Last post, if you read it was all about our motorhome remodel. Today we are talking about what it was like for us to make the transition from living in a traditional home to living in our 34' Fleetwood Bounder. Our remodel finished days before we needed to leave for California. We were loading our things and getting everything prepared, we only finished a few hours before the wheels would be rolling. On the day we woke up to leave we did not have the weather in our favor. While we slept the Oklahoma sky decided to drop freezing rain and the below 32 degree temperatures made sure it stuck to the road. We had decided to leave 2 hours behind our planned time, in order to let some of the ice melt.
We stepped up into Roo and prepared to head off on the first leg of our journey. Family waved goodbye as our almost 70' rig rolled out of the driveway and down the road. We drove very cautiously through the neighbor and side streets to avoid any slippage or danger. Once on the highway we could relax a little and take in what we were really doing. Headed to California for 3 months without a real plan on where we would go next. We planned to split our trip into 3 days, and spending New Years on the road. Our first day we wanted to make it 12 hours and stop in New Mexico, which was going to be more difficult than we anticipated. Our RV was fully loaded with 90% off Tierney & I's posessions which meant if we went over 63 miles per hour, Roo got a little shaky. Our first lesson was learned and with cruise set at 62, we were in the slow lane with 13 hours to go.
We pulled into an RV park on New Years Eve with the first leg of our journey behind us. We chose to stay at an RV park our first night because it was well below freezing in New Mexico and we needed to hook up to electricity. We use our electric fireplace as our main source of heat, to avoid tapping into our propaine supply, which our built in furnace runs on. We also did not want to run the generator all night since it pulls gas from the main tank we did not know how much it would use through the night. We were still learning the ins and outs of our new home. Once we had plugged in and turned on the heaters we unhooked our Jeep and headed off to get some Cheesecake Factory to celebrate the New Year. We were exhausted after a long day of driving so after eating and celebrating New Years at about 8pm, we headed to bed for another long drive ahead to Flagstaff, Arizona.
We woke up before sunrise ready for another long day on the road. After letting the dogs play at the dog park we loaded everyone up and set off. Today we were headed up the Flagstaff Mountain and at nearly 20,000 lbs it took our miles per gallon down from 8 to 5. It also quickly became apparent that our front dash heater could not keep up with how cold the motorhome was getting as we climbed in altitude. After some quick googling and a phone call home, we discovered it was safe to run our main propane heater while driving, which saved our toes and made the drive infinitely more comfortable. After hours on the road we made it up to Flagstaff with more gas stations stops than we had hoped for. We decided to keep going since there was still sunlight and we hoped for a shorter drive on our final day. Finally, exhausted from driving a second full day in a row we pulled over at a Love's and setup for the night along the rows of 18 wheelers.
The final day of our journey arrived, we grabbed a cup of Loves coffee and were back on the road with only 6 hours to go. Little did we know it would be the most stressful leg of the trip. Headed down the mountains into California we ran into a lot of traffic. The congestion added to the stress of worrying we'd overheat the breaks on the steep descent. As we inched along and down shifted to avoid cooking the breaks we slowly ate away at our last couple hundred miles. We pulled off for a late breakfast at the only place we could fit, a McDonalds with semi-truck parking. As we pulled in some unseen potholes shook the entire RV and knocked our fridge loose tipping it over and dumping everything out. We quickly parked and got everything cleaned up, but not before the dogs got some left over snacks that made it onto the floor. I had to get out the power tools and re bolt the base plate holding our fridge in place. Finally, with the fridge sorted and re secured we headed into McDonalds. As we stood there ready to order, the menu screen switched from breakfast to lunch and a woman finally came to the register and gave us more bad news, they would not serve us breakfast as we were one minute too late.
Disappointed but not defeated we searched for a new breakfast place. Luckily, we found a Dunkin Donuts with street parking for our 70' rig. With breakfast food warming our bellies we set back off. Arriving at our space for the next 3 months in Grand Terrace, California while the sun was still up, we unhooked the jeep and maneuvered into place. Finally, we could hook up our power, get water running and set up our bathroom to finally be of use. Unfortunately, hooking up our sewer meant discovering that the people we bought it from had not drained it in quite a while. The trick to cleaning a clogged black take is pouring a few pots of nearly boiling water down there. After finally getting that disgusting issue sorted out we could finally remount the TV's, put out our home decor and push our slide out.
We were now home. With a view of mountains out our kitchen window and the ocean an hour away we could relax and smile at each other, we had actually made this happen. Doing amazing things and following dreams you have is great, but doing those things with someone you love more than yourself makes it much more rewarding.
