Laura and Sasha's Excellent Adventure - The Next Adventure Begins

Well, we are back at it again, this time on a road trip. We are headed to Idaho, and then to Washington, then to Oregon, then to California, then to possibly Nevada. We are doing the dream, coming out here to experience life on the road in a new way, with a Toyhauler rather than with a truck camper and trailer.

Having the truck camper and trailer was fun, but it started to become a hassle when we living in it. It became too small if we had to stay in one place for an extended piece of time.  And, let's face it, the TC was not meant to be our home, it was going to be our vacation home. But when we went on this journey, the journey of living frugally, of voluntary simplicity, of working half a year on one person's salary while the other would volunteer, it was all good, but confining in the sense that we could not truly live outside as well as inside.

These past couple of months have showed us that while we love each other very much, too much togetherness in such a small space is not a good thing. When the bugs were bad or the rain, humidity, heat, got so overwhelming you could just scream, well, it is not good to be too close to your partner, or you will scream in his ear. And I know he does not like that.

We are averaging right now about 200 to 450 miles a day. 

October 14th (168 miles Buxton, NC to Tarboro, NC): First Day of traveling - took us about 8 hours to get everything done to move out, but we did get to a Wal-Mart in Tarboro North Carolina. We left at 4 pm, got water and ice from the maintenance building and said good-bye to a few more people.

One of the last rangers to leave before us: Will James, our neighbor at Cape Hatteras. All ready to go.

October 15th (439 miles Tarboro, NC to west side of Knoxville, TN): Still in NC, but we had a couple of things to do: got CO₂ groceries, diesel, etc. I unfortunately had a slight melt-down today. The Delorme Street Atlas USA 2010 version was not working the way I was accustomed to using, like a standard Windows program, it is funky in a weird sort of way. So anyway, it was after we had eaten breakfast, and I was supposed to figure out where the Machine Welding company was, to get us there from where we were. While I was able to get it onto the map, we had the voice portion going on the Delorme going as well. So when it started saying turn HERE, then RECALCULATING, then turn there, and recalculating, well, I first turned off the sound . It started then flipping out telling us to turn when we should not be turning. I could not control the zoom levels either, trying to zoom out and then Delorme would zoom in so bad I could see houses instead of interstates. It was just plan awful. So I started punching (with one finger) the left click mouse. Sasha told me to calm down and stop punching the computer.

Tennessee River as we are going over it. I could not take the sign picture, you would not be able to see anything anyway.

Basically, we were able to get to the Machine Welding place without the Delorme, and Sasha logical sense of where we were at, and while he got the CO₂ I calmed down enough that I could drive. Sasha then worked on the Delorme, got it figured out enough so that we could get to the next place - a place where they sell wheel cleaner - I managed to drive about 75 miles before I got nervous about driving in a town. It is not that I can't its just I did not want to do it this time around. I think though that my anxiety was contagious, because Sasha wanted to get to this place before 5 pm when they closed and Delorme messed us up again, sending us to a residential area rather than the industrial park. Thankfully that was just across a street, but still we had to pull around, and that is where we switched driving. We finally got to the place - it was 4:45 pm, but we got there, they got a sale and life was good. Sasha had figured out the Delorme enough that we planned out our next stop.

But THEN...we had a problem while driving - while we were going through Great Smoky Mountain National Park, the road was uneven, with the road higher than the shoulder. It was drizzling and there were lots of trucks...We went over the white line just a little bit and it was as though we went off a Cliff - not really - but  STILL! Sasha handled it very admirably but then we noticed the ABS light came on, so I then had to search for Ford dealerships that can serve Ford Trucks, and have high enough bays that we would not have to take the camper off of the truck. The truck still drove fine, so we kept going until we found a truck stop. We took a break and when Sasha started up the truck again, NO ABS light came on! So a lot of worry and searching for nothing!

We arrived at our second Walmart for the second night without a problem. This one was on the west side of Knoxville, TN. We found a place to stay, there must have been at least six other rigs, plus quite a few trucks and one woman in her car. She was obviously living out of her car. It was very sad and reminded me of the 1990s, recession then too, with lots of homeless people and some people living out of their cars back then. I guess to others this recession might remind them of the Great Depression, but you really do not have to look back that far into the past to see when people fell upon hard times. It was just sad to see it.

We got everything ready for the night, ate dinner kind of late then I stayed up just a little reading (did not want to LOOK at the computer at ALL - it had given me a massive headache. Now, I very very rarely get headaches or pain at all, and very very rarely to I take anything for the pain. While I carry around Tylenol in my backpack for the occasional ache, I did not need it once this season, but many of my co-workers needed Tylenol at one point or another. So it was good to have it.

Anyway, I took two Tylenols for the night, my headache was that BAD. I do not know what it is, maybe the stress of being on the road, the stress of a new program, or maybe the stress of the unknown, I'm not sure but I definitely was stressed. Thing is - this is supposed to be FUN, Goddammit! But it is not when you think the gods are conspiring against you.

