We had rented a storage unit to store the RV and worked out a schedule to drive the RV at least once a month, both for practice and to see what needed to be fixed.  I want to say right now that something is ALWAYS needing to be fixed on an RV, even when it sits in storage.  We bought walkie-talkies to make the task of backing up, turning and squeezing into small spaces easier, even though John had a hard time remembering to press the switch before talking and quite often I only caught bits and pieces of his directions.  Side note…our first trip in the RV, driving it home from New Jersey, gave us confirmation that it was best for me to park and John to guide and if we want to stay harmoniously living in this box, that’s the way it must be.

On one outing, as I had just had foot surgery, John did all the outside prep and I hopped on one foot to the RV and sat supervising the job.  Of course I had no idea what he was doing but I watched just in case he needed anything.  When we returned to put it in storage, I as the driver and John as the guide, began backing the RV into the space.  I followed his directions to turn the wheel tight and step on the gas.  When the 17 ton bus didn’t move, I reported back to John that I was stepping on the gas but it wasn’t moving.  John repeated for me to step on the gas harder so I did.  Nothing happened.  When John walked to the front of the bus, he noticed that I had dug the front wheels into the gravel all the way down to the sand base.  I’m not sure how I was supposed to know that the wheels had dug in as I was sitting in the driver’s seat, but the fact remained  that they were and we weren’t going to get them out.  John took a shovel and started digging but felt light headed so he came inside to rest.  When he sat down, his face was very white.  He got out again and started to dig but we couldn’t rock the bus out so we called the tow service.  The service did pull us out rather quickly and told us that many RV owners get in situations much worse than ours.  One of their regular customers lives by a ditch and has slid down into it several times.  We both smiled and secretly prayed we would not do anything that dumb.  Two days later, after going to the doctor because he still was feeling  dizzy, John was sent directly to the hospital and had blockage bad enough to warrant a stint.  That is when John decided to retire at 65 instead of 70.  Now was the time to jump in the RV and travel the USA before something else caused us to give up this adventure.

For our first trip, we left our pups Millie and KatieBug at home to be cared for by our daughter and set off for a few days in Rockport, TX for our anniversary.  The drive was comfortable and that afternoon we reached the first of what was to be an assortment of nice, not-so-nice and horrid RV parks.  The park was one of the nice ones and the weather was beautiful.  We spent the weekend relaxing and walking on the beach.  I caught the first glimpse of porpoise when we walked out on the ocean on a long pier and was just as excited to see those big fish swim by as the two young children standing a short distance away.  We were both squealing and pointing but I’m guessing I looked far stranger than those kids.  When it was time to return to The Woodlands, John got sick and the drive back home fell into my hands.  The weather had turned cold and stormy and a strong wind blew the RV back and forth over the lanes as I drove.  I was not at all happy with the responsibility of driving in inclement weather.  I made John promise me that when we retired we would never drive in inclement weather, never at night and never over 4 hours on the road.  Turned out to be a  promise that he was not able to keep on several of our future trips and you can bet that I let him know about his promise each time it was broken.

We searched and finally found what was to be our retirement home on wheels, a 2009  Tiffin Allegro Bus with four slides at a very reasonable price.  We wanted to make sure we could both live in it comfortably.  We were to find out later exactly why it was priced so reasonably.  It was located in New Jersey and, if we decided to take the plunge, the plan was to fly up and drive it back.  Neither of us stopped to consider that we had, between the two of us, only about 40 minutes total of driving time in such a large vehicle.  We made the offer, the seller accepted and we flew down to pick it up and drive it home.  We arrived at night but John had secured a RV sales and service company to completely check it out so we felt confident that it was the beautiful clean and completely checked out unit that was promised.  We spent several hours with the owners learning how to operate things and went to bed that night with our heads spinning wondering if we had made a mistake or if this was the beginning of a wonderful adventure.

The next day we began our drive home, carefully maneuvering our home on wheels down the winding roads.  When we turned onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the constant pounding of the wheels and shaking of our new home was a bit disturbing until we realized that it wasn’t our RV…it was the horrible condition of the Turnpike.  After exiting, the road turned smooth and the ride became the comfortable ride we had expected.  Our plan was to drive it to the manufacturer in Red Bay Alabama and have them check it out… just in case.  As it turned out, a very good idea.  On arrival we parked between the rows and rows of other Tiffin RV’s and waited our turn at our full hook up space.  The next morning we got the news that the roof rails (the curved area of the roof that connects the sides to the top of the RV) needed replacing, one of the explicit items I had John tell the service guy to check.

Not being one to accept stress gracefully, I burst into tears and walked into the service room to await the news of what else was wrong and when it could be fixed.  As luck would have it, there were several large dogs available in the room and since we had left our Millie and KatieBug at home, I was in desperate need of dogs to hug.  Thankfully, up came a really large BMD (family joke…we thought BMD stood for Big Mean Dog because they are rather ominous looking.  It actually stands for Burmese Mountain Dog.)  He immediately laid his huge furry head on my lap and I began petting him and feeling better.  His owner apologized for the intrusion but I thanked him and said a big furry head to pet was exactly what I needed. Our dog Millie is a Certified Therapy Dog and a Reading Education Assistance Dog, now retired, and a warm feeling came over me realizing the 9 years of voluntary service Millie gave to the elderly and special needs children probably made them feel the way I felt at this moment as I sat relaxing and petting this huge gentle fuzzy dog.

Learning that the problem was to be solved but that we had to come back in 6 months, we left Red Bay for our “sticks and bricks” (a term full-timers use to describe the homes that are not mobile).  Most of the ride home was uneventful and we gratefully thank Wal-Mart for their kindness in letting big rigs stop and spend the night (aka boon docking) in their well-lit patrolled parking lots.  As a rule, we always ask the manager before staying and, as it is sort of an unwritten rule of etiquette, we never stay more than overnight.

Several years ago, John and I tossed around the possibility of traveling the country in an RV.  In my version of the dream, I saw a large RV and a small house somewhere in the TX hills or within a few hours of our grown children, a place to keep our treasures while we were on the road.  John’s dream was slightly different…a small RV and no house until we traveled around and picked a state we both loved.  With a little give and take by both of us, and a few alligator tears shed by me, we decided upon a large motorhome and a storage unit in Conroe, TX.  It would house anything that we could not bear to part with, sell or donate to our favorite resale shops and our local church craft group. And so, the fall down the rabbit hole began.