Wingin' It!, Episode 58: Rainy Day RVing...
Video: How To Spend A Rainy Day In An RV | Wingin' It!, Ep 58
Remember the old Carpenters Song "Rainy Days and Mondays"? (Imagine my best Karen Carpenter impersonation here, ya'll.) "Hangin' around. Nothin' to do but frown. Rainy days and Mondays always get me down." As RVers, can rainy days interrupt our plans? Yes. Is it a real bummer to have outside plans at a campground only to find out that Mother Nature has other plans for your day? Sometimes. Is a rainy day at the campsite a complete waste of a day? Definitely not!
Today we're Wingin' It! about how we spend our day in the RV when it's raining at the campground.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly About Camping in the Rain
Let's work backwards and start with the Ugly part of rain days in the RV... Depending on where you're camping, and specifically the type of soil at your campsite, you might find yourself sitting in mud. If the area you want to camp in only has campsites on grass or dirt, you might want to consider that during the rainy season. We prefer campsites with concrete, asphalt or gravel parking pads during rainier months. It's one thing to have mud at our picnic table. It's a whole other thing for the RV to be stuck in it!
The Bad side of camping in the rain... Yes, it may definitely interfere with your plans for the day, particularly if those plans were outdoors. Activities like biking, kayaking and hiking are obviously less comfortable when it's raining. But it doesn't mean your trip has to be over!
What's Good about a rainy day at the RV? Well, first of all, back when we were weekend RVers, we were able to get a lot of great campsites when the weather forecast was less than sunny. Popular campgrounds can be tough to get into on the weekends, so we would watch the weather report during the week. If chances of rain started showing up, we would check for available reservations. The higher the rain chances, the higher the chances of prime campsites opening up when other folks canceled. And since you never really know what Mother Nature will decide to do until she does it, more than half the time we ended up with nice weather and a mostly empty park to explore!
10 Ways To Spend A Rainy Day At The Campground
Don't throw in the towel just because you wake up to rain while you're camping! Here some things we do to pass the time...
- During "normal", non-COVID times, we like to take in a local museum, aquarium, or maybe go see a movie.
- If it's just a light rain, you can put your RV's awning out to sit outside or even cook. And sometimes, listening to a light rain and smelling the fresh air under the awning can be very relaxing.
- Catch a movie at "home"! Take along a few of your favorite DVDs and enjoy a movie day. If you have a strong enough data signal, you could also catch up on your favorite YouTube Channels (don't forget Our Channel!) or another streaming service.
- If you have been wanting to catch up on your reading, have some books on board to pass the time. A Kindle e-Reader is a super easy way to carry a lot of books with you. It's lightweight, easy to read and now they are waterproof!
- Use the rain time to catch up on interior RV maintenance or cleaning that you've been putting off so you won't have to do it when the nice weather returns.
- There's not much more relaxing than hearing raindrops on an RV roof, so consider just taking some down time to lay and listen, and maybe catch a nap while you're at it.
- Have a real conversation. Put down the devices and talk. Maybe use this time inside together to plan future trips or just catch up.
- Use the time indoors to try out a new recipe idea. Maybe something a bit more time consuming than you normally would make?
- Not afraid of getting a bit damp? A walk through the campground in a light rain can be refreshing. Throw on that rain jacket and your rubber sole shoes and take a stroll. You'll likely have the entire walk to yourselves as everyone else sits in their campers.
- Our favorite rainy day activity (both in the RV and back when we had a house) is to play board games. We brought several with us and some have survived our multiple downsizing trips. We found that sometimes, repackaging the game into something other than its original box made it more RV space friendly. If the park you're camping in has a covered pavilion, you can take some games over to it to enjoy some outside time while the rain passes.
Some of Our Favorite RV-Friendly Board Games
- Backgammon
- Uno
- Yahtzee
- Tenzi
- Farkle
- Rummikub
- Double Twelve Dominoes
- Playing Cards
- Canasta
- Wooden Dice Tray
Our Final Thoughts
Don't let a little bit of rain scare you off from having a fun RV trip! Make lemonade out of Mother Nature's lemons and enjoy the time. Remember what we always said when we were weekend RVers, "A bad day in the camper is better than a good day in the sticks and bricks!".
