Our Nest on Wheels

• Don’t be discouraged by your first day. You may wonder if you’ve made a very big mistake (we did), but it’s too early to come to that conclusion. By Day 3 of our maiden voyage, we’re already finding that things are going more smoothly. 
• Make a departure checklist and an arrival checklist. There’s a ton to remember. We’ve heard that many veteran RVers still use their checklists. It but it helps list them in the order that you’ll do them, but it may take you a few trips to figure out what the best order is. We're still fine-tuning ours, but eventually we'll post them as examples.
• Getting diesel at a truck stop is not like getting gas at a gas station. Read the details here.
• Diesel foams. As one friend told us, “It’s kind of like pumping root beer.” When the pump shuts off, your tank isn’t really full. Wait a minute or two, and you’ll be able to top it off.
• You need an indoor rug to wipe your feet on. We thought we’d wait and see whether we needed one; we bought one on our second day. Granted, it had rained for our entire first day . . .

From Ohio to Michigan to Illinois

Day Five

Day Six

Day Seven

From Pennsylvania to Ohio

Today marks one month since we and set off on our maiden voyage in our new RV. So I figured it might be time to finish the story we started that week.

So, picking up where I left off . . .

Day Two

Day Four

 Here's the route:


Then back to Illinois.  This means driving the miserable 80/94 through northwest Indiana and the Chicago area.  We came through it just fine, as we now have 4 days of experience.  We even got ourselves weighed so we know that we are within our gross vehicle weight limits.
Now we're home.  And the work of selling, disposing, choosing, and packing begins again.

Another first: fueling our RV.

I fear I may never go camping again.

The view from our bedroom window

Is it possible to become spoiled in just two nights? 

Our first two nights on the road we spent at French Creek State Park in Pennsylvania. Wednesday night was cool and drizzly with occasional spells of fairly heavy rain. Here’s what I kept thinking about:
Tent camping: Find a couple of trees the right distance apart to hang your tarp, then try to move the picnic table (if it’s not chained in place) underneath the tarp and get it level enough to set up the camp stove on it. Prep, cook, and eat dinner under the tarp; avoid the water running off the edges of the tarp. Heat water on the stove and wash dishes. Pack up stove and food; haul cooler to the car and stow in trunk. Then decide whether to sit on the damp picnic bench until bedtime or crawl into the tent to stay warm and dry. At bedtime, visit campground bathroom and brush teeth. Crawl into tent, remembering to leave shoes outside but under the rainfly where they will stay dry and be available in case of a midnight visit to the bathroom. Change into pajamas while in a crouched or supine position and crawl into sleeping bag. In the morning, try to avoid the muddiest areas when you crawl out of the tent.

Of course, we had to get there first.

All this nature—and interesting people, too!

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

A journey in a new RV begins with a 2 ½-hour orientation.

• After 36 years of marriage, we still have to work on our communication. (This will come as no surprise to our children.) I thought Steve was loading the box of dishes to take along; he thought I was. The result is that, despite my aversion to disposable paper goods, we are dining with cloth napkins and . . . paper plates. And two of those styrofoamy coffee cups you get at takeout places.
• Cardboard will work as a cutting board if you happen to have forgotten that, too.
• We really do need a rug on our first trip. We’d decided not to buy one because we couldn’t really remember how much floor space there is by the door; we figured we’d wait till we got the rig and see whether we really needed one. We really needed one. Like, after about an hour. Tuesday was a rainy day, and what with going in and out to move stuff in (bedding, clothes, no dishes) and the various people who came in to fix and adjust things, the floor was pretty puddly in short order. Newbie tip: get a rug for inside the door. 
• Sleeping in the parking lot of an RV dealership isn’t as weird as you might think—but showering there, even in the privacy of your own motorhome, is just a little too creepy. 

Next post: Day 1—The Adventure Begins!