Sasha figured out a new route after dinner. We are going to need to go to Utah to get one of the HappiJacks that was giving us so much problems when we were leaving Cape Hatteras. It was the jack that, because we were slightly tilted forward, the AC condensation water kept that jack wet all the time. We believe it shorted the systems and we had to manually bring up the jack when we left Hatteras. So We will be stopping by HappiJack to get a new jack, and stop by Bo's new digs as well.

October 16th (542 miles west side of Knoxville, TN to west side of Saint Charles, MO) : As we are now in Knoxville, TN Walmart, we only went about 10 miles down the road to a Flying J. They were doing construction around the dump station and because of that, it was hard to get in at the right angle and our hose was not that long. We worked it out and got in when there was very few people getting propane or diesel.

All of a sudden, this Class A started coming towards us. Now, the propane is in front of the dump station, and there is very little mobility around it. Now of course, there are tons of rigs, mostly Class A with cars or car trailers - which means they have a hard time backing up or can't at all.

I just watched one couple try to back up a Class A with a car trailer, did not work very well and so now, there is only one lane available to get diesel, because they are blocking the other lane. Another RV pulled up next to us - trying to get into that other lane that was block - Oh, My, God - it was a Fuzion pulled by a Ford F250! It is amazing what RVers do sometimes. This one RV, Class A, is pulling a van, did not pull up enough out of the way so that the Fuzion could actually get the diesel! They RV with the van went in to the Flying J to get coffee or some such nonsense...now he is gone. Looks like the RV in front of us, (now that we are in line for diesel) is a Flying J newbie, did not realize you needed a Flying J card to get diesel in these lanes.

We finally left the Flying J, whatever head start we had had, left, and it was again time for the Crack of Noon Club to get back on the road. Oh, one other thing...That Flying J did have a mailbox - which was a great because I had a few postcards to mail. I did not do a single postcard while we were living in paradise, and as soon as we left, I sent out four...I guess I don't do postcards, I have too much to say.

We stopped for lunch at a McDonalds - I am not too much of a fan - but they are clean and the food is generic wherever you are, but we will not be doing this very often.

We keep going between Walmarts, Flying Js and lots of road. When things look a little better, I will post pictures. But here is one when we were close to the Great Smoky Mountains:

Went west of St. Charles, 542 miles done, I did about 150 of those miles. Nice straight roads, with a bit of rain.

October 17th (457.14 miles west side of St Charles, MO to Seward, NE): All I can say is that Delorme software system is going to kill me or make me kill someone else. It wigged out in one major crucial area including Kansas City, KS/MO and north of Kansas City. Not only did Delorme do the wigging out on its own, but I was stupid enough go a a different way than what it was telling us, and it kept recalculating. We also did stops that we had not put into Delorme and that made it wig out some more. But in the end, we got diesel where we needed, found Flying Js and Walmarts when needed, and had several nice meals that I or Sasha made.

Sasha got a plug-in inverter so that he could charge up his laptop - can you believe it, the Mac computers do not have a cigarette lighter power adapter. This will also work with our wifi router, so I suppose if we take a break, we could hook up our Verizon card to the router and both of us be on the computer at the same time. Just not while driving.

I also found an Aldi grocery store, finally was able to pick up some extra dried milk and other stuff. Prices were pretty good too. So happy to be out of the expensive area of NC, but interestingly, although the prices were good, the sales taxes are pretty high. I'll put them down on October expenses page later, but anywhere from 2% to 5% for food! That is pretty high for sales tax for FOOD! and between 5% for beer to almost 7.975% for wine! Yikes! Nebraska is not that cheap after all.

We were also listening to an interesting book on iPod - Chill Factor by Sandra Brown, I will post the book in a while, really good read.  Very cool at night, had to turn on the heater.

I have some other pictures here, just wanted to put them down so you can see them:

Picture	Explanation
	Missouri Sky
	Missouri River
	Missouri River Full View

October 18th Sunday (Seward, NE to Cheyenne WY 423.65):  168/222 for the book. Today, we walked out of the camper to very cold wind blowing about 25 miles per hour, maybe more, and the temp around 40 F. I drove in the morning, Sasha drove in the afternoon. We are listening to this long book, Chill Factor, it is starting to get interesting, 

I am doing a bit more driving during this trip than I have before, getting used to the rig and the driving. It was interesting today, as we had a south wind that made driving harder than normal, but relatively smooth roads with little traffic.

This afternoon, the weather was decidedly warmer - 82 F and sunny - and us with turtlenecks and long pants. Did not know what was going on, but that is the way it goes, at least the wind died down.

We went to Cabela's to get Sasha a couple of pairs of pants. Went to the bargain bin area - got a couple of pants, each for $12.25! Really good deal. One pair is for hiking, another as a nicer pair. Both fit and were sizes smaller than what he had before, so both of us were happy about that.

We went through another time zone again, so now were are Mountain time zone.

Found another Walmart, this time in Cheyenne, WY, hopefully not too much problem with this one as it states No Overnight Parking.

