Feels So Good

Feels so good to be back east after traveling out west for two months. Over the last week, we headed east from Grand Teton National Park, through Wyoming, and into the Black Hills in South Dakota. Then I drove across the enormous state of South Dakota. I’m currently in southern Minnesota.

Making my way back east always feels good to me. While I am out west I feel so far away from home. Sometimes I feel like I am in a space capsule and have to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere to get home. Once I am back east I know getting home is now just a straight shot south. I feel as if I have re-entered the earth’s atmosphere and now home is within sight. Right now I am in the exact same campground, and in the exact same campsite as I was last year when I came back from out west. I am looking out my window and seeing hundreds of acres of soybeans again. Except for this year, instead of heading south on I-35S, I am going to keep going east on I-90E and into Wisconsin.

My traveling companions drove up to North Dakota from the Black Hills in South Dakota to collect another state on their states traveled to sticker map. I decided to drive straight through South Dakota instead to save a couple of driving days. I am wearing down a bit. We will meet again in Wisconsin, just north of Madison. Okay, I am not wearing down just a little bit. I am wearing down a lot. This trip wore me out.

Traveling by RV sounds like living the dream, but this lifestyle is a lot of work. This life is not all sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows. While on the road for months at a time, you are not on vacation. You just take your life on the road. You still do many of the things you do at home such as paying bills, grocery shopping, etc., but you add extra tasks with the RV and traveling.

I love the song below, especially when the song was used in The Umbrella Academy for the fight scene between Hazel and Cha Cha. I couldn’t find a video of that scene.

Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows – Lesley Gore

Besides all the driving, there is effort setting up and breaking down camp, refueling in truck stops, finding places to stay, making my way into and out of campgrounds, and navigating the route between stops. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. I do feel very fortunate to be able to travel like this. I am just tired right now. There are ups and downs on the road just like there are at home.

I’m exhausted and need a rest. My favorite part of this trip had been going to bed. The hardest part is getting up in the morning. The trip is a lot like the long bicycle tours that I used to take. I felt the same way about going to bed and getting up on those trips too. I know I need to relax more on these journeys. Relaxing more and worrying less was my number one lesson learned from last year. I even wrote that lesson down on a piece of paper last year. I found the piece of paper that I had written all the lessons learned in the RV earlier this year when I took the RV in for the annual service back in January.

There is a low-level amount of background stress while traveling for months at a time. You have to be on guard about your surroundings. You have to make sure you stay alert while driving, making the correct turns, refueling, getting in and out of truck stops and campgrounds. The heightened level of awareness is worth the freedom of being on the road. Seeing new parts of the country every day is amazing. The experience is just not like the brochures and RV dealerships make it out to be. You don’t just turn a key and drive off into the sunset. These trips take a lot of planning and preparation. The planning and preparation for this trip started back in November of last year.

We drove over 7,000 miles so far, from the Gulf Coast of Florida to the Pacific Coast of California, up to Seattle, then back across Idaho to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park. We went through 18 states: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Minnesota.

My traveling friends and I will meet in Wisconsin tomorrow. Then we will drive up through the northern part of the state and up into the UP of Michigan. Next we will head south in Michigan and make our way to Duck Lake in Michigan for 3 weeks. We will spend about a month in Michigan.

The hardest part of the driving is over now. The distances we drive in Wisconsin and Michigan will be very short. And the driving distance required to get back to Florida is not that great. The west is so vast and the distances between places are immense.

The rig, the motorcycle, and I are all a little battered and bruised.

The motorhome has a cracked windshield (in three different spots) from rocks hitting it. One crack keeps growing up on the right side of the glass. The rear left taillight support bracket is cracked and the taillight is held in place with duct tape of course. The generator exhaust bracket is bent from driving up an incline that was too steep, the diesel-fired boiler exhaust pipe is bent and loose, and the rear of the coach sucked up a lot of fine dirt. I’m glad I had all the filters, including air, oil, water, hydraulic, and pneumatic replaced before the trip. The coach is working 100% still. Bumps and bruises are to be expected. And oh, one of the seat benches of the dinette collapsed. That is where Mountain Lioness sits a lot. I’m not saying Mountain Lioness is a fat cat, but it is where she sits, just saying. She is a good eater. Of course, there seems to be cat hair everywhere.

The motorcycle has a cracked front faring from where I ran into the house in Seattle. The handlebars might be slightly askew too. And the motorcycle is also covered in the same fine dirt that got into the engine compartment. Oh yea, the bicycle on the back is also covered in the same dirt and grime. The bicycle may or may not work. The bike has yet to be ridden.

I was battered and bruised. My face and left leg were bloodied up from the encounter of smashing into the house on the motorcycle. Then I came down with a bad ear infection. I am fully recovered now. And I look like Einstein again, my hair has not been cut since we left.

Seeing the animals at Bear Country might have been the highlight of the trip so far. This is ironic since we saw animals in the wild. The bobcats were beautiful. I was surprised by how big they were.

The Timber Wolf pup or gray wolf was beautiful. Timber Wolves are the largest members of the canine species.

Seeing the cubs and pups close up was great. We saw lots of animals in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park in their natural habitat. But watching the baby bears and foxes play was amazing.

Videos of bear cubs playing.

 

 

The cats are doing great. Robles rides in my lap a lot. Mountain Lioness rides under the reclining chair most of the time now. She can see out from under that chair the entire time to see what is going on in the front of the rig while we are driving. For me to see her requires me to get down on the floor on my knees with a flashlight to make sure she is under the recliner and is much harder. Rule number one of RV traveling is that I never leave a location without seeing the eyes of both cats. Rule number two is, well, there is no rule number two. One rule is enough, I know they are in the RV, but I still check, actually three times, The motorhome actually belongs to the cats, I am just their driver.

Robles usually joins me in the driver’s area of the RV for the drive each day.

Robles often jumps in my lap while I am driving and is calm most of the time. She doesn’t squirm or wiggle around much. Robles has become quite good at sitting in my lap while driving.

Robles is checking out the steering wheel and controls, but she can’t see over the dash to drive.

Chuck Mangione – Feels So Good, Live Performance