Back in June, we went for a Sunday drive up Provo Canyon in Utah.  I was enjoying the scenery when my wife Kelsey said "What do you thing about buying an RV and traveling around the country for a year?"

Less than a month later, our 2003 Winnebago Adventurer "Windy" filled the driveway.  

It sat there for almost 2 months.  Our original intention was to leave sometime in December.  I wanted to harvest the garden, our kids wanted to have birthdays with friends, and nobody wanted to pack and clean.

But now we had the means, the wanderlust took us.  We settled on a date in September then moved it up into August. 

I went on a spending spree ordering solar panels, an new batteries, a 2000 watt inverter, wifi & cellular antennas, a tow package, and got ready to work on the road.

We sold everything we could and put everything else in a single 10'x20' storage unit and said goodbye to our friends and garden.  And crammed way too much into our way too small motor home.  

The solar panels were on, but weren't wired up. The new batteries and inverter were still in boxes. The tow package wasn't installed, but we left driving two vehicles (the RV and pickup) on the appointed day, a few hours behind schedule.  We'd stayed up all night cleaning and packing and took the last load to storage & dump that morning.

We made it to Winnemucca that night, frazzled, exhausted, but on the road.  We saw old friends and family in Oregon, Washington, and Montana.

We've been on the road a month an a half, we've replaced the hydraulic pump (driving 40 mile in freeway traffic with the slide out halfway out) and now we need to install a new water pump.  Our electrical system doesn't charge the batteries on shore power or with the generator -- a project for another day.  Our "new" windshield leaks.  Our carpet and couch are ruined.  We ripped out the table and built a new one that can double as bunks for the kids.

We're going to Florida by December and California by February.  After that, maybe we can slow down.  Unless we want to make Alaska before next summer's over.

Bookmark: