A week on the road in photos
Thanks for following our journey. This is a long post. It’s a way to document our memories. I can’t possibly edit this to a perfect script so if you find a grammar error, make something up that seems right. Hope you’re all well!
Launch time
Well, it’s official. As Don Quixote would have said, we have “sallied forth” into new adventures and it has been a crazy week! Our dreams of hitting the road full time were accelerated recently by my August work schedule. I was awarded flying mostly out of Reno, Nevada and so to spend the max amount of time together, we decided to move our launch date up to July 27th.
As we awoke on Friday, July 12, I rolled over and asked Pamela,” Have you done the math on how much driving that would be during that week?” “Yes,” she replied. And in the moment that followed we both knew what we had to do. Our marriage is like that, we have entire subconscious conversations at the speed of fiber optic internet. We have been doing it our way for so long that we know what we want. “So, can we leave today?” I asked. After another brief pause, “Let’s shoot for Sunday.” She said. So we got up and got busy.
By Saturday morning, we were draining the pool and doing final walk throughs. The refrigerator was empty, the trash was empty and we had called in the family to give hugs and say our farewells. It was emotional. Talking about moving and actually moving are two different things. The truth is, we love our Alabama home and our family is the best that it could be, we just want to keep seeing and doing and “living the dash” as our Sweet Aunt Karen puts it. Having our friends and family show up at a moments notice and see us off was a testament to the closeness of our family. We are extremely lucky and don’t take those relationships lightly.
The first night
We spent the first night in Mississippi at Wall Doxey State Park. This is where we stayed the first night we picked up the camper from Memphis several months earlier. The showers needed a bit of rinsing before we got in but it was fine with flip flops on. I’ll say that after showering in Iraq and Afghanistan for months on end in small spaces and questionable water, as long as the water is clean and I don’t have to touch the walls, I’m good to go. The ladies; however, had a different view. Rabian and I came out of the shower joking and laughing and the ladies we not impressed. Luckily most of our showers can be taken in the rig if we choose to do that so they will adapt.
The next morning I couldn’t sleep so we hit the road about 5:00am. As soon as we got going, I was sleepy. Funny how that works. We dropped off the extra vehicle in Memphis near my job and by daybreak we were all in the car together and hammer down for St. Louis.
We don’t always reserve our site ahead of time so while I drive, Pamela coordinates. She calls places, gets prices, looks at reviews, and answers every other random question we have. At one point she joked about needing a personal assistant and I told her that I was considering firing mine for talking and not working. For a moment I thought I was a goner. Lesson learned. This reserve on the fly system worked well last week but I’m sure it will result in an eventual Walmart or Cracker Barrel overnight.
The second night – St. Louis
The second night we stayed in St. Louis. We were downtown and as soon as we parked we took off to the City Museum. This was the whole purpose of coming this route. I had been and really wanted to take the kids here. The place was awesome. It’s a giant multistory, artistic jungle gym. Kids and adults climb through the walls and floors, secret passages, through whales and cages and down slides. Outside there’s a ball pit for big kids and one for toddlers. Two airplanes mounted sky high and ladders and open cage bridges to access them. It was scary and amazing and the whole family had a smattering time.
Hit and Run in the crosswalk
As we rolled out of the RV park the next morning the sky had just brightened up. At the very first stop light we hit the light red and had to wait. Pamela started to say something and at that moment I saw a vehicle smash into an older guy and his dog in the cross walk. I was in the left turning lane and decided to go to help. I hit the flashers, told Pamela what I saw and took off across the intersection.
The guy was 67 and staying at the RV lot with us. He hobbled out of the road and I assumed the worst. It was a hard hit. He was bleeding from the arms and couldn’t move his shoulder. Luckily the car had only clipped him and he avoided internal injuries. I finally talked him into letting me take his dog back to his RV and getting his wife. Let me tell you, women are not want to open their RV’s for a stranger banging on the door at dawn. I’m glad she didn’t open fire. Telling that lady what was going on was the worst of it all. But, in the end, the man was going to be ok and the paramedics released him to visit his own doctor.
