Tag Archives: writing

SEMI Insane

Campventures, Fun, Life, SCUBA, Travel, Vacation, , , , , , , , ,

Do we ever do things a “normal” way?

So, y’all recall the challenges we had with getting the Camper back up to the river, right? (you can relive it here). We decided to go an alternate route and find a truck that would pull the camper no problem, but that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. So Austin got the wild hair idea to start looking at Semi Trucks on Facebook Marketplace.

“What do you mean your husband can’t?”

This man surprises me at almost every turn – and I should be used to it by now, but I’m still in awe of him. With some of his previous work experience, he had a CDL. While growing up driving tractors was also a thing in his wheelhouse, a semi was just “another vehicle” in his mind. In my mind, I’m thrown back into the driving course I had to take after my first speeding ticket, sitting next to a truck driver who said out loud… with his whole face… that he’d just SET THE CRUISE CONTROL TO 55MPH AND GET OUT OF HIS SEAT TO BRUSH HIS TEETH ON THE HIGHWAY.

Meanwhile, A just shrugs his shoulders and gets to shopping….

Our time at the river seemed to go by incredibly quickly this year but it was jam packed full of family, river time, and oh yeah… we bought a little Lowe fishing boat too 🙂 (hooray for Facebook marketplace again!)

Because she’s a Lowe, we’ve named her “Expectations” and will be purchasing the name stickers in time for next year’s drop in. Here’s the lookbook of our summer:

Not only did we get quite a bit of fishing in (I caught 2 Walleye this year!) so that makes me 3-1 against Austin and won me a “Walleye Whisperer” t-shirt, we also did quite a bit of traveling.

Locations checked off this Summer for fun

  • Disney Springs/Disneyland (I have a pin problem)
  • Clayton, NY
  • Chittenango, NY – Mitchell Tenpenny Concert
  • Leesburg, VA
  • Mexico
  • Chicago (YAY an O’Hara Baby is due in November!)
  • Niagara Falls/Canada side
  • Toronto, Canada
  • Orlando
  • Miami
  • St. John
  • Curacao

Locations checked off for Work

  • Jamaica
  • Los Angeles
  • Miami
  • Atlantic City
  • Dallas
  • Grenada

This year my role at work has had some updates, I’m still the National Manager of Dive Sales, but I’m also taking on some of the video and event elements. Which means I was a co-host on our Jamaica Independence Day Live event, the content collector during the Travel Advisor Golf Tournament, and of course attending Dive Week!

But back to that semi thing… Austin found a gentleman in Tampa selling a 2012 Volvo 670 with almost a brand new engine in it. He was in FL for work already so he was able to go take a look at it, and for the price – it was checking all the boxes, including the APU unit which allows it to run on a smaller engine instead of keeping the big engine going if you wanted to overnight in it. Now, there are a few loophole ideas that take a bit of work to get this thing “normal person” ready – meaning, registering it as an RV so it’s no longer a commercial vehicle. A found a way to do so by starting his LLC back up (in Montana), registering the Semi as an RV under the LLC, and then us going back and forth to get the correct elements into it to receive the tags/title, etc. It already had 2 bunks, a fridge & inverter, so it just needed a cooking element, and toilet really.

We added a camper toilet, microwave, and coffeemaker. Now the back & forth with the company helping A do the paperwork was annoying, but we finally got the permanent tags (due to the truck’s age) and the title. So all we had to do was fly to Tampa and drive it back to New York… 23 hours.

We took a weekend to do this together and start the adventure. As we made our way from Tampa through Jacksonville, and up I-95 – we stopped for an upgraded mattress for Austin’s bunk (my top bunk is smaller), we fueled up, and made a few stops. First in Leesburg to show the family the new RV, then in MD to see Brother & sister in law, then we overnighted about 15 minutes from Nana in PA. I will have to say, some of these truck stops are NIIIIIICEEE.

They’ve got 24 hour buildings/bathrooms, showers, hot food, and of course the convenience side of things. If it’s a true trucker stop, it’ll also have some of the little things a trucker might need – equipment wise, etc.

