Calculating the risks

As you might know, we spent months working on the RV.

And if you know us at all, you know that when I say "we", I actually mean Jason. The kids and I are supportive - ridiculously and completely believing that he is capable of anything. Anything, in this case, means his mechanical ability. No matter what "problem" crops up, we assume he can fix it.

One day before we finally left town, we pulled out of his shop in Greenville, only to make it to South Westerlo, a few moments down the road, where it died at an intersection. Died, as in stopped running and refused to start. With us sitting startled in the back, he whipped off the cover of the motor - which is handily right inside the truck, unscrewed and tinkered and diagnosed, and within several noisy, smokey minutes, we were back at the shop.

This, my amazing husband said, was a good thing - we needed to know what could go wrong, and how to fix it, when we were home.

So, in that vein, we had been driving around our region, raking up the miles and testing and tuning. Mostly, we were trying to get an idea of the gas efficiency of our little beast. We had been hoping for 15 miles per gallon, which made quite a few people chuckle, but would have been thrilled with 10. On one of our last trips out before we took off for parts unknown, the best we could get was a measly 6.

Depressing, I thought. We were idling a lot, said my husband.

On day 2, flying down an interstate for 100 miles, we eeked out a handy 9 mpg and cheered. Unfortunately, that also resulted in a ticking motor which had sucked down two quarts of oil. We decided that our initial decision to stay off the interstates (seconded by the amazing Doug Story), was a good one.

On day 3, we thought we had our first flat tire, only to discover that the battery case had broken and was rolling about - a quick bungee cord repair and we were on our way.

And these sorts of minor, but briefly terrorizing, incidents happen fairly regularly, as if it is warning all of us not to get too comfortable. Earlier today, in fact, our trusty steed stalled drifting into a light in a small town in eastern Kentucky, and refused to start. Carburetor, cursed my husband, but had us moving along within moments.

This is all to point out that such travel is not for the faint of heart - as if keeping six kids in a seat for countless exhausting hours on the road wasn't enough, our vehicle keeps us on our toes. (Frankly, there are many nights when we agree that a collective insanity is responsible.) But, even with the real potential for calamity, the lessons learned on the road, for my kids as well as for us, far outweigh the risks.

Sometimes you just have to live a little. 

On the road!

Where are we?

Somewhere between - YAY! We are finally on the road! - and what on earth are we doing?!

As some of you know, we had a delayed start, as we unexpectedly lost our rental of the last few years. Moving is always a trial, but when you had been focused on trip planning and RV renovations, having to pack everything you own up and find a place to store it, with a week's notice, is draining. Luckily, spring arrived just then, too, and even the mud wasn't enough to slow us down.

We finally hit the road on Tuesday, heading out Rte 32, down through Kingston. (Adam - we made it further than Kingston!) We hopped on 212 all the way to Pennsylvania, passing stone houses and prisons, Walmarts and sprawl. We were lucky enough to come across the Delaware Water Gap, a national recreation area, which was, till then, only a blue smear on a map. (Thanks to Freddie, who suggested we take his trusty maps even though I insisted we had a navigational device!) Next time, we think, we'll plan not to cross the 20 mile span when it is gloomy, drizzling and dark.

We camped out in a Walmart parking lot, as I had been unsuccessful at finding a boondocking location with real people. In a bizarre kind of way, we found the ambiance fascinating - this might be what freedom feels like. We woke to find that another RV had pulled in after us, a massive bus of a beast, towing a car behind. We wondered what they were having for breakfast, then discovered a cool little bagel spot down the road.

Our plan was to hit Allentown by our first night, then head on to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Unfortunately, we have realized that in addition to be less gas efficient than we were hoping, we also take a lot more time getting anywhere.  So we got into Allentown this morning, and found the Da Vinci Science Center. As it goes with us, Garmin or not, we managed to pass the turnoff and accidentally discovered an amazing playground. So between the science museum (which would have been cool if we weren't already science museum groupies!), and the playground, drizzle be damned, we didn't actually get back on the road till 3pm. And even though google maps claimed it was a 4.5 hour jaunt to Waynesboro, we've snuck our little 76er in alongside several great big rigs here in our second Walmart parking lot, happy to have managed to get as far as West Virginia.

A few discoveries so far? Pennsylvania seems to have a remarkable ability to support their little cities while attempting to not convert all of their farmland to suburbs. (Incidentally, why are do many new developments look more like upscale barracks than places where people live and grow? It's eerie.) Every little city we've traveled through this afternoon also seems to have a college or university (or a Department of Defense installation, in the case of Carlisle, which is probably also handy), which means that even if there are quite a number of empty store fronts, even at this end of the recession, business seems to be bustling.

If you are following along to see what happens when you put six kids in a small RV with two harried parents, well so far, everyone is still smiling. While we are wishing for a little more sunshine, and maybe a day or two at a beach, our adventurous crew can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Stay tuned - and a prayer every so often can't hurt either!
Lots of love,
April