Class of 2014 Graduation!

If you follow RV Dreams forums you would know what I mean by that title. But we are finally on the road and have received our diplomas (drivers licenses) in South Dakota!



Heading out!

Sunday was filled with more packing. We thought we had packed everything and just needed to grab our suitcases and the dogs and head over to the trailer. Well, we got packed up...one laundry basket full of bedding, one full of items from the fridge, our duffle bag and suit case, a cooler for the road plus three small totes we forgot about in the garage. Once it was all loaded up there was no room for the dogs! So it was over to the trailer to drop this load off (Thank you to Gloria for the awesome breakfast!) then back to pick up the dogs. I unloaded the truck and went back to get the dogs (30 minutes each way) while Barb put everything away. Word of advice.... When you finally get down to the bare minimum of what you think you need, cut it in half, then cut it in half again. We have way too much stuff!

Barb managed to stuff everything away and we were on the road by noon headed for South Dakota. We stopped twice to double check things like when one of us would ask..."Did you latch the bikes?" (they weren't latched). Luckily Sioux Falls is only 5 hours from us so we pulled in about 6pm. We definitely need a check list for opening, closing and packing things up. Although we have had a horse trailer with living quarters for years, this is our first RV so we are learning some things as we go.

One minor catastrophe.....one of the overhead doors had opened and you cannot see it with the slides in. The problem is when we opened the slides the door got caught and took a little chip out of it. Could have been a lot worse and lesson learned.



Who has the keys?

Lesson #2....take the keys out when you get out to check something. Daisy loves to push the lock button and just stare at you while you try to get in. Luckily Barb is well aware of this little trick from her years of hauling a horse trailer with Daisy and is constantly reminding me to grab the keys. I need to get an 3rd set as I know this is going to happen.


In a previous post I listed our "must haves" and "nice to haves". I forgot one thing..... an additional mirror on the passenger side so Barb and see the back of the trailer while I am turning corners. More than once while turning corners I would try to look in the passenger side mirror only to see the back of Barb's head as she too was looking to make sure we were clearing the corner!

Sioux Falls went seamlessly. We stopped at the mail forwarding service and picked up our mail and filled out our vehicle registration information. Then it was off to the DMV to get our drivers licenses. We filled out the paperwork, provided our passports, SS cards, 2 pieces of mail and our hotel receipt and within 20 minutes we had our drivers licenses and were South Dakota residents!

 



This is when we could see the road!

Then it was off to Salt Lake, it was a two day trip that was both beautiful and horrifying. If you have never driven Hwy 44 through the Missouri River area of South Dakota you have to do it. The horrifying part was between Cheyenne and Laramie Wyoming were we got caught in a snow storm going over the mountains just east of Laramie. It was 6am and white out conditions, Barb was driving and could not see the centerline or the white line on the shoulder. Twice the truck and trailer slid sideways trying to maintain traction going up the grade. Stopping was not an option because once stopped you would never gain traction to get moving again. So she put it into 4WD and rode the rumble strip (at least we knew where we were on the road!) at 25mph for 10 miles to the Happy Jack rest area. We waited it out for a few hours and descended the 5% grade into Laramie.

We made Salt Lake last night but still encountered several white-knuckle stretches across Wyoming where a snow storm would hit and the roads disappear! We will spend the next few days visiting with our kids and hopeful that is the last time we will be driving in snow for a long time!