How not to navigate St. Louis with a trailer
I struggled through St. Louis traffic towards the northwest. It was morning rush hour now since we had been delayed and people did not want to honor the blinker and let me in with the trailer. Several times I had to simply crowd the lane I wanted in and wait for someone too scared to pass, then I’d get over. It wasn’t until the next stop when I was doing my walk around that I realized I had not hooked up the trailer lights. Sweet Baby Jesus! No wonder no one wanted to let me over. I felt like the cartoon where the character’s image fades into a jackass. It was amazing how much more support I got on the roads after I reconnected to signals. Not to mention the how fast we could brake now that the trailer brakes were working again!
3rd Night – Bad Tacos, good people – Hamilton, MO
We rode for hours and when we got hungry, I pulled off the interstate and did a loop at an abandoned Mexican food restaurant. We shut off the car and jumped into the trailer to eat and use the restroom. Ten minutes later it was time to roll and as I turned the key, I got the dreaded click. Nothing happened. I tried it again and then jumped out to jumpstart it with my extra battery. Easy fix I thought. I’ll have it running before Pamela even knows we are down. Then, click again with the spare battery. I trouble shot this for a bit but we decided to get a tow and a new plan for the night.
It wasn’t as easy as call the roadside assistance and relax. The problem was larger than just a tow. There were four of us and a trailer. We needed two trucks to have enough room and honestly, I wasn’t thrilled about the family riding in the tow trucks. After much consorting with Google, and talking to the roadside assistance, we had tow trucks on the way. What we didn’t know at the time was how long it would take to get them there.
A Country Charm RV Park – Mr. Jerry
We found a small RV park only one mile away and I called to tell the owner our situation. He was full but decided to give us his “overflow” spot and even offered to come tow our trailer there with his truck! What luck! In twenty minutes he was there and we had disconnected our rig and made room for the tow. He swooped in and picked up the trailer and Pamela and the kids. I planned to wait it out with the truck for the tow company.
An hour later I was sitting in the shade of the awning at the run down Mexican restaurant and trying to figure out the best way to get back on the road. Our primary concerns are safety in choosing a RV spot and making sure I can get to a city where I can easily get to Memphis for work. If we were stuck here more than a day or two, I’d have to swing south to Kansas City and we’d never make it to Montana for the week. I kinda felt like Mark Watney on the Mars movie, weighing the options and trying to science the shit out of our circumstances.
I’m always looking for a concrete solution and one solid backup. In this situation, it was tough to estimate when we’d be whole again and rolling. I guess that’s one big lesson from this so far, I’ll have to let go of some of the control of stable living. I’ll have to try and embrace the whimsical nature of hit or miss planning and rolling with the punches.
Walking Home
I abandoned the truck after another hour so I could walk to the RV lot before dark. It was a little over a mile away and I got to pass through Hamilton, “The Quilting Capital of the World” on my way. The town was actually really cool. We would have never found it without the unplanned maintenance. The campground owner, Jerry, was too good. He helped the family hook up the trailer to electricity and water and made them feel welcome at camp.
Travel Family
Several of the neighbors came to offer us rides to the city for whatever we needed and the kids played happily riding around the loop on their bikes that night with the led lights blinking away. As we sat around talking after the kids went to bed, Pamela and I were both really overwhelmed at how our “misfortune” was actually a window into the goodness of the world. The world is full of good people and many of them were right there in Hamilton with us that night.
Woe is me with the towing people
I had to phone another tow company later that night because the first one wasn’t going to get to it until the next day. Some time in the night, the truck was towed and the next morning my phone rang at 8am. It was the owner of the maintenance show we had it towed to. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that kind of work anymore.” He said. “My back is out and I’m too old so you’ll have to try the guys across the street.” I hung up the phone and went right back into planning mode. The kids were eager to play and swim at the city pool across the street but I was zoomed in on the task of getting us mobile.
