The Good, The Bad, and The Not So Pretty

Kicking Back

Looking back on our first week tells us that we have a lot of learning to do.

The week started out so well. We left at our leisure on Monday morning, had a nice drive to Shenandoah River State Park, and found the campground to be lovely. We pulled in with enough time for me to exercise and Kean to sit outside and play guitar.

The next day we drove north to Harpers Ferry WV. The first part of the day was spent in the trees. We were definitely the oldest folks in the Adventure Park.

I learned that I am not as young as I think I am in my head. Got through it with a bunch of bruises and majorly sore muscles but it really was a great workout and a lot of fun. Of course, Kean was a natural. He has much more upper body strength and no fear of heights.

The last part of the day was spent on the river white water rafting. The river was low so more paddling then anything else. Still fun though.

Wednesday we set out for our campground in PA. Traffic was horrific with construction everywhere and quite a bit of I-81 was just 2 lanes. We made it to the campground with much difficulty. Our RV GPS sucks! Lesson #1 – We plan the night before where the route goes and have the mapquest directions on the IPAD. We then found the campground to be very TIGHT. We are big and navigating to the sight was a disaster. We ended up scraping the end cap off the driver’s side slide topper and scraping about a foot of the top of the motorhome. Not pretty. Lesson #2 – Drive the Jeep to the camp site to make sure that we know where we are going and that the big ole RV can make it there safely. Kean spent the next day making a temporary fix to the slide topper until we can get that repaired. Not the end of the world but certainly brought us back down to earth.

Friday we safely got out of the tight campground and found a space to hook up the Jeep. Out bad luck continued as we had no lights from the motorhome connection to the back of the Jeep. I spent that day following behind the RV driving the Jeep. We arrived to the campground that was basically a big parking lot. After the day before, we could live with that for a night. After a lot of testing and a couple of trips for parts, Kean got the lights working again and I was back in the RV for the trip.

Saturday was a little better drive up to NH. Campground again was tight but we had an escort to the site and took it really slow.

Sunday drive to Maine was beautiful until we needed diesel. Not many truck stops on I-95 north in Maine. We got off on an exit that we thought had a truck stop and found ourselves on a small country road. Tried to turn the beast of a motorhome and couldn’t make the turn. The Jeep was sitting perpendicular to the road. You never saw two people move so fast unhooking the Jeep. Luckily no cars came though but that was really hairy. Since we were two exits from our nightly stop, I just drove the Jeep the rest of the way. Lesson #3 – Plan out where the truck stops are.

We are now planted for a week here in Ellsworth ME looking forward to some fun. Kean is out putting the bikes on the back of the Jeep and we are headed to Acadia National Park. A week of driving this big monster of an RV is stressful. But we are here safe and sound. A little battered and bruised but hopefully a little smarter too.