RV Stories: The Good, The Bad, & The Hilarious

RV Stories: The Good, The Bad, & The Hilarious

In this episode of TravelEssary, we’re wrapping up Season 3 with a collection of funny and unforgettable RV stories, from our own adventures on the road and hilarious submissions from our listeners. With Jeremy out on an RV transport job, our 18-year-old son, Justin, jumps in as co-host and brings his lively commentary to the mix.

This episode is packed with the funny side of RV life, proving that full-time RV living is equal parts adventure, challenge, and comedy. As we close out Season 3, we’re excited to step fully into life on the road as full-time RVers and full-time travelers in Season 4.

If you love hearing about the ups, downs, and laugh-out-loud mishaps of RV travel, this is the episode for you. Tune in for entertainment, encouragement, and a reminder that no matter how crazy the journey gets, it’s all part of the adventure.

✨ Listen now and get ready for an exciting Season 4 of TravelEssary coming soon!

Transcript

  We are the Essary family and we're exploring America one destination at a time. On this episode of TravelEssary, we are going to share some RV stories . Make sure you stay tuned and listen. These are hilarious. Let's chat.

Welcome and thank you for joining us today. As you can tell Jeremy is not here again, while he is doing his RV transport job. There will be a few times, probably at least one a month, a podcast that he is not able to do with us, which makes me sad a little bit. But then on the other hand. When Jeremy's not here, that means you guys get to hear from Justin, our 18-year-old.

Even if you don't want to, even if you don't want to, you're gonna hear from him. Deal with it. No, everybody loves when Justin joins us. , I remember the first episode that you did with us. We had like the most downloads. On that episode for a while, like that was the ones that we had most initial downloads.

'cause people wanted to hear from you. They wanted to hear your thoughts and your opinions. So you're famous. Wow. So, yeah, we're going to get into these stories in just a minute, but before we do, another wha wha moment, we are ending season three today.

It is our last episode of season three. Now, you shaking your head 'cause I said wha wha I am.

I did. I did. Well, I don't have any sound effects, so I have to do it myself. I true. But why? I guess I couldn't find the right word. So we just went with the sound. So yeah, it is our last episode of season three. First of all, I can't believe we're already this far along in our podcasting that we're ending a third season.

That seems absolutely unreal to me. And second of all. We are gearing up for season four and we have some very, and I mean, very exciting things happening in season four because season four, not only , will we be full-time RVs, but we will also be time travelers and we're pretty excited. Yeah. I've.

I expressed greatly how excited I am on a few of the episodes about meeting new people and going to new places. So we're gonna have some funny stories about that later, I'm sure. Oh, for sure. There will be no doubt. Yeah. And in the future we will have more of our own funny RV stories, but for today we're gonna share some of those from our listeners.

And Justin has not heard these yet. I have not. And he enjoys a good laugh. I do. I real do. I? Yeah. So let's get into it. Let's share our first story.

Okay, so first story, this RVR said,

we pulled into what we thought was the perfect campsite, shady trees, a lake view, and a nice flat looking spot. My husband glanced around and said, this one's level already. . No need to waste time with the blocks. I wasn't convinced, but hey, I wanted to get the chairs out and relax that night.

Things got interesting. As soon as I climbed into bed, I noticed myself sliding toward the footboard. Every time I rolled over, I drift a few more inches, like a slow motion avalanche. By midnight, my pillow was on the floor and the dog had given up and curled into the A ball at the low end of the room, morning came and when I opened the fridge, every single.

Item, milk, eggs, leftovers had migrated into one corner like they'd been on a rollercoaster all night. My husband sheepishly admitted maybe we should have leveled after all. Now we joke that our first trip taught us the science of gravity. Wow. Gosh.

Yeah. So leveling is quite important. It is. I couldn't imagine slowly throughout the night, like inching more and more and more forward. I mean, if that happens to you, you kind of know that, hey. We should love it so we can sleep, but they just slept anyway. They just slept through it. Okay. Either they have some guts or they're very heavy sleepers, or very heavy sleepers.

