My biggest fear about the AZ trip, and the whole transition to RV life in general is about noise. It may sound silly to most people, but I am very noise adverse. I’ve built a lot of things in my life around avoiding noise, and as such I’ve built a very comfortable place for myself. Exceedingly quiet townhouse in a quiet part of town, driving a quiet luxury car, working from home so I don’t have to deal with traffic or people at the office. All very quiet. There are many parts about travel that are not quiet at all.
As I’m sitting at home writing this, the only sounds I can hear are the furnace running, and the sounds of the keys being depressed on the keyboard. The furnace is only on intermittently, and I am obviously in control of the keyboard. Everything else is quiet. Once in a grand while I might hear a particularly noisy car or airplane, but those things are very infrequent.
I recently had the muffler on my truck fixed, and my entire attachment to the truck changed. It’s no longer a brutish beast, it’s now a normal vehicle. I can consider doing further repairs to it instead of just doing the absolute minimum to keep it running. My perception of the vehicle has changed greatly simply by changing the noise that it makes.
When I was traveling in planes for work on a semi regular basis, I got noise cancelling headphones that were specifically designed to neutralize engine noise. I used them while working an office gig, when traveling in any vehicle, even while using the vacuum cleaner. I actively pursue noise reduction whenever possible.
One of the reasons I could never buy a regular RV is because they don’t pay any attention to noise reduction. They’re tin cans with a bit of R-value insulation, if you’re lucky, but noise was not on the agenda when they were designed. They’re also cheaply built and don’t have the weight bearing capabilities of having real soundproofing added either.
Since I know these things about myself, that’s why I’ve chosen to build my own RV with a special bedroom / man-cave area that has proper soundproofing. That’s why I chose a cargo trailer and upgraded the axles on it, so it could support the weight of the soundproofing, plus all the other upgrades that I felt it needed to be “properly” livable.
The reason I bring this up now is because on my Quartzsite, AZ trip, I won’t have any of the sound insulation installed. I know that I recharge my personal batteries by being in a quiet environment, by myself. If I’m in a place where I can always hear other people, then I’m never alone, and won’t be able to recharge. This worries me.
So what am I going to do about it? Well, I’m not exactly sure. I guess I’m going to dive head-first into it, try to have patience with myself, fix whatever situations I can, try to accept those that I can’t, and view the whole thing as a semi-vacation. It’ll help that I’ll be going to a place with a lot of like-minded and welcoming people. Well, probably not like-minded about the noise concept, but at least of RVing in general. Of course, getting there will be something of an epic journey, but I’ll just have to tackle that one day, one situation at a time.
You can park far away or be as close as you want to other people in Quartzsite. It’s a HUGE desert and does not run out of room. If you find that it’s too noisy, you can always two your rig a little further away to be able to relax and recharge so to speak.
Thanks. Having free room to roam is not something I’m accustomed to. Everywhere I’ve ever been, every acre is sectioned off and owned by someone, so it’s impossible to simply wander off.
I’m very much looking forward to doing something radically different and meeting lots of new people. Thanks reading and commenting!