Vehicle Living: The Hidden Cost of Chasing Perfect Weather on the Road

One of the great promises of vehicle life is that if you don’t like the weather, you can move.

Too hot? Go north.

Still too hot? Go higher.

Cold front coming? Head south.

That sounds wonderfully simple, and honestly, it’s one of the things I love most about this life. My home has wheels. I can follow the seasons instead of enduring them.

But this summer in Colorado taught me something I hadn’t really considered before:

Perfect weather has a price, and that price isn’t always money.

Sometimes the temperature is perfect but the elevation isn’t.

Sometimes you find a beautiful cool campsite, only to discover that wildfire smoke has settled into the valley.

Sometimes the weather is ideal, but camping is expensive or impossible to find.

Sometimes you drive hundreds of miles chasing ten cooler degrees and realize how much you just spent on gasoline.

And sometimes your weather app says you’ve found paradise while your body is saying, very clearly, “We need to leave.”

I Went Higher to Get Away From the Heat

Part of my reason for spending the summer traveling through Colorado was obvious: it’s gorgeous.

But there was another major attraction.

Cooler temperatures.

When much of the Southwest is roasting in the summer, the mountains of Colorado can feel like an escape hatch.

So I climbed.

And climbed.

I stayed in some absolutely spectacular places, including high mountain areas around Pagosa Springs and Creede.

The temperatures were wonderful.

My lungs were not nearly as impressed.

I started noticing that I was getting winded incredibly easily. Sometimes I could have a normal conversation and afterward feel like I had exerted myself.

I was frequently short of breath.

At the same time, wildfire smoke from fires throughout the region was affecting the air.

Wildfire smoke can travel far beyond the location of the actual fire, and the CDC warns that smoke can cause coughing, wheezing, chest discomfort and difficulty breathing. People with existing health conditions can be particularly vulnerable.

So I had several things going on at once.

Was it altitude?

Smoke?

My existing breathing problems?

Something else?

Eventually I stopped trying to figure it out myself and went to an emergency room in Frisco, Colorado.

After a chest X-ray, EKG and about four hours in the ER, I was told that altitude was the problem.

The solution?

Get down.

And once I descended, I felt considerably better.

That experience changed the way I think about chasing weather.

“Go Higher” Isn't Always the Answer

Nomads hear this advice constantly:

If it's too hot, gain elevation.

And usually that makes sense.

But higher elevation introduces another variable.

The CDC notes that altitude illness becomes a concern when travelers who aren't acclimatized ascend to higher elevations, and certain serious altitude-related conditions can involve increasing breathlessness and reduced ability to exercise.

I had been thinking almost entirely about temperature.

I wasn't thinking enough about elevation.

That distinction matters.

A campsite can be 72 degrees, shaded by pine trees, surrounded by mountains and absolutely spectacular...

...and still be completely wrong for you.

That may be one of the biggest lessons I've learned this summer.

The best campsite isn't necessarily the campsite with the best weather.

It's the place where enough things work together that you can actually live comfortably.

Weather Is More Than the Number on Your Phone's Weather App

I think we sometimes reduce weather chasing to one number:

Today's high: 78°F.

Great. Let's go.

But that temperature tells us surprisingly little about what living there will actually feel like.

Humidity changes everything

There is an enormous difference between 80 degrees in dry mountain air and 80 degrees somewhere with high humidity.

The National Weather Service uses the heat index because humidity affects how hot conditions feel to the human body. Direct sunlight can make conditions feel even hotter than the standard heat-index value suggests.

For someone living in a vehicle without traditional residential climate control, that difference can determine whether you are reasonably comfortable or absolutely miserable.

Nighttime temperatures matter

I care almost as much about the overnight low as I do about the daytime high.

If it's 85 during the afternoon but drops into the 50s at night, I may be able to handle that.

If it's still 78 degrees at midnight, sleeping in a vehicle becomes another matter entirely.

Shade matters

An exposed campsite in direct sun and a forested campsite at the exact same temperature can feel completely different.

Shade also affects how hard you're working to keep your vehicle, refrigerator, electronics and yourself cool.

That's a real cost even when no money changes hands.

Then There's Wildfire Smoke

This is one factor I think more western travelers need to add to their weather planning.

You can be nowhere near a wildfire and still be breathing its smoke.

The CDC specifically warns that wildfire smoke can travel far from active fires.

That's why I've become much more interested in air quality, not merely temperature.

The EPA's AirNow tools provide current and forecast air-quality information, including information about fine particle pollution and wildfire smoke.

That means when I'm considering my next location, I now have another question to ask:

What am I going to be breathing when I get there?

For those of us who already have respiratory issues, that's particularly important.

But even healthy travelers can be affected by heavy smoke.

And there's another maddening part of this equation.

Sometimes your choices are:

Hotter temperatures down below...

or

cooler temperatures with smoke or altitude higher up.

There may not be a perfect choice.

There may only be the best available compromise.

The Financial Cost of Moving

Then there's the part we usually do think of when somebody says “cost.”

Gasoline.

My Kia gets pretty good gas mileage, but moving still costs money.

If you're driving a larger van, truck or RV, moving hundreds of miles to get away from a heat wave can become expensive very quickly.

Suppose you move 300 miles for better weather.

Then conditions change and you move another 200.

Then wildfire smoke rolls in and you're relocating again.

