AUGUST
day 1 - 700+ miles past atlanta, ga
After spending every morsel of free time of our summer rushing to get this rig ready for the road, after two disappointing weeks of hiccups, issues, wrong parts, and delays, after a few mental breakdowns while working in the extreme heat and seemingly getting no where, we were finally ready to take off.
Trying to work and order new parts through on and off showers.
We thought we were done, but then the pipes…
We thought we had worked out all the issues. We had a lot of ground to cover to catch up to our itinerary, but we were ready to pound the pavement and get OUT THERE! Off to South Dakota we went where Michael had work and I could play!
A couple of sweet, naive, summer children.
We took a little extra time to get ready, but were ready to roll by 9AM. The problem was, we couldn’t get the truck to start. Small panic. “Is it in neutral?” I offered. No it was not. Haha. Okay. Let’s go.
Then, it wouldn’t reverse. Oh no. What do we do? Oh right this parking break situation. Right right right. NOW LET’S GO.
And go we did. In the heat. Rolling through truck stops to make the diesel pumping easier. Getting extremely well acquainted with Love’s, Pilot, and Flying J. Blasting 70s tunes in the afternoon, and intense EDM to keep us awake through the evening and into the night until we rolled into a Cracker Barrel parking lot at 1AM. Exhausted, but glad we made it to our projected first stop despite the extremely unlevel ground and very crooked sleeping situation.
Truckers dig us.
Truck stop sunset
Day 2 - how to overheat an engine
We made it to Tennessee and had to go up and down some steep grades, but hark, why is the truck only going 15 miles per hour? We got very nervous on the highway, pulled over, and turned her off to take a breath. But then, she wouldn’t turn on.
Oh boy.
Michael jumped out to take a look under the hood. I started calling truck towers to see if anyone would be able (and / or willing) to tow our mammoth to safety. After a panicked 15 minutes, I ran out of places to call and was waiting for a kind lady to ring me back. Michael got back into the driver’s seat, and attempted to turn her on. She started. Praise be.
A little piece of Maui on the mainland
We made it to the truck repair shop I had phoned and got some kind gentlemen to look at our nightmare baby home. Nothing was wrong with her. There were just some things we didn’t understand about shifting gears of mountain climbs with a diesel pusher and accepting the fact that we would move slower downhill. Oh, and never turn off a vehicle if you expect it’s overheating.
Later in the day, we parked at another truck stop to reassess. It was still making that horrific sound, and extreme heat was radiating from the box on the passenger side, blasting me with extra warmth I did not need in this heat wave, thank you.
After diving into the truck’s thick digital manual, Michael discovered we needed more coolant and proceeded to empty nearly 2 bottles of it into our hungry hungry hippo.
Reading a tiny PDF of a big manual
More coolant!
Under the fading sunset light, we rolled into quaint campground in Southern Illinois complete with wandering chickens, ducks, and plenty of trees. We needed a spot with facilities like a bathroom because, I forgot to mention, our toilet broke. The truck came loaded with a Flushmate which is a high efficiency toilet that uses less water than your average porcelain throne.
Okay, lessons were learned. Nothing disastrous, but we needed to recalibrate. We needed to acquire a new Flushmate and get the truck checked out by a mechanic. We were behind on our itinerary. We were stressed. I did NOT trust the truck, and felt a spike of anxiety every time that horrible loud whirring noise came on. I was tired of being jostled around despite the air ride seats. I needed a moment.
"Maybe we need to accept the trip that we're on instead of trying to have the trip we wanted," I said trying to feel optimistic instead of defeated.
That meant no Renegade Burn, the unofficial gathering on the Black Rock Playa since official Burning Man was cancelled. The truck was not yet radically self-reliant. Even if we burned the diesel rushing across the country, we might get stuck in the desert which would not be a good look for a 40,000 pound truck.
We would slow down. Take it a little easier. Regroup and enjoy ourselves in Sioux Falls
day 3 - piñata’s birthday (+carpet pee)
The next morning, we took it slow. I brewed fresh coffee. We drank it on the sweet couch set up on the roof. It was Michael’s birthday, and I found us a nice little campground in Missouri between Kansas City and St. Louis. We’d cover less ground, but have a little more space to breath and maybe even enjoy ourselves.
A picturesque moment amid the chaos
First stop was the truck mechs. When we rolled in, the dudes stood in awe of our little beast. We started to realize small out there towns were the perfect places to be appreciated. The amount of thumbs up we got was encouraging, even as we struggled to understand the metal box of misery. Turned out she had a pressure issue. They fixed her up and sent us on our way.
We rolled into the RV park early that evening, and hiked over to the lake. It was a muddy walk in, but we took a freaking lake dip. Hallelujah! That is, until a horse fly would not stop accosting us and we ran back to the truck for cover.
A birthday lake dip
Sweet Birthday Babe
We got back from the lake and it became very clear that the carpet was still wet and smelled like pee. Here’s what we discovered. The bathroom leaks so the shower water spilled into the carpet. Because our toilet was broken and the bathrooms were far, our pre bed pee was released in the shower area.
So basically we peed on the carpet.
I tried to soak it up, but after half a roll of paper towels, I knew we’d be better of just ripping it out. And so Michael’s next birthday activity was using our exacto knife to rip out the entryway carpet. I then used a vinegar solution to clean and disinfect the bordering bits that were not too bad. The fun never ends.
I made a tofu stir fry in the instant pot, and later surprised Michael with a jumbo Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. It was a weird birthday for sure, but we wouldn’t soon forget the carpet pee saga.
