RV, The Movie, Part 2?

OK so this blog isn’t necessarily about my next steps in finding my “future” path.  It is more of an example, a funny one, of how life can throw twists and turns, detours, roadblocks, and snowstorms into the path that you are on while going through life!  This story is just too unbelievable not to share so grab a beverage and a snack, pull up a comfy chair, and enjoy my misadventures! 

Wednesday, Oct.  5^th:

We left Indianapolis for Beaver Creek, CO on our maiden voyage in our new RV to collect our belongings from our ski condo (we were selling it).  Kevin, my husband, took the RV to work in the afternoon to expedite our departure after I picked the kids up from school.  On the way to his office, while he was driving on the interstate, the refrigerator door flew open and bottles of water flew out everywhere.  That was RV Orientation Lesson #1…we needed to find a way to secure the refrigerator doors while we were on the road.  After I arrived with Eliana and Christian, Kevin got the Suburban hooked up behind the bus.  We looked a little like a train going down the road, but we hit the road…so very slowly.  By this time it was rush hour in Indianapolis and it took us over an hour to get out of Carmel and the north side of Indianapolis.   We should’ve known better!  When we finally made it to I-70, which we would drive from Indiana all the way out to Colorado, we were greeted with lots of construction and Kevin had to practice his “driving the RV in narrowed lanes” for long distances, Lesson #2. 

We needed to stop for gas in Illinois so we pulled in to a truck stop for our first fuel up.  Kevin was answering all of the many questions/prompts that the pump was asking him before it would dispense his diesel.  He did well answering the first 10 questions, but then came to a question he didn’t know how to answer.  The pump asked him if he wanted “Tractor” diesel, “Reefer” diesel, or both. Huh?  He wasn’t’ driving a tractor and he wasn’t smoking any reefer, so how is a man supposed to know how to answer that one?  He had to put his tail between his legs, go to the trucker filling up next to him, and ask him which kind we needed.  It was the Tractor diesel.  Lesson #3 learned. 

We drove all the way to Columbia, Missouri the first day and found ourselves a nice Cracker Barrel where we could park overnight.  We took the sage advice of fellow RV travelers and brought along the book, “the Next Exit”.  It is a MUST for long-distance traveling, especially with an RV.  It allows us to look down the road for truck stops, rest areas, dumping stations, and most importantly, Wal-Mart or Cracker Barrel parking lots (these 2 businesses are “friendly” to letting RV’s park in their parking lots overnight).  Day #1 ends without too much drama.

Thursday, Oct. 6^th:

Kevin awoke bright and early….before the sun….and started up the RV to head out.  Of course, with the engine being right next to the bed, I was also up bright and early!  No worries though, travelling in the coach allowed me to make coffee for us and warm up some pumpkin muffins for breakfast…yummy!  I don’t know if I’ll be able to go back to travelling long distances in a car again, I think to myself.  But stay tuned…that attitude may have some qualifications attached to it by the end of the trip.  This was set up to be a long day of driving so I wanted to get the TV and DVD player up and working in the back for the kids.  We decided to start with watching movies first since it seemed like it should be the simplest thing to do since the TV and DVD player were already installed.  Unfortunately, the kids and I couldn’t figure out how to get the movie to play on the TV!  We gave up briefly, but the competitive side of me wouldn’t surrender to an old DVD/VCR player….we don’t even watch VHS tapes any more for Pete’s sake!  I finally decided to try the fancy AMX remote control that controls the audio/video/blinds/lights in the entire coach.  Ta Da!  That worked to run the TV and DVD player!  We were in business.  I don’t know if my kids could ever drive across town without a movie playing, much less across several states!  Lesson #4 learned.  When the kids tired of movies, I decided to activate the DirecTV service.  I crossed my fingers as I inserted the new card and called to activate the service.  I have to be honest; I wasn’t very confidant that we would get satellite service out in the middle of Kansas.  At first we could see the DirecTV logo on the screen, but no channels.  Just my luck, I thought, it won’t work.  But again, I was determined not to be outsmarted by an electronic box so I began searching the drawers of the coach for the remote control.  I found it!  It was like a golden ticket.  Once I started using that remote to work the TV, we had channels galore.  WaLa, the kids had more options for entertainment!  Lesson #5 learned. 

