CRAIGSLIST AD: “Come take everything! We’re moving and don’t want to bring it with us!”
That picture of above this post? That was practically our driveway ten years ago. We sat there, watching a hoard of strangers drive up, get out, and take all our stuff. People apparently REALLY like free stuff. And buying everything new on other end of our cross-country move was a better deal for us than hanging onto our college hand-me-downs. We ended up leaving the midwest with a few suitcases full of essentials and a huge weight off our chests.
And here we were–a decade later–moving everything again. Except now we had more kids, more stuff, and less energy. Ten-year-old later-me was too tired to plan anything but to call a moving truck. So a packed 10 x 19 storage unit it was.
We downsized from 1800 square feet of living space to about 350. So I was a bit taken aback to see how BIG our new home was. Like bigger-than-a-city-bus big. Thankfully, David was driving.
They let people like us drive this??
Neither of us have ever owned an RV before. So rather than crashing it a mile away from the dealership, we looked for help. This is where Patrick from The RV Academy came in. A licensed RV inspector, technician, and educator, Patrick helped us inspect, pick up, drive, and camp. We took his “RV Bootcamp” and learned a ton. Plus David getting driving lessons made me feel better. Not really. Maybe a little.
That first night alone felt like taking home a baby from the hospital. Like–they trust me to know how to take care of this thing? So many buttons, switches, and things to remember! And that was without even driving it anywhere. Thankfully, all went well as we continued to learn from Patrick about making travel and packing checklists, maintenance, and repair.
Spirits ran high as we began to pack up our last day of Bootcamp. We were down to the end of our checklist: bring in the slides. Ahead of schedule, we had hour to spare for checkout time! We pushed the button to bring the first one in. Nothing. Not even a hint of sound or movement. Thus we were introduced to what Patrick called “the Purple Monkey,” or at least I think that’s what he called it. I was too stressed to remember. Essentially, we made friends with the idea of complete uncertainty and lack of control of our situation. I never thought on my first trip out that I would be opening up the circuit panel under my bed, talking to the dealership mechanic over the phone, trying to troubleshoot it. I felt like I was defusing a bomb and trying not to cut the wrong wire…
…Four hours of phone calls, Patrick help, and stress later, we finally found out we had a bad alternator. On a brand new coach. With forty miles on it. (The epitome of RV life!) It would not be the last time, and it steeled us for obstacles to come. But RV life isn’t all broken alternators and late checkouts. The honeymoon period was to come.
Leave a Reply