As we approached the beginning of June, we had been hunkering down in Raleigh, NC while the pandemic found its legs and took root in the world. After great thought and discussion during our daily walks, we decided life in the U.S. was likely to be same whether we were on the road or sitting still -- so we made a new plan to drive to Washington state, our original 2020 summer destination.
Since a scheduled RV caravan that would have at gotten us as far as Oregon had long been cancelled due to COVID19, we pulled out our AAA U.S. paper map and started calculating mileage, RV parks, and things to see along the way. Sadly, the "things to see" list was woefully lacking since so many things were closed or were "indoor" things that we felt were too virus-risky. To Maren's delight, the zoos started to open up as we worked on our plan and we decided they would be relatively safe "outdoor" venues to visit. Our path would also take us past Winnebago in Iowa, so we scored an appointment to at least get a routine roof inspection done as we passed by. Surprisingly, we didn't have any trouble getting reservations at RV parks on our chosen path, though some understandably restricted their amenities to comply with social distancing, etc. All that done, we confirmed our plan to leave Raleigh on June 21st.
As sometimes happens in this lifestyle, plans have to change. We barely got into the first week of June before our fridge starting struggling as the temperatures in NC started rising. Since we were really on our own timetable, we decided to make use of our flexibility and leave a week earlier so we could add a loop into north Indiana and get the fine Amish folks who manufactured our cooling unit to check out why it was unhappy. Approaching weather then pushed us to make a last minute change to leave a day sooner. No doubt several campgrounds got tired of us calling multiple times to change our reservation, but this is part of the business to them. As we were prepping Max for travel, we discovered a leveling jack looked "oily", so we added a stop in Moscow, Iowa at HWH to have them check it out. We were somewhat surprised that we were able to get these last-minute appointments for service, but apparently other RVers hadn't yet hit the road in force yet.
We made great time getting to Indiana and it was worth the trip. Several issues were found in how the cooling unit was installed several years ago. They had us fixed up in only a few hours. That gave us some extra time to take the car into Michigan and check out Brands Zoo before backtracking to Dayton, Ohio for a few rest days and visits to Columbus Zoo and Cincinnati Zoo. These two are so large that "timed entry" tickets had to be purchased ahead so they could control the number of daily visitors. Peoria Zoo in Illinois was the next stop and, while not very big, it was cute and good exercise to loop through twice.
Maren feeding a giraffe at the Columbus Zoo
M U S T. R E A C H. A. L I T T L E. F U R T H E R !
Next up was our HWH stop in Iowa where they proclaimed the leveling jack working just fine and no hydraulic leaks -- and no charge :-) We then spent one night in a state park where good RV friends workcamp in the summer, so we got a chance to safely visit with them. Our visit to Winnebago yielded a nothing-to-do result on the roof inspection, but they replaced our wonky front door step motor and blew out a condensation drain for one of our roof air conditioners. We even had time to swing through CDI, the company who does the exterior painting of Winnebagos, so they could touch up a few clear coat areas and polish our headlights.
Now that Max's spa days were over, we plodded west a little further and spent a few nights on a family farm of RV friends that we have met in 5 different states over the years. We enjoyed a meal at a lovely outdoor lake-side restaurant and were amazed at this hidden gem area of Iowa near the Spirit Lakes. South Dakota provided a nice review of the Badlands area, which is always worth a drive to see the amazing rock formations, bison herds, ground hogs, pronghorn sheep, and even a burrowing owl. We had much better luck seeing wildlife on this visit than we did in 2017.
Revisiting the Badlands of South Dakota
Though we had seen Devils Tower in Wyoming by car back then too, this time we camped at the base of it. It is such an amazing figure on the landscape and there are some fun hikes. We tried to get some good photos of Max with the tower behind him in the hopes of refreshing our RV business card with an updated image showing the new tow car. It was so dark at night here that we had a great view of the Milky Way and even got up pre-dawn to see the Neowise comet. Wyoming was also the start of driving through big hills and mountains, definitely a new experience for us Florida flat-landers! Going up with the diesel is easy, but going down is a careful balance of transmission downshifting and exhaust braking, using the foot brakes only briefly to burn off speed on steeper downhills.
Photo of Neowise comet from my cellphone
Devils Tower with Max and Moby
It was new road for us as we skipped across Montana -- unfortunately not able to enjoy museums and other local attractions except ZooMontana in Billings. Sadly, they don't have giraffe, but the layout and landscaping was great. We even got to see a few new species -- a wolverine and an american badger. We didn't get to camp in Idaho as we really only cut through the skinny panhandle on our way to WA.
The landscape we saw along our route was often amazing. Mountains, rivers, forests, fields of crops, fields of hay and dry arid areas barely suitable for anything to grow or live. The highways were mostly in very good shape, but occasionally rough patches and construction areas kept us on our toes. The country is so varied in its appearance and each area has its own vibe. The states that you usually just fly-over have beautiful flat expanses of land or snow peaked mountains. There is a lot to see and we mostly just passed thru due to Covid19, but we have many years to come back to see what we skipped over this time.
The white bump on the horizon is Washington's grand Mt. Rainier -- from 80 miles away
We arrived in Anacortes, Washington safe and sound, one vehicle short (see below), but having dodged weather issues along our route where storms were just north or south of us, or one day before or after we were there. The temperatures in the Pacific northwest look to be wonderful. Looking at the rest of the country, we are glad we made the long trip here.
In full disclosure, the "full-time RV lifestyle" is far from perfect as we've shared on prior blog posts. You learn to be flexible and always have a list of "stuff to be fixed". To mix it up a little, this time our challenge was the new Ford Escape Hybrid tow car. It had been doing wonderfully for the first 2000 miles and then, at one stop in Montana, the car had a new message on its screen, 'Steering Assist Fault Service Required'. The car starts fine, but no power steering -- making driving it extremely difficult. After several calls to Ford dealers along our route, it was determined that we could keep towing it safely, but that none had an open appointment for several weeks. We finally decided we'd just have to forego any car side trips along the remainder of our path west and just made an appointment at the Ford dealer nearest to our final destination in WA. Since we had to drive Max right by that dealer on our way into town, we pulled up in front of their lot as we passed through and dropped the car off. Luckily they were able to get the car in early, diagnose the issue, and order parts before our actual appointment date. As I write this post, the first part shipped from Detroit was wrong but the right one is hopefully showing up today. And life goes on...
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