The first question people usually ask when they hear about this trip is whether or not we ever burn ourselves on the crack pipe we surely must be smoking to attempt this. The second most frequently asked is if the RV is hard to drive.
The answer to that (and the first question, of course) is a resounding no–it is actually very easy to drive. She’s (because although currently nameless this ship is definitely a she) a dream sailing down a straight interstate going 60 mph. She loves the open road. You feel like Sandra Bullock without the whole bomb thing strapped to the engine, but sometimes the bomb makes perfect sense.
But as easy as she is to drive, she is a menopausal beyotch to park. Seriously. Right turns take engineer like precision and left turns are sometimes just a blind turn signal and a prayer. She takes up 2 standard parking lanes in length; but we also need additional width when 10 people and 19 (we already lost a flip flop) shoes come tumbling out the side at stops. So stopping and parking are the top considerations for every activity.
Which makes Day 2 particularly awe-aspiring as our heroines, Thelma and Louise, dressed, fed and readied the crew (after a rather sleepless night when the McEagertogetontheraodsons dismantled the neighboring campsite at 4 am) packed up camp in record time, and headed to downtown St. Louis (a major metropolitan city) and made a college campus tour and lunch with a table for 10 at a downtown eatery that was not chain and didn’t have children’s menus.
(I’ll pause for the appropriate accompanying applause.)
Not only did they park the beast downtown, but it was in the same place when they returned sans parking ticket and the Yeti still attached.
We arrived in Kansas City last night night without incident,* and look forward to an action-packed day of sporting event spectating this weekend. We will include pictures in our next entry.**
*Our smallest and most vocal passenger, 3 year old, George, was a conscientious objector to seeing the Arch. That will have to wait until next time, STL.
**You will need to keep this post as a reference for our next episode. It will become essential information after we safely exit the city limits.
