Not Always Peachy!

Now that some of our favorite moments are out of the bag, we will talk about some of our worst, most embarrassing, or most disappointing moments of the four-month long trip.

1) A trip consisting of over 30,000 miles in four months will definitely put some strain on any vehicle. I thought that with relatively new RV with low mileage would handle the stress. Unfortunately I was wrong and while traveling the Oregon coast, we experienced some RV issues, namely it was blowing white smoke in abundance out of the exhaust. We took it in for service and were told that the engine was going out, but it could make it to our next destination but with a lot of white smoke. We ended up driving through San Francisco during rush hour with the white-billowing smoke. Truckers, strangers, and environmental-friendly Prius drivers pleaded for us to pull over. Others were more blatant with their disgust and gave us dirty looks and the finger, it was quite embarrassing. The assessment we received earlier that day was wrong and the RV barely made it to LA and would not go any further. It ended up having to be towed to Phoenix and the engine and transmission were rebuilt.

2) A few things that go along with the RV lifestyle are not very luxurious. One of those is dumping the grey and black water about once to twice a week. Well one time at the beginning of our trip, Nolan was dumping the water as I was holding the end down with my foot. The hose was actually two hoses connected together and Nolan was lifting up on the hose when the two hoses disconnected and some poop water got on his foot. It was pretty disgusting, but hilarious at the same time. We both gagged a few times, but looking back on it, you had to laugh. Another time, we were at a dump site at a gas station and had the hose hooked up when we started dumping. Well we didn’t realize that the dump was full and it started to back flow around the dump site. We had to quickly shut it off but some of the bad water still over-flowed. It smelled pretty terrible and we high-tailed it out of there!

3) One aspect of our trip was to see the nation and some of the national parks. That is one of the reasons we decided on the schedule because it brought us from Minneapolis to Seattle, so we could see Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, and Glacier National Park. We also decided to do it early so weather wouldn’t hamper us. Little did we know, that we would hit a blizzard in early October in the Northwest. It really limited our site-seeing during that week. First we stopped by Mt. Rushmore and it was a beautiful day and we got some great pictures. Then we headed for the East Gate of Yellowstone. On the way we hit a snow storm, but it didn’t seem too bad just yet. Further and further up the mountains just before the pass, the snow was getting heavier and we saw a car off the side of the road that obviously slid off. At that point we asked ourselves if this was a stupid idea, and of course we ignored our intuition and drove on through the thickening snow. We saw a tractor-trailer ahead stopped and a highway worker in front of him who waved us on into the other lane. We didn’t think twice about why the trucker was stopped and kept going. Well there was a small hill just after and I tried to gain as much speed before going up it. We didn’t quite make it to the crest of the hill and started sliding backwards towards the trucker with a foot of snow on either side of the road. Luckily the brakes held about halfway down the hill and Nolan and Aaron helped guide my turn-around to retrace our route back to the highway. After experiencing a little anxiety from the slide, I was entertained to see Nolan, with his converse, sliding and falling down on the icy road as he guided me. Needless to say, we only saw a little of Yellowstone and missed out entirely on Glacier National Park.

4) Biloxi! That is all I can say!

5) On our way to Pittsburgh, we picked up a few friends for the first weekend. So we had five people sleeping and living in the RV for about five days. Little did we know that having five people in that close proximity is not a good thing, especially when you throw in little sleep, tailgates, and new cities. On the third day, everyone was in bad shape with some sort of sickness. The RV was nicknamed the “Petri Dish” because it held all the germs of these five people and no one could overcome the sickness while on the trip. I think someone almost died! Once we dropped the other two off and were able to get out of the RV a little more, we got better. It was a rough start, with the strenuous schedule and colds, nonetheless.

