In 1993 we decided that Illinois was not the place for us any more. We wanted to live where there was no snow, and no humidity. The desert sounded like the right place for us, but we really didn’t know anything about the Southwest. We gave it a lot of thought and came up with a plan. We would buy a camper and drive it around until we found the right place to live. We started the camper search right away. Even back then, there were so many to choose from it seemed like every time we looked at another style we would find something we liked. After several months, we figured we had looked at just about every RV size and style there was. We knew what features we liked and which we hated, what floor plan felt best and what size we wanted. We bought a 1971 Minnie Winnie. Sure it was 20 years old, but it was in reasonable condition on the outside and pretty good condition on the inside and according to our mechanic, the engine was outstanding. And—the price was right. The only real problem we had was the refrigerator. Since we knew that the fridge is one of the most expensive parts of the camper, we decided to test it out. The dealer had checked all the appliances and verified them, but we wanted to be sure. We put a tray of water in the freezer, set it to run on propane and turned it on. Four hours later, we figured that the water should be ice cubes, so we went confidently to check. Well, the water was cool, but I wouldn’t describe it as frozen, or even cold. This seemed like a very bad thing, so we tracked down the phone number for Winnebago and called right away. I spoke to one of their service technicians who really scared me. He said it sounded like there might be an air bubble in the ammonia tubing and we would probably have to burp it. If you don’t know how to burp a refrigerator, let me share what he said. Take it out of the camper and lay it down on one side for a while, then turn it onto another side for a while, then another side. Well you get the picture. We didn’t even have any idea how to get it out of its spot. When I asked how to do that, he asked me how long the fridge had been on. I told him it had been about 4 hours. I was so pleased to hear his answer: “Those old propane refrigerators need a lot longer than that to get really cold. Let it sit overnight. If you still don’t have ice, then try the burping.” The good news is that everything was fine-no burping required. What a relief!

The next step was to condense our belongings. It isn’t possible to take everything from an 1150 square foot apartment and put it into a 20-something foot RV. (We figured that we had about 100 square feet in the camper, if everything was put away and you included the cab of the truck). We got rid of an amazing amount of stuff. It took some work, but the first wave of stuff elimination was easy. After the first wave where we mostly got rid of things we almost never used, it became a matter of “Do we have a plan to use this in the next year? Is it easy to replace if we decide we need one in the future?” Most of those items were pretty easy to eliminate, but occasionally we would find something that we just couldn’t throw away, and couldn’t come up with a plan to use. So we set up the “maybe box”. Anything we thought we might want, but weren’t sure about went into that box. Then, every day, we went through it to see if we had made a decision yet. You know, amazingly, nothing ever survived the “maybe box”. When it was time to leave, we found a local charity that sent some people over who needed anything we could give them. They had come from California with nothing and were ecstatic to get the dishes and silverware we weren’t going to take. They also took all the furniture we had left. It felt good to give it away, especially to a family whose need was so great. All that was left was some winter clothing and a few other things we thought we couldn’t live without. We packed them up into about 5 boxes and left them with Gary’s brother.

The last thing we had to do before our official departure was move the cats out to the camper. We don’t let our cats outside so the trip from the apartment to the camper was highly stressful. We had three cats and each went out individually. Lady, who was 11 or so years old went first. She was only mildly frightened. Babs went on the second trip. She was about 2 years old and a little higher-strung. Then Gary took Tucker. Same age as Babs, but twice as big and about twice as stressed out about going outside. He tried to rip Gary’s arm off and run back to the apartment. Unfortunately, he didn’t understand that the patio door he was trying to go in was our downstairs neighbor. We made soothing conversation and recaptured him and got him into the camper. Then we shut the door on all three to let them “adjust”. Our official departure was at 10:58 AM on July 2, 1993. The cats had each found their own safe hiding place. Babs and Tucker hid behind the computer under the dinette table and Lady tried to melt into the wall. None of them sounded very happy.

We had talked many times about taking the road less traveled because we weren’t really in this for the speed. We wanted to take our time and look around on the way. Well, as the navigator, I immediately found the first “scenic” route (read that as find some really back road or wrong way to go). At Rockford Illinois I turned us toward Wisconsin instead of Iowa, so we drove into Wisconsin, where I once again proved my skill as a navigator by heading us down some back road. It actually worked out ok because it did get us into Iowa eventually. We found a county campground that was fairly inexpensive because it didn’t have any running water in the showers. And it only had 110 type electric outlets on the power poles. Boy were we rookies. We spent that first night sweating our brains out because we didn’t know that we could plug in to that type of outlet. Well—the plug at the business end of the camper power cord was some gigantic thing and the plug on the power pole looked like 110. No way to connect them. So we cooked outside on the Coleman stove, plugged the little portable TV into the pole outside, and fought the mosquitoes for dinner. It wasn’t until the next day when we looked at that adapter thing the guy at the camper dealership gave us that we realized that we could have had air conditioning.

