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.