Moochdocking at Home
Tuesday began cloudy, but by the time we started packing in for the drive to Seattle, the rain had started. Rain is good luck, right?
So we planned to be taking this trip on Sunday, but last Friday the 30th it was excruciatingly clear that we had no chance of being out of the house and ready to travel by the 31st. So we extended our stay a day at a time all the way to Tuesday the 3rd. We had to change sites once at the park in Portland, but it was a small hassle compared to the giant task of making ready to leave the city.
Saturday the 31st was spent at the house, loading everything we could into the garage, and extracting every last item from the house to be ready for renters. It wasn't as bad as we feared - really, we had plenty of room in the garage, and while there were things to take to storage etc. it wasn't overwhelming. The big hump on Friday was realizing we weren't going to make our schedule, but once the schedule was thrown out, we felt a little freer to just... do the things. It helped that I wasn't working too.
Nobody felt strongly about that couch when we had it, but when it was time to get rid of it, we were sad to see it go
Sunday was not our usual day of rest, and was instead spent changing sites at the park, visiting Kristin's family in Durham, and making one last trip to the house to pick up the Highlander. We weren't able to sell the Highlander in time, so we dropped it off with a broker to sell on consignment for us.
Monday, then, was finally a "prepare for travel" day. I worked and squeezed in errands - to the storage unit, to the pet store for cat carriers, etc. Kristin turned the contents of the RV over to try to squeeze everything into a travel-safe place. I took Tuesday off to we could drive all day.
We didn't know what to expect, really. How tightly do we need to pack things? How much will our gear move around? Will the cats cry for 5 straight hours? Will maneuvering this thing at speed be exhausting and fearsome?
So we tried to be deliberate, not rushed. We had to dump, disconnect, prepare for travel. Try not to get soaked before climbing in the car. Don't get flustered but be patient. This was not easy. We needed to sanitize our freshwater tank before heading north, as it had been unused for months during the sale. The dump hoses got stuck on the wye connector and I spent a good 20 stinky minutes with a junky Harbor Freight strap wrench trying to get them loose. The cats had to go into unfamiliar carriers and then into the truck at some point. It was a lot.
By the time we were connected and ready to roll, I was feeling right in the middle. I imagined this moment for a long time. We're all here, our home on our backs as it were, ready to leave Portland on a long adventure. What a crazy opportunity! What glorious potential! How momentous a move! But the morning was wet, and hectic, and the to-do list is long, and the cats are yowling. It's not like the videos, or the plans. It doesn't feel momentous, just momentary. We prayed, we high-fived, and I carefully pulled out of the site.
The weather stayed wet. We leapfrogged a heavy rain front nearly all the way north. Sheila, however, did great. No squirrely hydroplaning, great visibility, very good speed control.
The cats… stayed upset. K and I have driven the I-5 stretch between Seattle and Portland probably 100+ times between the two of us. Many of them with crying babies.. This was like that. Sometimes they would stop for a bit and the drive became almost relaxing. Most of the time they yowled from their carriers, and we tried to listen to music or stories and distract ourselves.
The magic of RV travel days became clear at the stops. We stopped twice at rest areas, once to make lunch - from our own fridge! - and once to let the cats out and check on them. In both cases we pulled in, dropped the landing gear, popped a slide or two, and we were practically home. We made tea! It's way better than having to find a Starbucks and wait in line for their dirty bathroom.
When we made it into my parents' neighborhood it became clear that our rig is a lot bigger when you take it off the freeway. Pulling into my parents' muddy, uneven property was much, much more challenging than anyone anticipated. They have a decent amount of space, but it's more hilly and surrounded by choke points than it looks. It was a good 30 minutes of backing, guessing, looking, and sliding (thanks 4 wheel drive!) until we got Solomon level enough to put jacks down.
Now that we've been here for a few days, really it's been quite comfortable. It's been wet and rainy, but not especially cold. It's been really good to see my parents. Dad's been a champ about helping with some challenging fixes in the rig (so far: hooking up the washing machine, re-caulking the kitchen sink, and installing our new RVLock). Tomorrow and Saturday look to be drier, so we'll get the truck bed cover on (it arrived here last Saturday) and work on the front door handrail, which is pulling away from the side of the trailer in a disconcerting way. Mom's been feeding us generously and the wifi is pretty good - a relief after the mediocre T-Mobile service in Portland.
I thought a lot on the way up, as I listened to the cats fuss, about how I would ask my parents if they could watch the cats while we traveled. After hearing about all their travel plans for the next six months, it became clear that they'd need a cat-sitter just as much as we would. So that's not an option, I guess. We'll see what they do on the way back to Portland and start to feel our way forward from there. We have a unique opportunity that week to look for a cat, um, borrower that we could easily retrieve them from on our return. So we'll see.
