Despite our love of the adorable HodgePod and all the wonderful miles we had with her, we traded her in last fall. Ora the Xplorer is our new trusty caravan. A bit larger and comfier and a with shiny new-to-us truck to tow her with (4x4, hallelujah!). An amazing upgrade for our 3 month adventure in the southeastern states.
 |
| We bid farewell to HodgePod the rPod last fall. |
 |
| And welcomed Ora the Xplorer! |
 |
| We need to fill in those southeastern states! |
March 31
Our departure day was a bit fraught. Delayed parts for our brake job had our truck ready to go only a few hours before our planned departure at 6 pm. And sadly, as I drove home from the mechanic, someone clipped my driver’s side view mirror and shattered it. A quick return to the garage gave me the bad news I was expecting, there was no chance we could replace the mirror before we left. I did end up inelegantly solving the issue with an extendable towing mirror.
 |
| Smashed side view mirror, but the add-on trailer mirror is doing great! |
Doug got home from work (after celebrating his 25th work anniversary!), and we scrambled to get the last bits of packing done before we headed off. Hoping to beat the forecasted hail and rain, and as it turned out, tornadoes!
Somehow, we managed to miss the absolute worst of it, just barely staying in between the tornadoes behind us and super high winds in front of us.
 |
| Tornado Watch (yellow) and High Winds (brown) |
Although we are veterans of easy overnights in Walmart parking lots, on this first night of our trip, it worked best to try our an overnight in a rest area near Jackson, Ohio. It was not our favorite stop, loud and busy, but it did the job. And there was some drama, as our very tired selves realized a few vital items had been forgotten. Eek. Eventually, we managed to get some sleep, and decided that Amazon would solve the missing items problem.
 |
| Ohio sticker! |
April 1
We made a super early start of it, hoping to avoid the worst of the winds that were expected later in the day. The hills of West Virginia were lovely, and that morning we made our first roadside attraction stop. “Ghost convicts murderous husband from beyond the grave!” How could we resist?!!!?
Although there were still some pretty impressive winds as we drove, Doug did a fantastic job, and got us safely to River Bend Campground in Powhatan State Park, near Richmond, VA.
And I put together a little tour of our new camper, since I’m proud of all the mods managed to get done before we took off on this jaunt!
5 comments:
I'm so excited for you guys to be able to take this trip! What a great opportunity to explore and unwind together. Loved the tour video - You worked hard on adding in clever storage and making it work for you - so cool to have watched the transformation over the past few months.
Di
Thanks for reading and the lovely comment, D! We are enjoying the heck out of our adventure!!
I enjoyed your nteresting blog and video! When you get to coloring in North Dakota and Minnesota make sure to visit the headwaters of the Mississippi River. There’s a great State Park and you can float a leaf or stick and be amazed that it could potentially reach the Gulf in x days (maybe 30 if I remember?)! Enjoy your adventure!
So you sold the little tagalong you had at the beginning of the trip? You purchased this new RV it looks wonderful.????
Too bad you’re fabulous trip can’t and in the finger lakes in August? Miss you JJA
More pix pleeeeease😁😁😁😁
Post a Comment