I doesn't matter if we are Workamping or just traveling in our RV for fun, we need to have choices. Choices allow us to remain flexible while maintaining some form of control in our lives and journeys. For every plan you make you really need to have a plan "B".
What got me to thinking about backup plans?
We had new workampers arrive literally in a cloud of smoke. His transmission was spewing fluid everywhere as he parked his rig in the site next to us. I gave him some time to get settled in, then introduced myself. After some introductions I inquired as to the status of his truck. He told me that if the transmission was toast, he had no money to fix. He had just driven 1200 miles spending, his last funds to get here.
How about this? What if you just drove that same 1200 miles to get to that job and - bang - you see those red flags everywhere that says this place ain't for you? Hope you have a Plan B - or you're gonna be in a situation where you are not in control. You always need options that keep you from being stuck in a situation that you can't get away from easily.
Planning for Plan B
- As we plan our trips we take the distance we must travel and divide that by 350. That's approx how far we want to travel in one day. This will give us how many days we will be on the road. Now we add 2 days to give us the total days we allow for our trip. This is in case we have a problem while on the road and need to stop for repairs.
- Another thing we try to do is have more than one nightly destination. On our very first trip out we found our only choice stop for the night was closed. Well, we wound up driving another 200 miles 'till we found a campground. We did not have a plan "B".
- Another mistake we have made in the past was not locating fuel stops that can accommodate big rigs, in advance. Once we found ourselves in a gas station nearly out of gas, toting the gas from the pump to our rig because we couldn't get close enough to the pump to get gas in to it. We prefer to fuel up at truck stops and tend to try doing as much in one stop as we can. We have favorite stops but will use others if we need to use plan "B".
By the way, our new workampers transmission was not done in. He had just let the fluid get low which caused the transmission to overheat and the fluid boiled out much like a radiator would. Allowing the transmission to cool and refilling it solved the problem. He was lucky, that time. RV travelers should train themselves to think ahead.