We figured out that this thing is easiest to drive at night when theres almost no traffic and you can just set the cruise control. It is a 10-speed manual, so I’m just the passenger princess here. But it’s short lived as I’ll have to drive the Tacoma down to NC while A pulls the camper.

It did take us 2.5 days to get up from FL to NY with our stops & overnights, and we still had to get a hitch installed (because it was originally a 5th wheel puck). I swear, nobody has more confidence in their wife than a blue collar man with no other help. A and I maneuvered that puck from the ground back onto the semi to take it to his friends at a steel company for scrap.

BUUUUT by the time we did get back to the River, the hitch hadn’t arrived yet and we were heading out on vacation! We’ll plan it better next year because, while we had an amazing vacation, we were RUNNING when we got back to get everything packed up and done to head down to NC. We were on our last days and the water at the marina had been shut off (I didn’t fill the freshwater tanks before I left either).

Our first vacation stop was Miami where A would fly in from work and pick me up for a night before our flight to the Caribbean. BUT he was already in Orlando for work so I packed up early, joined a work training in Syracuse and stayed at Hotel Grandma for a night before hopping a flight there. That meant we got a day at Disney Springs Orlando for me to get my Disney Pin fix (and a seafood boil)!

From there, A’s suitcase had a broken zipper so we headed off to TJ Max to find a new one – then we had to ship his old one full of work clothes & his 70lb toolbox back to the river so we weren’t traveling with it for the next 2 weeks.

Our flight Saturday Oct 3rd was out of Miami, we headed that way in the rental car for a night in an airport hotel. The next morning we were off to St. John to meet Mom & Dad and Chris & Becky for some Island Time! The 4 of them had arrived a few days earlier, and it was Uncle Chris’ first opportunity to scuba dive in the ocean! (I took him to sinkholes in FL last year… he won’t let me forget it). So we loaded up our 2 hard case suitcases, our regs box, and our backpacks for the first flight to St. Thomas (St. John doesn’t have an airport).

Upon arrival in St. Thomas, we found our way to a taxi to the marina, then the marina onto a ferry to St. John, and then St. John marina to the Westin where home base would be for the next few nights. It was a lovely 2 bedroom condo and Becky has been to this island many times so she had all the hotspots noted.

We especially loved the Maho Bay Beach and spent most days there snorkeling and enjoying the Vanilla Chilla beverages at the local bar. Each night had a new restaurant for the tasting and we even tried Triggerfish for the first time! YUM.

Our dive excursion took us to Lowkey Watersports right in town and we almost had a private charter! It was the 4 of us divers, our 2 snorkel companions (Mom & Becky) and ONE other dude that booked last minute.

The water was beautiful, clear and warm and we got a turtle sighting! Had we known we could have been lionfish hunting here, we would have pulled our spears out – but USVI have some permit requirements for hunting that we had been researching online.

We thoroughly enjoyed the first vacation stop and weren’t done yet! We hopped a flight back to Miami for a couple nights before heading off to Curacao. But you know we can’t sit still… We did some boat shopping (still on the hunt for our perfect liveaboard) and then in my all-knowing-Google-Machine-Research…. I found out that the Lionfish ZooKeeper company is actually headquartered just north of Miami! So we took a drive up, unannounced, un-appointment-ed… and knocked on the door.

Tim, the Owner, was in for the afternoon and was so welcoming. We told him we were looking to purchase a ZooKeeper for our upcoming trip, and figured we’d come straight to the source vs. waiting for it online or searching through different dive shops. He brought us in, asked us what color we wanted (told us if he didn’t have it he could make it in about 5 minutes) and then ended up GIVING us a brand new Mini in the military partnership green. I had remembered seeing the Sandals Branded one he made for us at DEMA last year, and he mentioned he’d been trying to nail down some conversations with our ops team. I’m setting that up for DEMA Show in November – we’ll see if we can’t get the ball rolling there. Our divers LOVE the conservation aspect of lionfish hunting, and ZooKeeper sponsors SO many events.

After our warehouse tour and chatting with Tim about all his partnerships, sponsorships, and events – we left with a brand new Mini ZooKeeper, a brand new travel size spear, a couple stickers and registration for their Winter Challenge Lionfish competition…. (Guess that means we’ll be taking another dive trip before New Years!)

