We’re Short . . .

 

One week tomorrow and we should be rolling through the gate headed south.  Well, actually west and then south.   I am both excited and a wee bit apprehensive. 

I keep going over in my mind what else I can cull from what is in our RV.  We have more stuff (there’s that word again . . . “stuff,” which means everything from clothes to houseplants, to small dorm-size refrigerator . . . such a catch-all word, “stuff.)  On the lighter side (pun intended), during our time here we have disposed of things here such as satellite dish and its accoutrements, sleeper sofa (with weight of 250 pounds per its specs; it was one heavy piece of furniture, I tell ya), one bicycle, articles of clothing (added some though, like insulated overalls and heavier jackets due to the harsh winters here), and so on. 

Again, I’m glad we upgraded from E-rated tires to a G-rated set, and I’m going nowhere near a CAT scale on this trip!

When we were actively traveling back in 2010/2011, we weighed in about 500 pounds under our max.  Dave says I’m obsessed with the rig’s weight, but I just want us to make this trip safely.

Funny . . . here I am a girl concerned about weight and it’s not my personal weight but that of my RV and truck combo.  Ha!  I am so my father’s daughter.

Hoping the Appalachian and Shenandoah Mountains will be kind to us.  Hoping my Dad will watch over us from that big campground in the sky . . .

Reviewing our route and its stages today, I realized I miscalculated the mileage of our first day out.  I thought it was right around 200 miles. 

Well . . .

It is actually about 280.  Ruh-roh.  I remembered that I was unable to find a campground close to the interstate at about 200 miles when planning the route, the first being a ways on down the road a bit.  Hence, the 280-odd miles for that stage. 

We also have one toll plaza to go through just as we enter Pennsylvania.  Well, I had to get us through it coming here, so I can get us through going out.  Nice and slow.  I’ll just use the far right-hand lane like the “big dogs” (semis) do.

It’s gonna be a long first day back in the saddle for this gal.  No big deal, I guess.  We’ll just take our time as usual.  I stop about every 1.5 hours to take a break, and we’ll be stopping perhaps more frequently to check the torque on the RV wheels, since we just put new tires on.  If we land safe and sound, I’ll be happy.  I bet I’ll sleep well that night.

June 2013, “exercising” the rig – Yep, I tow that baby

The most mileage we have done in one day was back in 2010, heading into Cherokee, NC, and that ended up being 350+.  It was dark by the time we hit mountains in the area, my first experience in mountains, and tunnels.  Oh yeah.  Tunnels after dark.  Oh boy.  Trippy.

The good news is our first day will be the longest in mileage, and there are only two more travel days until we get a nice layover in South Carolina prior to arriving at the facility and going on duty.  I have built some flexibility to our travel schedule in case we want to stay an extra night between here and South Carolina to rest or in case of nasty weather.

~~~~~~~~~~~

There was activity here today with company folks on-site, so I didn’t get a whole lot done.  Did manage to stow a few more things in the rig, so I am making progress. 

Our last weekend here is coming up, and we plan on having as many campfires as we can squeeze in.  With that in mind, Dave got busy this morning and split some wood.

Does my Scotsman rock or what?

I’d like to fire up the grill at least one day over the weekend, too.  We’ll see how that goes in between working on preparing us for departure.  Of course, my meal planning is thrown back a day; today’s cooking plans where dust in the wind due to the activity here. 

My goal is to complete all my preparation tasks (excluding the absolute last-minute things) no later than Monday, so I have a couple of days to chill out and rest a bit.  I’m getting there. 

We’ll hitch up on Wednesday and Dave will disconnect our sewer and water connections, leaving us connected to shore power only.  This will leave less to do the next day before rolling out of here.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Guess I’d better wrap this up and think about heading to bed soon.  Catch ya later!

Thanks for stopping by!