Boyinks4Adventure

Through our homeschooling connections here in Holland we discovered a local family that had taken a 6-month road trip.  They blogged about it at http://whimsicaljourneys.blogspot.com/.  We’ve also contacted them and invited them over so that we can pester them with questions.  Stay tuned.

In preparing for this trip MsBoyink and I have read a number of books.  Most of these have been of the “how-to” variety—how to finance a year long road trip, how to choose the right RV, how to find places to stay, etc. 

I’ve just finished a book that stands apart from that group however - and that book is John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley, subtitled In Search of America.

Recommended by friends for relatively reasonable camping pricing.

Passport America
http://www.passport-america.com/

Site with lots of nice writeups - including replacing carpet with laminate flooring, dinette replacement, and more:

http://www.modmyrv.com/

MsBoyink read some stories last night of people getting their rigs broken into while on the road—and it reminded me how many valuables we will have.  Between computers, laptops, cameras, GPS units, etc - we might be ripe pickings for a break-in.  I plan to look into adding some secure storage where all of the smaller items can be stowed away, and an alarm system for the RV.  A quick search turned up a number of links:

Security Systems

• http://www.guardianwireless.com/products/rv.asp
• http://www.lasershield.net/en/main/
• http://www.rvsentrypro.com/

Different lockable drawers, compartments and bags:

• http://www.tuffyproducts.com/default.aspx
• http://www.corporatetravelsafety.com/catalog/

Locks
The general recommendation is to change the locks - especially if buying used.  Who knows who had a key, and many of the RV manufacturers use the same lock hardware for storage compartments - which means someone else’s key may work.

• http://blog.rv.net/2009/06/rv-security-door-storage-locks/
• http://www.modmyrv.com/2009/03/18/rv-door-storage-locks

Another idea is to build a hidden compartment/safe under the floor and concealed by carpet.