Chad at The Original Shop
I called around and after a few shops, I found a guy that could look at it that same day. He towed it to his place ordered a starter from the next town over. He said he’d let me know when he knew something. I felt like I had won a victory. Finally the truck was getting seen about and I was free to engage with the family and play. We walked around town for lunch and came back for a midday nap. My timer went off at 12:40. It was time to take the kids to the pool.
Hamilton City Pool
This pool across the street was awesome. Despite being crowded, the people were good folks and our family had a blast. It was the first place the kids have ever gotten to jump off of a diving board into a deep pool. Rabian made it his mission to touch the bottom of the pool and finally succeeded after diving off the board with his swim fins on and swimming like crazy to touch the bottom. Allyona was a champ and jumped off the diving board more than any of us. She’d only been able to swim underwater for a week and here she was jumping skyward with both hands up and the biggest smile on her face. This is how my girl lives her life. Just see the pictures below. When she’s in, she’s all in.
I was just about to round up the gang to avoid sunburn when Rabian told me my phone was ringing. “Mr. Gann?.” Asked Chad, our mechanical savior.
“Yes.” I replied.
“Your truck is ready, I can come and get you now.” He said.
“I’ll meet you at the camp in 15 minutes.” I replied.
I looked across the sea of goggles and kids splashing and churning brilliant water to find Pamela staring at me from the other side of the pool. I gave her a smile and the “round them up lets go” signal that we’ve always used. It was time to hit the road.
Packing Up
Chad came and picked me up in our truck and I dropped him off at his local shop. It only took us about an hour to go from the pool to hooked up and ready to go. The kids are experts now at helping out. They have seen it done so many times in the last few months so they are usually helping or at least staying clear when we are doing anything with the wheel chocks.
Rabian has even gotten on to me at least twice when I was hooking something up out of order or the wrong way. I love that he is the kind of son that is confident enough to speak up when he sees something out of line. This culture of saying something around our house, especially if you see something unsafe is not only encouraged but demanded. It doesn’t matter if its to save your sister from choking or to stop Dad from breaking off the sway bars. It builds an environment where we can all count on each other.
4th Night – Finding a place to sleep – Ponca State Park
We were getting tired and needed to pull in somewhere. We had been on the road for several hours and it was getting dark. Pamela found a state park ahead and we left the interstate and wiggled through the back roads to find this place. It was several miles off the road and when we got there it was darker that the inside of a waterproof bag. Without seeing the layout of the land, I took the road to the right inside the park and this spit us out down at the rivers edge. There were a father and son fishing in the dark along the banks and a couple other RV’s but it looked mostly empty. We swung into a pull thru site and quickly hooked up power. All we wanted to do was run the a/c for a bit. We didn’t even disconnect from the truck since the site was pretty level.
Getting to bed….for a little bit
Rabian let out the slide and we all jumped in the trailer to get some sleep. I couldn’t believe our luck. This place was amazing. I had taken a picture outside of the sky and the trailer sitting there on the river banks. I kept thinking, I have to be up at sunrise because this view is going to be epic! Pamela and I talked about what we would do the next day for about 10 minutes and then I passed out. This was when things began to get exciting. About an hour after I went to sleep, Pamela woke me up and said that she thought someone was knocking on the door or the wall. She’s a grown woman and I believe that when she hears something, she knows what she’s talking about so I get up to investigate.
I have plenty of resources to make bad people go away in the night or any time of day for that matter. I’m not John Rambo but my opportunities to work on hand to hand combat started in high school and continued through the Army. Eventually I’d graduate from a federal law enforcement school dealing specifically in terrorist threat containment. I’ve spent many hours thinking about protecting my family over the years so when I think people are knocking on the camper at night messing around, it gets my hackles up.
