Getting ready for an extended RV trip usually involves making reservations, packing the RV, checking RV systems, and making arrangements for your stix-n-brix home while you plan to be away. You probably have preparation checklists (like this one). Don’t forget to include the most important part of RV trip prep—you and your health! Face it! If you get sick or feel tired as your trip begins, you may compromise your entire adventure. That’s why you need to consider some personal health prep before your RV travels begin. Here are some tips to help you do just that!
Page Contents
Rest up
It’s important to get plenty of rest before your RV trip. Not only will you be more alert as you drive, but adequate rest will help you better organize, pack, and plan. Good rest will also help keep your immune system strong.
Exercise
There’s a lot to do when preparing for an extended RV trip, but don’t let your preparations keep you from your daily exercise routine. Schedule a time for the gym or your daily walk, if necessary.
Prescriptions
Be sure to take all your prescribed medications as directed by your doctor in the weeks/months before your trip.
Stress
As you prepare for your RV trip, do all you can to manage your stress levels. To do this you may need to begin packing and other required preparations several days (or even weeks) before departure. A relatively stress-free prep period will put you in a better mood and strengthen your immunity, as well.
Hint: Use exercise to help reduce stress if you begin to feel overwhelmed. Express anxious feelings to your travel partner and elicit help with travel prep, if needed.
Sanitization
Be diligent about sanitization as you shop in preparation for your trip. Wash hands often when frequenting shops or grocery stores and encourage travel partner(s) to follow your lead.
Eat sensibly
Prior to your departure, eat plenty of protein-rich and high-fiber foods. Supplement these with foods that contain probiotics (like yogurt) and reduce your intake of foods rich in carbohydrates.
Drink water
Drink at least 8 eight-ounce glasses of water each day before you travel. If necessary, set an alarm on your phone to remind you to rehydrate frequently.
RV trip prep: Check with your doctor
Research the places where your travels will take you. See if there are recent outbreaks or illnesses reported. Relay this information to your doctor and see if he recommends any pre-trip medications or suggests additional precautions.
Can you think of other pre-trip tips for boosting personal health? Please share them in the comments below.
RELATED
- Full-time RVing: 10 health issues you should not ignore
- Letter to the editor: Why it’s important to have a plan in case of a health scare
Sign up for a weekly digest of my articles here.
##RVDT2224
Thank you, Gail! Additional ones?! I rarely think of most of those. 🙂 I do try to clean our RV inside and outside before a trip, especially the longer (> 1 week) ones. I get a pretty good idea of the RV’s state that way. I rarely think much about me, but do try to be well-rested ahead of departure.
We’ve done a lot of extensive travel in rural areas. We’re a traveling pharmacy, at home we stock up on meds and use a shrinkwrap foodsaver to preserve our meds for many years. We’ve used telemedicine and our Dr’s are very aware and cooperative when we’re traveling. We have all the comforts of home so we don’t worry or stress. You can be sick at home or sick in the comfort of your well stocked luxury traveling condo. Personally I prefer the latter. This isn’t a third world country (many “3rd world” countries have xlnt medical services) there’s medical help nearby within a couple hours at most.
Trying to fill prescription medications at Walmart in diff states is a challenge. Pharmacy says I need to contact doctor for new scrip. But we’ll be in a diff state for my next refill.
And USPS will only hold mail for 30 days. Didn’t it used to be 3 months?
I go into our account with USPS and extend our mail-hold a couple of days before it expires. That seemed to work pretty well when we took 4 months to travel to Alaska and back in 2019.
Leaving a house for a couple weeks requires prep work. Leaving a house for 6 months in the winter across tax season requires a substantial check list. Actually, it often requires multiple check lists by topic area.
And heads up- the USPS has changed the process to do mail forwarding. And like most of the changes made by the postal service the past few years, this one is not without hiccups. While I applaud the USPS for wanting to make sure mail forwarding isn’t part of an ID theft, the system to implement forwarding doesn’t always work smoothly. It may take more than a little effort on your part to make sure your mail will be forwarded.
After trying to get the USPS to do our mail forwarding multiple times (and all basic failures), we take advantage (and I almost hate to use that term in this context) of our wonderful neighbors. The last time we had to do this, it was for a year. Gasp! But they handled it for us. It worked out fine. I don’t trust the post office to even deliver our day to day mail anymore, let alone forward anything.
This is a spot on article about the minimums of required responsibilities prior to travel. Invariably I never can get a good night’s sleep the night before travel as I am busy counting stipple on the ceiling while thinking of the first days drive coming up and whether I “have it all together”. At best I give myself a C on these important tasks and activities in prep for a trip.