I admit that I was ready to abandon our trip four times before finally convincing my husband, Mitch. MAYDAY! When pushed to a point, I can be very persuasive or, as Mitch may say, annoyingly relentless. But I was DONE! This is the tale of the beginning of the end of our RV trip and KanVan our RV.

The First Time I Wanted to Go Home

September 27, 2023, we started off driving straight to Colorado.  Thirteen hours on day one to Iowa. My Apple Watch was on high alert, yelling at me using messages.  What happened to your 12K steps?  What are you doing?  Aren’t you standing? What’s going on?  How do you explain sitting for endless hours driving to a watch? I should have ignored the messages.  Was this an omen of things to come?

September 28, our water pump failed , and we were fortunate to find a genius with poor-fitting pants to modify the pump with an external on/off switch. Will not be able to use the shower for the duration of the trip. Let me clarify that, we will not be able to shower in the RV for the remainder of the trip. The repair company was extraordinary and didn’t charge us for all the time spent working on our rig. We continued the drive and arrived in Colorado at 7:45 P.M. Mountain Time, but my stomach was still on 9:45 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Mitch does not need to eat at regular times; no problem for him to eat dinner at 10 p.m. and then go to sleep!

The second Time I Wanted to Go Home

On October 3, five days into our trip, we lost all electricity. We found another repair shop, but they could not fix the RV. All hotels were booked we had no lights, heat, refrigerator, outlets, or water. We bought ice for our cooler and hoped all our food from the refrigerator would keep. It was cool that night and we slept in our clothes with three blankets; it was surprisingly comfortable, in the middle of nowhere, until Mitch woke up with Afib -!!!AHHH – His symptoms only lasted two hours and he is on meds to reduce the risk of stroke; BUT all I kept thinking was, OMG! How would I get help if needed – it was unsafe to drive in the area at night. I had an occasional bar on my phone, so perhaps an SOS call would work!. Thankfully he was feeling better in two hours. The next morning, I told my dad that Mom visited me from above and said, ” What the F@#$ are you doing? Go Home!

LUXURIES

Mitch insisted we don’t need luxuries! My reply was when did electric outlets and water become a luxury?

On October 4, we survived the night and returned to town, where we found an electric genius to work on our RV.  He was able to get our lights and refrigerator to work.  We still did not have use of outlets; therefore, we had no microwave, or ability to charge the laptop, and no air conditioner.  But at least we had our refrigerator, some water, and lights.  I bought a French press for coffee and boiled water on our gas stove. We bought inverters for the cab cigarette lighter ports (old school), and we could charge phones and iPads using the inverter. By the way, this genius also would not take any money for his work; all he wanted was beer.

The Third Time I wanted to Go Home

October 9 – We spoke to the dealer about all the issues and determined we would drop off the RV on the way home. We continued to Santa Fe, and it was hotel night! We typically stay in a hotel once a week, typically centered around a Bills Game and good reception. But this was an exception. We finally got to the INN, and Mitch turned left into their parking lot!  BANG, SCRATCH! WHOA!

There was an overhang on the roof’s eave – no warning – and we (he) gashed the side of the RV.  I insisted to Mitch that the universe was telling us to go home! Mitch spent most of the day doing repairs and did a fantastic job. And, we are continuing….

The Fourth Time I Wanted to Go Home

Our next stop was an RV park with five stars!  We pulled in and I thought Mitch was joking.  It looked like a junkyard in the middle of nowhere.  The gentleman who lived at the lot heard me talking and said, “You sound like a New Yorker; I can tell by your attitude.”

We paid him and pulled into our spot (the only RV there), and I told Mitch that we were out of here!!!!!  Once again, it took a while to convince him…but I found another RV lot, and we left. 

Mitch got really sick that evening.  Food Poisoning?  Stomach Bug?

But after 24 hours, he was lethargic and needed to go to the ER to rehydrate! The ER was in Winslow, Arizona. Think Eagle’s song.

The facility was amazing, and the doctor, who lives in LA and works in Winslow eight days a month, was fabulous. She was concerned that Mitch had migraines since we had been traveling, so she ordered a CAT Scan of his brain. So yes, we went to the ER for stomach flu and ended up with a CAT scan of his brain. No brain bleeds!

BUT THAT IS WHEN I SAID ENOUGH! And so, these two wandering Jews headed home. Our RV went to its birthplace in the middle of the country to get fixed and brought back to life – factory-new!

Keeping it Real

This blog is for a bit of entertainment. I realize that the issues discussed above are a mere trifle compared to everything happening worldwide. But sometimes you need a bit of distraction…. My next blog will talk about all the wonderful sights we visited because we did see some great areas in our beautiful country.

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For an inspiring stories about Raising a Child with a Rare Chromosome Deletion, check out my 3-time award-winning memoir,  Raising Jess: A Story of Hope! Five star ratings on Amazon!