That Just Happened

I admit, it was unfair to leave you with a smattering of frustration that came from our “shake down” period of our new RV. (You might decide to breeze through “Having Fun Yet?” in order to get a feel for the shape we were in by mid October). Looking back, we were extremely fortunate how things worked out with the time we had to take the new RV through the wringer and get the appropriate work done before leaving.

Our plan was to leave Indiana by the end of October, however, the right job in AZ had not shown up, and we had to wait for the correct parts to arrive in order to have the black tank issue appropriately fixed. After tirelessly pushing and digging for answers, the parts came in and we were able to bring the RV into the dealer on October 30th, one day before the campground we were staying at closed for the season on the 31st!

Family came through once again with my parents helping out during the shuffle to manage the kids while I drove the RV to the dealer and Leah worked her last day with the temporary job. We still had a warm place to stay as my folks opened their doors again, and what was better, the kids we able trick or treat with their cousins, and I was able to celebrate my birthday with my family! A good ending to our summer in central Indiana – however we knew our time was short there as grandpa winter was banging on the door (it even snowed on Halloween)!

Still not knowing when exactly the RV repairs were going to be completed, and not having locked in the AZ job yet, we traveled up north to Auburn to spend our last days in Indiana with Leah’s family. This served as a great opportunity to spend some more quality time with them before leaving. During those 5 short days, things came together. We received word the RV was good to pick up on the November 6th, I accepted a job offer on November 4th to begin the 25th, and we began to plan our trip to the southwest!

Now knowing we had a clear destination, we were able to use the day before we left to plan some of our stops. Again, the midwest was planning to jump with both feet into winter soon, so we decided to get south just about as quick as we could. Most of our time would be spent in Texas where we made reservations through a free first year Thousand Trails membership.

Our first travel day, Wednesday November 6th was a long one. We left Auburn for the two and half hour drive to Indianapolis to pick up our RV at the dealer. The infamous black tank fiasco was behind us! Warranty had come through and the work to replace the underbelly and tank was complete…. or so we thought. Sorry, but this is going to be an entry describing our trip, I am going to choose to leave the black tank saga as a cliff hanger if and when additional work needs to happen. For now, everything was clean and stable, so we tossed our belongings in and hitched up.

The road was beckoning and winter was definitely starting to nip at our heals so we hit the pavement with sheer excitement. Our first stop was to “moochdock” at Leah’s cousin’s house in Evansville, IN. This term is used to describe staying in someones driveway or on their property with minimal to no hook-ups. Despite being a little tight to back into, this served our purpose well to have a place to rest out of the rain, stock up on groceries and again spend some time laughing with family. And an extra perk? Jon is a graphic design artist that does wraps and signs for vehicles. He gave us a screaming deal and professionally installed it on his lunch break!

Thanks for letting us crash, Jon and Amanda! You guys rock!

With bellies full, fridge stocked and fresh water in the tank, on the road we continued. Attempting to get further south, our next stop was a Harvest Host location at Samuel T Bryant Distillery in Jackson, TN. As a part of the Harvest Host community, farms, wineries, distilleries and museums will offer a place to park for the night if you visit and partake in whatever goods they produce. We rolled in after dark, but in just enough time to have the sole attention of Pete Bryant and a very sweet hostess. It was enjoyable to talk with them and sample their unique flavors of whiskey and moonshine. However, that night we learned a valuable lesson on how quickly our battery can drain without a power source in below freezing weather! I spent the wee hours between 2 and 4 in the truck with it plugged in so the thermostat would continue to run the propane furnace! Lesson learned there.

Thanks for the cool spot to stay the night, Samuel T Bryant Distillery!

We left that morning with our eyes towards Arkansas. Cruising the highway was becoming more natural with Brutus and the 5th wheel. All I had to worry about on the open road were the tires, other vehicles and gas mileage. I knew we were a touch heavy, but I was hoping to get a bit better gas mileage than the 8-9 mpg we were averaging. Oh well, Brutus is a champ and things were handling well. Inside the vehicle, Leah was doing a great job working in school lessons with Faith and keeping the two of them occupied during the driving time. We were beginning to establish a pattern in which we could pack the rig up for travel and be out by around 9:30am, leaving 2-2.5 hours of drive time before a lunch break with preferably a playground nearby to stretch our legs. Leaving around 2 hours left of our planned drive would allow us to park and hopefully get everything level and hooked up before dark.

Our travel stop on the 8th was in Hot Springs, AR. We wanted to tour the Hot Springs Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo. Although most of the reptiles were in inside hibernating for the winter, we enjoyed this relic of a tourist stop. We saw and fed some goofy donkeys, ostriches and goats. We got to hold a small alligator, checked out 100 year old snapping turtles, and heard the big boys hiss when irritated. The alligator “farmer” even gave the kids alligator teeth as a souvenier on the house. This place and the town had some interesting history from when it was booming in the early 1900’s. I would recommend the stop, especially in the summer when the gators are outside and much more lively.

