On the Road Again

Posted on April 20, 2010 

Oh my goodness would I get in trouble for that title lol. I think I sang every traveling song you could imagine along the trip. Yes folks that means that I’m on the road again. Well not tonight but last night we were. We finally left Georgia around 9pm last night and we arrived in IN at about 11am this morning.

It was a little rocky starting out. We actually had a LONG day before leaving with the truck being in the garage most of the day for a good thorough once over. Apparently it wasn’t thorough enough because about 3 hours down the road the engine began knocking. Low and behold we were out of oil. We parked in a rest area and Johnny and I walked a mile back up the highway to a gas station, at 2am no less, to get oil. On our way back a very nice lady took pity on us and gave us a ride to the rest area. Of course if I hadn't been ON the cell phone with Carrie at the time I may not have taken the ride but exhaustion and the fact that this was a small older woman and I was ON the phone led me to accept.

After that we checked the oil at every gas stop we made and every time it needed more. So needless to say we are going to be having a mechanic take ANOTHER look at the truck while we are here.

Later in our trip we ran across some of THE worst traffic issues I have ever seen. We were stuck for an hour just trying to get off the highway up an off-ramp due to an accident that had closed down a LARGE portion of the highway. It was certainly interesting.

Not to mention that we bought a truck with NO back seat so Johnny, our 17 year old son, is riding in the front seat with us for the whole long drive anytime we travel. We may have to come up with some new ideas or solutions for this because though I love him dearly he does nothing but complain for the whole ride about being bored and uncomfortable. That makes a 9 hour trip into a very VERY long ride. At some point though at least he got tired and managed to sleep for a while, of course so did I.

Arrival was not the big to-do that I had wanted it to be. I was exhausted and for some strange reason had lost my voice almost completely. So we visited for a bit and John soon went into the camper to get some sleep. I stayed out a bit longer to visit with Carrie and her beautiful daughter but was not far behind John and then we all napped for a few hours.

I’m excited to be in Indiana. It’s just beautiful here. Of course I barely have internet in the camper because it is so far from the main house and there is NO cell phone signal here but it will be a restful and hopefully productive week. Tomorrow I’m going to take the computer into the house and do some searching for campers and catch up with other work that has been put off for far too long online due to the wifi being down at the campground for a week prior to our leaving.

I’ve already been taking photos of all the animals that Carrie has and of the landscape. It’s just so pretty. I’m hoping to get some nice photos of the property because Carrie would love for John to paint it but we don’t have the supplies right now so maybe he can do it from photos and memory later on.

Johnny has already gone fishing and, as we suspected, has realized he doesn't really have the patience for fishing but I’m hoping that they will learn to enjoy going out there to try. (They being Carrie’s daughter and my son)

Noita is very happy and seems to be enjoying herself. She is getting along fine with the other animals and with Carrie and her family. I think she will be ok when we leave and she stays here. We are adjusting her slowly and for a few days she will continue to sleep in the camper with us but I’m hoping that within a few days we will have her sleeping in the house so she is adjusted to that idea before we go.

However she did spend all day outside and had two bones at her disposal so she was in 7th heaven today. And I think she is going to be just as happy over the next few days. Carrie’s husband made some comments about how she will have soup bones all the time and for Noita that is about all it takes to make her a very happy old dog.

Well I will try to put up another post later in the week to let you know how the camper search is going and maybe share some more photos of our time here. Also to let you know when we will be leaving for Missouri and how the truck repairs go. For me this is all very exciting as it means we are once again kind of free and that always makes me feel oh so much better.

Getting our new Camper

Posted on April 28, 2010 

After me being very picky for days on end and Carrie searching every possible place on the internet that she knew of as well as a few places she didn’t prior to now, we finally settled on a camper. This was a difficult decision for me because I knew that whatever we got we would all need to be comfortable in for many years to come and everything would need to work and be just right. But Carrie was very patient with me and very helpful in locating just the right ones to choose from.

We ended up spending more than I had hoped but still within the range I wanted. I could have chosen a different camper for slightly less but I am ever so happy with the one we chose and I’m not sure if I would have been as pleased with any other camper.

The camper is a 1999 36’ travel trailer. It has a popout in the living area so that it becomes quite large and comfortable. There are two bedrooms, a queen in the front and a bunk bed room in the back for Johnny.

It seems that all the appliances work fine as does everything else and the guy we bought it from was so very organized that I have a ton of paperwork that came with it.

We are currently in southern Indiana and the camper itself was up near Detroit Michigan. So John and I left late Friday night and got a hotel room up in Michigan in order to get the camper relatively early and get back on the road.

The trip up was actually really fun. We were driving through states we had not been in before and, even though I swear that this whole country is starting to all look alike, I will never get over the site of the large cities at night. I’m sure they are not as pretty during the day but at night, with all the lights, they are simply amazing to see.

When we arrived Saturday to see the camper I was a little nervous. I was afraid that we would find the pictures had not represented the camper very well and I would be disappointed. I was happy to find that I had nothing to be concerned about. It was exactly as pictured and what a beautiful site it was.

   

It didn’t take us long to acquire the keys and pay the man. Soon we were hooked up and hauling down the road back toward Indiana with our, very large, new home.

Now came the hard part. You know, it’s amazing to me how much stuff you can acquire in a 3 year period of time and beyond that how much stuff you can accumulate in a 30’ camper. I’m really not sure where the heck it all came from. I say this, of course, because now it came time to move all of our stuff from the old camper into the new one. Not only that but the plan WAS to be hauling out of IN the next night to head toward Missouri, so I was rushing to get everything picked through and cleaned and moved. Needless to say I not only stressed my body to the point of almost being unable to walk but now I am feeling very ill.

I think Carrie realized I was pushing myself way too hard and she came up with a new plan. She has a rabbit show this weekend and decided that we should stay to watch over her other animals while she goes. This gives her the peace of mind while she is away and it gives me the time to recover from my reckless moving rush and then finish the job. So for the last 2 days I have been resting to try to recover and tomorrow I will be trying to finish up the moving.

So there it is. We are still in IN for a few more days and then we will be off to Missouri. I’ll update again once we are there.