After collecting all our Amazon packages from the hotels, and waiting hours for other packages that never arrived…. We were packing back up for our next flight to Curacao for A’s Birthday!

We arrived on Oct 10th which is of course Austin’s actual Birthday AND Curacao’s Independence Day! Indulge we did on the Sushi, birthday cake, and evening fireworks! I think besides the scuba diving and constant breeze, the resort bikes were Austin’s favorite part of this resort. He’s been busting me for not taking him to Sandals Curacao since it opened – I’ve been almost once a year since it’s opening for work and we were finally able to get this time booked for him – we also had friends traveling at the same time so it was a win-win!

We got right to work Scuba Diving & Lionfish Hunting. I had emailed & whatsapped the team ahead of our arrival to let them know we were coming, A was finally coming with me, and we were bringing our own lionfish gear. We had pretty full boats each day, and didn’t hear any complaints about the hunting (some guests don’t like to see it/don’t understand that Lionfish are invasive and are killing the reefs). We made out with 7 fish on the first day (and missed about 5 others) which almost filled our Mini, thank goodness they make a packable extender!! We’ll be ordering that ASAP. Austin prepared/cleaned the fish right there on the floating dock when we returned and we brought it to the beachside restaurant to be prepared for supper. Our friends were arriving that day as well so we were able to share with everyone!

That first day of diving had some pretty rough swells, and we decided it was probably due to the hurricane that has just passed through the Gulf. While Curacao is outside of the hurricane belt, that doesn’t stop the connected Caribbean Sea from getting churned up when weather is on this side of the world. We slept in and had breakfast with the crew Monday morning and then did some pool time.

The remainder of the week was spent diving in the mornings, and finding the group after lunch. We also took one afternoon to grab a taxi into downtown Willemstad and wandered around a bit! I finally got my ChiChi too!

As we walked across the floating bridge, the first spot we found was of course a Brewery! We actually spent most of the day there, The Swinging Old Lady. Beers were tasty, snacks were delicious, and they had a breezy outdoor patio for us to enjoy some Country music!

As Curacao’s time came to an end, we weren’t yet finished with vacation – we still had a wedding in Charlotte, NC to get to! The rest of the group was staying another day, but we arrived a day early to accommodate the Friday wedding date and headed back through Miami, then into Charlotte on a late night flight. We hopped an uber to our hotel and got a good night’s rest before the wedding.

Totally normal to walk into a Lowes at 10pm in formal wear… They didn’t have enough of the bolts that we thought we needed for the hitch, so we collapsed into the hotel bed around midnight.

The following morning had us up early and back on a flight to Syracuse. Grandma kindly picked us up and took us back to her house where the Taco has been parked since October 2nd (THANK YOU!).

BUUUUT We still had some stops to make along the way before we could get back to the river; pick up the amazon deliveries, and install the semi’s hitch… yeah, remember that’s still a project to complete before we leave MONDAY.

We also still had to return that second mattress we bought from Costco for the Semi… the one that was too big for my bunk. So a stop at Costco ON A SATURDAY, ARE WE INSANE. yes. Then stops at 3 different Lowes stores to collect (6) 3/4″ Grade 8 bolts. We finally made it back to the river around 5pm, hauled the Lowe out onto her trailer and after a couple snafu’s… Austin finished the hitch install close to midnight.

Up early Sunday morning (for A… I got to stay in bed an extra hour) and we were cleaning/packing/organizing as best as possible for a lunchtime departure….

We found out that the light connections from the semi to the camper were juuuuust a bit too short, so off on a 45 minute trip I went to the Tractor Supply in Governur, NY that had the right part.

At least it was a pretty drive! Upon returning we continued to pack the camper, the semi, and the Taco along with getting the Kayak over to 4 for the winter… sadly the wheels on the kayak carrier got brittle and broke in half. We sat there looking at it for way too long before we both went “it’s a boat…. we’re on a marina… why don’t we just kayak it over to the boat house?!” and so I did… against the wind… in 4.5 minutes. I definitely started that on my Garmin Watch for workout credit – HA!

