Well, I am sitting here in Ellis, KS, population unclear, in the sweetest little city campground at twilight, with a view of a church that should be situated on the River Rhein. If I can figure out how, I will post a picture. Our great adventure has had a less than auspicious beginning. As we packed up to leave Eugene in our new, old Bertha we discovered the fridge wasn't working properly. We were able to get that fixed on our way out of town and got to Walla Walla for an incredible weekend of graduation activities, spending time with, and saying good bye to, friends we have made in the stands of baseball stadiums for the last 4 years. We have weathered good weather, terrible weather, snow, sleet, hail, and Norovirus together. I have tended to more than one injured or ill baseball player over Jonny's 15 year career behind the dish. It is now over. Jonny has graduated from college, has participated in his last baseball game and we are moving on.
We left Walla Walla on Tuesday to the tune of Bertha's alarm going off. The key fob wouldn't shut it off. Otis the dog got scared, scaled the fence of our rental house, ran onto a neighbor's porch, grabbed a shoe and ran off down the street. Hot in pursuit, with the assistance of a road worker, I caught up with him a block away from home, wherein he wrapped around my feet, throwing me to the ground face first, whilst the alarm on Bertha continued to sound. We were finally able to silence Bertha and get Otis in the car, but were now more than an hour behind and Jonny was due to be in Boise to deliver his car to a shipping company that would take it to OK City, as we decided we just were not ready to tow a car behind an RF we had never really driven. And then there was the time change.
So Jonny showed up late even on LariHacker time and we showed up even later, realizing that Bertha does a whopping 50 MPH over passes. But they took our money anyway and we headed to our first RV camp site, Boise RV Riverside RV Park. Easily accessible, nice trail along the river I am told. This is when we discovered that it takes an hour to boil water for pasta on the not so powerful stove in Bertha. And the next morning we discovered that you really cannot hook up to water as it either drips or sprays everywhere, more on that later. And the hot water heater, well if you like lukewarm showers you are golden. But then I stepped around the back of Bertha to tearfully contemplate just what I had gotten us into and heard the sound of water pouring out of the hot water heater and realized there was a reason we couldn't get the water hot. The water put the flames out. So now I am questioning just what, exactly, Camping World inspected if not the hot water heater and the generator and the fridge but I find this out later.
By Wednesday we had figured out how to restart the fridge( which broke again), but had no hot water, and had to cart the water we needed in the holding tank, and the stove isn't worth lighting. Okay, so we aren't towing the car and weight of the extra water isn't such an issue, and we have never had hot water when camping before and I had luckily brought our 40 yr old Coleman cook stove so we could cook outside (except for when it rains, more later), and most of the RV places have showers so who needs hot water after all. After cold oatmeal, some tears and just a little cursing, we head out bound for Rock Springs, WY, just a little later than anticipated. And then there were more mountain passes.
Made it all the way to Ogden, UT, on Wednesday evening. Found a great state campground on a nice lake, few people, and our choice of sites. That road noise? Well you get used to it. But what is amazing at RV campgrounds is the relative quiet, as all the other campers are INSIDE. All night. They eat inside and then watch TV. So we had a nice quiet dinner of steaks cooked over a wood fire and shared the bottle of L'Ecole Cabernet we bought when we dropped Jonny off at Whitman as a freshman and took a walk by the lake. Then had a nice campfire and smores. I am bothered by my son's apparent disdain of everything I say and do, but I figure this is his way of forging the separation that is coming. I can't help feeling just a little, okay a lot, hurt, however. And I am soooo incredibly disappointed that this trip I have been planning for months is, shall I say, not happening exactly as planned.
On Thursday we make it all the way to Rawlins, WY. Rich and Jonny finally get out the Stratomatic baseball game that, truth be told, is the real reason we are doing this RV thing. Rich has dreamed of playing this game with Jonny on the road for months. They play baseball and announce the game whilst I drive with dog as my co-pilot. In Rawlins we experience a KOA. Everyone has to at least once. Especially when they don't have showers on board. Well we do, but it is now a fine coat closet. After a nice dinner outside, once again all by ourselves, I find something dripping under Bertha. Rich and I crawl around under her for a bit, with liquid dripping on our faces, then I go inside to find the source of the leak and, yes, it was the toilet. So I try to fix the connections to no avail, all the while gagging at the thought of what I had just been wetted with, finally turn off the water to the toilet, run to the shower and wash all my clothes. On Thursday we lost our toilet. We are now officially car camping in a very large, gas thirsty car.
On Friday we are going to have the traditional pancake breakfast of camping, but it is raining and we can't cook inside so we go to a local diner instead. We have a relatively short drive through some amazing scenery and arrive in Denver to visit some old med school friends. Beautiful drive with my boys "playing" baseball and announcing plays as I drive...to the address we thought was current. But, of course, our friends moved in February, but they are still in Denver and we eventually find them and spend a wonderful evening with them and their severely affected autistic daughter and we thank our lucky stars that we have our Jonny. We have been fighting and pushing each others' buttons all the way and today it stopped. And this is our last night together in a campground. Maybe forever.
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