About this time we needed to make another fuel stop.  We got out our trusty “the Next Exit” book and found an Oasis in the middle of nowhere, Kansas.  It even had palm trees…who knew they had the right soil to grow palm trees in Kansas!  Kevin happily nestled in among the semi trucks to the diesel pumps to fill up his tank.  He was excited to fill up from both sides of the coach.  While he was busy with the pumping, Eliana, Christian, and I ventured over to a playground at the Oasis (nice gas station, huh?).  They had fun playing, but we all were just about blown over by the high winds.  There were 40-50 mph winds that day, and with not much to break the wind along the interstate in Kansas, the coach was getting buffeted around pretty well.  We had to actively “walk” in order not to get pushed over walking around outside!  It was good exercise just walking against the wind.  After a short play break I took the kids inside to get treats for the road.  While we were in there, we saw Kevin walk in looking very unhappy.  He didn’t say a word to us; he just headed straight in to the restroom.  What had happened was that while he was pumping the gas and washing the windshield, he was keeping an eye on both pumps.  All of a sudden, he saw diesel fuel spewing from the side of the coach!  He runs to the first pump and shuts it off, but the other pump on the other side was still pumping.  It continued to spray fuel all over!  Even after he removed the nozzles from the tank and shut the pumps off, gas was still flowing.  He ran inside and had the attendant shut down the pump.  There were probably 20-30 gallons of diesel fuel on the ground by then.  The side of the coach was covered with it and he was covered with it.  Needless to say, he wasn’t too happy and relaxed at that Oasis!  Lesson #6….don’t fill up from both sides of the coach at the same time. 

So off we head down the road toward Colorado, only 50 miles to go.  We hadn’t gotten very far down the road when we heard a very loud banging on the driver’s side of the coach.  We pulled over right away, but couldn’t find anything that looked wrong.  We set out again, and this time when we heard the noise again, we figured out that it was the awnings banging against the side of the bus.  Even though the awnings were locked in place, the winds were so unbelievably strong that they were able to lift the awnings away from the bus enough to bang them around.  The only way to make it stop was to slow down to about 45 mph.  Lesson #7.  We all decided that only in Kansas, the home of “The Wizard of Oz”, would you have to try to drive in winds this strong.  We felt like Dorothy and Toto getting blown around out there!  We were on the lookout for that mean old Wicked Witch of the West and her flying monkeys…perfect flying weather for them!  We slowly made our way down the interstate about 35 miles when suddenly we see lots of flashing lights and cars being shuttled off of the interstate.  We first thought it was an accident.  But we quickly learned that the interstate had been closed due to the high winds!  I have been affected by interstates closed for snow or ice before, but never wind…this was definitely a first!  We pulled in to a Wal-Mart parking lot, along with about 20 big rigs and other RVs and cars, to wait it out.  We checked the internet for weather and road conditions in Kansas and Colorado.  There were high wind advisories in effect for the part of Kansas we were in as well as for the Eastern part of Colorado.  The interstate in Colorado was open, but the 15 miles we had to go through in Kansas to get there were closed.  So close, but yet so far away!  We could almost smell the Colorado air, but we just couldn’t get there.  So, we did what anyone would do in this situation, we did a little Wal-Mart shopping…as much shopping as Kevin wants to do in a day, which is a very little.  We waited.  And we waited.  And the wind blew and blew and blew.  Now it was dinnertime so Eliana and I ventured out into the wind to search for a decent restaurant to eat at just to get out of the bus.  Nothing but fast food and a questionable Chinese restaurant were within walking distance of us (the last thing we needed was bad Chinese food sickness!).  So we just decided to return to Wal-Mart for a Rotisserie chicken and sides.  It was our first sit down meal in the RV and it was good!  And the best part was that now, after 4 hours of sitting in the Wal-Mart parking lot, the interstate was finally opened again!  We were on the road lickety split!  We even came away with a souvenir from our stay in Goodland, Kansas…a tumbleweed that we chased down in the Wal-Mart parking lot.  Maybe it will make a nice little Christmas tree at home!  Situation # 8 dealt with and completed, check!  After being blown around for most of the day we were all getting pretty tired.  We decided to stop for the night just on the mountainside of Denver and get some sleep before heading into the mountains.  We found a trusty Wal-Mart (courtesy of our handy dandy book!) and settled in for some well deserved rest.