C&B were up to take their big boat to Keewaydin State Park for haul out and we hooked Lowe Expectations to C’s truck for winter storage at his house. Then it was just us to hook up and haul out… closer to 6pm that evening, so we only went as far as a truck stop in McGraw, NY which was about 2.5 hours from the river, but South of Syracuse traffic for Monday morning.

Monday morning about 6:30am we were on the move again and this was my view for the next 16 hours.

What’s life without a few challenges right? Everything was fine on Sunday evening’s pull – the hitch of the trailer sits a little too high on the semi but Austin can fix that with some upgrades once he gets to a place that has all his tools. We went VERY slowly down the highway and kept to a max speed of 65mph regardless of the posted signs. The hitch carrying our eBikes sparked on a few bumps but until Monday morning everything was smooth. As we hauled onto the I-81 on-ramp in McGraw… I started to smell and see smoke coming from a driver’s side camper wheel. We immediately pulled over and assessed that the rotor on one of the tires was RED hot…. glowing.

*not our actual wheel*

Our fix was…. disconnect the lights. It was daytime so we were very visible but as we crept into the afternoon, we decided our next best option was to figure out which wire controls the electric brakes and “modify” the connector so we have running lights, turn signals, etc. still.

I’ll tell you what…. I have learned SO many things in my 8 years with this man. He found the connector’s diagram, and we modified that thing perfectly. All lit up for the remaining hours to Flat Rock, NC and we were almost HOME!

The RV Park called me as we were still about 5 hours away – I let them know we probably wouldn’t make it there that night, and that we’d see them in the morning. We’re booked into our spot Mid-October 2026 through Mid-May 2027 so our spot is OUR SPOT for the winter. We rolled into the QT parking lot down the road from the RV Park around 10:30 that night and backed everything into a truck spot to go to sleep. The next morning we were up at 7:30a, in the RV Park by 8 and setting up.

About 9 people stopped to talk to us in that first 30 minutes that we were there. We were rushing through the basic setups as I had a hair appointment that’s been booked since April, but we got electric, water, and sewer lines ready to go and the heat on. Gremlin is certainly happy to be home again (he’s not really a car-ride cat).

We then hopped back into the Taco and headed up to Papaw’s house for a little time with him and our pitiful pup Charlie. Austin also decided it was the perfect time to teach me how to shoot a crossbow… he was pleasantly surprised with my aiming skills as I went 4 for 4 shots on target! The final one I actually accidentally managed to put through the first bolt… so we’ll have to replace that one for Papaw. Whoops!

This also means we’re going on my first deer hunting trip this weekend, so OBVIOUSLY I needed super warm camo coveralls. I’m way more excited than I should be about cold-weather clothing. I do be loving my sweats, blankets, electric hand warmers, etc. though.

Austin was off on a 6am flight to Indiana for work Wednesday, and I’m back in office catching up until the first week of November when I head to New Orleans for the big DEMA dive show.

It’s been a rush of a month and we had an amazing vacation, but I think we’ve decided that we need to be SEMI-sane and give ourselves that lead-up time to pack up and be ready to transport. We’re learning each trip what we need/don’t need and how to make the transitions smoother.

Here’s to Blue Mountain Fall/Winter, hikes, hunts, and hot chocolates.

Home sweet HOME!

Campventures, Home, Life, Travel, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The update we’ve waited 4+ months for, is FINALLY HERE!!

We tried to do this the second to last week of January and it didn’t work out, so we went to Disney instead for a very special 7 yr old’s first time, and re-scheduled for February.

I went through the rabbit hole of Disney Pin Trading last year and got the kiddos involved at the park this trip. I’ll proudly be displaying my pins in the camper from now on (and yes, Austin got some Star Wars ones too).

We are OFFICIALLY in our camper, back in North Carolina! After a lot of back and forth with Camping World Hendersonville, and some last minute issues needing a second look, we confirmed pickup for Friday, February 6th and made our way to NC.