Maybe it happened so slowly over time that it was hard for them to mentally register it. It's possible because, I mean, you're already in a sleeping state. That is really funny. That stinks about the food though. It does. Man, that stinks about the food.

I mean, it doesn't, it doesn't sound like it got wasted. At least it just moved. Which is kind of funny to think that your pickles are on one side and suddenly they're on the other side, or there's a water bottle in the fridge and somehow it got to the other side and is knocked over and it's like, oh. Oh, I guess that happened.

Yeah. They said it was an all one corner of their fridge, so hopefully no eggs were smashed in that incident. Oh, that's true. Yeah. Level your rv., Make sure you always, we have an auto leveler, which is nice. It's mostly right, mostly sometimes we have to manually level it. But, , especially , if your pad that you're on is not concreted, there's a really good chance if it rains or something that it's gonna become unlevel throughout your stay.

So that one's pretty funny. Luckily nothing awful happened. That is true, but that's, I'm sure you have some stories that will be awful at some point, but that one was like a, a pretty good starter, I'd say. Okay, our next story. This RVR says, if you've ever spent a night in an rv, you know the sound, that random infuriating beep.

We were settled in for the night when we first heard it. One sharp chirp, then silence. A few minutes later, another smoke alarm. Nope. Still had fresh batteries. Carbon monoxide detector, green light flashing. All good fridge alarm. Not it By midnight, we were tearing apart the RV like detectives at a crime scene.

Oh my gosh, I can only imagine this. I can only imagine this cupboards open storage base checked, even the microwave got accused. Finally, around 2:00 AM I opened a drawer and found my kids' Barbie walkie talkie blinking weekly running on dying batteries. Oh no. So yes. We lost a whole night's sleep because Barbie was calling for backup.

Dang. N it Barbie. So, okay. I actually have something that happened to me similar to this just last week. Yeah, I've, there's been a few times where that's happened, so this was just like, seriously, like right before your dad left, I kept hearing it sounded like a battery dying. You know, when like one of Jasper's toys are coming to the end of its life.

It's battery life and it makes this sound. Yeah. Or like when the batteries in a smoke alarm are dying and the chirp kind of sounds distorted. I kept hearing the sound. Like throughout the night, and it was freaking me out. I thought the same thing as these people. I was like, okay, what is going off? Like, are we safe?

What's happening? Finally, as I was walking around the RV trying to figure this out, the sound like appeared immediately next to me, and so I, I looked over real quick with my phone light because everyone else was asleep and I looked over to see what it was. It was your dad's phone. Apparently his notification sound sounds like that of dying batteries.

Why would he? He was getting these notifications and like three or four o'clock in the morning. I think his cousin was messaging him. Actually, it was like. Like early, early in the morning and I just knew something was about to explode in the rv and I was so frustrated. I like turned his mute button on and I was like, oh my goodness.

Why does your phone sound like that? Like. Choose a different sound. At least make it happy, like, like a nice little sunrise thing or birds chirping or something. Not the dying batteries of a toy. Long forgotten. Yeah, I'm pretty sure he still has that sound, so listen for it whenever he's around. Understood.

Okay, let's go into our next story. This RVR says that there are two types of RVs, those who have a sewer hose accident, and those who will have a sewer hose accident. Oh man. I'm already like dreading to read the rest of this one. Yep. We're going to Anyway, our moment of glory came on our very first trip.

My husband marched confidently up to the dump station gloves on hose in hand. He hooked everything up and said, this is simple. Watch and learn. It's like famous last words or something. Legit. It is. It is straight from a movie with great ceremony. Ceremony. He pulled the black tank valve and for about five glorious seconds, everything worked as planned.

Oh, then. Pop. The hose slipped loose. What happened next was less plumbing and more fire hose situations

was fire hose situation. Let's just say the laws of physics were not in our favor. Mm. Our neighbor, who had clearly seen this happen before, was laughing so hard. He had to hold on to his own sewer connection for Bell. Oh, that's awful. We meanwhile, we're left with an unforgettable lesson. Always double check the connections.

Yeah. Okay. Oh boy. That's awful. That's so awful. Oh my gosh. It's still funny. So this one is so relatable and so correct. Yeah. If you haven't had some sort of sewer mishap, you will. And Justin and I just had one the other day. We jet. It was completely my fault. You forgot. So we were trying to unhook it. Oh my God.

Everything had worked fine before this. We were trying to unhook it and as we did, a lot of it comes pouring out. We're like, what the heck? And mom's like, oh wait, I forgot to close the black tank bow. I'm like, I'm mother.

Yes. I forgot to close the black tank. Before we removed the connection. Yes. I mean, to be honest, I didn't know you had to until that day. So until you ended up with it on your shoes, it was only like a little bit like, maybe like a smidge. I had to wash Justin's shoes for him. I felt so bad. Unfortunately, he was, he was the one standing closest to it.

I was. , And I'm the one who forgot, so I felt really bad, but it's so true. . I love that these people have humor in the fact that it happened, because let me tell you, when it happens, the last thing you feel is humor. Yeah. Like you might wanna throw up or it might be okay. Mom might've wanted to throw up, but I can't smell anything, especially sewage.

I can't smell it. It's a blessing and maybe a curse at the same time. I'm happy I can't. , Mom says it smells horrid. It is, it is. Justin has always had like issues with smelling things unless it's breakfast, unless it's bacon. Unless it's bacon, I can smell it. So, yeah. I love and appreciate that these people, you know, have humor.

Of course, I bet they didn't during that time. But hindsight, 2020, you find it funny later and you realize your mistakes. , Watch out for those sewer connections, you guys. Yeah. You gotta make sure they actually are on,

okay. Next story. This RVR says on one of our trips, we fueled up at a gas station, and as we got back on the road, I kept hearing faint meowing. At first, I thought I was imagining things. My husband didn't hear it, the kids didn't hear it, just me, but it kept coming soft and insistent.

Finally we pulled over and started investigating. After a solid 15 minutes of searching, we found it a skinny little gray cat wedged up in the RV's undercarriage.

She must have crawled up while we were parked at the last campground. Somehow she had survived 60 miles of highway. We coaxed her out with a granola bar. Not exactly cat food, but desperate times. And she climbed into my lap like she belonged there.

The kids instantly named her diesel. Awe, yep. And just like that, our accidental stowaway became part of the family for the rest of the trip. Oh my gosh. I am so glad she didn't die. Legit. 60 miles. Yeah. Of highway time. Cats really do have nine lives. They must. They absolutely must. Yeah. , You know, we've had a cat incidents with a car that did not end so well with it being up in our engine, so I'm glad that this did not happen to that cat.

Yeah. This one's not so much funny as, it's more like an awe of how the, the kids named it diesel and they kind of adopted the cat. Yeah. That was definitely more like a wholesome moment. Yeah, that was a good one. That was a good one.

Next story, this RV or says, it was one of those picture perfect camping afternoons we parked. Leveled, oh these people leveled nice and started setting up my husband. It's always the wives who tell these stories. I think the men are afraid to tell of all the mishaps that they did. All the wives are telling on the husbands, yes, my husband.

It's a good gossip. Yeah. My husband grabbed the awning switch and it started D rolling out slowly and smoothly, but about halfway something snagged. Oh my gosh. I've had this happen before. Must just need a little help. He said he gave it a tug That was a mistake. The awning suddenly snapped loose and whipped open like it was spring loaded.

The gust of wind that followed sent our camp chairs tumbling the tablecloth flying in an entire bag of Doritos, spiraling into the air like orange confetti, not the Doritos. Our neighbors across the way had front row seats and were absolutely doubled over. There's always someone to witness when you have these little minor accidents.

That's the bad thing about like RV resorts and campgrounds, you always have an RV neighbor and they're gonna be able to see all of your mistakes. Don't you love it? They were watching us chase chips through the trees. The awning survived, the chair survives, and we eventually picked up most of the Doritos.

