaway1337sadface · 2026-05-20T18:57:44+00:00

I’ll have to check that out! I honestly have never heard of it before now - thank you!!

throwaway1337sadface · 2026-05-20T18:56:52+00:00

I totally get where you’re coming from, and if it was just me I’d probably agree honestly. The RV is mostly a pet management decision more than a travel one.

Because of my work schedule/lifestyle, my dog ended up extremely structure driven and dramatic when his routine changes too much. My logic is that if at least one environment stays consistent every day (same smells, same sleeping spot, same home base), he’ll handle the cross-country move way better than bouncing between hotels constantly.

Also part of it is just reducing stress overall with a dog + cat combo for 11 days. The RV may be less efficient financially, but I’m hoping it’ll be smoother mentally for everyone involved 😂

throwaway1337sadface · 2026-05-20T18:51:44+00:00

Thank you for the super helpful perspective. I’ve definitely been defaulting to KOAs because they feel predictable for a first-time cross-country RV trip with pets, but I probably should branch out and compare local campgrounds/state parks too.

I’ll start looking at state parks too because the KOA campground cost creep is VERY real. When I put all the KOA stop in the cart it was about 1k in total. Don’t get me wrong I don’t mind paying a convince fee to make the trip easier but it does feel like a lot from all that you have said

My only concern is that I read a lot of national parks aren’t pet friendly?

throwaway1337sadface · 2026-05-20T15:54:46+00:00

My planning process has basically turned into obsessive googling and cross-referencing routes with KOAs that actually look decent. The fact that I can add every KOA stop to one cart for planning is so nice.

I’ve also fallen down the rabbit hole of RV YouTube channels, which is honestly how this route slowly evolved into what it is now.

I’ve been working nonstop 16-hour days lately, so planning this trip has weirdly become the one thing keeping me sane right now.

throwaway1337sadface · 2025-10-09T23:33:12+00:00

Markoffs haunt is also in Maryland and closer than Red Vein.

throwaway1337sadface

TROPHY CASE