July 9, Tuesday - On the Road Again!

We plan to have a lot more days sitting at campsites than days moving down the road.  Moving days are really not much fun.   Yesterday was our second moving day so far.

We left the Meteor Crater RV park right on at 11:30am.   Of course I'd been up since 7am, done two loads of laundry and packed up our outdoor space.  Putting things away is a BIG part of travel preparations.  Driving down the road in a shaking tin can is not conducive to things staying in place unless a little bit of thought has been put into it.  I'm taking my packing responsibilities seriously! Besides putting everything away we also have to "un-hook" and run through a checklist. 

RV'ing requires that you manage your own waste.  Your trash, yes.... pack that and take it to the nearby dumpster.  Your gray tank (thats sink and shower water) and your black tank (that is the toilet flushings) must both be emptied.  This is a pretty simple task once you know what you are doing, but is daunting when you first do it.  There are hoses, and lifts, and levers, and see-thru elbows.  There is an order of flushing and the clear flush at the end.  There are enzymes to be added.  There are plastic gloves.   It is all quite lovely.   LOL.   No, really, it is pretty simple but definitly a required step before hitting the road.  Although I'm not opposed to doing it, and I certainly help, so far John has been in charge of the waste management pre-travel requisites.

Unhook the power, lock up all the basement drawers, bring in all the slides, bring up the jacks, check the air in the tires, fuel up and air-up if necessary.  This all takes time... we planned to leave at 11 and left actually at 11:38am.

We are traveling in "chase" mode at the moment still.   This is for two reasons..1) we still need one part to make the hitch work, and it should arrive today.  and 2) because we are still learning the RV driving characteristics and would like to feel 100% about that before adding 10 foot and 4000 pounds.  What this means is that I travel with Tucker in the Jeep and follow John and Loki in the RV. (Look for a future post on Loki getting lost in the RV on travel day).   We have handy/talkie radios and stay in touch.   It works but it will be nice to ride together.

We pulled over just north of Flagstaff for lunch after the first hour, stopped once or twice to refill our respective water bottles and pulled into Monument Valley just before 5pm. 200 miles traveled.

It takes about 45 minutes to set up again.  Then relax, dinner and bed.  Long day. 

Super beautiful area.  We can't wait to explore tomorrow.