Departure day, Monday, May 7th, 2018
First 15 minutes on the highway = “What the f*ck was that?!!” In case you guys didn’t know, starting a cross country journey in a 18 year old #RV isn’t the greatest of ideas. Especially when you decide to do it with 13 year old dry rotted tires. Excited for the new beginnings, Amanda and I began our adventure. We fought through the issues with renovations, figured nothing could stop us.
Up until one of our tires treads just decided to bust off and leave us with a bare ticking time bomb.
Fast forward maybe half an hour after trying to figure out how to deal with this after somehow managing to play Frogger to the “safety” zone which includes just a lot of truckers blaring their horn so you can feel like even more of an asshole.
Anyway, as I said, 30 minutes after the “holy shit” moment, we travel at 10mph to a truck tire shop only 5 minutes away from our incident, which may I add was only an even clearer sign in my mind that this was supposed to happen when and where it happened.
… Hour and a half later… we leave with 6 new tires and drive what felt like 3 days to West Virginia. Which to me is literally a magical wonderland of make believe roads at 90 degree inclines. A real good test for our lovely Crystal. Despite the broken off gas cap which we replaced properly of course with quite a few layers of Gorilla Duct tape, and the busted wheel well that leads under our bench inside the “living room” after our fun tire experience, she did pretty decently going up and down hills.
Oh did I mention older RV’s are basically cardboard boxes and if a tree sneezed it sends us 5ft to sway-land? Driving the RV is exciting to say the least. If you like hot air balloons and roller coasters an RV is a perfect hybrid for those daring enough. The added benefit is going up any remote hill is the equivalent of the long buildup going up a roller coaster because we hit a top speed of 30mph (lowest to date is 10mph) and then usually get to top out at about 70 going down the hills. Doesn’t seem as exciting as some other roller coasters but still the same thrill of “holy shit I might die.”
Despite the stresses of actually getting too our destination, we also have the pleasure of rolling through some real bad storms and discovering that our home on wheels (despite 4 layers of flex seal) still leaks. The true adventure of it all is discovering how much more money and frustration our colorful little home will incur.
This trip so far has also taught me that education in any form is expensive, and boy am I being schooled.
HOWEVER, ignoring all my negativity towards just about everything so far, it’s still pretty cool. It’s hard to adjust, and yes it’s been difficult and will continue to be difficult, but somewhere deep down I know once we get this on lockdown then the fun will ensue. And we’re both hanging on tight and won’t give up. Just like owning any home I’m sure there will be many more ‘adventures’ and a lot more lessons to be learned. For now, both Amanda and I will continue to be as positive as possible(however, my positivity comes in sarcasm.)
Stay tuned for more exciting news on our whereabouts and our endeavors.
Oh also, we’ll be in the Colorado Tiny House Festival in June, from the 22nd-24th. So yeah, some pretty cool things happening. Don’t miss out!
