Congrats! We all go through those breakdowns, etc. In 2011 we had TWO blowouts on the rig within three hours. One on I-95 in Connecticut and then on I-287 in NJ. Late on a Saturday afternoon. No spare once we had the 2nd tire go. Also, in 2010 separated the back wall when got too close to a barrier in front on a diesel pump. But we are still moving along.

Mice? Oh yea, them too. Never saw one but have seen "traces". So join the club! Sounds like you had a typical first year. May the second give you smooth roads.

Congrats Joan and Steve,

My how time flys when your having fun, huh? Keep up the great attitude and take one day at a time is all anyone can ask. If endured the first year, then you are well on your way to more exciting adventures and stops along the road of life! We just hit 7 months last week and it keeps getting easier to get use too!

Safe Travels,

Les

Congratulations and Happy Anniversary.  We are just now in our 7th month.  There is nothing like this lifestyle.  Safe travels.

Congrats!

Congrats Joan and Steve!!

We are in Florida this week, meeting up with old friends from Canada. This is our 7th month, but only our 2nd trip.This time with our new Tow Dolly!

We had a little bit of a scare on the trip down here on Friday, we were looking for a 'free' nights dry camping, we saw a Cracker barrel off the freeway and lots of other eateries, gas and hotels etc, looked promising, so we pulled off, big mistake! The Cracker barrel was in the middle of a big mall, no way to get to it without winding through the narrow roads. Jay decided to go past the mall and try and get on a wider road that would take us around the back of the mall and would lead us back to the freeway.

We took a right turn, unfortunately it was a brand new road next to a new apartment complex, they had only opened one half and the road we chose split the two halves, our road was a dead end!!! It may not have been so bad, but the road had an island with high pavements down the middle of it, and each side was maybe 12 foot wide! We have a 40ft MH and a tow dolly with ford escape in back! What an experience that was, unhooking tow dolly, taking car off, then Jay trying to maneuver the RV around that tight road, forward/reverse, then even after all that the island was still under the RV on one side, he had no choice but to go over it! Thank goodness I was not inside, I would have had a nervous breakdown! Seeing the shaking of the RV hitting the ground after going over that island was awful.

We look on it as a learning experience, we will never get off the freeway again unless it is a Flying J, travel center or a rest area!

We do have a Rand Mcnally GPS for RV's, unfortunately, we were only using it on the 'map' page, not the road directions, or it would have warned us not to go down that road...All good practice for our full-time travels next year! You have to laugh huh?

FOSJ wrote:

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JayKim-no regrets

Theres nothing like first hand experience! You just have to be able to go with the flow. Gives you something to talk about later. 

Have fun in Florida! I heard the weather has been nice. 

 

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 It's been a fun week so far, weather is lovely, although today was in the mid 89's which with the humidity, is a little warm for me!

 

Hoping (praying) for an uneventful trip back to Charleston come Saturday

huggs Kim x

JayKim-no regrets wrote:

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We had a little bit of a scare on the trip down here on Friday, we were looking for a 'free' nights dry camping, we saw a Cracker barrel off the freeway and lots of other eateries, gas and hotels etc, looked promising, so we pulled off, big mistake! The Cracker barrel was in the middle of a big mall, no way to get to it without winding through the narrow roads. Jay decided to go past the mall and try and get on a wider road that would take us around the back of the mall and would lead us back to the freeway.

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 That IS pretty scary!  However, isn't that the norm?  I mean, at some point you always have to get off of an exit.  How do you get to campgrounds and parks?

cherylbrv wrote:

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JayKim-no regrets wrote:

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We had a little bit of a scare on the trip down here on Friday, we were looking for a 'free' nights dry camping, we saw a Cracker barrel off the freeway and lots of other eateries, gas and hotels etc, looked promising, so we pulled off, big mistake! The Cracker barrel was in the middle of a big mall, no way to get to it without winding through the narrow roads. Jay decided to go past the mall and try and get on a wider road that would take us around the back of the mall and would lead us back to the freeway.

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 That IS pretty scary!  However, isn't that the norm?  I mean, at some point you always have to get off of an exit.  How do you get to campgrounds and parks?

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Yep, you do have to get off, we just have to be sure that we are getting off in an area that is more conducive to larger vehicles in future, we do not want to go through that again!

It's all a learning experience though, the best way to know you won't get into that spot again is to use your handy dandy GPS

The GPS is not always the answer. On our trip to our first RV-Dreams Rally in Tennessee we followed our Garmin. We were on a great road with pastures all around. Problem was it kept getting narrower and narrower. Steve thought it must be taking us in a "back entrance" to the park. It became one lane with no where to turn around and then dead ended! It had fencing all around it so we still couldn't turn around. Steve had to back up 1/4 of a mile. That's when the owner of the horse farm came up and opened one of the gates for us to back into. When he heard we had backed up from the dead end he told Steve he should have no problem backing into the gate. Did I mention that we were trailering three motorcycles in an 18' trailer? It was very intense at the time. I wanted to take a few pictures but didn't dare. We made it to the rally and had a great time. We learned so much that we were able to start our dream a year and a half earlier than planned.

Life is good....no... great!

Not so long ago I was trusting our GPS and the next thing I knew it was saying the famous words (Approaching your destination on the left) IT WAS A CEMETARY!!!! I wasn't ready for that stop so we found a wide spot in the road and turned around LOL!!