I spent Tuesday & Wednesday packing after work hours to ensure all our stuff fit in our beloved 27 gal black & yellow bins (they were on sale for $7.99 at Costco – YAY!) and I loaded as much as I could into the Tacoma. I had a bloodwork appointment for my annual at the ass-crack of dawn Friday Morning so I drove down Thursday and Austin was able to fly into Charlotte late-late Thursday evening. The original plan was to pick him up from CLT airport around 11:30pm, but sadly, his flights from the mid-west kept being delayed and he made it to the hotel via uber around 1:30am. I was already in bed.

Friday morning we were up before sunlight for my appointment and I was able to work from the car as we drove to Papaws house to pick up the ’99 Ford that we originally used when we purchased the camper. The 350 was requested to be returned so this is what we had… it didn’t come without it’s own challenges, of course… because apparently we have to learn EVERY LESSON all at once.

This ’99,while keeping sentimental value and still being in great working shape (usually) – had been left in the cold for juuuuust a bit too long in the mountains and the batteries were completely drained. (She’s about to be a Cali truck) Austin also learned that the Highway Tire & Auto we had left it with for service (you know, back in MARCH 2025, and didn’t get back until October 2025) “replaced” his deep cycle, cold weather batteries that he spent good money on with regular ole batteries… he was NOT happy about that.

First he tried the jumper box we always carry with us. Not enough juice.

Then he pulled Papaw’s tractor over to jump it (it’s a 24v system 7.3L engine vs. a 12v like regular cars) the tractor gives it a little more juice and it attempted to turn over but again, not enough juice. He used all the starter fluid he could find, and then finally brought the Taco down…

Taco jumper cables attached to 1 battery, tractor attached to the other, and after 2 hours and a few more tries with more starter fluid she FINALLY turned over. We were hoping to be at Camping world by 12pm… we finally got there just after 2pm. Once we got her started, we never turned her off – you stay idling big girl.

After a walkaround inspection, flipping a couple extra switches (to make sure lights work), and trying all the slides, we were hooked up and ready to head 15 minutes south to the campground.

The ’99 looks like a tonka truck pulling this mammoth. It wasn’t a super smooth pull (his bed airbags were also disconnected by the mechanics….), but we made it! We’re already planning to pay a company to pull this up to the river again for the summer season so we’ll just be driving our own personal vehicles instead of purchasing a new/used truck. More convenient/easier for our needs.

Saturday we had our appointments at Overkill Tattoo to celebrate our return to NC, finish Austin’s sleeve and spend a little of my bonus on us. The guys here are extremely talented – we love all of them.

Austin’s additions for this arm were the connecting piece with the elk, and Papaw’s mayfly to Mamaw’s flower, he’s keeping them on his left side.

I took the plunge on a rib piece I wanted to remind me of my Daddy Tom (P-51 Mustang, the Daddy Tom Dollar, and a Rum Swizzle – he was stationed in Bermuda for the Korean War). The other side has Poppy’s Celtic Triquetra, so I’ve got both grandfathers by my side.

We returned late Saturday, exhausted and healing. Sunday was another “run” day and we headed to the Tennessee Storage to pick up a few of the necessities to put back in the camper – hoses, kitchen supplies, bathroom items, etc. This load-in will be much more calculated for me, our first time packing the camper I was just trying to get stuff OUT of the house so we could sell it. Now I’m able to actually see what we need and what wasn’t used at the River to bring less back in. Little by little we’ll get all the pieces together but for now, we’re just happy to be HOME.

We spent more time Sunday with Papaw, eating Long John Silvers and playing with the pups. We’ve been SO grateful that he’s been loving on Charlie for us for so long – it’s the best place for Charlie to be, with Papaw and Sassy. But we do miss him. I was craving the family recipe of Beef Stroganoff (comfort food) Sunday night so we ate late – just in time for the Super Bowl Halftime Show.

I stole this skillet from mom I think when I moved to New Orleans over a decade ago. It’s my favorite kitchen gadget ever, although we did just by a brand new air fryer that does many additional things (our Oven doesn’t hold a constant temperature here so I’m still getting used to it). Now it’s just getting re-organized, learning the little oddities of the camper – like the heat pump not liking to work in below freezing temps (we have a propane furnace and additional heating elements too), and setting ourselves up for the upcoming weeks. I’ve got a lot of travel happening February – March and we won’t see each other till March 13th with our overlapping schedules. I need those airline miles to keep my Platinum Status for the year! At least we have our house back and can go little by little moving back in.