6) When we got our first oil change in Savannah, GA, the guy told us that we needed to get the plugs and harnesses replaced to get better gas mileage. I thought that was strange since we tuned the engine prior to leaving. Well it took us about a week to find a place that would work on the engine. So we rolled into Dallas on Thursday evening to drop off the RV at a Southwest International. We thought this was a great deal since we wouldn’t have to worry about parking it in downtown Dallas. Well a few days later and a couple calls, we found out the RV wouldn’t be ready until Tuesday. That was still okay, but we wouldn’t have the RV for the Dallas Monday Night game. Not a huge deal as long as we got this work done. Well Tuesday turned into Thursday morning, and after spending four extra days in hotels and having a rental car, we started the RV only to find the engine temperature soaring through the roof. It was raining and now it seemed that the International repair place did not do anything except waste our time. Another hour later, they finally figured out the problem and we were off. At first, the engine seemed to be doing better, but then it just sounded worse and worse. The batteries were dead and it continued to seem that this company did nothing but cause us heartache and trouble. I still wonder if this stop helped exaggerate the engine problems we had about a week later.

7) The publicity we received for the trip in the beginning was incredible and more than we ever expected thanks to Veteran Tickets Foundation. We had several interviews even before we left Phoenix. When we got to Tallahassee, we received a message from ESPN about doing an interview or story on us. Well we didn’t have tickets yet to the game and they wanted to know where we were sitting. So we purchased three tickets just prior to the game and left a message with the contact. That was the last we heard from them. I think we got back to them too late and our chances with ESPN were thwarted for the first weekend, and as we learned, for the rest of the season. It was pretty amazing being contacted by ESPN the first game, but it was highly disappointing that we never did get on the ultimate sports channel. We remained hopeful but our optimism with getting on ESPN dwindled every weekend.

8 ) Having an RV makes it a little difficult to just pull in to a friend’s house and spend the night. There is a lot to worry about with parking and making sure it will fit. Most places we were able to figure something out. Other times we were left with only a few options: Rest stops, Walmart, and Flying J. Walmart made sense because we had to get supplies for the tailgates and the trip, so it was easy and convenient. We only got kicked out of one Walmart lot in Monterey, CA, but we did come across a few “No Overnight Parking” signs that prolonged several already late nights. Flying J’s were also convenient because they have RV lanes for gas and also Propane and a dump site. So we spent several nights in the RV friendly Flying J parking lot. Rest stops were pretty horrible to sleep in because it was terribly loud and usually no one slept well. There were a few times that the only option was a rest stop. Our worst experience was when we encountered a blizzard in Montana and couldn’t drive any further, so we stopped at a rest stop and turned the generator on so we would stay warm. Besides all the truckers idling all night, the carbon monoxide detector started beeping in the middle of the night. We didn’t know if it was our generator exhaust or the diesel trucks causing the detector to pierce our ears, but we turned the generator off and froze the rest of the night. Luckily no frostbite, but it was a miserable night.

9) Driving through Texas three times!

10) There was one more reason why Dallas left such a bitter taste in our mouth and we almost lost one of the touring members because of this. We rolled into Dallas late and after dropping off Aaron and our stuff at the hotel, Nolan and I drove to the Southwest International shop. Again it was late, so no one was there to help us with parking so we drove around trying to figure out where to park. Nolan tried to pull into one parking spot but realized it was too tight and backed out. He didn’t pull out enough and then started to drive forward and the rear passenger side back swung wide and hit a barrier pole creasing the back panels. He told me he was done and flying back to Florida. Luckily several others and I talked to him and convinced him to stay. The creased panels were still functional so basically we just added a racing strip to that side. A little battle damage was expected!

The best of the worst…

Worst Outdoor Stadium: Oakland – Alameda Coliseum, Raiders

Worst Indoor Stadium: Metrodome, Vikings (Twins are getting a new stadium, what about the Vikings?)

Quietest Stadium: Georgia Dome, Falcons (Both teams didn’t make the playoffs)

Worst Game: Seahawks vs. Jaguars (Blowout)

Worst Tailgate: Titans vs. Chargers (Christmas evening and freezing cold; not a good combination for people to come tailgate)

Worst Popcorn: Dallas Cowboys (it was a little burnt and had a lot of kernels)

Worst RV Parking Location: Gainesville, Gators (Unless you are a booster, we had to park 2 miles away)

Worst Interview: Cincinnati (I don’t think it ever aired, it was that bad!)