But to this day, every time we extend the awning, someone in the family yells duck and cover

that one. , I feel. Just like the sewage stuff. Most people tend to have awning problems. Yeah. We don't really use ours

now we don't really use our awning very much because so many of your relatives have had major awning problems, that your dad is almost terrified to use the awning at all. Fair enough. So after a rain, we open it up and dry it out, and that's about it.

So, yeah, we will not be using our awning very often. , your dad is afraid of having to fix it. I think almost every family member we've had had had some sort of awning issues. So. Your dad doesn't like to use the awning very much because of that reason. That is fair. That is fair? Mm-hmm. Next story. This RVR says we were headed to a state park and following the GPS like good little travelers, about halfway there, the calm voice said turn left.

We looked out the road, it was barely wider than a bike path. With branches hanging low enough to comb our roof. Are you sure? I asked. My husband shrugged. It's the GPS. It knows. No. So that's the first mistake right there. Uhhuh. The GPS doesn't always know. No. Especially on like a dirt roads and stuff. It gets a little fuddled.

So like rookies we turned. 10 minutes later, we were inching along at five miles per hour, praying we wouldn't meet another vehicle. At one point the RV brushed a tree and knocked off our antenna like it was a twig. No. Eventually we popped out onto a paved road right across the street from the main highway entrance we should have taken.

Now we triple check every route because apparently the GPS thinks. Our RV is a mountain bike. Well, oh my gosh. Yeah. So we actually use a trucker GPS because your dad uses it for his transporting. , But even then, I have heard of people saying that there. GPS even like the ones that are made for RVs and, , semis that they have still taken them on like really sharp turns or very narrow roads.

And heaven forbid you go onto a bridge that's too short and you knock like your air conditioner off. Oh no. Yeah, you, you gotta be careful. I've actually seen several videos on YouTube of people. Going under this certain bridge up in the Northeast, it's like, um, Pennsylvania or somewhere. And like once a month someone's knocking an air conditioner off of the top of their rv.

They should probably raise that bridge. Or maybe people should just not take that road or read the sign that says it's not tall enough for your rv. Yeah, having unpaved roads. The unknown when you're going somewhere new in an RV and you don't know what to expect outta those roads and you're trusting your GPS, it's kind of like a leap of faith.

Yeah. Sometimes that leap can be a, a devastating to one's own RV health. So let's go on to our next story. This rv or says that showers in an RV are already a comedy show, tiny space water pressure, somewhere between a drizzle and a sneeze and hot water that lasts about as long as a commercial break.

I wanna pause real quick. Ours doesn't have that problem because ours doesn't have any of those problems and I'm very, very grateful for that. Yeah, the water pressure actually is pretty decent. , We can stay in there for about 15 minutes, , on like a normal day with good hot water and 20 if it's a hot day.

Yeah. And the shower's actually a big, huge standing shower. Like, yeah, you could probably fit like two of me in there and be fine. Yeah, it's actually pretty nice now. Our last RV we had, the travel trailer we had when you guys were younger. It was more along the lines of what this person's saying. Like, you hope you got the soap rinsed out of your hair before the water turned curled.

Like it was, it was bad. So let's continue with this person's story. I just had a pause and say I'm so very grateful that we do not have that situation in our fifth wheel. Yeah. So I'm excited to see what she says. One morning I hopped in, got everything nice and sud sea, and then poof, the water went ice cold.

Been there, done that. I let out a shriek worthy of a horror movie, slipped on the mat and flung open the shower door to discover my teenager in the kitchen, happily filling the sink with hot water to wash dishes. That's where all of her hot water went. I mean, can you complain when a teenager is doing the chores without you asking them?

I mean, my teenager says, mom, why are you screaming? She asked innocently, not realizing that her doing dishes was taking my hot water. Okay. From then on, we established a strict rule. Shower always trumps dishes. One water flow at a time. But props to that teenager for doing the dishes legit., I don't do dishes.

