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

Back to Winfield, with a stop on the way for one more new experience: weighing the rig. More on that in a later post. A successful trip through Chicagoland traffic, and a safe arrival at home. At least, home for now.

Our current and future homes

From Pennsylvania to Ohio

Day Two

• Travel a maximum of 200 miles a day;
• Arrive at your campsite by 2 p.m.;
• Stay at least two nights.

We figured we'd follow those guidelines at least for our first stay, and believe me, after the white-knuckle drive to get to our first campsite, we were happy to leave the RV where it was for a day and head off in our toad to do some sightseeing in Lancaster County. 

We were really expecting to enjoy Intercourse, but we were both rather disappointed; it's pretty commercialized and crowded. So we took the obligatory photos then drove the back roads and enjoyed looking at farms and covered bridges.

I was totally charmed by the clotheslines that extend from high pole to the ground with the day's laundry waving in the breeze like somewhat monochromatic pennants. I know it's not good manners to photograph Amish people, but I don't know whether that extends to their property as well, so I decided to err on the side of respect and didn't take any pictures, but I did find this one online (and in the public domain); notice the pulley on the pole.

Day Three

We completely disregarded "the rule of two" and drove a whole lot more than 200 miles and arrived at Day Three's site a whole lot later than 2 p.m. Steve did all the driving, and he was pretty tired—but on the bright side, we discovered that the kind of horrific driving experience of Day One had more to do with road condition than with what it's like to drive an RV. Although we did have four long, narrow tunnels to drive through. (And when I say "we," I mean Steve.) 

Day Four

This is not the Wayne County Public Library; it is the Susan Taylor private library.

Steve and Sue's sister joined us for dinner at Mrs. Yoder's Kitchen, where the hat rack is filled two deep with Amish men's black hats and the salad bar includes both pickled eggs (red) and mustard eggs (yellow). I recommend it. Arrive hungry.

Coming next: Maiden Voyage—Days 5 through 7

From Ohio to Michigan to Illinois