We are officially out of Wisconsin and so excited to be moving west in our little home!
After spending a few days working on the RV at Nic’s parents’ house, we spent one last night in Wisconsin at the property of our friends Dean and Reta. We appreciated their hospitality, shower, and electricity when overnight temps dropped to 20. We don’t have our propane leak fixed yet (and can’t run heat without running the risk of blowing up), so we used a small electric space heater to keep the dogs warm. Our comfy bed area that Nic has been working so hard on was a cozy nest – and a much different experience from the tent camping we’ve done in low temperatures.
Snowy RV driving – not very much fun
After shuffling things around in our storage units and making sure we were packed for the next six months of life, we hit the road. We spent the day driving through rural Illinois and Iowa, hugging the Mississippi River for a few hours and enjoying bluff views and a bald eagle sighting. We were terrified at one point to suddenly realize we were approaching a 10’ clearance bridge – not a viable option for us! We almost lost the top of our home! Nic looked up to see the sign at just the right time for us to safely turn around and choose a new route. Country roads work better for us than the interstate so far, since our most comfortable cruising speed is only 55. Yep, we very proudly drive like old people.
We will be trying to dry camp (camping without access to utilities) when we can, since it’s free and less crowded than campgrounds with amenities. We decided to dry camp for the first time at Blanchard Island Recreation Area, a beautifully quiet spot right on the Mississippi River. We were excited to arrive at a completely empty campground, and we parked just fifty feet from the river’s edge. Because of our propane leak, the best option for cooking dinner was to run our generator and make some electricity. After half an hour of trouble-shooting why the generator was working but not running electricity to our outlets, we gave up and ate cold leftovers and food we didn’t have to cook. We had also wanted to use electricity to give ourselves and the dogs some heat; little Homer isn’t a huge fan of 20-degree nights. We had a few tense moments while flipping through the RV binder – there is so much we have to learn! We would have loved to have much more time with our RV before our departure, but that just wasn’t an option. In general, we both need to learn how to roll with the punches life deals – this trip will certainly force us to be adaptable. We made it through the night alive and spent a few delightful morning hours letting the dogs roam free, getting in a run, and making breakfast and coffee over our camp stove. We’re so happy we brought it as a backup.
Super cozy and warm, even at 20 degrees
Blanchard Island Recreation Area
We made it to Kansas City, MO, the following day, and we will be here for a few days with Nic’s cousin Alissa. She is a super hostess who so far has taken us to a delicious BBQ restaurant, made us yummy enchiladas, let us veg on her couch (we’re still so tired from the moving process), and is totally fine with our dogs having the run of her apartment. We have a new appreciation for the hospitality of loved ones, and we are so grateful for the chance to connect with some of you on our trip. Let us know if you want to see us, and we’ll see if we can make it happen! While staying with Alissa, we are also having some important maintenance done on our RV: fixing the propane leak, diagnosing what was wrong with the generator (nothing – yay!), figuring out why coolant is leaking, and getting a new trailer hitch set up to add more clearance to the back end of our rig.
Are you having fun with me today? 