I used to, so, okay. You're 18 teenager. Mm-hmm. Do you know that hot water is mostly just gonna flow at one place at a time? Yes. I knew that by the other house too. Okay. I mean that I, I learned that at a younger-ish age. Mm-hmm. So it wasn't much of a problem. There was a few times where I was taking a shower and someone else was using the hot water.

I'm like, what the heck? And then you told me Yeah. Or the dishwasher was running the, the dishwasher. Yeah. Because that took, yeah, that's the one so much hot water did. Mm-hmm. And so in an rv, like the ones that she's talking about, where your hot water heater is so small, it is small. And it literally would last like in our travel trailer for like.

Two to five minutes if you are lucky. And so if the girl was doing dishes with the hot water, the mom might have had 30 seconds of hot water before it was gone. Yep. So totally understand that. Um, I'm glad she's okay and didn't hurt herself when she was falling down. Okay. We have one more story. Okay.

Okay. This one seems like it's another awning story 'cause I'm sure there are a lot out there. This RVR says, we bought one of those fancy clip-on awning shades, the kind that makes your setup look like an outdoor living room. Oh, I know which ones they're talking about. Really, it attaches to your awning,, your awning comes down, and then it attaches to your awning and then attaches to the ground to make kinda look like a canopy.

Oh, like a, almost like it's enclosed in the front and then the sides are open. I, I think I know what you're talking about. Yeah. I've seen those before. At campgrounds, my husband and I spent 30 minutes attaching it just right. Securing the stakes and stepping back to admire our handiwork. Oh, nice. Not five minutes later, a gust of wind caught the thing like a cell.

Not surprised at all. Happened so much up and went stakes and all lifting off like a parachute. Did the RV go do, was it like a Mary Poppins thing? We scrambled, but it was too late. The shade took flight, floated gracefully across three campsites and landed squarely in the middle of the communal fire pit area.

Oh my gosh, no hope. The communal, communal fire pit area, I hope it wasn't lit. I bet it was. Everyone clapped. One guy even yelled, nice sail, how much you ask him for it. We pretended to laugh as we rolled it up and stuffed it back into storage, swearing never to use it again unless there was zero wind in the entire forecast.

Wow. I mean, that is a, a legit thing with awnings. If there is even the tiniest bit of wind, it's gonna break. Like there's a chance something could happen to your. Your awning. Your dad has said that we will only ever use our awning if it is hot and sunny outside and we're physically sitting outside under the awning and have a purpose to have it out so that if a breeze comes through, we can go shut the awning real quick if it starts getting windy, because he is just so paranoid

about it breaking and Yeah, I mean, I can see why. Yeah, it's a very common, very common issue. So the moral of the story, never use an awning. Never use an awning. Maybe they should just make them differently. Maybe there's a solution that the manufacturers can come up with. Mm. To create more stable aune.

I will say the one we have now is much sturdier. The one we had on our travel trailer. Right. It is much more heavy duty and it has like this hard case around it that it rolls up into, so that's really nice. Yeah. Yeah. So be careful with your awnings and your sewer hoses. Yep. And maybe even double check under your RV for ride along passengers. Or if you hear a sound, it's probably not in your head. Um, I will tell you one time we were camping. We were a family reunion and some squirrels.

W got inside of one of your uncle's RVs and they chewed one of the electrical wires and he lost electricity in his fifth wheel. Really? A nest of squirrels were just up in it somewhere. I've never heard about that. Yeah. Well, you were very, very small. Oh, you would've been like two or three years old when that happened.

I went there. You would've been a really small, definitely some  mishaps when it comes to RV life. Is it a blast, whether you're a weekend warrior or a full-time traveler? Yes, it allows you to get out there and to see and experience new things, but will there be mishaps? A thousand percent. Oh yeah, a thousand percent.

It's inevitable in the RV life things are gonna go wrong., It's like riding a bike for the first time and falling off, knowing full well you're going to, yeah. It's just gonna happen. Yeah. So thank you for joining. For our final episode on season three, we cannot wait to start season four with you, and I have some very personal, exciting news to share with you guys next week.