The Big Adventure

We arrived here, safe and sound, on August 8. Our journey started July 29 and took us through 11 states. I thought I would share a few of the highlights with you.

Oregon-Idaho
Before we left Yachats, we were invited to have dinner with friends. On Wednesday, we drove up to Toledo and ate with Hazel and Steve. We had a chance to check out their new travel trailer and issue an invitation to come and visit us in FL when we're settled. Thursday, we picked up the U-Haul and spent the day loading it up. Our friend Irene came and stayed all day to help, even with the heavy stuff like tools and furniture. Thanks, Irene; we really would have had a difficult time getting it all loaded without your help. Thursday evening we went up to Waldport Heights and had dinner with Pastor Jim and his wife Kerry. It was a cool, breezy evening and we enjoyed sitting out on their patio and tucking into carne asada with homemade salsa. My husband and I realized we hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast and decided to have seconds. It was delicious and the company was excellent. Partings are always difficult, but they give you a chance to count your blessings.

We left Friday, July 29, destination Troutdale, OR. My husband drove the 26-ft U-Haul with our big black dog, Brody, in the front seat, and towed our small car on a trailer behind. I drove our 21-year old 25-ft American motor home, our two cats riding along in their carriers. I had prepared an itinerary of our journey and had figured on 300 miles, or 6 hours of driving, a day. It quickly became evident, however, that our 300-mile days would be more like 10-12 hours of driving. The U-Haul was just too darn heavy to go any faster. On any kind of grade, we slowed down to 10-15 mph or about the cruising speed of an Amish buggy. My husband switched on his emergency flashers and I followed behind with mine on. Another complication was the fact that we had no air conditioning in the motor home while driving. My husband had tried to find a replacement motor unsuccessfully, so I was stuck driving a 7-ton oven on wheels. I had a small fan mounted in the corner of the windshield that circulated hot air, but basically that was it. My husband discovered the AC in the U-Haul didn't work either and he drove with the windows open. So, there we were, on our reverse pioneer journey . . . in August . . . with no air conditioning. I have since vowed never to repeat the experience.

Late in the afternoon we arrived in Troutdale and stayed at Rolling Hills RV park. We had made plans for my husband to meet his stepkids for dinner, but what to do with the dog was an issue. Finally, I decided that instead of taking chances and putting a black dog in a dark blue car on a 90-degree day, I would stay behind at the park and my husband would go and enjoy seeing his family. This worked out fine. Brody kept me company and I was able to catch up in my journal. In the evenings when we stopped, we were able to hook up to electricity and run the rooftop AC. It took a couple of hours to cool off the motor home, but at least we could look forward to a cool night's sleep. The kitties emerged from their carriers and sat on the table panting. All the animals traveled well and we had no problems except dealing with the heat. They suffered along with us.

The next day we drove to La Grande, OR to visit with my husband's dad, and we climbed our first steep grade out of Pendleton. It was a slow slog up the hill; the worst thing about going slow is you get less air coming through, so it's hotter. Anyway, we stayed that night in an RV park that happened to be right next to the housing where my husband's father lives. We enjoyed dinner at Denny's and got to visit a little bit. Instead of showering in the cramped motor home, we used the showers at the parks along the way. It felt good to wash off the sweat and grime after a hard day's drive. I did laundry in LaGrande and we got a late start at 10 a.m. the next day.

The drive through Eastern Oregon to Ontario was difficult because of the heat. Both Brody and I got overheated. We stopped at a truck stop and my husband ministered to me, cooling me down with cool water from the RV holding tank, washing my face, neck and arms. We had to pause over an hour until I felt better and we could go on. This was the day my feet and ankles started swelling. I've been in hot climates before, but this was a new phenomenon, perhaps due in part to all the sitting I was doing driving. The swelling went down a little bit in the evening, but by the time we were in Missouri, I could scarcely fit into my sneakers with no laces. Even though it was supposed to be a short day in terms of driving (only 3 hours), it seemed to go on forever. We finally arrived in Caldwell where we were greeted by a thirsty hoarde of mosquitos. We had an opportunity to visit with my husband's family there and went out for an Italian dinner. We left the next morning for a day's driving through southern Idaho, the corner of Utah, and a smidgen of Wyoming. Our destination for the evening: Evanston, WY.

Wyoming
We weren't pleased with our site in Evanston. If you're ever there, I wouldn't recommend Phillips RV Park. There's a major highway on one side and a train track on the other, plus there was nothing but gravel and sun in the spot we had. One of the good things about Evanston, however, was it was cool at night -- in the 50s -- and we did not have to turn on the air conditioning in the motor home. Once again, a 6 hour day had turned into a 10-12 hour day and we were exhausted by the time we arrived. We were hungry, but we were even more exhausted, so dinner consisted of snacking on canned tuna, crackers and fruit. We saw some beautiful country that day, especially the passage from Ogden to Evanston which took us through a deep canyon bordered by sentinels of rugged red rock. I reminded myself that if I ever got discouraged to the point of giving up, I could always go on the road and see our great country. It's still out there, and it's still pretty impressive. I thought about the freedoms that we enjoy and I was thankful.

Wyoming is the West writ large -- big sky, open country, wind and weather. They don't have very many people in Wyoming. There are only 53,000 in the state capitol of Laramie. We decided that if the terrorist threat became too severre, we could all just move up to Wyoming. They've got plenty of room. Judging by the signs along the road, they don't have enough people to keep all the roads plowed in the winter because they close sections at a time. They also have curious signs that read "Frequent High Winds Next 5 Miles" . . . every five miles. My husband cursed the Wyoming roads by the time we got through the state. "Gentle Ride Van, my butt!" he said one night, telling me how the rough roads had opened the glovebox, thrown all the stuff from the dash, rattled his teeth and woke the dog. Because of all the tools loaded on the back axle of the truck, it rode low and had lousy gas mileage; also, the cab was too light and if the road was bad, it bounced like crazy. My husband was glad to see the smooth roads of Nebraska beckoning.

Nebraska
Another long day from Cheyenne, WY to Grand Island, NE. The heat was terrible. In addition to the physical suffering, my mind began to fill with dark thoughts. If I went off the road in a fiery crash and killed myself and the cats, would I feel more or less guilty than I already did about bringing them along on this journey? I hated to see them suffer from the heat. When we stopped in the evening, it took them several hours of panting in front of the AC to return to semi-normal. In order to beat the heat, we had started at 4 a.m. (up at 3 a.m.), still it turned into another 10 hour day. This mystified me. True, we stopped frequently to give Brody a walk and some water, but our midday meal stop was less than an hour. How did a 6-hour day turn into 10? Then, I realized that we had crossed, once again, into another time zone and gained another hour (or lost it, depending on how you wanted to look at it). Nebraska was, from what I remember, cornfields. We stopped at a rest stop and I saw a path leading up to a scenic overlook. Then the saw the sign: Notice: Rattlesnakes Are Native to This Area. Oooookay. Maybe not. Driving the flat, smooth Nebraska highways, I felt a green stab of jealousy when those big moving vans zoomed by. We were passed by about a zillion big rigs. We did pass two vehicles in Nebraska! That seemed like a milestone as we puttered along at 50 mph on at 75 mph highway.

We stayed at the KOA that night and by the time we arrived I was fried -- physically and emotionally. I broke down and wept when the gal couldn't find our reservation. (She did, finally; it was in my husband's name which is different than mine.) Then, I had to apologize to her for being so rude. She gave me a hug and said, "That's okay, Sweetie. You've had a hard day." We drove to the site and go the AC on as quickly as possible, hauling the kitties from their carriers. They were almost prostrate from the heat. I wet dishtowels and tried to cool them down, but mostly, they wanted to sit and pant. No wonder they didn't trust me. Look what I'd done to them! I felt terrible. I told my husband that I thought, really, I was going to die, driving that motor home. I wondered about my faith and discovered that when my physical body suffered, my mind did too. It took some time for both the kitties and me to recover. What was I supposed to learn from this experience, I wondered? Maybe it was an opportunity to encounter, in a very real way, my own weakness. I was so thankful that my husband remained strong. He suffered with the heat, too, but was able to carry on and take care of me and the animals. The next morning we were up early again at 3 a.m., our destination Clinton, MO. We stopped in a McDonald's before we left Nebraska and noted the farmers who had come in to drink coffee and have breakfast. One of the old guys had even brought his own flyswatter. You know he was a regular.