Back to bed
After a few minutes I decided that it was most likely the wind but just in case I made some preparations for fixing those kinds of problems. I got back in bed and went back to sleep. Pamela, however, did not. She stayed awake listening and after another hour, she woke me up in a whispered panic. “There’s somebody in our front compartment right now.” She said. “They are messing with the tools.” Her saying this was confirmation for me that it was go time. In about 2.5 seconds I stood, grabbed my problem solving materials and leapt out the door of the trailer. My barefoot hit the grass, flashlight on and I was looking quickly for the mischievous perpetrators. I circled the trailer with the flashlight very quickly. I didn’t want anyone to get away if they were there. I wanted confirmation if someone was meddling.
The Nonsense from and outside perspective
Now, if you were outside in one of the other RV’s the scene you would have witnesses would have been a quiet travel trailer sitting almost in an open field with no-one around. That’s right, all the compartments were closed and there couldn’t have been anyone remotely close to our rig based on what I saw. Then, without warning a full grown man burst from the trailer with a flashlight and started doing deliberate security loops around the trailer while his wife and kids quickly packed up and got in the truck. Then, without delay, they pulled out into the night just as quickly as they had came.
In hindsight, it’s quite clear that there were no threats to the rig. The line between reality and dreaming of some people (Pamela) being in a new place with new sounds and running on little sleep was starting to get a little blurry. In the end, we had to leave because it was clear none of us was going to sleep if the Momma didn’t feel safe here and I didn’t want to spend every hour clearing the campsite of funny sounds.
Driving sleepy and the big storm
It was early in the morning darkness now. The time of night some Spanish folks would call “La Madrugada.” In America, it’s the time of night that the twenty year olds are stumbling into Taco Bell but most families are sleeping. I did feel some comfort knowing that my coworkers at Fedex were all awake and consuming gallons of coffee somewhere overhead to get those Express deliveries there by 10am. I really needed to find a place to get a nap.
We finally got on some pigtail road that was headed generally to the northwest. I glanced some lightening in the distance so I reached for my radar app to check the route. Sweet Jesus! We were driving right into a massive thunderstorm with a tornado warning. On our current route, we would have driven right through the center of the storm. I looked around and found a truck stop about 30 minutes away in the wrong direction. It was the safest bet for the family so we diverted back to get gas and wait out the storm.
After getting gas at the truck stop, we pulled into a slot next to a semi to try and get some rest. It was more of just angling the truck in because the spots were all taken, we had to just fit the rig in the best we could. We climbed into the trailer and passed out. It was about 3:40 am local time.
One hour later, I awoke to my alarm. I had to check the weather. During the time we had slept, the storm had changed course. It had appeared that it would pass north of us but now, it was about 30 minutes away and was going to center the truck stop. I woke Pamela and told her the plan. We’d go inside and wait it out, if it really was a tornado, we’d just hide in the center of the building and have a better chance that being out here in a vehicle. When we woke the kids, I remember distinctly Rabian sitting up in bed and saying, “Daddy, I feel like the turd that I am.” This sleeping a few minutes and waking up again was really having an effect on our fun meter.
We were heading out the door to go inside and Pamela got my attention.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Happy Birthday” she said as she smiled.
I looked at my watch, it was July 17th.
Native American is the proper term
There were a lot of “firsts” taking place. First time I had camped at a truck stop in a camper. First time I took a shower in a truck stop. First time I had pointed to the walls of a store and showed my kids the “Indians” and was almost assaulted by my wife.
I want to preface this segment with bringing to your attention that I am not perfect in any way. Part of this journey is to open our eyes to others way of living and see the US from outside of our norms. Growing up in the south, I don’t think I ever got the impression that Indian was a bad word. In the history and normal lingo that passed in the 80s and 90s where I grew up, Native Americans were called Indians. I have never meant this term in any derogatory way but I realize now that this may be offensive and sitting in that gas station, I looked up at the walls and pointed out to the kids the “Indians” on the pictures. They were really cool pictures and I was excited to be almost to the west. Pamela turned three shades of purple and I asked what’s up? She looked like she wanted to climb under the table.
