Dear Family and Friends:
We finally “launched” our journey – Tuesday, May 30, we departed Columbus at 5:30 pm. A few weeks later than originally planned, but everything worked out just fine in the end. We have sold our house, sold our car, our furniture and downsized almost all of our belongings into our new DRV Mobile Suites 5th wheel, towing with our new Dodge Ram 3500 dually diesel. We have no experience with camping and have never owned a truck before, but that’s part of the adventure!
Our first night we drove to Toledo and stayed in a Walmart parking lot. It was fairly noisy, with cars in and out of the parking lot, and several semi-trucks were parked there too. But, it was easy and convenient for us on our first night. We were a little nervous driving the “big rig” since we are so new to this, but Steve did a great job driving and we had no problems. The next morning we found out we have a small electrical issue with the gfci outlets….suffice it to say that before now I had no idea what gfci outlets were but I do now!
I should mention we would not have made it out on the road without our friend Rob who Steve met at a gas station a couple of months back. What a gem he has been, helping us with modifications and improvements to our truck, installing our hitch (after researching and finding the right hitch for our rig) and showing us how to hitch and unhitch the truck to the rig. He and his wife have been super friendly and so much help….thank you!
On Wednesday, May 31 we drove to Fort Custer State Recreation Area in the Battle Creek Michigan area. Our first campsite of the journey, and it was a “back in” type site…no pull throughs at this campground! Steve was working on backing in, and had made a few pretty good attempts when a really nice guy (who is named Steve also!) was riding his bike by and stopped to ask if we’d like some help. One minute later he had jumped into the truck and backed us into our site like he had done it a million times!
We’ve already discovered how nice everyone is when camping. And of course everyone wants to meet Gerry! He is loving the journey and is a great passenger in the truck. He’s made the back seat his home. We miss Gunner and Jaeger terribly and still can’t believe they aren’t here with us.
We went on a hike today, about 3 miles, the longest Gerry has done yet, around a beautiful lake. We also visited the Fort Custer National Cemetary, a military cemetary. Very beautiful and peaceful.
Leaving home and family and friends was hard – you all are special to us in so many ways. Thank you for your support and well wishes. This journey will change us in ways we have not yet imagined, I suppose. But we hold you all close in our hearts and look forward to having visitors.
Hope to update this blog on a (somewhat) regular basis to share our journey with you.