Missouri
We made it through St Joe and Kansas City. I was proud of making it through KC, a sprawling metropolis straddling two states and smothered in a haze of heat and pollution. My husband and I communicated between the two vehicles via walkie talkies, one of the best investments we ever made because it enabled us to do immediate "course corrections" as necessary. After we came through KC, we stopped at Peculiar, MO; I wanted to see if we could cut the day short and stay at a park there. The woman was kind, but said Brody would have to stay in the truck the whole time; there were no pets allowed outside the vehicles. Again, I broke down in tears, feeling like we were being turned away when I had so little energy left. She offered us ice and water, but I turned away, anxious to get back on the road and drive like a mad woman until we got to our destination. We were exhausted, again, by the time we arrived at Kozy Korner RV Park, but the folks in the office were nice and it was the best park we stayed at on our trip. We had time to rest and relax, eating a quick dinner in our motor home. I did laundry and wrote in my journal as the thunder rolled and the lightning flashed around us. The next morning we saw a curious sign that said, Share the Road and featured an Amish farmer and his buggy. I radioed to my husband that we needed that sign for our motor home.

Arkansas and Louisiana
We passed into hilly northern Arkansas and the truck overheated the one and only time I drove it. So, I went back to the motor home. We stayed that night in Alma, AR and went to the mall in Ft Smith for dinner at at Tex-Mex restaurant. It was my birthday. I was too full of tortilla chips to have any cake. My husband gave me a beautiful handmade silver and amber pendant and earrings. We returned to the park and set our clock for 3 a.m. again. The next day we planned to travel to Shreveport, LA where we would spend a night with my sister and her husband.

The next morning I noticed an unusual rattle when I started the motor home. The noise became worse as we drove and I finally told my husband we needed to pull over and check it out. The RV never overheated, but when he came in and took the hood off the engine compartment, dark exhaust filled the RV. I quickly clipped the doors back on the cat carriers and escorted them to the side of the road. My husband made a quick diagnosis: it was something internal and we would have to have it towed. I put the kitties in the car (on the tow trailer) and climbed into the cab with my husband and the dog. We drove 10 miles or so into Ozark and hung out at a Citgo for over an hour, trying to get hold of a "24 hour" wrecking service. Finally, one of the guys in the store escorted us out to the local wrecker and advised we wait on the doorstep until he showed up. Another hour passed. When he showed up, my husband took a ride with him to get the motor home. Brody and I dozed in the cab of the U-Haul as it got hotter and hotter. I opened the back of the car so the kitties could see out and get some air. I prayed, drifted off, woke to pray again.

Finally, they came in with the motor home. The mechanic started it up and discovered there was oil in the exhaust; it had thrown a rod. It would take weeks and several thousand dollars to fix. They couldn't even fix it at this shop; it would have to go to Ft Smith. My husband and I had talked about what we would do if the RV was irrepairable. During the short time we owned the vehicle (little over a year), we had discovered many things that didn't work and couldn't be repaired. Our contingency plan was to leave the motor home behind, put the utility trailer I had towed on the tow trailer, and I would drive the car with the kitties. That's what we decided to do. I went to WalMart to get some storage containers and when I came back we cleaned out the motor home. We were both hot, irritable and sad. It wasn't so much losing another "thing" but I thought of all the time and energy my husband had put into fixing the motor home up. Losing it in that context hurt. We put stuff in the car and in the back of the U-Haul and were ready to leave by 10:30 a.m. We paid for the tow and the wrecker guy took the motor home off our hands for nothing.

What would we do? I thought the best thing would be to drive to Little Rock and stay the night there. We'd have to get into Motel 6 or somewhere they'd accept pets. Even then, it would be hard on Brody, an outside dog who would probably have nothing but a parking lot to roam in. When we got closer to Little Rock, I proposed a second option: push on to Shreveport tonight, as planned, and stay with my sister. Brody could have the run of the fenced backyard and the cats could hang out with us in the guest room. My sister loves animals, so I knew we would receive a warm welcome. I was amazed at how generous Jen and Randy were. When we finally arrived, she had set up a little box in our room for the kitties. After a long, hot, difficult day, we were ready for some R&R. We got the pets settled in and went out to a wonderful Chinese buffet. We went to bed early and slept late. We decided to change the last leg of our trip and stay with Jen and Randy another night. Sunday we would visit with them and relax. Monday morning we would tackle the last long leg of our journey: Shreveport, LA to Exit 70 off I-10 in Florida.

Thank you, Jen and Randy, for your hospitality. You guys were a great blessing to us! We wish you a heap of blessings in return.

And so we made it. On Monday we started off at 4 a.m. and arrived here at 6-7 p.m. We stayed with my father a couple of nights and we're now living in his 32-ft motor home with the cats. Brody is enjoying his time off his chain and all the room to roam he wants. We are both doing fine, having survived our Big Adventure. Next time I'll write more about our new life here. Thank you all for your good thoughts and your prayers. They were very much needed and felt through this whole experience.