Of you happen to visit Hot Springs, Arkansas, you’ve got to plan an afternoon here!

The State Park we stayed at the next two nights was Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murphreesboro, AR. This was a nice, clean park that offered a chance to dig and hunt for your very own, real diamonds and gem stones in several acres of plowed dirt. This had once been a claim for such purchase, and was turned into a state park in which you can do your own hunting, and finding (around 1 diamond a day is still found in these fields). Since Faith has officially begun her own rock collection, and FIsher is a boy who likes to play in the dirt, this was a great outing for our family to do something extremely unique. And guess what? Leah and I never have to work again! Oh wait, yes we do, we didn’t find any precious stones, but learned about some other pretty stones that we brought to be examined.

No diamonds found by my little hunters, but we enjoyed a cool experience at a unique spot!

We left Arkansas excited to spend the majority of this trip in Texas. We bit off a bit more than our road-weary minds were ready for in effort to get to Lake Whitney, southwest of Dallas. We arrived at this Thousand Trails (TT) campground with what should have been ample sunlight. However, the way TT works is a site within a specific hookup designation is guaranteed, however you need to go find which one you think suits you best. I followed the hosts suggestion as far as what route to take given some of the turns were difficult. Well, remember my early statement reporting I felt like I was getting used to the weight of towing? Yeah, this was my chance to really feel how long and tall we are when towing.

Following the host’s directions, I came to a right hand turn that was just too tight for comfort, but we were too far into the turn to do anything else but try. Trying proved not good enough. Poor Leah had to get out of the truck and try to guide me through several failed attempts to gain just enough room to back up and out of this ridiculously tight spot. We were stuck. And I was stuck in the truck with two worn out kids who had been in their car seats all day trying desperately to maneuver our 50′ length in and out of various spots. After several additional fails to get out of this predicament, Leah envisioned a route and I let her lead lead me right into a few stubborn overhanging trees. And there it was, that familiar crunch of hitting tree branches. This one took the rest of the awning motor cover off – the same one I tagged the first day of ownership. Its a good thing I have not been able to find the exact model replacement part yet! So no big damage done there.

We scrapped our plan to attempt a turn and decided to straighten out and just back out all the way we came in, again with Leah directing via walkie talkie. Carefully making our way back around 1/2 a mile up the path we were successful in getting out of there to go find a different area to park. We found a vacant spot, and decided to claim it by making another tight back-in attempt. Tired, flustered, and quickly loosing light, this was not an easy feat, however we made it in and parked. An then set-up commenced as the sunlight was lost – not an enjoyable task, however it allowed the nerves to settle and allow us to be thankful for safe guidance this far. We now had three nights in one spot to enjoy ourselves.

The next morning was an exciting one for Leah. She planned a trip to tour the Magnolia Silos in Waco, Texas, owned by Chip and Joanna Gains of “Fixer Upper”. She was thrilled. She has loved that show and what the Gains’s stand for. I, however, had to miss that party. Since I had accepted that job, it seemed every time I checked my email there was another document to be sent or task that needed completed in order to fulfill all the requirements for both the travel company and the placement facility. One of which was to schedule and have a medical screen performed at a third party spot. I was able to schedule this in Waco. So that was a bundle of fun!

The next day, after making it through another freezing night…. are we ever going to find the warm weather…. we had an action-packed day planed. The day started with a mad dash to try and witness the cattle drive through Fort Worth, Texas at the historic stock yards. We were literally 2 minutes late. We did enjoy running around what was preserved of the stockyards and marveled at the size of the longhorns that just walked through the city streets. This place was pretty fascinating with a very meaningful place in our country’s history. The historic district itself was very interesting and well preserved. I do wish we had a little more time to take this place in.

From the stockyards, we decided to check out a corner of Dallas and went to the Aquarium. Right in the middle of the city, is a several story building with an extremely unique layout that houses all kinds of aquatic and exotic life from luminescent fish to sawtooth sharks, to sloths and a baby anteater! We had a great time exploring this unique place, and it served as just the right amount of time for us before visiting a high school and college football buddy of mine. He is a practicing orthopedic surgeon in Dallas, and we hadn’t seen each other in eight years. And all of the sudden I am sitting on his couch catching up and reliving the crazy times in school while our kids, who have never met, were becoming the best of friends. Life’s a trip, man!

Having been thankful for three nights in one place seemed like only a few hours ago! This completed our time near Dallas, and already it was time to pack up and get on with our trip. Given we did so much on out journey to Tucson, AZ, and wishing to recount it all in brief, but meaningful detail, I am going to make this a two part blog. In an effort to get you to return to read part II, I’ll temp you by mentioning we stopped to find out what “The Thing!!!” is on our way out of New Mexico into Arizona, and leave this here for you…