July 3. After studying the map this time and planning a more direct course to I-80 (for the rest areas of course) we headed out the next day full of hope. We stopped at the Amana Colonies for gasoline and breakfast and to cool down the engine which seemed to be running pretty hot. After a few more hours of travel, the engine seemed to be running pretty hot again, so we stopped in Des Moines for lunch. Inspection revealed that the radiator cap was pretty well destroyed. We bought a new one and some antifreeze (and filled up our 5 gallon water jug) and headed west on I-80. After leaving there, we were able to go about 10 miles at a time before the engine overheated again. That day turned out to be absolutely no fun. We called Good Sams and got a message that they were closed for the Holiday Weekend. (Since then, I’ve never had a nice thing to say about them. Granted, we were only temporary members, but with that kind of helpful service, we really didn’t want to join as full members.) Anyway, we decided to press on another 15 miles to the town of Adair where Woodalls listed a campground. Before we got there, we had to pull into a rest area that was manned by very friendly volunteers for the weekend. (my notes say that it was something done by the state of Iowa for the weekend. They were giving away coffee and soft drinks.) They knew of a very trustworthy mechanic in Adair and even volunteered to call him to be sure he would be open. He said it would be no problem and waited for us to get there. He flushed the radiator and installed a new thermostat (which he bought after calling the NAPA guy at home and asking him to open the store). All of this was very exciting for us because he had to have the “doghouse” open in the front of the cab as well as all the doors. Gary and I stayed inside to make sure the kitties didn’t escape. A rough day, but we made it through just fine. The service station at that time was owned by a man named Harkins. If he is still there, I’d go back if I needed help. Those nice people at the rest area were Mike and Donna Ernest. Maybe some day, somebody will pass our thanks on to them after reading this. That night we stayed in a city campground in Adair. It was an inexpensive night with a warm shower (what a treat after the previous night and that day). We were so exhausted that we ate, showered and collapsed into bed.

July 4. Before we headed out, Mr. Harkins came by and wanted to check his work from the previous day. He said that he just felt like he had left something out and wanted be sure everything was OK. It seemed to be, so we thanked him again and headed out. It was very windy that day which means that we had our first real lesson in physics: No matter which way you are going, when you are driving something large, it is always uphill and against the wind. I would be very interested in hearing from any other travelers who do not believe this law of physics. During this whole day, we took it easy and stopped at most of the rest areas for a “walkaround break”. By this day the cats had adjusted fairly well. No more whining, no more howling, no more panting, no more hiding under the table. They even came out for a look around each time we stopped. All in all, a much better day than the first two. We found another city campground in Stromsburg, Nebraska. There were only a few other trailers there so it was quiet and very restful. It was also free. (Well they were happy to accept donations.)

July 5. We decided to press onward to Colorado where my parents lived at the time. Most days we felt that 200 or 300 miles was more than enough sitting for one day and we always liked to arrive at our campground before 1:00 in the afternoon. On the 5th we made it to Lake McConaughy in Nebraska. There is a fairly large campground there which had been pretty much trashed by 4th of July partyers, but we were ready to stop for the day and it was there. This was the first day we actually hooked up to water and sewer. Up till that day, we got water from outside and drained the water by dumping the dishpan “somewhere outside”. We didn’t really want to use the toilet in the camper because we didn’t want to deal with the hose and we weren’t stopping anywhere long enough to make it worth hooking up. After hooking up, Gary found a leak under the kitchen sink and one at a connection to the toilet. We had to fix the one under the sink, but the one in the bathroom was less worrysome because the floor had a drain in it. Speaking of which, I understand how hard it is to fit so much in such a small space, but the bathroom arrangement in that rig was ingenious, and altogether unusual. The whole bathroom was the shower, but there was no way to take a shower without sitting or standing on the toilet. Hmmm. And we never did figure out how to fix the huge leak at the base of the shower hose. Besides, the bathroom really became our closet after a while. We used the toilet for emergencies, but you had to sit with clothes hanging all around your head when you sat down. Anyway, Gary learned that plumbing in a camper is even more aggravating than in a house because there is no space and you have to do everything by feel. And plumbing never was his favorite sport to begin with.

July 6. Before we got on the road this day, I had a pretty good cry. I guess I was feeling bad because I felt a terrible “non-permanence”. I think that I wasn’t expecting to pack up the house and get on the road again every morning. For some reason I never thought that we would do anything except park someplace for a while (days) and then move on when we got ready. I’m guessing that I’m not the only one who ever felt this way. Since then we have talked to a number of people who also talked about needing a home base. It can be rather unsettling to know that you don’t have a house to go back to. After a few more weeks of travel, the feeling kind of went away. Either that or I forgot about it. Whichever, I never did have to cry about it again and I looked forward to moving around.

We made it to Colorado where we spent time with both my parents, and got the rig re-timed for higher altitudes. Also, because we could see that there had been water leakage inside the camper at one time, we decided to seal the roof. We bought some of that white goop and smeared it on heavily. We bought a large tarp (in case the goop didn’t work) and figured we were set. We picked up our mail which Gary’s brother forwarded from Illinois. This is another important consideration when you full-time. Our solution back then was to have our mail sent to a post office box near my brother-in-law. He picked it up and forwarded it whenever we asked. After about a week in Colorado, and a careful review of the Workamper News, we decided to head up to Mount Rushmore. I had been there when I was about 10, but Gary never had and besides, there was a campground that was advertising and it sounded like a great place.

This link will take you to the next part of our trip.