Indiana bound

Ok. So my house is completely done.  The truck will tow the trailer without overheating.  I’ve had experience driving (about a half hour).  What else did I need to do?  Oh, yeah.  Organize my trailer. 

After our shakedown cruise, I spent a week reorganizing the trailer.  I examined every cabinet and storage area. No stone left unturned.

It was therapeutic to load all the boxes and bags I’d been collecting in the garage for several months.  To see the RV loaded up and ready to go!

We left Keenesburg early on a Wednesday morning with the intent of taking three short days instead of two long days.

Our first destination was Grand Island, Nebraska, to stop at the home of my beloved grandmother-in-law, Gigi.  She has always been gracious and accommodating whenever we come by.  And to a homesick 20-year-old in Hawaii without a husband, she made my Christmas extra special.

Gigi designed her home using Lego blocks. After traveling to Hong Kong many times, her home took on a distinctly Asian feel with little Buddha’s sitting everywhere and Chinese inspired furniture. 

The kids and I stopped for a bite to eat and a hot soak in her sunken lime-green bathtub. 

Note to self:  Make sure the trailer will clear the large pine tree.  Otherwise, damage…

My first big oops of the trip.  Not checking to see if the pine tree branches were higher than the trailer.  It cracked one side of my awning motor house.  Thankfully, my awning still works. *whew* 

Had planned on stopping at Gigi’s for the night, but felt the urge to keep going.  I know.  It’s crazy.  But with the children sleeping, I can make good time.  We stopped at a Flying J truck stop overnight outside of Omaha.  Nice.

I learned quickly to keep my little rig on the right hand side of the lane, when traveling in the right lane.  Just like the big rigs.  I stayed at 60 MPH, my ultimate comfort speed.  Yes, I was a moving roadblock.  But who cares.  I’m safe.

As the big rigs whipped around me, I learned to anticipate the draft that inevitably followed.  Different shaped trailers produced different gusts.  I practiced courtesy driving and made sure I gassed up in stations that had lots of pull-through room.  There was a couple times I was very tight, but always made it out.

Between Omaha and Des Moines, the wind picked up to 30 MPH.  The only time I really felt nervous was while driving through construction with large rigs passing me and the big gusts of wind blowing at the same time.  But I had the “God Squad” to keep me safe.  God promised to keep angels watching over me.

I averaged 8 miles to the gallon, so gassing up happened often.  We also stopped at rest stops along the way.  I LOVE REST STOPS.  Especially the ones with RV dump stations!

Anyways, we traveled on well into the night.  The only hiccup being a twisted propane hose that prevented the fridge from cooling. 

Every time I stopped for gas or whatever, I always walked around the rig to make sure everything was in place.  Just in case.  Good preventative maintenance…

I did fine until I reached Chicago.  The construction zones late at night and my GPS throwing me off course (I meandered through a ghetto suburb along some train tracks for awhile until getting back on the road…) drained my energy.  I made it to Gary, Indiana, and stopped over at another Flying J.  A friendly (Christian to boot) security guard showed me where to pull the rig. 

What happened to the three short days of driving?  I knew that with our frequent stops, it would be more like four short days of driving.  And since I was in a zone, I kept going. 

The kids were troopers, but oh, so glad to get to Aunty Sarah’s house. 

Good-bye Bandit

The only hiccup in the journey was our dog.  Bandit was a 18-month-old German Shepherd/Husky mix we got from a local farm when he was 5-weeks-old.  He loved to run (away) and got bored easily. I tried puppy training classes at Petsmart, read lots of books and information on the web and tried several different training methods, but it boiled down to him needing a firm hand and consistent training.  None of which I had to give. 

At home and with our family, Bandit was a faithful, loving dog. He enjoyed being with the family and would plop down in the middle of all the activity with a sigh and fall asleep.  He played ball and chase with the kids and barked at strange activities.  He made us laugh at his playful antics and shake our heads when he did silly things.  In the end, it wasn’t enough.

He proved to be uncomfortable with change and unpredictable.  Strangers coming in and out of the house to take things, changes in our home and back yard and the trip were too much for him.  He had already nipped all of the children –never breaking the skin, but leaving a big bruise- and the next door neighbor’s little boy (in his backyard retrieving their dogs). 

During the camp out, another camper (drunk), came over and started roughing him up. This agitated his already stressed out self. That night, while I was taking a walk and out of sight, my youngest daughter touched him to calm him down.  He whipped around and nipped her upper arm. The bruise lingered for three weeks.  

This seemed to be the last straw, but after much prayer and thought, we decided to give him one more chance.  That next week, while we were loading the trailer, he escaped again.  The neighbor and I managed to catch him.  While I walked him back to the house, I kept him on a short leash –sensing his anxiety.  He lunged at the 4-year-old neighbor boy and nipped him in the back, tearing away a piece of shirt. 

That did it.  We decided he would be a liability on the trip and untrustworthy.  That Saturday, I took him to the pound to surrender him.  But they said he couldn’t be adopted out and euthanized him. 