Suddenly you've driven 500 miles during a week when you hadn't planned on going anywhere.

That's not necessarily a reason not to move.

Sometimes moving is absolutely the right decision.

But it belongs in the equation.

The goal isn't:

Never spend money chasing weather.

It's:

Know what you're trading.

Everybody Else Wants the Nice Weather Too

There's another hidden cost of beautiful weather:

Competition.

When an area has cool temperatures, gorgeous scenery and inexpensive public-land camping, you're probably not the only person who has noticed.

Popular summer destinations can mean:

• More crowded dispersed camping

• Fewer desirable sites

• Higher campground rates

• More traffic

• More competition for shade

• Greater pressure on public lands

  
  

Sometimes I would rather tolerate slightly less ideal temperatures in a quieter area than fight for space in the place everybody decided has “perfect weather.”

That's another tradeoff.

Connectivity Can Ruin an Otherwise Perfect Campsite

This one matters especially to me because Road Life Hub doesn't stop operating just because I found a beautiful campsite.

I still have work to do.

Sometimes that gorgeous mountain location comes with another surprise:

No cell service.

Or heavy tree cover that complicates satellite internet.

Or a campsite where keeping everything powered becomes more difficult.

Someone who is fully retired and disconnected may not care at all.

Someone working remotely might care enormously.

Neither person is wrong.

They're simply looking for different versions of a good campsite.

My trip to the ER also made me start adding something else to my mental campsite checklist:

Where is the nearest medical care?

That doesn't mean I'm going to camp beside hospitals.

That would defeat a lot of the reason I'm out here.

But when I'm heading into a remote area, especially alone, I'd rather have some idea whether medical care is 20 minutes away or two hours away.

The same goes for groceries, fuel, vehicle repair and emergency services.

Remoteness is part of the adventure.

But knowing how remote you actually are is part of being responsible for yourself.

The Cost We Don't Talk About Enough: Energy

There is also a human cost to constantly moving.

Finding another campsite.

Packing everything.

Driving.

Shopping.

Dumping trash.

Finding water.

Setting up again.

Figuring out where everything is in a new town.

Finding another campsite when the first one doesn't work.

Doing it again three days later because the weather changed.

Even when you love traveling, that takes energy.

Sometimes staying somewhere that's good enough for another four days is better than spending half a day relocating in pursuit of somewhere supposedly perfect.

I've started appreciating the phrase:

Good enough for right now.

That's different from settling.

It's recognizing that road life doesn't have to be optimized every single day.

My New “Should I Move?” Checklist

After this summer, I'm trying to look at potential destinations differently.

Before I move because somewhere looks cooler on the weather map, I want to look at the whole picture.

1. Temperature

What's the daytime high?

2. Overnight low

Will my vehicle actually cool down enough for me to sleep?

3. Elevation

Am I going significantly higher than I've been recently?

4. Air quality

Is wildfire smoke or another air-quality problem affecting the area?

The AirNow app and Fire and Smoke Map are useful resources for checking this.

5. Humidity

Is 80 degrees going to feel like 80 degrees?

Or something much worse?

6. Sun and shade

Will I have shade?

Can my solar setup still function where I plan to park?

7. Camping availability

Is there somewhere realistic and legal for me to stay?

8. Fuel cost

How far am I driving to improve the situation?

9. Connectivity

Do I need cell service or satellite access while I'm there?

10. Services

Where are groceries, fuel, water and medical care?

And finally...

11. How do I actually feel?

This may be the most important question on the entire list.

An app can't answer it.

Neither can another nomad.

Neither can a YouTube video.

How is your own body responding to where you are?

I ignored that question longer than I should have in Colorado because I loved where I was.

The scenery was spectacular.

The temperatures were gorgeous.

I wanted it to work.

But my body had already voted.

Eventually, I listened.

There Is No Perfect Weather

I'm writing this now from outside Mesa Verde National Forest in Cortez, Colorado.

I'm also traveling solo again after Jack and I separated, which has added another unexpected change to an already eventful summer.

That means I'm making my own decisions again.

Where to camp.

When to move.

How far to drive.

What conditions I'm willing to tolerate.

And when something isn't working.

There's something strangely freeing about realizing that I don't have to find the perfect place.

Maybe nobody does.

Road life isn't a treasure hunt where somewhere out there exists one magical campground with 72-degree afternoons, 55-degree nights, zero humidity, no mosquitoes, no smoke, great cell service, free camping, beautiful scenery, inexpensive groceries and a Level I trauma center ten minutes away.

If you find that place, please send me the coordinates.

For the rest of us, this lifestyle is about choices.

And compromises.

Sometimes we choose mountains over connectivity.

Sometimes we choose heat over smoke.

Sometimes we spend the gas money.

Sometimes we stay put.

And sometimes we leave an absolutely gorgeous campsite because our body is telling us that we don't belong there today.

The goal is finding a place where you can live well right now.

That's a very different way of choosing where to go.

And after the summer I've had in Colorado, I think it's a much better one.

The accompanying video to this post can be found at: https://youtu.be/aJSso3GNk30

What about you?

If you travel with the weather, what factors do you consider besides temperature?

Have you ever driven somewhere expecting perfect conditions and discovered a completely different problem when you arrived?

I'd love to hear about it. Your experience might help another traveler make a better decision the next time they're staring at the weather map trying to decide where to go.

Let's build bridges, not barriers.