Wirelesstrips.com

We left the house on schedule at noon. We then stopped by the RV place to pick up the tow vehicle. The guy who was supposed to show Richard how to use the new gizmo was out to lunch. Richard read the manual while we waited (I was organizing things inside), and figured it out for himself. To be safe, we waited for the employee to return just to make sure it was done correctly. He got back, checked Richard’s handiwork, and declared us ready to hit the road.

We buckled up the boys and pulled out onto the highway. We can see the tow vehicle from the camera on the back of the RV and…something was definitely wrong. Instead of both sides of the tow bar gizmo being the same distance from the RV, one was shorter than the other. The car was more to the right than to the left. Worse, when we hit a bump, we could feel the pull as it clicked in and out of the gizmo. The car was sliding backward and forward. We pulled into a truck stop and Richard took a look. I looked in the rearview mirror and grimaced as I saw him pulling his trusty duct tape from the RV storage area. I panicked. Was he duct taping the tow gizmo to the tow vehicle!?!?

He climbed back on board. I really didn’t understand much of what he said but it sounded like a lever on the tow bar doohickey was a bit loose, which let the thingamabob slide in and out while the other whatchamacallit didn’t. He duct taped the level down and that did the trick. He was right! Being paranoid, I watched the tow vehicle without blinking for what seemed like several miles and everything was just fine. The windshield wipers, which were just replaced, were making an odd clicking sound, and we smelled something “funny” for a few miles but those things are par for the course. It wouldn’t be vacation if something didn’t break, click or smell funny every single day! Max worked on his school lessons and Mason watched a DVD. We were officially on vacation!

That’s when it started raining REALLY hard. We were under a flood watch and high wind warnings and we’d expected bad weather but this was worse than we thought it would be. I could tell Richard was white-knuckling it for several miles. We’d planned to drive all the way to Connecticut but we decided to exit in Freeport, Maine – only a few hundred miles short of our original destination. It was just too dangerous to drive an RV with winds that high.

I called and reserved a hotel room and we had to race through the parking lot in the deluge. Max stepped in a huge puddle and had to change his pants. We checked in and and Richard went back out in the rain to unhook the tow vehicle. He picked us up by the front door of the hotel and we drove to dinner at Flat Bread Pizza Company. We love that place! Only problem was, it as POURING and we had to run through the rain for about four blocks. When we were almost there, Mason decided he wanted to stay in the pouring rain and look at the Portland waterfront. “Look, Mommy! Boats!!!” I grabbed him, and kept on going. Dinner was DELICIOUS!!

When we got back to our hotel, the guy at the front desk held up a flashlight, informing us the electricity was out. The generator only lit the hallways, lobby and pool area, but not the rooms. Richard went back out into the rain to grab our emergency lamp (which I’d packed at the last moment…just in case) and I took the boys to the room. Between the flashlight and the lamp, it was pretty cozy. The boys watched movies on their iTouches. (Yes, they both have their own. You can’t put a price on peace in the RV.)

I tried to get some work done but I only had 43 minutes of battery left on my laptop. The wifi was running…but it died a few minutes later. I shut down my computer. The “flashlight” application on my iPhone gave me plenty of light to take a shower. At 8:00 p.m., we decided to go to bed so we could get up early. Got everybody’s teeth brushed and got them tucked in. I climbed under the covers…and then the lights came back on. I got up and turned them off and told the boys we were staying in bed. No point in going through the bedtime routine all over again later! Max couldn’t sleep, and kept me up until about midnight. Then, Mason woke up around 4:00 a.m. Needless to say, my brain is a bit fuzzy today.

We just hit the road this morning and, guess what? IT’S SNOWING! AARRRGHHH!!!

We’re going to try to make it to Lancaster, Pennsylvania today. I hope we do because I LOVE Amish restaurants with all those yummy homemade goodies!

~~~~~

FUNNY LETTER FROM ONE OF OUR AUTHORS

Richard has the right idea. The modern handyman’s toolbox has two essentials: duct tape and WD-40.

If it moves and it shouldn’t, use the duct tape.

If it doesn’t move and it should, use the WD-40.

Charles Orton

Buckhorn Bob’s Big Book of Clean Jokes

Buckhorn Bob’s Big Book of Not-So-Clean Jokes

Graveyard Tales: Stories Not to Be Read at Bedtime

(NOTE: That last one’s great for scaring your kids on camping trips! Heh… – Angela)

PREVIOUS POSTS FROM THIS TRIP:

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.