We have busted loose from the snow and cold! It took a neighboring farmer’s BIG John Deere tractor with a big loader, but we got the RV dug out last Monday.
The RV is in there!
Inside the barn, looking out.
Dig, dig, dig. We owe Ray a big “Thank you” for helping us out. It took him 1.5 hours to get that 3 foot high drift out of the way and clear a path to the road.
Thanks Ray for digging us out!
I didn’t get a picture of the RV leaving the barn because I was yelling “Go! Go! Go!” Jim got the momentum going and just kept going. If he had stopped, we would still be there, stuck in the soft ground or slipping on the snow.
Once the RV was out and parked in our driveway, it was time to load it. This is when we got a rude surprise. We have 6 batteries that power the house part of the RV when we aren’t hooked to shore power. 4 of the 6 burst. We still haven’t figured out why. Jim had to take some time to remove those 4 batteries from the “system.” We haven’t replaced them yet, we’ll save that for when we are parked somewhere for a stretch.
We hit the road early Tuesday morning. We didn’t have a particular destination. All we knew is we needed to get out of the cold and snow and avoid any bad weather. Well, we got out of the cold at least. But we encountered rain most of the day.
We ended up heading through Ohio and cruising past Springfield. This is notable mostly because that is where my Dad was born and I have lots of Blumenschein relatives in the area. I waved “Hi,” but didn’t stop.
Exit for Springfield, Ohio.
We drove 855 miles the first day and traversed six states (New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri). That included driving through St. Louis. I tried to get a picture of the Gateway Arch at night….but the bumpy road and my cell phone weren’t cooperating. This is the best I could do.
Gateway Arch in St. Louis at night.
After a night in a truck stop west of St. Louis, we continued driving west and ended up at a campground in Checotah, Oklahoma (hometown of Carrie Underwood for those who care). It was time to take a pause and take care of some issues. Those issues included stowing all the stuff we just dumped into the coach (we didn’t want to extend the slideout in the cold, so I couldn’t access all the cupboards). We still had empty water tanks and the water lines were full of antifreeze. We spent a day and a half getting the coach ready for the rest of the trip.
Yes, that is our bed in the air. You can see our water tanks underneath. This was part of the process of making the coach liveable. Can you image trying to do this in the cold? Nope, it was better that we waited and did it in the 65 degree Oklahoma sunshine.
Yes, that’s our bed…with water tanks underneath.
With everything now stowed, fixed, etc., we are back on the road. We are heading west out of Oklahoma today, will cross the Texas Panhandle, and will end up in Albuquerque, New Mexico tonight. My brother lives there, so we will have a noisy Blumenschein family weekend to look forward to!
Where will we stop after Albuquerque? Who knows! We make it up as we go along.
Glad that you were able to get on the road. Sun is shining here today. Forget the temp.
The temperature back home is just a distant memory now!