We managed to leave our house and park the RV locally, giving Kyle the opportunity to do a final clean and winterize things. We were primed to start traveling south, but then the weather didn’t cooperate. Gusts of around 40mph didn’t sound like much fun to travel in, so we opted to stay put for a few extra days. Unfortunately, that meant we got to experience the first winter snow in Michigan.

It took the kid all of 48 hours in the camper to figure out how to lock the door. That bright red switch is like a beacon for little fingers.

The delay was kind of nice, since it gave us time to wrap up a few things that weren’t the absolute top of the priority list. Then we had a smooth trip down to Indiana, where we planned to spend about a week so that we could catch up on work and plan the next couple weeks of travel.

I don’t know why we thought we’d have lots of free time here, of course we ended up spending most of our time seeing family! It was great to reconnect with family we hadn’t seen in a while, and we even got to see the blueberry farm decked out in fall colors. We also got to enjoy some really nice weather while we were there. But since we both got buried in work projects just as we were beginning our travels, stress levels were high, and we really needed to dedicate some time to our laptops. So we moved on after just a few days.

10.22 – Saturday
We’d had a nice stay at Turkey Run a couple years ago, and were hoping to book a few nights there, but we happened to be traveling during the Covered Bridge Festival and everything was booked. We ended up at a KOA with it’s own tiny covered bridge.

It was a little pricey and we really needed to cover some ground to get away from the cold weather, so we only spent a night there. We did have great temperatures while we were there, and we enjoyed spending time outside again.

10.23 – Sunday
We’ve been trying to do one travel leg per day, since Atlas is taking one nap. Because of the size of our rig, we either need to plan fuel stops ahead of time or plan our travel leg to be less than one tank of gas so we can drop the camper then fuel up. We managed to cross another state border, and this time we booked three nights at a campground in Illinois. Heavy rains were in the forecast, and we need some catch-up time. It was an easy decision to take a couple days off. Atlas tried to befriend the local cat, but both of them were a little unsure about each other.

While we were there, I made a supply run to the local Walmart. As I pulled up I realized I’d been to this random Walmart in the middle of Illinois before. We are following nearly the same route we followed two years ago in our VW Bus. As I pulled in to the gas station, the pump I was aiming for was closed so I had to squeeze into this tiny space. I actually hopped out of the truck to push my mirror in just so it wouldn’t hit the pump as I pulled through.

This was a really weird campground. It was nearly full of near-permanent campers, and while we saw a few people on Sunday when we pulled in, during the week it was a complete ghost town. They were all nice campsites in the woods, except they seemed to put the transients (like us) in this bland, parking-lot style area. Whatever.

While we were here, we had a really rough night with Atlas. He woke up crying several times. We were thinking it was the change in scenery, or the time change. We’re all sleeping in the same room now, and as we adjust no one is really getting adequate sleep. Well, the next morning I realized he’d started cutting a molar. And for the rest of our trip out west, he had three molars cutting through and moving around. This kid has great timing when it comes to new teeth. His first ones popped through while we were visiting friends in Charleston.

10.26 – Wednesday
We can get about 200 miles out of one tank of gas, so that has been our driving limit every day. That is just not enough miles. Today we changed up our planning style. If we do two legs, which means two naps for the kid because we simply cannot keep him awake while on the road, we can cover quite a bit more distance. The caveat is that we need to have our fuel stop completely planned in advance, and we need to know where we can stop to let the kid play for a while and eat some lunch. This is a lot more work, but now we can do 300-350 miles per day, and we still arrive at our site by 4pm and have the evenings to chill out (aka get work done, we have absolutely no free time right now since we’re still catching up). I took the following photo from the freeway.

With that new plan, we made it over halfway through Missouri, posting up for a single night outside of Springfield. Everything seems just a little bit familiar, and we can’t help but compare this trip to the bus trip. In the bus we avoided the freeway in favor of old Route 66. We were cold, even in the bus, and we kept driving because it was the warmest way to spend the day. Now we’re in the truck pulling a camper, and we play outside as much as we can because we need Atlas to burn off some energy. The sights were certainly a lot more interesting on old Route 66.

10.27 – Thursday
We spent the day going through Oklahoma. We made it just past Oklahoma City, which means we’ve officially made it further in the truck than we did in the bus. Last time we were here, we got caught in an ice storm that was kind of the last straw for us, we turned around and rented an apartment in MI. We also passed through some surprise tolls today, two of which were “plate pass” which means they scanned our license plate and will send us a bill in the mail. Fun fact: we are not home. So…who knows how that’s going to end up.

Tonight we stayed at a county park, for our lowest nightly fee ever – $20. It’s a fun place and it looks like there’s a lot to do here. Maybe next time? It’s been frigid and rainy, plus we have still had zero time for anything superfluous. We’re covering a lot of ground, we’ve got a baby to entertain, we’ve been cooking all our meals, and the real nail in the coffin is that we both have income work that needs to be completed. If we didn’t have side jobs right now this trip would be much, much easier.

There’s a bit of a “hell or high water” vibe to the trip right now, since we’re adjusting to RV living (all transitions like this are at least a little painful) while going full tilt with the travel aspect. At some point, we will have time for exploring. But Kyle has been up until midnight more than once to complete his work projects. I don’t want to say we’re not having fun, since we’re both so excited about what’s coming next, but we’re not having the best time right now. It will happen soon enough.

The sky here looks different. I keep waiting for the terrain to change, and this kind of seems like the first sign. We’ll see what tomorrow brings!

10.28 – Friday
Almost as soon as we crossed into Texas, things started looking different. More deep ravines, more elevation. We stopped for lunch at a rest area, and that was definitely different. Speaking of which, Atlas has been charming strangers left and right as we stop for lunch and play time. He’s been a very good traveler (except for the molars, which only seem to bother him in the middle of the night).

Then things got really flat for a really long time. We saw fields and fields of windmills, taking advantage of the winds that must cross this prairie. Which reminded us both of the ice storm two years ago, when Texans blamed the renewables for the massive power outages they sustained.

I was just starting to comment on how unexpectedly flat Texas was, when we crested a hill and the world opened up in front of us.

Almost immediately, we saw the sign for New Mexico. This is about the most exciting thing that’s happened on this trip, since New Mexico has been a goal for us for several years now and it’s finally happening!

Things are looking bright for us! It’s a whole new world out here, and we’re finally in it: The American Southwest!

Random facts that don’t fit anywhere else:
– During our three days camping in the snow, we emptied a full 30-lb propane tank heating the camper.
– While we were on the road I managed to carefully research all the candidates and fill out my absentee ballot. We mailed our ballots from Illinois.
– We were kind of worried about back country roads and low hanging trees with the camper, but out west everything is wide open. We can see why it’s so appealing to RVers.