The spread of the novel coronavirus across the United States and the world is like a bad movie that no one wanted to watch. And yet, here we are, adjusting to our new normals: schools closed, no gatherings more than 10 people, social distancing from others of at least six feet, restaurants, parks and other attractions shuttered until further notice.
Here in South Carolina, our governor has not enacted a statewide shelter-in-place order due to COVID-19…yet. Time will tell if that rule will take place. Until then, we are being responsible about working and schooling from home, limiting our trips to the store, and cleaning everything like our lives depend on it (which, unfortunately, it does).
While we wait to see if some of our spring and summer camping trips will be postponed or cancelled altogether, we’re doing things now to keep our “camping spirit” alive. Here’s a few things we’re doing now – and you can do, too – as we wait (sometimes patiently, sometimes not so much, if we’re being honest here) to see if we can hit the road in our camper this season:
- Prep your camper or RV for the season: Our camper has been sitting in storage for her long winter’s nap, and now is about the time we’d be waking her up from her slumber. Yesterday, we went into our travel trailer and put clean sheets and blankets on the beds, fresh towels in the bathroom, and restocked our paper goods and other supplies. Even though she stayed parked the whole time, just being inside the camper made us feel a bit better about our current situation.
- Research future trips: All of a sudden, time seems to be something we have in abundance. We’re taking the extra downtime and using it to research future trips: reading camping ground reviews, mapping out how far it would take us to travel to a new destination, dreaming about places we’d like to visit in our camper. TripAdvisor, Campground Reviews, Google, and other camping blogs are all great starting points to learn more about a campground you might be interested in checking out. I take online reviews with a grain of salt – knowing not everyone is being truthful. But between the good and the bad reviews, I often find the truth falls somewhere in the middle. What online site do you use to research RV and camper trips?
- Make a list of DIY projects for the camper: Pinterest and Instagram are FULL of creative decor and modifications you can make inside and outside your camper. Always wanted to make new curtains for your camper? Check out this tutorial for the ones we made for our previous camper. Interested in re-organizing your camper storage areas? There’s a list for that. The sky is the limit when it comes to creative ways you can decorate and update your camper.
- Check up on your current trips: We have a trip scheduled to South Carolina’s Huntington Beach State Park (near Myrtle Beach) in the middle of April. Right now, our state parks and their campgrounds are still open. If we are able to go, we will certainly practice social distancing from others, keep mostly to our camper, bring our own food – or support local restaurants with curbside food to go. Even if we can only sit on an isolated beach for a short while, we think it would be good for our souls if we’re able to go. Of course, we want to be responsible and if it’s not safe, we will cancel the trip. We’ve called the state park, and they said if they did have to close, they would issue us a full refund. Now is a good time to make calls to any existing campgrounds you might have booked, and check up on the cancellation or re-booking policy. Some may be waiving fees during this COVID-19 time period.
What are you doing to pass the time as we wait out this pandemic together? We pray this virus goes away quickly, and that we are all able to hitch up and hit the road again very soon. Until that time, stay safe, friends.