I slowly looked around the dining area of the gas station which by now had about 30 people crammed inside around a TV that was showing the storms progress. In the room were almost exclusively Native Americans. Long hair, smiling faces that were headed somewhere and had stopped to avoid the storm. It took a second for me to understand that she didn’t want me to use that word. Nobody seemed to notice or care but I left the place a little more cultured and a little more in tune to the inhabitants of beautiful South Dakota.
This was kind of a beginning to my being more sensitized to the struggle of Native Americans and not to get to political here but the ancestors of these great tribes got a bad deal from the invading europeans and there’s no sugar coating that. Learning about the battle of the Little Big Horn River and General Custard’s last stand, I find no reason to think that Custard was in the right. He was forcing out a people from their homeland and using the women and children as hostages to make it happen. I think Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were heroes of their day. They stood up to the bullies and protected their families.
Pulling over for some Samaches
We finally left and hit the road again, to say that I was tired and delusional was an understatement. I drove for a few hours and then we pulled into a very clean and scenic rest stop off I-90 near Chamberlain, South Dakota. I shut off the truck, climbed into the camper and went to sleep. The rest of the gang made sandwiches and ate lunch and I woke up just as they were about to walk around and explore the place. It was on a high hill over looking a river and two towns. This place was the model for the word picturesque. It was so nice to get out of the truck and walk around bit, With my 20 minutes nap and some walking, I was ready to take over the world.
It was getting on toward dark when we rolled into our RV park in the Badlands, SD. The as we got closer we could really see the hill formations that made this place so famous and we were really excited to be here. The scenery was surreal. We dropped our rig and headed out to do some exploring before the sun went down.
Time to climb
It was only a few miles to a trail head and we decided to jump out and be about it. We all had on our hiking shoes except Rabian and Allyona. They had on modified hiking shoes which consist of flip flops and the ability to bounce back after a decent fall. We took a few pictures at the base of the outcropping and then we started to climb. The girls went a short distance and then decided they would stay back and let us see if it was safe. Rabian and I crept slowly up this quarter mile stretch. The ground was dirt with some boulders mixed in and it was a pretty steep climb. I never felt like we needed ropes and there was only a couple places where the risk of going over the edge was noticeable.
Most of the time Rabian could walk by himself and we held hands near the sketchy stuff. If you know me then you know I don’t take risks with the kids safety lightly. This place was really fun for him and the risk was very manageable by being present and taking it slow. We finally got to the top after a half hour or so and the view was profound. We could see for miles and miles out into the green grasslands. We couldn’t stay at the top though because it was insanely hot. We were both sweating like crazy and made much better time on the way down.
Remember that time….
I have to say sharing this climb and time with my son doing something we both love to do – climb- was really important and memorable to me. We have always been not just father and son but great friends on this journey. We connect on a very deep level and I could tell through his attitude that he was happy and having the time of his life. I think this memory will last for a long time.
We met back up with the girls and drove up the road a piece. We parked on the side of the road and made a few pics. Gotta keep up that Instagram hustle. The sun was going down now and the Mad Max pace we had set for the last couple of days was upon me. We headed back to town to find some supper. I put in a birthday request for Italian food and luckily the local grocery store was still open. We strolled through the two isles they had and much to my amazement found two boxes of pizza HotPockets in an old broke down freezer. This was living.
With my stomach full I strolled around the camp to see the sunset over the mountains. I don’t say this lightly but this place we stayed was near some standing water and the mosquitoes were likes grizzly bears. In five minutes time I felt like I had been in a prison fight. I was almost running for the camper after a few minutes of withstanding the very well coordinated attack of these vile creatures.
Bedtime at long last
When I showered and laid down in the bed that night of my 38th birthday I couldn’t have been more happy. I fell asleep fast and hard like I’d been chasing prowlers the night before, outrunning tornadoes, driving all day and climbing mountains. You could have sawed my head off with a chainsaw and I wouldn’t have flinched.
