The Long Road Home

When I was 16-years old, a friend let me use his motorcycle. I had never ridden a motorcycle before, but how difficult could it be, I reasoned. After all, I was a young daredevil who loved speed, so I figured riding a motorcycle should be second nature to me.

As I sped down the road, I kept a white knuckle grip on the handle bars. I was going so fast, I was afraid to look at the speedometer or glance in the rearview mirror. After several minutes at this death-defying speed, I finally got the guts up to take my eyes off the road to look in the mirror and at the speedometer. To my surprise, there were four cars stacked up behind me right on my tail. To my amazement, I was only going 20 mph.

It was kind of the same thing when I climbed behind the wheel of the RV for the first time. Driving down California 101, I felt like I was going 100 mph. It was difficult handling the big beast on the hills and curves, but the speedometer said I was only going 40 mph in a 55 mph zone. This was going to take some getting used to.

Just a few miles out of Willits, CA I turned onto CA 20 and drove through the California lake country. It was beautiful, but I was more concerned with the many hills and curves. Even so, little by little I started to get used to driving the RV.

By the time I got to Sacramento and turned onto I-80, I was feeling pretty comfortable driving our new home. The speed limit kicked up to 70 mph and I was able to keep up with traffic.

In eastern California, I-80 swings north of Lake Tahoe and heads into the Virginia Mountains in Western Nevada. The road becomes curvy and goes up and down the mountains. The RV isn’t fond of climbing hills. It struggles a bit and it takes a lot of oomph just to maintain 45-50 mph. Even so, the Big Rolling Turd (as in the movie “RV”) didn’t miss a beat. It slowed down a bit, but continued to run strong.

As I drove through Reno, NV (The Biggest Little Town in America), I thought about stopping to see if I could get my RV money back on the blackjack table. The thought was fleeting and I drove on.

East of Reno, I-80 goes through the Nightingale Mountains, the Trinity Range, the Humboldt Range, and then into Winnemucca, NV. I pulled over into a Flying J Truck Plaza in Winnemucca to spend the night. As I climbed out of the driver’s seat, I realized that it was cold and I didn’t know how to run the heater. After I laid in bed shivering for a while, I got up and put on an extra sweatshirt and a pair of socks. The extra clothes helped for a while, but around 2:30 or 3:00 am I decided it was time to learn how to use the furnace.

When I headed back out the next morning, the time & temperature sign said it was 24 degrees. No wonder I was cold. At least I got some sleep. The day was bright and sunny, and I was ready to keep heading east.

When Nevada gave way to Utah, the landscape turned from scrub brush to salt flats. As I drove along, I noticed that people had stopped along the road to leave messages in the soft salt. “MB + TT.” “I Love You Marie.” “Go Demons.” “We Miss You Tim.”

It started snowing in Salt Lake City and got heavier as I drove east past Park City. The snow wasn’t sticking on the road and it just added to the beauty of the Utah landscape.

In Wyoming I had my first mishap of the trip. A construction truck drove past me and dropped a rock off of its trailer and right into my windshield. The RV has two windshields (one on each side split down the middle) and each windshield costs about $1,800. Thankfully, Kim made sure that we had insurance before we bought the RV, so our only money out of pocket will be our $100 deductible.

As I drove through the Rocky Mountains the snow got heavier and the road became icy between Laramie and Cheyenne. By the time I reached Cheyenne, I was ready to get some sleep. I pulled into Little America in Cheyenne, but there was nowhere to park. Next, I tried Flying J, but they were already full. Across the street was a McDonalds with a semi truck parking lot. I got one of the last available spaces.

Before going to bed, I figured out how to turn on both furnaces. It was so easy I don’t know why I couldn’t figure it out the night before. With the RV nice and warm, I slept until about 5:00 the next morning.

I had great weather the rest of the way home. Near Des Moines I smelled something burning and eventually found out that the shade on one of the lights had fallen, turning on the light and burning the shade as it rested against the light bulb.

On I-90 in Minnesota, the road was so rough that it loosened up the left outside rearview mirror. For the last 1 ½ hours of my trip, I couldn’t tell if anyone was driving on my left. Thankfully, it didn’t cause any problems.

Overall, I had a great trip. The RV ran great and after a shaky start, I became very comfortable driving it.

Now that I’m home, there is a ton of work to do. We are going to have to replace the carpet in the RV and have the seats, ceiling, walls and window treatments cleaned. We also still have a lot of stuff to move out of the house and we need to take care of other things like getting a P.O. Box, getting new cell phones, etc. We’re supposed to leave in just 25 days. Time is really flying.