Austin flies back into VA this upcoming Friday to pick up the rest of the stuff we left in mom & dad’s garage, and the cat. For now, the Starlink is setup and working like a charm, the washing machine is washing, and the Olympics are on the TV. It’s a great start to a new month and a new week.

In the Beginning….

Campventures, , , , , , , , , , ,

We’ve done it – our first road trip longer than 30 minutes with the Camper! I’m affectionately calling it the Marshmallow – because it just… wobbles round…

Originally we bought this camper on a whim-ish… We decided back in September 2024 to just stop in to Camping World Statesville, NC to see what they had so we could get an idea of what we wanted. The minute we get out of the truck I look at my very determined husband and ask, “Are you ready to purchase today?” and the answer is a very strict “NO. We are JUST looking”. Guess how long THAT lasted….

So we sit with Gabriel, a new sales guy, and he shows us a few options. We know we definitely want a 5th wheel with a gooseneck hitch, and it needs to have space for us to actually live in, and work in for me. We saw a couple that had weird setups, like a half back room with bunk beds that would need us to build a desk, and another with bunk beds in a closed off room in the middle until we landed on the Montana 3761FL (front living).

We walked back inside to talk numbers… to get an idea of what kind of prices we’re looking at. We were given the specs sheet, and my husband the negotiator went back and forth on the price point we were looking for. “Let me go talk to my manager”, Gabriel comes back with another number.

Husband: “I gave you the number I’m comfortable with, we don’t need a camper right now so we’re in no rush to buy”.

G: “let me talk to my manager again”…

Sales Manager comes in…. more talk. Manager: “we have people coming in to look at this one tomorrow – a $500 deposit will hold it for you” (bullshit. I know your sales tactics… I’m IN sales too.)

Husband: no, I’ll call you when you open at 9am with our decision if you can meet our number.

Finance guy comes in… more talk. GM comes in, looks at us and goes “What’s it going to take to get you guys to sign paperwork today?” By this time it was closing time 6pm-ish. Husband reiterates the number for the umpteenth time – GM looks at his guys and says “do it”.

And that’s how we ended up buying a camper. Real pushover hubby is. But Rodney their finance guy is AMAZING. We really hit it off with him and he was incredibly helpful during the paperwork and additional meetings.

BUT that was just the start of the fun. We went home after depositing and going through all the finance paperwork with no camper (a Tacoma doesn’t pull 13,000 lbs). We left the camper to be serviced with the team and expected to come back in a week or so to pick it up with our 1999 Ford F-250 Super Duty. It also gave us some time to put airbags under the bed of the truck to help lift the weight of the camper so win-win.

We finally get back in to Camping World after our first return that showed they totally dropped the ball and didn’t even look at the thing to start any work… then we came back and did more investigating/ filled out a “we owe” so they would fix other cosmetic things… and we FINALLY hooked it up to tow it home. After figuring out the correct trailer brake settings…. yikes. Hubby pulled it into our driveway and wiggled it back and forth to fit on one side so we could still park the rest of our 900 vehicles at the house… Seriously though, at one point we had the 250, a Hyundai Elantra, an Audi A4, a 1970 C-10 Pickup, a Tacoma, a Mazda…. WE’RE ONLY TWO PEOPLE!!

We also found out the gross fact that Camping World never emptied the previous owner’s black water tank… so we’re litearally towing someone else’s shit around… blegh.

Now the idea was in motion… that meant it was time to start cleaning up/packing up the 4 bed/4 bath house we’d accumulated a ton of crap in over the last 6 years. It took FOR-EV-ER.

We started slowly trying to figure out what to do with all the furniture, luckily one of our friends was moving to military housing and was getting a bigger space than they had so we were able to donate a lot of pieces to their move. The rest was being carefully packed into Lowe’s totes and labeled to be taken to the storage unit down the road. We decided it was time for us to find our perfect land to build our dream home so a lot of the “moving” aspect is very up in the air.

