The Journey
As I mentioned in the last post, we have spent the last two weeks packing our belongings to move them from Salt Lake City, UT to Mosheim, Tennessee. We departed SLC on June 30th and stayed in Limon, Colorado that night. To our luck, they gave us the shittiest truck on the lot- no cd or auxillary, the loud-ass motor was under the passenger's side and it had two bucket seats. None of this made for a good ride with a 22 pound dog in your lap in July. Wyoming is the worst state to drive in, especially when you're new to driving a moving truck with a car dolly attached. With wind gusts of 25+ mph, we had to keep it at a steady 60 mph. Traffic in Denver was even more nerve-wracking, and we were relieved to get to the hotel at 1am. Lambeau wasn't thrilled with the seating arrangement or the cabin noise, but he adjusted and slept about 20 hours that day.
Day two consisted of driving through Kansas and Missouri. I had a long nap while Kristopher drove, we decided to tag team throughout the night instead of stopping for sleep. We got to Alabama at 8am and managed to sleep three hours. We had lunch at his parents' house and then departed for Jackson, MS which is over halfway to our next destination. We drove the Denali- quite the upgrade from our moving truck. We arrived in Jackson around 11pm, and after a whopping five hours of sleep, we drove the Ponchatoula, LA to pick up the fifth wheel.
After driving the roaring Penske truck with my car in tow for 2000 miles, hauling the fifth wheel with the GMC Denali was a piece of cake. We were not able to leave Berryland Campers until 4pm, so we had to find a spot to camp for the night. We thought we were going to have a rough time since it was the day before July 4th, but we found a KOA in Starkville, MS. We rolled into the campsite around 9:30, and despite the lengthy walk through we had at the RV dealership we were totally lost. We learned to never underestimate the kindness of strangers because the couple who ran the park stayed late to help us get the camper positioned correctly and hook up to power. I forgot how awesome Southerners are. After they left, we were lost again as we couldn't even get running water. We later learned that we had to turn on the water pump.
We woke up refreshed on the 4th of July and drove the remaining three hours to Florence, Alabama. We took a scenic byway called Natchez Trace which is similar to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were reunited with Lambeau who stayed with my future in-laws. I found out that he made friends with their cat (despite an earlier altercation), did Nascar laps in their backyard and slept with Kristopher's four year old niece. Lambeau has handled all the changes like a champ! We had dinner with Kristopher's family and paddleboarded with his niece for three hours.
Since we will be dry camping (no electric/water/sewer hookups), Kristopher had a temperature controlled start/stop function installed on the generator to conserve propane which is used to run multiple items including the air conditioner. When dry camping, this will allow us to only run the generator when the temperature gets above what the thermostat is set at inside. This means that during warm summer nights, the generator would only come on to cool the camper down and then automatically cut off. Otherwise, we would have to run the generator continuously and run down our propane supplies. Unfortunately, our first night dry camping we discovered that the thermostat was installed in reverse, meaning the generator cuts on when the camper gets above the thermostat setting. Luckily, it was a cool night in Alabama. My favorite engineer is already formulating a solution, but since it is 55 degrees in Maine at night, we are not too concerned.
We woke up on July 5th and headed to Mosheim, TN; it was important to get there by supper time because it's my mom's birthday. Kristopher drove the Denali hauling the fifth wheel, and Lambeau and I drove the cardboard box on wheels. Since we will be driving so much, it was important to me to ensure Lambeau is protected in the event of an accident. This was my first opportunity to test our Sleepypod Clickit Sport seatbelt. It has been independently tested and was the only one to actually protect your pet. As you can see, he was thrilled.
The drive from Florence to Tennessee is a little over five hours, but it took us almost seven because we ran into our first patch of rain. I lived in Florida for seven years, so I am used to the type of rain we experienced, but considering my whole life was packaged into two vehicles, a camper, and a tow dolly, we pulled over to wait it out. We hit traffic in Chattanooga then Knoxville. Lambeau was a vigilant copilot and did not sleep a wink the whole trip, but I caught him with his guard down.
We got to Tennessee just in time for dinner (my mom is the best cook ever) and managed to get almost six hours of sleep. As you can see from my weekly report, my Fitbit kept reminding me of how important a consistent sleep schedule is.
We quickly unloaded the moving truck (we are storing our furniture at my parents' house), and my mom and I dumped the piece of shit moving truck on someone else. This concluded the hardest part of our journey.
Since we arrived on Wednesday, July 5th, we have been visiting family and showing Kristopher where I grew up. We drove to Johnson City for a quick tour of my Alma Mater, East Tennessee State University. We have been troubleshooting minor issues on the camper, but with a general contractor (my dad) and an engineer, we have the camper hooked to electricity (shore power in the biz) in my parents' front yard.
We are going back to Florence tomorrow to visit his family until Sunday. On Monday, we officially begin a helluva honeymoon when we travel to Atlanta, Georgia to visit our BFF CJ.
Cheers,
Danielle
Day two consisted of driving through Kansas and Missouri. I had a long nap while Kristopher drove, we decided to tag team throughout the night instead of stopping for sleep. We got to Alabama at 8am and managed to sleep three hours. We had lunch at his parents' house and then departed for Jackson, MS which is over halfway to our next destination. We drove the Denali- quite the upgrade from our moving truck. We arrived in Jackson around 11pm, and after a whopping five hours of sleep, we drove the Ponchatoula, LA to pick up the fifth wheel.
After driving the roaring Penske truck with my car in tow for 2000 miles, hauling the fifth wheel with the GMC Denali was a piece of cake. We were not able to leave Berryland Campers until 4pm, so we had to find a spot to camp for the night. We thought we were going to have a rough time since it was the day before July 4th, but we found a KOA in Starkville, MS. We rolled into the campsite around 9:30, and despite the lengthy walk through we had at the RV dealership we were totally lost. We learned to never underestimate the kindness of strangers because the couple who ran the park stayed late to help us get the camper positioned correctly and hook up to power. I forgot how awesome Southerners are. After they left, we were lost again as we couldn't even get running water. We later learned that we had to turn on the water pump.
We woke up refreshed on the 4th of July and drove the remaining three hours to Florence, Alabama. We took a scenic byway called Natchez Trace which is similar to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were reunited with Lambeau who stayed with my future in-laws. I found out that he made friends with their cat (despite an earlier altercation), did Nascar laps in their backyard and slept with Kristopher's four year old niece. Lambeau has handled all the changes like a champ! We had dinner with Kristopher's family and paddleboarded with his niece for three hours.
Since we will be dry camping (no electric/water/sewer hookups), Kristopher had a temperature controlled start/stop function installed on the generator to conserve propane which is used to run multiple items including the air conditioner. When dry camping, this will allow us to only run the generator when the temperature gets above what the thermostat is set at inside. This means that during warm summer nights, the generator would only come on to cool the camper down and then automatically cut off. Otherwise, we would have to run the generator continuously and run down our propane supplies. Unfortunately, our first night dry camping we discovered that the thermostat was installed in reverse, meaning the generator cuts on when the camper gets above the thermostat setting. Luckily, it was a cool night in Alabama. My favorite engineer is already formulating a solution, but since it is 55 degrees in Maine at night, we are not too concerned.
We woke up on July 5th and headed to Mosheim, TN; it was important to get there by supper time because it's my mom's birthday. Kristopher drove the Denali hauling the fifth wheel, and Lambeau and I drove the cardboard box on wheels. Since we will be driving so much, it was important to me to ensure Lambeau is protected in the event of an accident. This was my first opportunity to test our Sleepypod Clickit Sport seatbelt. It has been independently tested and was the only one to actually protect your pet. As you can see, he was thrilled.
The drive from Florence to Tennessee is a little over five hours, but it took us almost seven because we ran into our first patch of rain. I lived in Florida for seven years, so I am used to the type of rain we experienced, but considering my whole life was packaged into two vehicles, a camper, and a tow dolly, we pulled over to wait it out. We hit traffic in Chattanooga then Knoxville. Lambeau was a vigilant copilot and did not sleep a wink the whole trip, but I caught him with his guard down.
We got to Tennessee just in time for dinner (my mom is the best cook ever) and managed to get almost six hours of sleep. As you can see from my weekly report, my Fitbit kept reminding me of how important a consistent sleep schedule is.
We quickly unloaded the moving truck (we are storing our furniture at my parents' house), and my mom and I dumped the piece of shit moving truck on someone else. This concluded the hardest part of our journey.
Since we arrived on Wednesday, July 5th, we have been visiting family and showing Kristopher where I grew up. We drove to Johnson City for a quick tour of my Alma Mater, East Tennessee State University. We have been troubleshooting minor issues on the camper, but with a general contractor (my dad) and an engineer, we have the camper hooked to electricity (shore power in the biz) in my parents' front yard.
We are going back to Florence tomorrow to visit his family until Sunday. On Monday, we officially begin a helluva honeymoon when we travel to Atlanta, Georgia to visit our BFF CJ.
Cheers,
Danielle
Glad ya made to mom's have a safe fun journey love ya Momma B Pullon
ReplyDeleteIt's been great having you ,Kristopher, and Lambeau. I just hate to see you leave tomorrow. But I know you are in good hands with him. He's a great guy.
ReplyDeleteI think you'll be expert RV'ers in no time flat. I really hope you enjoy your adventure so you can bore your grand dogs with stories when you're old and gray.
ReplyDelete