And so begins our journey, deep into the United States. We left Alberta behind two days ago, loaded up the old diesel pusher and fought our way through scattered snow storms, ferocious head winds and mini-vans.
We got on the tail end of the old-timers brigade, frantically driving south. Every motor home we see is from Alberta, the average age of the drivers being at leat 73. Imagine their surprise when we roll on by them, as they peer out their windows at us, hunched over the steering wheel, and see us young punks waving like morons at them.
We have discovered that there are oldtimers (who have always wanted a motor home, but don’t because they have not retired yet), who seem to stalk us. Darryn got attacked by a 70 (at least) year old the other day, who would, been given the chance, cheerfully left his job at the Flying J, and come along with us. I had to peel this old guy off of D, cuz else we woulda never gotten back on the road, he was so full of questions. Good times.
We are the only ones so far who aren’t towing a vehicle. Maybe note to self…don’t RV w/o secondary set of wheels…so far it’s been fine b/c D has a knack for pulling into small parking lots, and for the most part, when we are stopping, it’s for fuel or Walmart. I don’t think it will be too much fun if we have to go off the beaten path. So hence, we are planning this trip around truck stops and Walmarts.
Yesterday we experienced the RV life at its best–filling up with diesel, propane, and water, and dumping our tanks. So imagine this–72 Gallons diesel-Check (don’t forget the Auxillary. tank), 100 Gallons of water-Check, 24 Gallons of propane- Check, Empty the sewage tanks-Eww!
We figured out our mileage; the harsh conditions played a huge part, I’m sure (extreme wind and mountainous terrain). We got 6.8mpg (I was a little sad about that, so I figured it out in Canadian mpg, but when you’re dealing with #’s that low, it only gave us another mpg) *sigh* So we are hoping for some better mileage, once we get to some flat roads, and perhaps no wind. At least 10mpg…
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Jax-Smack! You’re too funny. Maybe you should forget doing the music thing and write travel books. You do have a flair for writing.
November 24th, 2008 at 12:06 am
Hola, good times – I remember tooling around in that beast… We are really looking forward to seeing you guys down in sunny NC again. (although it is 37 degrees now, only 6 degrees warmer than Edmonton according to our Wii Weather guide)
November 24th, 2008 at 3:17 am
The g-man says: “if U wuz a reeeel sister you’d be hooking up your Tom-Tom to your wireless recorder and we could all enjoy the view of your travels as yer hitting the road” {less traveled. } Oh wait, maybe that was Robert Frost who dreamed of the Road Not Taken. We miss y’all!
November 24th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Hello! Good to hear you guys made it through the ferocious winds. We’re praying for you guys as you travel. Where are you headed? Down here or to TX? I’m just curious if we might look out our window in a few days and see you guys grinning out of your “big, huge bus” (as Alex would say) at us.
Well, I should go. Alex is handing me a book and telling me “I need read book.”
Love you guys! Bye!