Picture	Explanation
	Open up this picture and you can see to the left of the car, a wind sock. These were all over the roads here in Nebraska. I guess because it is so windy.
	Still do not have any idea what this was, but it was over the interstate. It was near Kearny, Nebraska. Sasha thought it was something for Cabela's but we believe it is something for the gateway to the west.
	Cabela's has its own water tower. This Cabela's was a little smaller than what we are used to, but I think this is an older Cabela's. Sasha got two pairs of pants here, good sale.

October 19th Monday (Cheyenne, WY - Evanston WY: 210 miles) From Walmart to Taco John's to Walmart

We worried for nothing as there were a few more RVs that parked at the Walmart overnight. There was also a converted van - OK I did not take a picture of it, but I swear it must have been a guy with a very large German Sheppard dog (saw the dog afterwards!) and commando type gear. His rig was black, not shiny black but as though he painted it himself. Trouble is, something like that sticks out like a sore thumb more than a regular RV. If he is thinking to be discreet, he is sorely mistaken.

We went to Taco John's, picked up some burritos, and then headed on out. We got as far as Laramie when it started to rain and the wind was blowing again. We would not get to the Flying J but instead have to find somewhere else to get diesel. We found it in Laramie - Diamond Shamrock - sounds very lucky and the price was pretty good. It smells like cows here - understandable as this is cow country. But I also got some amazing pictures as we were going through and between Cheyenne and Laramie. Lots of wind farms and oil rigs. 

Beautiful country, Stopped at Rawlins, WY to take on water and dump other water.  Windy as you would not believe!

We stopped on around mile marker 188, there was a truck pull off area where we had lunch. No pictures but we finished the book Chill Factor. WOW was it good, got everything-action, mystery, sex, drama, rugged men and sexy women. I would strongly recommend it.

Unfortunately, I would not recommend DeLorme. I finally gave up on the route Sasha had made at the beginning of the Next Excellent Adventure. I made the executive decision to create my own route from where we were to Post Falls, with a few stops in between. It had become too hard otherwise. A shame really, but that was it. It is probably easier to use Google Maps than Delorme. Now if only Google would use satellites. 

It is funny, we are being passed by a train. I will have a YouTube video of it later on, it is still going on must be huge, still can't see the end of it.

Ok, this road officially sucks. Sorry to all those that love Wyoming, but the road is so unbelievably bumpy  Sasha is having to go about 55 because it is so bumpy.

When I started driving around 4 pm, the road was less bumpy, I just had to deal with the hills - going up and down. We pulled into a Flying J to diesel up, then talked to Bo, decided to not drive into Utah that night but go back one exit to the Walmart there. It was getting cold, windy and rainy again, so why risk it? Not only that, but both of us were tired. Sasha said he thinks that we are having to get used to the altitude, that is why I was having a headache.

So we had a relaxing night, Sasha made a great pasta with veggies, bacon, and egg sauce, and we got to bed sort of early. 

Picture	Explanation
	Our Rig at Cheyenne, WY Walmart, another rig to the right, real close to ours. As you can see, we have to jackknife it to get into the back. Works well, but we can't wait to get to Idaho and do the swap with Norm. We love our rig but a 5th wheel would be great in these situations as you just have to get in, no jackknifing needed.
	Overnight Parking Prohibited, but looks like people do park-As I stated we were a little nervous, but in the end, nothing bad happened.
	Walmart Distribution Center, figured I would give them a plug as we have been staying at one each night.
	Wind Turbines along Wyoming area. You might need to click on the picture to see it better.
	It is a little hard to see this, but there are several mule deer along the side of the road. Imagine, all of the places that they could be, they decided to be close to the road.
	While this is slightly blurry, it is kind of interesting to see both technologies, wind turbines and oil drilling. Hey, if it can be done, why not do it?
	Ridge of Turbines
	Turbines close up
	Rocks of Wyoming
	More rocks of Wyoming, coming close to Utah....

October 20th Tuesday, Evanston, WY to Liberty, UT: Got up a little late - I had actually woke up in the middle of the night, and stayed up for a little while. Slight insomnia. I played some games until the battery was almost dead on the computer and then was able to get back to sleep.

Devil's Slide picture taken looks like spines really good pictures in Utah, totally different from Wyoming. We kept on thinking, how in the world did the Mormons manage to get through here.

We arrived at Ogden and Liberty Utah around 2 pm. It took a little while to get parked, but the house is pretty cool, looks almost octagonal in shape.

	Utah! I was able to take a good picture, took a couple of tries.
	They were cleaning the railroad tracks,
	Red Rocks of Utah!
	These four pictures were at a rest stop one of the first in Utah. Really nice visitor center with lots of great information and these really cool rocks.
	Devil's Slide on the side of the road. What was neat was that there was a pull off so that we could take pictures.
	Can't see the tops as we are now in the clouds
	Heading up to Liberty, Utah
	Curvy Road on the way to Liberty, UT this is Pineview Reservoir.
	Huntsville, UT

Please check out Utah, for more adventures.