Second Maiden Voyage

As we made our way through the hills of Virginia and Tennessee in our new rig today, we kept thinking how grateful we were that (a) we had done this "maiden voyage" thing once before, and (b) this wasn't our first day as fulltimers.

We know of several good people who have launched their fulltiming journeys in brand new big rigs. Many of them RVing for the very first time. To them we have two things to say. First, bless you. Second, you have much more courage than we do. And, one more thing. Please understand what we are about the say here is not intended to be a criticism of any kind. We're simply trying to inform.

As we hooked our squirrel to the new moose this morning we came to realization that we're now 50-something feet long. Thinking back to that first day when we took our brand new toad-free 32-footer out on the freeway during rush hour, it felt absolutely huge! And, rightfully so. It was! But, today, after some 12,000 miles of RVing experience behind us, we knew what we were getting into. We took it slow and checked our mirrors.

Hours later, while I was behind the wheel, we started climbing in the mountains. I flipped on the engine brake and let it do its thing. For someone who'd driven a motorhome many miles over the last year and a half, it was a squirrely experience. Had I never been behind the wheel, I gotta tell ya, I would've freaked.

Fast forward a bit and Paul was pulling off the interstate to a Flying J. Had we been newbies, our first question would have been "Where the heck do we go?". But, having been through a few of these busy mazes disguised as flying consonants, we now know that a 40-footer does not pass "Go!", but heads instead directly to the truck pumps. And, once we were there, Paul was faced with questions asking for our "unit number" and "hub something". No, it didn't make a bit of sense. But, Paul had the calm presence of mind that comes with experience. He picked up the phone next to the pump and asked.

Our final maiden voyage test was the trip from the interstate to the KOA. It was only a couple of miles, but the road was narrow, twisty and turny. The elevation drop from the street to the office was notable. We took it all in stride. After we were lead by a teenager in a golf cart to our sloping pull-through site, we tried to level up. One of our back wheels was up in the air. As newbies, we might not have known this is a no-go. But, as seasoned RVers we knew we needed to try, try again. And, we did. Taking almost an hour to get level tested our mettle today. Had this been our maiden voyage you might have had to scrape us both off the ceiling.

Our first maiden voyage in our Voyage was a healthy mix of karma and luck. And, for that, we are grateful. Our second maiden voyage, in our new Tour, taught us the value of a great set of training wheels. Tonight we're thanking our lucky stars that this floor plan we've always dreamed of is our second rig and not our first. We're even more thankful for the four months of fulltiming we have under our belts before taking this maiden voyage.

It's official. While we're far from experts, we're not newbies any more.