On the morning of the 18th everyone felt so much better and rested it was like a party in the rig. The best part of the day, we only had to travel for two hours to our next site. We traveled uneventfully around Rapid City, SD, past Sturgis the famous bike rally town, and into Deadwood. A city made famous from some gold rush hype long ago. This was the first time we hit some bigger climbs pulling the trailer and there were a few times we were moving less than 40 mph going up the hills. The nice thing was the two lanes most of the way so we were never really in the way of faster travelers.
We stayed at Creekside Campground here. The staff was friendly, the sites were level and super well manicured grass. It was here I had a bit of good fortune. The site was tight and it was a back in. The guy that helps run the place came out to help me back in and Pamela and the kids were watching this ordeal. I had that thought in my head like this could be quite the show. I was really hoping I didn’t get crooked and have to pull back and forth about 15 times to get it right. Since we’ve been doing some pull throughs and prior to that we hadn’t camped in a month or two, I’ve only gotten to back into a handful of sites to get the feel of the rig.
I circled around and pulled alongside the pad. I got out and walked back to look at where my wheels were and decided to pull forward another couple of feet for the cut. I put the truck in reverse and started to ease the trailer into the site. I was cutting to the passenger side which makes it hard to see exactly where the wheels are at all times. I kept it coming and eased right back into the site. One shot, one kill. Perfectly on the pad and perfectly lined up. Backing on the blindside into a tight fight and hit it the first time just right. When I opened my door, I had on my “that’s how I do it” look. I thanked the guy and got busy about setting up. In my mind I wondered if he’d been warned by that Mississippi State Park about my 15 tries to get into a much larger spot a few days before.
We needed a game plan. Do we chill for the night and hit Rushmore tomorrow or do we go now? I did some math on when we would arrive in Hardin, MT. I wanted a nice buffer in this rural land for car trouble or anything that would delay me from getting on that plane in Billings and making it to work. I’m flexible and happy with strange circumstances as long as I know how I will get from there to Memphis and be ready for my next flight.
The Army really instilled a “be there in the right uniform at the right time – dead or alive- mentality into me. The airlines operate on a schedule and there’s really no place for a person that has trouble being on time. I’d say that one of the main hurdles of life is being on time. Companies that move thousands of people or millions of packages simply don’t have time to deal with people that aren’t reliable. Thousands of times per day I’m watching the clock checking and double checking that I am on track to be early.
Today or tomorrow
Being in the Black Hills several hours from Billings and only a couple days since we had had car trouble had me a little nervous about work. Time was marching on and I had to be on a plane to Memphis early Sunday morning. All this in mind, we decided to surge forward and see Mt. Rushmore that same day. It took us forty minutes to get into the little town and the first things we saw was chair lifts to take us up a big hill. I parked and we grabbed some tickets. With the sun nearing the horizon, we didn’t have a lot of time to deliberate. Within minutes we were headed up a steep hill. I rode with Allyona and was surprised that she wasn’t spooked from the open chair lift. She is so brave for such a small french fry.
Riding the Alpine Slides!
At the top of the hill, all four of us walked to the ledge to see the faces on the rock and it was anticlimactic. The sky was hazy and we were still kinda far from the mountain. Pamela and I gave each other the look and instead of walking around there, we knew we wanted to get closer to the faces of Rushmore. We turned around and got right into the slide line. Oh yeah, did I mention there were alpine slides on the way down! I had never down this and I was super excited to try it. Allyona rode with me and Pamela and Rabian had their own slide. I didn’t realize that the slides had wheels on them! Once the guy let us go and we pulled back on the stick, we were zooming! Allyona was laughing the biggest laugh and were were rocketing up on the walls of this crazy tubular slide.
All giggles
It was a long ride up the mountain and so we got to enjoy the downhill for really long way. The daredevil in me really wanted to reach max speed on the slide but the Daddy in me did a great job of resisting the urge. There were too many signs that said if we go to fast, we’d come out of the chute and from the looks of that fall, that’s not what I wanted with my little girl in the buggy with me. At the bottom we were both laughing so hard and smiling so big. Rabian had heated us all on a different slide and Pamela pulled in right as we did. I’m really hoping to do that again somewhere.