Friday, October 7^th:

We awoke to a crisp, cool, and clear Colorado morning.  It was beautiful!  Perfect for our maiden voyage into the mountains with the RV.  We decided that we didn’t want to tow the Suburban behind the bus up and down those steep grades so we unhooked the Burb.  I drove the Suburban behind the coach, watching and praying that all would go well for Kevin and the kids in there.  I was totally helpless to do anything from behind them.  Kevin handled the mountain grades like a pro!  We made it to Beaver Creek in good time and all in one piece.  We decided that we would stop at the rest area close by to dump our tanks and refill the water tank.  Should be quick and easy, right?  Not so fast!  Kevin was bent down to hook the hose up to the bus to empty the black (i.e. poop) tank and the gray (sink water) tank.  When he opened the cover to the bottom of the bus connection, it was like a scene right out of the movie “RV”.  Matter from the black tank sprayed all over his face, shirt, hands, pants, etc.  It was so disgusting!  We decided that it must have happened because of the pressure built up at altitude.  The problem that arose from this “explosion” was that the cover blew the little knob off under the bus that you attach the hose to in order to achieve a good seal when emptying the tanks.  That meant that Kevin had to hold the hose in place.  Every once in a while fluid would leak out around the edge and run down his arm.  Again, gross!  Meanwhile, we were also trying to fill the water tank.  It seemed like it was going well, but then it stopped filling before it was full.  Luckily, Kevin was smart and videotaped his RV orientation with the iPad so we had a video to watch to see what the problem was.  Alas, in this situation, the video was no help…Kristi had to step in to see that the valve was closed.  She is earning her stripes!  With all of the Situation # 9 drama behind us, we headed to the condo for showers! 

Once we were all clean, we started the process of packing up our personal belongings from our Beaver Creek home, aka the brown house.  We didn’t get too far when we found ourselves all in tears.  Kevin and I felt like we were making a terrible mistake by selling the condo.  Each and every thing that we were taking with us and leaving behind for the new owners had a story and memories attached to it.  We were reminded how it felt to sell our Brown County, Indiana property (which we had also loved very much) and it felt like we were ripping the band-aid off of that unhealed wound all over again.  We stopped packing right then and left to go up to the village for some lunch.  We needed to think and have a little physical space from the condo to do it.  We actually called our realtor, Amy, and told her that we changed our minds and didn’t want to sell.  We wanted to know if there was a way to get out of the contract.  She was surprised and had us call a real estate attorney.  After Kevin spoke to him and found out the implications of backing out on the sale, we knew that we were stuck.  We would be inviting a lawsuit if we pulled out now.  At that point we knew that the choice was out of our hands and we returned to, tearfully, finish packing.  Once we had the RV and the Suburban all loaded up, we went out for dinner.  We were so exhausted physically and emotionally that we all couldn’t wait to get back to the condo to sleep.  Situation #10 is put to rest.  Tomorrow would be here bright and early and we needed to head back to Indiana.

……..To Be Continued with the “Wild and Crazy” Journey back home to Indiana!