          As difficult and heart-breaking of a decision it was, it was the right one.  We just weren’t meant to be dog owners.  

So good-bye, Bandit.  I know you are in heaven, running and playing to your heart’s content. We love you and will always think of you fondly.

And having already put down our 17-year-old cat with failing kidneys, we decided to stick with one cat for the foreseeable future. 

We said goodbye to our most favorite cat, Brio. She was one of those amazing mother-hen cats who played peacemaker between squabbling fur siblings. At 18-years-old, her health was deteriorating and she moved very slow. The journey would have been very stressful and unfair to her. ioo

          

Shakedown cruise

The majority of the work is done!  Only touch ups left and serious cleaning.  But we needed a break.  Tara needed someone to deliver our table to a customer in Ft. Morgan.  We wanted to camp.  God blessed us with unexpected money again.  Enough to make a short trip to Jackson Lake in Wiggins, Colorado.  So we offered to deliver the table for some gas money and camp at the same time.              

You can get only so much helpful advice before you realize, at some point, that the only way you will learn to tow a trailer is to tow it…

Bill and I loaded the trailer and hooked it up like a pro!  We were pleased as punch to say that we had successfully achieved lift-off.  We slowly pulled away from the curb with the cat hanging out in the trailer and the dog, three kids and two nervous adults stuffed in the cab.  Would our little truck pull the trailer? Had I loaded it down too much? Would the brake controller work? Would we wreck the whole thing before pulling out of Keenesburg?  I obsessed.

The DH slowly circled the block, setting the brake controller (just in case you need to stop the trailer and not the truck) and practicing his turns.  Only one little curb check. Then we decided to brave the highway and head out on our first adventure.

He accelerated up to 65mph and I held my breath, watching the temperature gauge hovering at 50 percent.  We made it to the lake without a hitch and parked our trailer at a dry camp.  Since we were boondocking, it was an excellent time to test out all the systems, including the animals and humans.

We survived our first trip!

We swam at the lake, roasted marshmallows over the campfire and cooked breakfast over the stove.  Rode our bikes (which were hitched to the back of the trailer), got eaten alive by mosquitoes and walked the dog.

After a brisk swim, we packed up camp and dumped the tanks.  This was DH’s first experience, so I did that yucky job… Then headed down the road to deliver the table. 

After we got back home, we compared notes.  The first item on our list was making the trailer functional.  I hadn’t had a chance to fully settle in before we left.  The battery lasted two full days and the propane tank kept our refrigerator running beautifully.  It all worked beautifully.

Our beautiful house

     Since we are on a tight budget, we decided to sell our house without a real estate agent.  This journey we are on is God-inspired anyway and we believe he promised us a buyer, so why not?  A walking-on-water faith.  A crazy-faith walk means that we trust him no matter what.
     We signed up at bigbrick.com and created a webpage for our house.  It allows you to upload numerous pictures to craigslist and provides a sign with the web link on there.  This was also an opportunity for Bill to showcase his ability to produce rockin' real estate pictures.  I think he did a fabulous job!
     Our plan, eventually, is to produce income utilizing our writing/photographic skills and whatever else God decides to bring our way.
      Here is the flyer for our house:

$179900 / 4br - Beautiful 2 story home on quarter acre (Keenesburg, CO)

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Date: 2011-07-02, 10:00AM MDT
Reply to: your anonymous craigslist address will appear here

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Beautiful 2 story home on quarter acre 150 Lambert St, Keenesburg, CO 80643	$179,900 Type: House Beds: 4 Baths: 3 Sq. Ft. 2480 Lot: under ½ acre Garage: 3 car
Beautiful 2 story home on quarter acre lot sits in the middle of a quiet country town minutes away from downtown Denver. You get all the amenities of a big city and all the advantages of country living. This four bedroom home, built in 2001, has a complete master bedroom suite with a walk in closet and full bathroom. There are three additional bedrooms upstairs and bathroom. The spacious living room flows into an ample kitchen with like new appliances. A custom built pantry provides lots of storage, while the butcher block counter hides a spacious nook underneath for larger items. The bonus room features a gas fireplace and a powder room located conveniently off the kitchen. The laminate flooring is brand new and there is fresh paint throughout the entire house. The three car garage is big enough to hold three vehicles. The third car garage is already framed in with metal studs for a workshop, if you desire. The unfinished basement is 600 SF, with a large spare room already enclosed and framed in, and W/D hookups. There is central heating and an attic fan. The large back yard is completely fenced in. Three raised garden beds in the back corner will let you get started on your country garden right away. And the basketball hoop out front lets you play all summer long!

Towing

     Ok. So our house is done, but how are we going to pull the trailer.  Since we only get paid every two weeks and we are paying for it all in cash, we could only go so fast. 

By June we were able to get the hitch.  Thankfully, my brother-in-law wanted to upgrade and was willing to install his old one if we went in half with a new one for his truck.  He also helped me install a brake controller and the wire harness for it.   

     Though it took an entire week, we got the truck tow ready!  Now if only I knew how to tow…