Thursday, October 07, 2010

RV adventure - Part II

So when last we heard, our heroine (me) was sitting at the top of a New Hampshire mountain at a storage facility with her brand-new 13-year-old ginormous RV, less than a quarter of a tank of gas and a hand-drawn map showing how to get to the highway.
After a "here I go, wish me luck!" call to Fran, I set off. I quickly figured out that side-view mirrors are an RVer's best friends. If the mirrors fit, the whole vehicle fits. Another quick revelation - RVs are not good mountain climbers. In the New Hampshire mountains, for every down there's a very-closely-related up. I would like to apologize now to every single person who was out driving in New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania on Saturday, September 25. Yes, that was me holding you up and forcing traffic to crawl at 25 mph. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
I also noticed the needle of the gas gauge going down - fast. I needed to find a gas station and I had no idea if I was anywhere close to hitting the interstate and its nice, wide-open service plazas. So when I saw a sign for fuel - I got off the little highway I was on and headed for the service station. Which was on the other side of a two-lane street and had minimal maneuvering room. And an awning.
I know all the hysterical scenarios being imagined here. None of them happened. I filled up (BTW - did you know most gas pumps cut you off when you hit $75?), back-and-forthed back into traffic and went on my merry way.
Remember my day started at home in my very own cozy little bed. Up at 4 a.m., off to O'Hare, flight to Boston, 2 hour drive to New Hampshire. Crash course in RVs.
So my merry way started after 1 p.m., Eastern time. I had a reservation at the Cheerful Valley Campground for that night. Cheerful Valley is in Phelps, New York, west of Syracuse. Which looked entirely do-able on MapQuest and in my TripTik. Both MapQuest and TripTiks expect you to be going somewhat close to the speed limit. Which I wasn't. I tried, but The Land Cookie just couldn't do it. And New York is a very wide state.
It was well after dark when I approached Cheerful Valley Campground. Which will be Part III.
-Hope

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