What Have You Learned, Dorothy?

An interesting mental exercise is to express all your dreams and hopes with only six words. The purpose of only using six words is to focus on what you most value in your life. Using only six words to express your life’s dreams is difficult. Try sometime when you get a chance. I came up with, “You are free, live life outdoors”

If I had to sum up this trip in one word, the word would be “Freedom”.

What I enjoyed most about the trip was not having an extended plan. I am so used to planning things out in such detail. I was very apprehensive leaving not knowing exactly where I was going or where I was going to stay. The best part of the trip ended up being not having a daily plan. Instead of having a destination for the day, I drove until I became tired, then I would find a place to stay. Sometimes I would see a sign for a campground while driving. Other times I would pull off the road and get out this huge 4 inch thick campground directory and look for a place to spend the evening. Knowing that I could always just stay in the RV in a parking lot made not reserving a site easier. I never did end up having to spend the night in a Wallmart or Cracker Barrel parking lot. Several mornings I did set off thinking my most likely parking spot would be a rest area or Wallmart parking lot. Each evening, I would get out the map, and decide where to head toward and which roads to use the next day. Rarely did I reserve a site for the next night. And several times, I liked where I was so much, that I decided to stay another day.

The RV was big enough for a comfortable extended tour. A larger coach would have been more comfortable, but I soon easily adapted to living in the 175 square foot space. While driving with the slide pulled in, the coach was tight and cramped. After a few days, whenever I extended the slideout, which added three feet of floor space of width along 6 feet of length, the coach actually started to seem large to me. I found you really don’t need much stuff or much space to live in.

The cats did great. I think they could live in the coach forever. They settled into a routine with their food, water, cat litter, and both found their favorite places to stay while we drove. While parked they also had their favorite places to hang out and loved looking out the windows.

Here are some thoughts from the trip.

