#4 Day 1

Today is Wednesday June 15th and we are leaving on our big adventure, but there was much to do before we left the house. Randall had errands that needed to be done both out and at the house. As we began to load up the RV, a thunderstorm started up. I kept on trying to be productive but it’s just a little harder when the rain is coming down sideways. We got the RV loaded eventually and the next thing you know we are all hungry so we went to Smithfield BBQ. It’s not health food but it is what it is. The next thing you know its 7 or 8 o'clock at night and we haven't left Wilmington yet We started realizing that it was going to be a problem with getting into the gate at Falls lake in Raleigh. We had reservations but they lock the gate at 9pm. We went ahead and plunged forward and got to Raleigh at about 10:20. Our son Ben lives in Raleigh, so I asked if he would go by and try to talk to the park ranger and ask for special considerations. He tried but they said we lock the gate at 10pm and that’s that. We decided the only practical thing to do would be to go and park at Walmart and it was pretty weird. We were afraid to engage the slide outs because I thought the store manager might think were getting too comfortable. It was pretty cramped. We left Wilmington like a bunch of crazy people, so in the middle of the living room there was a truck tool box, two kayaks and a bicycle. In Savannah’s room there was a kayak, caddy cornered from her bed to the bathroom. We slept in the Walmart parking lot. I woke up at 6 a.m. but we can't really go anywhere yet because, we thought the gate of the campground opened at 8am. We later found it was 7. FYI, I have noticed the website for Falls lake is inaccurate in both opening and closing times. India and I walked down to Wally World and we bought a few groceries. I had hoped to get a hot cup of coffee for me and hot tea for India but that was not a Walmart item. I decided I could grind the beans at an outdoor outlet by the coke machines so I took my coffee beans and my grinder and did the deed and walked back to the RV. We poured bowling water over the coffee grounds to do 1 cup at a time. I thought sitting in our beach chairs looked like we were living in the parking lot so we sat in the cab of the truck and had coffee and tea. To me there are some ethics that go along with the “Its ok for RV’rs to park overnight at Walmart’s policy.” They let us do it because we are likely to buy products, but we also become loyal customers because we appreciate their kindness.

My ethics say you park as far away from the good parking places as possible, crash, buy something at the store then leave. Setting some beach chairs, a small table and lighting the grill seems to be a bit much.

At 8 am we went to Falls Lake and it was very pretty. Things were going well and I was getting ready to disconnect the camper from the truck who we named Blue Baby last night; it’s a Dodge Ram 3500 dually. I had brought an old filing cabinet to give to Ben and it was strapped to the truck bed. Normally the person puts down the landing gear of the RV then raises the RV up high enough to disconnect from the fifth wheel. I had this really cool idea. Why wait to disconnect the fifth wheel, just do it first now. Now realize, this was a wave of insanity. When this happens to me, it always costs me money as a way to learning what to never do. I disconnected the locking mechanism from the fifth wheel and the camper rolled backwards and landed on the filing cabinet and its 8,000 pounds crushed it. Here is a picture here for your entertainment.

This was day 2, morning. I learn everything from destroying things so now that I’ve destroyed the filing cabinet, I'm much smarter now but it always cost me money to be so smart.