So what does it take to get on the road for an extended period of time, you might wonder? Well that depends...
My sister and her family hit the road as full-time RV travelers back in the fall,
and they pretty much chunked everything in their camper and figured it
out when they arrived at their first location for her new traveling
nurse position (they also bought a brand new truck and camper for their
new lifestyle).
Our family does things a little differently.
As one of Daniel's long-time friends quipped we are in the process of, "finishing up the Daniel Moore 1,000 point vehicle inspection and service." If you know Daniel, you know.
Two-and-a-half
years ago when we were getting ready to leave for a month-long trip to
Utah, I about lost my mind waiting for Daniel to make sure our vehicles
were safe enough to travel (you can read about it here).
A
good friend of ours talked me off the ledge when he told me that it was
important for Daniel to make sure our family was safe on the trip and
that Daniel would forever regret it if he skipped a step and something
happened to us on the road. It was good advice that has continue to help me chill out
when I want to be more spontaneous.
Also,
we drive older vehicles, so there is more involved in making sure we are
truly ready to go than if we had a brand new vehicle.
About
a month prior to our 2018 we had just bought an SUV and camper for that
epic adventure, and since then we have upgraded to a newer camper
(we've had about 1.5 years) and a newer truck (we've owned for less than
a month), which means a lot of feelings of de-ja-vu from 2018.
Instead
of replacing our axles on our camper, this time around we replaced the wheels
and suspension and Daniel packed the bearings. So thankful to friends,
who once again, jumped in to help us.
We
also decided to get a couch for this big trip that fit the space in our
slideout better. We found our favorite couch at IKEA (modular stuff is
great for fitting into campers) and we proceeded to build a base for it
to raise it higher off the ground and give us more storage underneath.
For the truck, if there are fluids in it, Daniel has replaced them. We also discovered that our truck (purchased in Texas) did not have working heat. Daniel didn't notice it when he bought it since it was before the 2021 snowmageddon and still warm when he drove home. Anyways, that meant days and hours flushing the cooling system, among other things to get it to heat again. I am happy to say we have heat.
This
new truck is a flatbed, so Daniel found the perfect lockable toolbox to
mount to it (it is big enough to hold our generator, inflatable
kayaks, and sleds). Today we realized our new camper tires are taller so
our trailer hitch needed to be raised. We did this in the pouring rain (when I was hoping to be wrapping up things and leaving).
C'est la vie.
These are just a few of the things he has been trying to
accomplish in the last month with help from the rest of us. Needless
to say, and perhaps not surprisingly, we have been delayed in our
departure time for our trip. Our original plan had been to leave March
10. Hah! Glad we didn't stick with that leave date.
In
all honesty, Daniel's work schedule has also been insane and he has been
squeezing in all this extra work on the camper and truck in every moment of spare time he has had so that our family can safely take this
much-needed vacation (which also happens to be a trip across America). We do have some deadlines
looming: mainly that we need to be in southern Oregon on March 24 to
meet up with my siblings. It looks like the coming days of travel may be
a whirlwind, but we are up for it! It has been a team effort to be
sure.
