PCS Across America: Chapter 1

A Man, A Plan, An R-Pod

Scroll down for all the highlights from our PCS Across American on video!

Ambition isn’t hard to find in my family. We revel in taking on big projects and pride ourselves on professional success. When we got orders to move from Newport, Rhode Island to Everett, Washington with two toddlers, our PCS plan was, of course, ambitious.

Could we have flown and made a single long day of it? Sure. But where’s the fun in that? We also could have made our own Cannonball Run across the country in our Honda Odyssey, but why not take our time? So, with a 1- and 3-year-old (who would transition to a 2- and 3-year-old along the way), we decided to purchase an R-Pod travel trailer and tow it behind our minivan across the country and camp along the way.

It wasn’t as crazy of a plan as you might think. It seemed more COVID-friendly as the Delta variant surged to use an RV or motorhome. Plus, we could visit national parks and let our kids see America. Initially, we looked into renting a motorhome for the trip, but soon realized it would be extremely expensive. The R-Pod wasn’t cheap, but we also knew they were selling for higher prices on the West Coast and figured we could sell it on the back end and recoup the cost. It was the fiscally responsible thing to do.

There were a few specifications we needed for the right rig. It had to be lightweight. Our minivan can only tow 3,500 pounds. That includes the weight of the trailer and everything inside the car and trailer combined. The best bet is to tow something at least 1,000 pounds below a car’s tow limit. There aren’t a ton of travel trailers that light.

Within a week of hatching this plan in April, an R-Pod came up for sale on Facebook that matched our needs. It had bunk beds on one end, and a dinette on the other that could convert to a full-size bed. The weight was 2,100 pounds, which was perfect. Also, it was close. Most of the trailers we saw posted were half the country away, and this was in Massachusetts, a hop-skip-jump from Rhode Island. It must have been fate.

We bought the R-Pod, which was in great condition, even though it had some waste in the blackwater tank that my husband discovered in our driveway (eww). In preparation for our trip, we took a few short camping jaunts. Our first night out was at a campground maybe 10 miles from our home to test the waters. We nearly gave up on the whole camping thing that night after our toddlers refused to sleep and we had watched the same four episodes of Paw Patrol on repeat for hours because it was the only DVD we brought.

Eventually, we got them to sleep, but it took my husband and I each taking one toddler and sleeping in separate bunks. Despite staying up several hours past bedtime, the boys still woke up around 6 a.m. the next morning. It was an inauspicious start.

We learned some lessons though. For one, we didn’t pack well. We didn’t know what we didn’t know. Later on, you’ll see my “must pack” list of family items you might not think about but make a huge difference. Further, we didn’t prepare our boys. We threw their schedule to the wind and expected them to fall asleep like normal.

Toddlers thrive on routine and the wildly different bedtime atmosphere was bound to produce wildly different results. We talked to friends and determined some strategies to attempt.

After a few trips, we found our groove. It required a fair number of favorite snacks, hot chocolate, melatonin-scrub showers and giving them adequate time to wind down. By August, we felt relatively prepared to start our journey. We should have immediately internalized the key lesson from our first night: expect the unexpected.