Another mile or two up the road was the actual Mt. Rushmore. It was more urban than I thought it would be. There was a parking deck and we paid $10 to park. I think this $10 pass is good for a whole year. There was a lot of construction in the park and it was a little crowded but there was plenty of room for us. We made some pictures in front of the monument and checking out the store. We also picked up a “National Park” passport here for the kids. It would have been more fun to stick around and take a hike up closer but we had to get rolling.
A short night
We made it back to camp and tucked in for the night. With a large creek right behind the trailer and a quiet campsite, we all slept good that night. We had planned to stay here for two nights but after seeing Rushmore and thinking about the uncertainty of our reaching Billing on time, I got everyone up early and we broke camp. In the darkness, we quietly attached the truck, disconnected from the hookups, loaded up and eased out into the hilly highway. It was time for our final leg of this week’s journey.
I don’t remember how long the last days drive was. We were tired of being in the truck and driving. My butt was sore, my back was tired of sitting and the kids were itching to just be outside playing instead of in seatbelts. Pamela was awesome at planning fuel stops, googling random things we wondered about on the road and making sure we all had some great fruit, meats, and cheeses handy. We made good time on this two lane road that didn’t have but maybe three curves in a hundred miles. Eventually we were back on I-90. Speed limit 80 mph despite the fact that we only do about 65 most of the time, I felt like we were getting there faster.
We have arrived!
We pulled into Hardin, Montana early afternoon on the 19th of July in the year of our lord, 2019. A small, friendly KOA with laundry, a pool, a playground, and some shade. Break out the Dos Equis, hallelujah, amen. I spent that afternoon mostly doing nothing. I was so happy to be out of the hustle of a time line that I could have wept with delight. From here, I can bike to work if I have to. We had food, space, full-hookups. The kids were running around and playing and Pamela was close enough to people that nobody would be in our tool compartment rummaging though our things. This is the place we would hunker down for the week.
Looking back over the first week of being on the road, I’ve had a lot of thoughts. One primary impulse is that of gratitude for being able to share this life with my wife and children. We have planned for this for months now and to be putting our plan into action is really exciting. I’m grateful for the memories we are making and for every second I get to spend with these incredible humans.
Every journey is different. There are so many ways we could do this that we are just touching the tip of the iceberg. We could stay at State Parks, KOAs, private places, or for free on BLM land. We’ve opened our eyes to a new paradigm. The “family” and helpful atmosphere that fellow travelers show toward each other. It seems much easier to ask a fellow RVer for help than in my previous routines. Take the Hamilton mechanical breakdown for example. This also showed me just how important it is for us to look into the misfortunes of other travelers and see if we can help them in some way.
I think over time we will adjust to and embrace the element of “not knowing” that comes with this flexible type of travel. There is a beauty and sense of adventure when you don’t know where you’ll stay at night. It forces you into new places with new insights and I think some personal growth.
At the end of the week, I needed a break. Not a break from the trailer lifestyle but from the hours of driving and meeting a schedule. Our situation requires that we get to Reno before August if possible. Once we get there, we can take some time to relax and live like locals for a few weeks.
I made my ride to work. In a week, we’ll start another push towards Reno and our home away from home for a month in California. I’m glad you are following along. It’s fun to be able to document these adventures and share it in some small way with our friends and family.
Brad
Disclaimer : The opinions here on this blog are all 100 percent my own and do not reflect the opinions of any companies, or organizations.
I’ll post again soon with the next volume of our push to the west. Subscribe if you want to get update on our adventure.
I really love reading about your adventures, your description of your travels makes me want to join you.
How’s Europe in the Spring sound?? I have your tickets. Just come on out in a couple weeks and we’ll plan our adventures.