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Our Alaskan sojourn was 4 months, which was really incredible.  It gave us lots of time to explore, and have some uninterrupted family time.  However, four months is quite a long time…it is a third of a year!  Over 120 days!  So, what kind of things do you need to worry about when you are away from home for such a long time, and what preparations can you take to make sure your trip is as stress-free as possible?  This article will detail what I did while we were on our Alaskan trip.

We were going to be on the road for a total of 4 months, and would need someone to take care of our home.  What does this entail?  Well, for me, all I really needed was for someone to come in once a week to check out the place, and to water the plants.  Yep, that’s it.  Everything else I managed to take care of.  Examples?  The newspaper that I get daily was put on hold for the four months I was away, so there would be no deliveries, and no piling up of newspapers on my lawn signaling burglars to come and pillage my home.   The  lights?  I just bought some timers from Lowes, and they worked beautifully.  So, my home always looked perfectly lit and lived in.  I even alternated the timers, so the bedrooms lights would go on late, and the house looked like people were really living there.  I did unplug the large appliances, which was just a safety measure. The only issue with this was the refrigerator and freezer, and that I would be losing all the contents.  However, a month prior to the trip I started using all the frozen meats and vegetables, and by the time we left for the trip, we had used almost everything we had.  I had to throw away a few old gnarly bottles of syrup and whatnot, but it felt good to purge all the old stuff.  Plus, as someone who enjoys shopping, I knew I would have fun restocking the fridge and freezer when we returned!

Mail is another issue you must deal with.  The post office will only hold mail for 30 days, so if you are away for longer than that, you have a problem.  You can forward your mail, but that can be a hassle, as they forward each piece.  Plus, you have to have an address to forward to.  What I did was use the U.S.P.S. new service called “Premium Forwarding Service”.  This service forwards all your mail to you on a weekly basis, via USPS Priority Mail.  You give them a temporary address, and they send you your mail every week.  Now, I was lucky because I live in a small town, and my post office was willing to let me change the temporary address each week, which is what I did.  It was a bit of a hassle, cause I had to have an address for them to send the mail to each week.  If I wasn’t sure of where I would be, I had them send the mail to my mother, and she would go through it and see if there was anything of importance I needed to address.  I don’t get a lot of mail, as a long time ago I took the option to receive internet statements over paper statements for most of my bills.  Even my small local water company now offers internet billing.  This is great because I pay all my bills online, and have no real need for paper statements.  I am able to save all the statements as a PDF file, and they are accessible whenever I need them.  Plus, I  like the fact that I am not wasting paper, and doing my (admittedly very small) part for the environment.

Paying bills was simple, I just did it over the internet, which I had in the RV.  The only bill I couldn’t pay online was health insurance, so I set up automatic withdrawals for that.  In fact, come to think of it, I think I have been using the same checkbook for like, a year now!  I rarely write checks anymore.  I pay everything online, and offline purchases are paid with a debit card.  Wow, times…they are a changin’!

So, all my bills will be paid, my mail will be forwarded to me, and my newspaper service has been put on hold until I return.  I have set up the house with timers, so my lights and one T.V. will come on each night to make the house look as if someone is living there.  I do have an alarm system as well, and I made sure that was up to date, and I alerted my alarm company that I would be away.  They also have a patrol and they agreed to keep an extra eye on my house.  I am taking our dog with us, so there are no pets to deal with.  My only issue was my plants, and I didn’t want them dying.  So, I paid a neighbor girl, a teenager, to come over my house once a week to water the plants, and to give the house a good look over to make sure everything was copasetic.  Although since our trip I have found these aqua globe things for watering plants.  Here is the website.  https://www.buyaquaglobes.com .  Mind you, they only work for two weeks, but still, I think they are a great idea!  Outside of the watering, I still liked the idea of someone checking on the house, just to make sure everything is AOK.  

Thus far, all my articles have detailed the preparation that goes into taking a long RV trip to Alaska.. The next article is about one of my favorite subjects, pets.  Then, we are off!  I have spent a great deal of time detailing my preparation, as it is extremely important to do, and will help ensure a smoother trip.  

Please come back on Wednesday, October 1st for our twelfth installment, “Have Pets Will Travel“.  See you there!