Water Softener Yes/No

Yes on the Flo-Pur softener. But it depends on where you travel. Since you are in California, you'll probably spend some time in the Southwest/Four Corners. There are places out there where the water is so hard you can chew it. The very worst was Terlingua, TX. For the first five years, we used bottled water for coffee and drinking. Noticed that our kitchen faucet and showerhead were really gunked up. After we retired and started part timing, we purchased a Flo-Pur. Works great with a box of table salt. We don't worry about testing the water. Our taste buds and white spots on the dishes tell us to add a box.

We store ours in the basement. If it is really cold it travels in a plastic tub in the shower.