Visualize Whirled RVs

Once, a friend in a bicycle club told me a little about his job driving a mini-bus for the city -- one of those buses that responds to individual calls to pick up people with special needs. His supervisors were quite systematic in the training they gave him to visualize big clockwise loops, with no left hand turns, and with no back-and-forth wastefulness.

An RVer would benefit from training like that, especially now that the era of cheap oil is over, and the cost of maintaining motor vehicles escalates at double digit rates. I have found this easy to do on a "strategic" level. Even as a newbie RVer I had no interest in the mainstream RV cliche of 'visiting every state and Canadian province' on some sort of bucket list, and then buying one of those silly maps that you put on the door, and coloring in each mighty conquest as it happens.

The freshman year was the last year for RVing east of the Rockies, for all the obvious reasons. It was also the last year for visiting British Columbia; the rivers and lakes were great, but the forests were dark and dreary; there just wasn't anything special enough to justify the extra transportation. Alaska, I never even considered. (Remember I'm a professional early retiree, not somebody who retired at the standard age and only has to make their money last a year or two before health issues drive them "off the road.") 

Mexico was a great adventure for a couple winters, but then I gave up on it; it's only a "bargain" from the point of view of certain straw-man comparisons, such as comparing daily rates at RV parks. This really doesn't even matter to a public lands boondocker. Also people, who brag about the cheapness of their Mexican RV trip, conveniently ignore the cost of getting there and returning, as well as insurance and cellphone costs. On top of that they probably drastically underestimate the true cost of transportation -- they act like gasoline is the only expense. Also, Mexico is a terrible place to take your dog for a walk, outside the walled, razor-wired, gringo fortress.

When fuel doubled in the mid-Aughts I dinged the Pacific Northwest from my list, and restricted myself to the American Southwest ever since. ("Focussed" sounds better than "restricted.") The good news is that there is enough variation in altitude and enough public land that I don't really feel restricted.

But the "tactical" level is more difficult.  There are daily temptations to be wasteful and inefficient with unnecessary trips, especially of the out-and-back kind. This morning I have to decide for the Colorado River watershed or the Rio Grande watershed. I need to decide when laundry is done in a few minutes. Hmmm...