Day Zero – Departure Day (April 28, 2017)

Well, we did it!  Officially off on our adventure!  You would have thought that by scheduling the house settlement at 9:00am we would have been rolling out of town sooner than 3:00pm – but I guess sometimes things don’t work out the way you expect.  It was a LONG day – finished cleaning out the house, and tried to squeeze all of our CRAP into one 20’ Airstream and the bed of a Ford F250.  Two motorbikes?  It was questionable – but we got it done. And by “we” I mean Darryl got it done – mostly I watched and played with the best neighbor dog in the world, Blue (who I will miss terribly, BTW).

You knew that at some point we just had to throw everything in and figure it out later – which is what we ended up doing.

God must have a sense of humor, because it took us over an hour just to get out of town because of Friday traffic!  But after a few hours made it to Charlottesville, VA – and the trip officially began!

Let’s get something straight right off the bat – neither Darryl nor I are what you would call, um, “handy.”  We aren’t exactly the best do-it-yourselfers – and if something does go wrong it falls to the one who is the least frustrated at the time to try to figure it out.  So, when we arrived and couldn’t get the AC to work… a good time was not being had by all.  Super frustrating… especially for our first night out – with no cell service and the amazing disappearing operations manual.

I’d like to think that we are made of tougher stuff than to be ready to forget it all and head straight to Denver and buy a house… but we are so tired and so frustrated that any little thing seems to set one of us off.  I hope it gets better – and I’m sure it will… but I guess the upside is that we had “that conversation” tonight.  “That conversation” that if this sucks and we hate this living on the road thing it is ok to say it and to move on to the next adventure.  It’s going to have to be open and honest this year or else it is going to be a very long trip!

But I guess the karma Gods were smiling on us – because somehow we figured it out and got it working.  Not going to bed hot, sweaty, and stinky?  Priceless!  Once we got the AC working and everything else set up, we spent a few hours sorting and unpacking, dining and wining, and – I’m very happy to report – had our first decent night’s sleep in MONTHS!  I’ll take that as a good sign.

Next up – Columbia, SC!

The Wine:  Monticello Gran Reserva 1985 Rioja (We’ve been saving this bottle for nearly 15 years waiting for the right occasion… it was worth the wait!).

The Menu:  Teriyaki Steak with mixed steamed vegetables