• The smaller size RV was good for pulling into gas stations, MacDonalds, Cracker Barrel etc. Traveling in a larger RV would have been more difficult.
• Diesel, definitely glad I got a diesel rig. The average fuel mileage was 15 mpg. More importantly, was the power the diesel engine pulled the rig up the many steep hills. The entire trip was around 2750 miles. At 15 mpg, the trip took about 180 gallons of diesel fuel, costing about $400. Between fuel and campgrounds, the trip cost averaged about $50/day.
• Interstate driving is mostly boring, but also easy. There are lots of services for gas, food etc, I also found it quite depressing to see the same chains across America, MacDonalds, Dennys, Comfort Inn etc. I know exactly what Charles Kuralt meant when he said, “Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.”
• People are friendly on the road, Charles Kuralt also said, “There are a lot of people who are doing wonderful things, quietly, with no motive of greed, or hostility toward other people, or delusions of superiority.” And he also said, “The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.”
• I found not having a plan was very nice, giving me the freedom to just do what I felt like doing each day.
• After a few days, I quit worrying about appearances. Often I would go a day without a shower, and wear the same clothes multiple days. Some days I just washed my face, put on more deodorant, brushed my teeth and tousled up my hair with a little water. I also noticed the same of others on the road. While boondocking along the Blue Ridge Parkway, I talked to two girls from Colorado who were brushing their teeth literally out of the trunk of their car.
• I never worried too much about campground reservations, usually just pulled into a campground, sometimes would call ahead but mostly because I didn’t want to waste time driving to campground to find out it was full. Maybe because of the the time of year, but I never found a place that full, and I always knew I could boondock (no external electrical, water, or sewage connections)
• Boondockling over the memorial day holiday was interesting, amazing how you can have a self contained house with all the modern convenience we expect with no external connections for electricity, water, or sewage.
• Being able to bring cats was simply wonderful, otherwise I would have worried about them and become lonely. They are the main reason I bought the RV as I wanted the ability to travel with them.
• Hotel rooms are nice, but its relaxing and soothing to look out the windows in the RV and see a forest.
• I did get lonely, the trip would have been better with a kind woman. As the saying goes, it’s not what you do, but who you do it with it.
• SiriusXm Radio was really nice to have, music without interruption or commercials and not having to search constantly for radio stations that would fade in and out. The comedy channels were great. Several days I listened to all day to the comedy channels, often laughing out loud. When tired at the end of the day, I did find out listening to new age music station is not a good idea.
• I always seem to get a good night sleep in the small RV bed, not sure why, but I did.
• Sometimes I would wake up and have absolutely no idea where I was. Several minutes would pass before I could remember where I was. I felt like I was a member of the lost Indian tribe, called “Wherethefuckarewe.”
• The nostalgia was fine for a while, but then thoughts and emotions became overwhelming and mind numbing, and I had to get back to the future.
• You have to enjoy driving to enjoy having a RV.
• I learned a lot about how to use many of the features of the GPS. The GPS really was useful, but also found that sometimes I started to over rely on the GPS. There are actually signs on the roads that you can look at to see where to go.
• Losing something in a RV is hard. When you are ready to leave, you look around the campground site, and if nothing is lying around, then everything is most likely in the RV somewhere, you just might not know where the item is in the coach. Somethings I didn’t find until I got home, and thought, oh yea, that is where i put that.
• However after getting home, cleaning out the RV and cleaning the RV is quite a bit of work, much easier to leave a hotel room and let them clean. Then again, I read where many hotel staffs use the same rag to clean the entire room, so I don’t know how clean hotel rooms really are.
• 200 – 230 miles was a good distance to drive each day, 5-6 hours. Driving further than 230 miles was tiring. Driving a RV takes a lot more concentration than a car. There is a lot more anticipation of the conditions ahead, looking at traffic in front, behind, and on the sides of the rig. Changing lanes, merging onto limited access highways, and watching out for vehicles merging onto highways since I was almost always in the far right hand lane is more difficult in a RV than in a car. And most of all, looking out and staying away from all the really aggressive dangerous idiot drivers on the road was really important to stay safe. An RV does not accelerate or stop as quickly as a car, nor is the RV as nimble as an automobile. I did not have even one single close call except for the idiot in Spartansburg SC who cut me off in a parking lot making me jam on the brakes causing me to spill my coffee all over my new Rand McNally Atlas and carpeting in the cab.  I was simply astounded at how reckless people drove on the highways, 80+mph tailgating the car in front by just a few inches, changing lanes constantly. I averaged around 63-64 mph, so everyone was passing me. Most disturbing were the many huge tractor-trailer trucks driving the same aggressive way. The truckers pretty much leave you along in the far right lane, but if you are in the passing lane, or a center lane if there is one, the truckers will get with in inches of your bumper trying to force you to get out of there way. Those truckers and dangerous drivers are another reason to avoid the interstates if possible as Charles Kuralt suggested.
• Air conditioning is still a must have.
• I did not see a newspaper or turn on a TV for three weeks. All the same news happened whether I watched it or not. So who cares, turn off the news. Leave the TV and radio behind.
• If all you do all week is going to work and come home at night and watch TV, then on the weekends work on your home and yard, all you have really done is build yourself a really nice comfortable prison.
• You can’t roller skate in a buffalo herd, but you can be happy if you’ve a mind to.
• Take deep breaths.
• If there is something you really want to do in life, do it now, or make plans to do it. You never know when your time is up, and tomorrow is promised to no one.
• The future is now.
• Anything is possible if you prepare and plan well, and are very organized. Then while in the endeavor, focus only on that day and the immediate task before you. Then go with the flow.
• Always check the wind direction before peeing outdoors.
• Stay positive and see the all the possibilities, not the obstacles. This will allow you to achieve great endeavors in your life.
• If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough.
• I did not see any TV during the trip (okay, well twice I had the Pittsburgh Penguins/San Jose Sharks hockey game on as they played for the Stanley Cup, but really didn’t pay that much attention. Often there would be cable at campgrounds, but I would not even bother hooking up the cable, knowing that I would not turn on the TV anyways. Leave the TV and radio behind, don’t you wonder what well find.

Steppin Out – Joe Jackson

We
So tired of all the darkness in our lives
With no more angry words to say can come alive
Get into a car and drive
To the other side

We
Are young but getting old before our time
We’ll leave the T.V. and the radio behind
Don’t you wonder what we’ll find
Steppin’ out tonight?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBJUHvQPFTI