IT’S BEEN A WILD WEEK!!!

Here’s what’s been going on in our life for the past several days.
Monday, 9.21.09 – We closed on the house and after waiting on banking issues, be finally hit the road about 3:00 pm.  We drove to VA for the night.

Tuesday, 9.22.09 – We headed on down the road toward Florida and stopped in Daytona.

Enjoyed a great burger at Hooters...LOL  There is also a group of about 50 people who live in the area and have a Cleveland Browns Fan club.

Wednesday, 9.22.09 – Arrived at Cape Canaveral, FL about 9 a.m.  The motor home is a beauty!  (See the slideshow at the side.) The ownership transfer was a little hectic but was concluded without a hitch.  We stayed our first night in a Cape Canaveral city park called KELLY PARK….how weird is that!  We sold our house on Carrie’s birthday and stayed our first night is a park called Kelly!

       

Thursday, 9.23.09 – Arrived at Costal RV in Cape Canaveral at 11 a.m. to have a tow bar installed on our Jeep Liberty so we could tow it to Ohio instead of driving separately.  They did a great job and we were on the road about 3:15…..uh oh we broke the first or what would become many of the “full-timers” rules!  Stop about 3 p.m. NOT START!  We stopped at a Flying J truck stop in Palm Coast, FL about 4:30.  We fueled up ($195) and dumped the holding tank (Success! I didn’t get any poop on myself).  We waited about an hour for Jacksonville traffic to thin out (another error) and moved on.  We drove WAY TOO LATE and finally dragged into a Flying J truck stop after 8 p.m.  JEESH!  We woke up, filled the RV and had it weighed (27,800 pounds).  Hit the road shortly after 9:30 a.m.  It turned out to be a pretty good day.  We suffered through many small problems with the motor home.  But figured most of them out without causing any damage.  I didn’t know I had to let the engine idle for 5 minutes before shutting down..GOSH!  Arrived in Charlotte, NC about 4:30 p.m. (that’s a better stopping time…shooting for 3 p.m.) and parked for the night at a trailer park.  We are the only RV “traveler” among many run down permanent trailers.  But everyone was friendly and everything worked out.  Tomorrow we head for our first MOUNTAINS….YIKES!  Shooting for Beckley,WV or Charleston, WV.

Paul hooks up for the first time. I could him say…Now where does this go?

  
Saturday, 9.25.09 – Another interesting day!  First and foremost, when we came to our first mountain hill, we had a “CHECK ENGINE” light come on with a “LOW COOLANT LEVEL” indicated on the dash monitor.  What now?  We stopped at the first Flying J truck stop we came to, but there was no one to help.  We looked at the diesel engine but their is no apparent place to add coolant.  Marsha suggests we buy coolant to have as we venture on down the road.  We decide to stop at the West Virginia welcome center and call our emergency roadside assistance company.  They tell us to add coolant….duh!  Marsha “hits the owner’s manuals” and dashes out in the rain to look at the rear-engine diesel.  She finds the filler!  WOW!  What a women….LOL  But, no funnel.  Improvise!  We use a coffee hcup and pour in a few ounces at a time until the indicator says….Good!  Off we go with no further warnings.  Then it’s only fog, rain, and mountain grades to deal with….Jeesh!  We arrive safely at our destination of Ripley, WVA for a night of “parking lot camping” at Walmart.  There’s no way we’re doing to unhook the car in the rain and then rehookup.  We’ll relax and do computer stuff! Are we having fun yet? YEP!!!

Sunday, 9.27.09 – With the rain continuing throughout the night and the next morning, we took off for our final leg of our trip to Ohio.  Within three hours we were sitting in Gulliver’s Travel Truck Stop on Faircrest Ave. in Canton South.  After re-fueling we parked the motor home in storage and drove over to dad’s.  We’ll be here two or three weeks as we pack-up and prepare for a trip towards Texas.

FUEL SUMMARY:  For our first trip we experience 8 miles-per-gallon on our first fill-up,  11 miles-per-gallon on the second tank of fuel, and in the mountains about 6 miles-per-gallon. Not to bad for towing a car through the mountains.