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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Taking our Journey Home back to our Temporary Living Quarters (Stix-n-Brix)

After the morning attack of the little, gray haired lady, we decided to pack up and get going, after all she woke ups up 15 minutes early.

Marti took care of the inside, I unhooked all the utilities and Zoe supervised, making sure she didn't get left behind.  She wasn't going down those steps for anything.


Since this was only an overnight, we didn't bring any food, so we decided we'd grab a quick bite from Burger Death.  I had set the leveling jacks to auto retract, but my right rear jack wouldn't come up the last half inch, it has done it before and a short drive would vibrate it back in place and turn off the jack extended alarm.  We drove about a mile to the BK and while Marti ran in I pushed on the jack pad with my foot and it slipped up into place.  Ahh, silence, off went the alarm.


While Marti was in the BK getting our chow, I did my walk around the Journey and the Element.  I double check all the tires, jacks, basement doors, slides, and the tow bar hook ups for anything out of place.  Just to be sure.  Because I'm anal and don't trust myself.


Marti came out with the breakfast goodies and we rolled on to the highway.  Zoe was disappointed that Marti didn't drop any food.


A few miles down the road, we opened the biscuits and the order was wrong, sausage instead of bacon.  And along with the sausage not being right, the eggs were not edible either.  Too late to turn around.  So much for breakfast.  At least the road was clear and traffic was light.


Until the dreaded orange barrels appeared, along with a long, back up in a construction zone.


After a while, we were moving again.  We drove for several hours until we came to a rest area, time for a break, take in a nice view and de-water the dog.



An almost perfect picture: My bonnie bride, the dog and flowers.  If we could have included a baby holding a chocolate bar, it would have been perfect.


We chatted with some of the folks in the rest area and a lady said she had just heard on her car radio that heavy thunderstorms with hail and high winds were moving in this direction.  We decided it would be a good time to get out of Dodge and beat the storm.  It was not to be.  A pickup broke down in the exit road and we were stuck until a tow truck could get it out of the way.


Finally the tow truck got it out of the way, but the storm clouds were moving in.


We headed on down the highway, but we didn't beat the storm.


It became a real frog strangler of a storm.


After a couple of hours of sloshing down the highway, we stopped at a Pilot Travel Center for lunch.  I ran in through the rain and grabbed some food, then ran back to the Journey.  While I was inside the truck stop, I heard they had a tornado warning posted for the area.  As I munched on my sandwich, we kept watch on some trucks parked in the lot.  We decided if we saw a truck get airborne, it would be time to seek shelter.


Zoe was not thrilled with the sound of the rain pounding on the roof and all the thunder and lightning.


We were lucky, all the trucks stayed planted on the ground.  The storm stopped and we got back on the road.


We even passed a reconstruction of Noah's Ark.  It wasn't far enough along to have done us any good.


We got to our town and decided to go straight to our storage lot instead of going to the temporary living quarters (our house) and offload.  We didn't have much with us because it was just an overnight. We live in an HOA controlled community and cannot keep the motorhome at our house.



We got the little we had taken with us into the Element and that is when I missed my camera memory stick adapter and Zoe's dish.  OK, I'm not perfect...yet. ;c)

It was only an overnight trip and we drove about 700 miles, up and back.  But being in the Journey made it feel like a vacation and refreshed us both.  Another taste of our fulltime adventure coming soon.

Thanks for visiting and please feel free to leave a comment.

4 comments:

  1. I went back and read your old posts, and have to say, you have a great looking motorhome! I can see why you love it enough to give it a hug!

    BTW, I think Zoe thought Marti was delivering breakfast to HER! Now that's a dog's life! :)

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  2. Wow that was some weather you guys went through. And 700 miles is a lot in two days. But you were obviously up for a road trip! Too bad about the eggs. I hate when they get the order wrong and even more when the food isn't prepared well.

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  3. Two questions:
    1) What is a "frog strangler of a storm"?
    2) Did Zoe get to eat the breakfast sandwiches you didn't want?

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  4. Dreamjosie - 1)a frog strangler of a storm is a very heavy rain storm (get it? even the frogs drown?) 2) Zoe got lots of leftovers - as usual.

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