While most people prefer ALL the amenities while camping, we want to be able to dry camp (no hookups but some may be nearby like water) or boondock (no hookups nor any nearby) more because that’s where all of the open spots are—especially if we didn’t plan that far ahead. We’ve dry camped only twice in our many years of camping, so it’s time to start again. The first time was in Adams, New York when our truck engine blew and we stayed in a fire station back parking lot. Long story. Definitely not in our plan!! The second time was in Wyoming up in the Bighorn National Forest at Lost Cabin Campground. That was planned for one night.
We have a couple of things working for us with this RV. One, we have 3 lead acid batteries installed. Two, we have large tanks (70+ gallons) and a couple of outlets that run off of the 2000-watt inverter that came on the Keystone Cougar. These items help us to know we’ll be okay for a short time. However, the negative in all of it is that we don’t know how much power our residential fridge draws while it runs through the inverter and off the batteries. We do know that it runs while we drive down the road because the truck is constantly charging the batteries which is a bonus. (The residential fridge was a BIG questionable item when we purchased but we went with it anyway—knowing it may draw more power. That probably deserves its own post.)
Night One
On our way to North Carolina, we planned to stop at a Cracker Barrel for the night. This was a first for us at this facility. I had looked up different ones in the Allstays Camp & RV app ($10) and we were shooting for the Lexington, Kentucky area. I had to work until 4 PM that Saturday, so we were wanting to break up a long 8+ hour travel day into 2 shorter ones. The Cracker Barrel in Georgetown, Kentucky, had several good reviews in the app and it looked like an easy in-and-out spot for us.
On the way down, when we had a better timeline, I called this particular Cracker Barrel to ask if we could stay for the night. I would suggest asking to speak to a manager right off the bat. The first person I spoke to spouted off about following city ordinances and then decided to ask someone else that knew more than she did. She came right back on and said we could stay for the night. It was almost comical because I stated right at the beginning that we were traveling in our RV and asked if we could stay in the back where they have 7 RV spots.
We arrived about 9 PM after finding an appropriate gas station for our 5th wheel a few exits earlier since we were lower on gas. (That is such a difficult job when the pumps are perpendicular to the road or there’s not enough room to get around. I even look at Google Maps with satellite views and try to pull up pictures of the pumps if they exist. Driving at night is not as easy either to see what’s available once you do get there.)
Once parked our blinds were all closed and we could access the bedroom and bathroom just fine. Our teen had to crawl over the island to get to the couch, but she was fine with that. We had also made sure we had some fresh water in the tank before we left home, so we could at least flush a couple of times. Our biggest dilemma was the solid steps. We weren’t sure if we could leave them out if someone pulled in next to us, so we pulled them in. It was awkward to shut the door with these big steps in the way. That was our biggest issue all night—or so we thought.
While we felt safe at this Cracker Barrel, it wasn’t the quietest Saturday night. Within an hour we had fire engines and police sirens going by, hot rods gunning the gas on the way through, and trains. We heard trains all night long. I lost count—less than 10 but more than 4. We also had our propane heat running at 60°F because it was cold outside. So the noise did not make for a great night’s sleep. I’m sure I looked a little ragged with bags under my eyes. I’d already had several short nights due to some life changes and lack of sleep, so this didn’t help.
We had no issues otherwise. We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel and left a short Thank You note for the manager when we paid. The food was great at 7:30 AM and we were on our way!
Night Two
Our next stop was a dry campsite at Lake Powhatan Campground in the Pisgah National Recreation Area. We found this site after we reserved 3 nights of full hookups in the same campground but a different loop on www.Recreation.gov. We figured we could rough it for one night while we waited on the better site to be available. Believe me when I say nothing was available in this loop with hookups for days.
Site 12 in the Big John loop was plenty long enough for our 5th wheel. I’d made sure of that with reservations. We were the biggest rig in that loop among several tent campers and small travel trailers, though. Our first big hurdle was getting into the site. Jon was having to back uphill and turn at the same time. So our truck bed was practically touching the 5th wheel during the turn. We decided it might be best to pull the slide out on the hitch to give us some extra maneuvering space. It was still a nail-biter but we made it in without any damage.
We left the 5th wheel plugged into the truck while we got it all level and pulled the awnings out to dry in the sun. That way we didn’t draw directly from the batteries for setup. We used minimal lighting once we needed it that evening. We could’ve used several battery-powered lanterns instead but we didn’t realize most of our rechargeable batteries were dead since this was our first trip out. You better believe we’ll check the next time! It was cold again and the heater ran a few times overnight even though we kept it around 62°F. I’m sure the tent campers next door were unhappy because our heater sounds like a jet engine when it runs. Oh, well. They didn’t complain at least.
We slept really well this night! It was so quiet and peaceful here with zero cell service. However, we work up to a refrigerator that at some point had turned off due to low voltage. I think it was at 11.7 volts (13.7 is fully charged) when we checked that morning. The temperature in the refrigerator was still in the good range because we hadn’t opened it in over 8 hours. Yet it had been running on batteries since 2 PM that Sunday. Something must’ve turned it off when the voltage got too low. We’re not entirely sure if that was the inverter or our in-line EMS we installed that will shut things off with low voltage. Next time, we’ll turn the inverter off overnight to save battery. The refrigerator should be fine if we leave it closed until we turn the inverter back on in the morning. Jon has a switch on his Amazon list that he could install in the bedroom so you don’t have to go in/out to do it.
My concern the entire morning was what if the slides won’t pull in or what if the auto-leveling system doesn’t work? (We had issues our first month with the auto-level not working because it wasn’t getting enough juice. Come to find out we had some loose connections which solved that issue.) I worried that we’d used too much of our LED lighting or I’d pulled the awnings in off only the batteries. Then the furnace ran off/on all night because it was still chilly out. Did we make it??
Jon started up the truck and let it run for a bit before he plugged the 5th wheel into it. Then he let it run some more. Once the voltage said it we 12.7, we tried the slides. All 3 pulled in albeit slowly. We decided to see if our next site in the next loop over was empty, so our daughter and I rode our bikes while Jon threw his bike in the truck and drove over to keep that alternator going well. Our site was empty so we dropped off the bikes and went back to get hitched up to the truck. The auto-level worked fine and we were off without a hitch!! (Yes, we kept our slide on the hitch out to get out of this site.)
Would we do it again?
Yes. Cracker Barrel on travel days if necessary. Dry camping with water nearby? Yes. It was so pretty and peaceful that we immediately said we need to think about solar. There was so much sunshine the day before that we could’ve been charging up those batteries that entire day—even in the woods this time of year. While a generator would be easy, it’s LOUD and you have to carry your own gasoline. Obviously, a cloudy day will ruin solar but maybe you choose to use less energy on those days?? So many questions still and the verdict is still out on that score. However, we plan to find more of those weekend sites without amenities (that no one wants) to keep trying this out further.
Our plan is to install lithium batteries and update the inverter inside the Cougar to work with lithium. After that, we want to add solar panels and charge controllers. We’ll keep you posted! Be sure to follow us here on the blog or on one of our social media platforms. Thanks for stopping by!
SOLID OAKS RV TRAIL 