After a few months of slowly moving, and my brain getting the best of me. SERIOUSLY how did we get this much stuff?! I just kept looking at it every day and it was making me anxious, annoyed, overwhelmed…. sometimes all at the same time. We also had quite a few projects to do around the house to get it to what we thought would be a “sellable” state. Don’t ask how much longer THAT took *insert eye roll* but thanks to my parents for coming in over Memorial Day Weekend to knock out the remaining projects so we could get carpets shampooed, house staged, and listed. 4 months… it took 4 MONTHS.

But back to the camper. I like my stuff. It brings me joy. My husband? He’s a minimalist (unless it comes to his tools). So It’s been very difficult for me to whittle down all 4 closets of clothes in the house to one tiny closet space, 4 drawers, and 2 cabinets in the camper. I left him some space too. But here’s the thing – he travels Monday-Friday for work, I’m going to be IN the camper the whole week if I’m not on the road… so I need more space for my stuff! I separated stuff into bins, so in the camper’s under-storage there’s Missy Swim, Missy Scuba, Missy Summer all labeled. AND we were able to fit Missy’s Kayak through the middle! Win!

The camper kept getting heavier and heavier and I was not allowed to bring as many mugs, tumblers, water bottles, etc. as I wanted. I love cups. Husband sees cups all the same – no matter what type it is. But who wants to drink water out of a coffee mug?! weirdo.

So we’re packing, and unpacking, and taking things to storage, and landscaping, and painting, and building stairs, and mopping floors, and resealing the driveway. And then the bright idea comes that we should just buy one of those 40 ft. shipping containers as hubby’s parents have graciously offered for us to park the camper on their land in Tennessee for a while until we find what we want. Great! So now the packing gets into full swing, rest of the furniture that was up on Marketplace gets loaded and stored 3.5 hours away.

After multiple trips with covered trailers, trucks, and emptying the storage unit. We were finally ready to LIST the house! I will say, the last 3 days at the house were balls to the wall crazy. We both took off the end of the week and I had just returned that Wednesday Morning from a work trip (at 1am mind you), slept till 10a and then we got up to finish house projects… Well that went until 1am Thursday morning. A quick nap… because the alarm went off at 5:30a, loaded us into the truck pulling a small trailer up to storage 3.5 hours, with a stop at hubby’s dad’s house, the grandparents house to drop the dog, and then to storage. So it was more like 5 hours. We unloaded and turned right back around to load up the remaining items from the shed and drove BACK to Asheville 2 hours to arrive at a hotel by 2am and shower/sleep. 5:30am alarm Friday we drove the remaining hour & 20 mins to storage, unloaded – wrapped up the car, and stopped back at Mamaw’s for breakfast before heading back to the house. We still had last minute projects and thankfully a friend showed up that evening to help. So another late night with last minute cleaning (fridge, freezer, vacuuming, final touches) meant bed around 1am.

We expected to get up early again Saturday morning, hook up the trailer and haul off by 6am but we didn’t quite get everything finished the night before so we were about 4 hours behind. We finally got on the road to VA where we would park the camper outside my parents house in their neighborhood for a week and finish our trek to NY for the summer. It’s important to note that the town code we read for VA states that campers can be parked in residential areas for a maximum 10 days. Remember that for later…..

A slight snafu in a gas station with a tight turn and only being able to go 65mph on the highway turned our 5 hour 40 minute drive into 7 hours. But we were SO glad to finally be in a comfortable place. Hubby pulls the camper while I follow behind with a rental U-Haul filled with leftover goodies to take to my sister, and a very anxious kitty traveler. It’s a family affair!

We finally arrive, park, setup, and unload the small U-Haul – returning it was a debacle when one place says 24 hour drop off but then has a “no drop-off after hours, you will be towed” so then having to search for another one 45 mins away… but all seems well.

Some neighbors just can’t mind their own business… We receive a knock at the door on Monday evening from a local police officer who asks if this is our camper… umm yeah, it’s parked in front of our house…. and says there’s been a complaint about it. He asks when it arrived, and we tell him it’ll be gone by Saturday (literally 1 week). He repeats 3 times that “it is parked legally, and can be there for up to 10 days.” He just asks that we pull the bump out that’s hanging over the sidewalk by 6 inches back in so there’s no overhang (mind you, this bump out is hosting the cat’s litterbox, water & food since momma is allergic to cats). We say no problem, and he’s on his way to explain to the complainers that the camper is allowed to be there.

