A beautiful send-off
The McSweeney family officially began our One-Year RV Family Adventure at 6:40pm on Thursday, June 8, departing from my parents’ home in Derwood, Maryland. The weather was picturesque, the hugs and well-wishes were warm and meaningful, and the dream we’d worked toward for many, many months finally became our reality. See our video of what is involved in closing the outdoor kitchen and pulling in the slides.
First Stop–Masontown, WV!
Late Thursday night, we arrived in Masontown, WV, at the home of my childhood friend, Regan. Her husband, Jason, wins the prize for the most encouraging, gracious, and helpful middle-of-the-night rig-parking coach. Quote of the night: “So they really didn’t give you any kind of course on how to drive this thing?”
After a good night’s sleep, a sweet morning visiting with Regan and Jason, letting our kids get their doggie and kitty-fix, thrill-riding in Jason’s Razor, and watching Sarah drink her body volume in sweet tea, we headed toward our next stop–Trenton, Illinois.
Walmart Parking Lot to the Rescue
After a few hours of driving, the cumulative effect of so much lost sleep began to catch up with John and he informed me it was time to find a Walmart. We’d heard that Walmart will let RV’s spend one night in their parking lots if you go in and get permission from the manager. Once we found a spot that we had confidence we could extract ourselves out from in the morning, we set up for the night and went to bed. Seriously! From “exhausted and uncomfortable traveling in the truck” to “pajamas and my own cozy bed” in under an hour. My giddiness was uncontainable!! Of course we made three requisite trips INTO Walmart for supplies and groceries–I think the deal is a win-win for travelers and Walmart both 🙂
The learning curve is steep…
Let me just say, our rig is big. Really big. This is not an easy trailer to haul, and we are new at this. Forward is much easier than backwards, truck stops are more accessible than regular gas stations, and mailboxes do best to move out of the way. We are learning quickly, however, and the Lord has His hand on us!