Well that didn’t last long – Tuesday evening the same officer comes BACK to the house because the complainer has complained AGAIN – and now he says the town lawyer has interpreted the very vague code to include a tag-along camper in the “motorhome” category and we can only have it parked there for 24 hours. Cue the search for a place to park the Marshmallow for the next few days nearby, transferring fridge/freezer contents to mom’s garage fridge (because we were plugged in), hiding the cat in mom’s basement bathroom, and making sure everything inside was secure for a move… We were seriously contemplating pulling it to Walmart for 24 hours and bringing it back for 24 hours just to piss off the complainer. Every 24 hours it resets right?! I want to argue the “very vague code” and say if it’s open to interpretation, then why do I have to move it? But I was shot down and now it’s time for me to figure out how to hook up, and pull this behemoth for the first time ever. Hubby is already headed to Canada for work… First time for everything right?!

Tangent/side quest story – we ended up switching trucks to pull the camper. On March 23rd we had just completed another trip up to TN for storage unloading, and unhooked the small trailer from the Ford. We had some supper, and I suggested we take the truck to the shop for some small upgrades hubby wanted on it. For some odd reason we can’t figure out, the truck would not start… So we had the fun challenge of towing an F-250 Super Duty with a Toyota Tacoma a few miles down the road to the mechanic’s shop. It’s now June 18th… THEY STILL HAVE NOT LOOKED AT THE DANG TRUCK. So we went into crisis mode of “how the heck are we going to pull this camper?!” Thankfully, hubby’s dad offered us the use of his old F-350 Super Duty, and so here we are.

Since we’re at my parent’s home that they’ve lived in for the last 30 years, and they’re both retired, mom called around to some friends to find a parking spot, and dad helped me back up the truck/hook up the camper. Did I mention that this F-350 has no backup camera, and has a toolbox blocking the view of half of the bed? I’m reversing blind towards the camper’s gooseneck hitch and praying I’m sort-of close. To dad’s and my surprise, I only had to try it twice! I was about an inch off the first time so that brought some confidence! I had also mentioned to hubby that there was no way I was ever going to pull the camper by myself, I’ve driven the Redskins RV way back when we started Training Camp in Richmond… but that was 10+ years ago, I’ve never pulled anything that was 40+ ft. attached to a truck!

No time like the present to get over your nerves and pull a 13,000+ lb trailer for the first time… Nobody else was going to do it. I will say, I was pretty proud of myself to get it hooked up, and SLOOOOOOOWLY down the road. I only clipped 2 curbs (barely) on right turns. Not bad for a city girl!

So here we are… half way through the first week of pulling our camper and it’s parked at a local church (with a sign of approval for parking in the window). We have a call in to Camping World in Cicero, NY for a few diagnostic checks before we end our first journey in Alexandria Bay for the summer. The awning motor went out, so hubby will have to work on that before we take off as it’s the only thing actually holding the awning closed to to the camper. We’d like to check out why one of the back wheels is tilted in at the top, there’s a little dent/scrape in the aluminum by the wheel well due to our gas station snafu, and the original cracking we saw in the entertainment center wood has gotten worse with this pull (which could be a frame issue).

Because hubby was not allowed into Canada for work (somebody from his company didn’t put in the work permit….. again), he drove to Indiana instead. Which coincidentally meant he was 8 minutes away from the Keystone Corporate office (the manufacturer of our camper)! So he stopped in to ask some questions and show some photos – we’ll see what comes of that on Saturday when we get to Cicero.

One more thing to add – since leaving NC on Saturday with our house staged and the for sale sign in the yard…. Somebody hit our mailbox AND trash cans and continued driving… Great. Our neighbors called to tell us what happened and they thankfully picked up the trash for us as we were scheduled to have a showing on Wednesday the 18th and wouldn’t be able to get back down before then. Add it to the list of things to finalize on hubby’s trip next week back to Charlotte… I’d love to catch a break soon!