Sunday June 13rd after Richard had fed his pastoral flock we headed home to finish packing the motor home. It wasn't long before we were ready to move the RV from it's parking spot at the end of our property and leave for our three week adventure. While Richard hooked up the battery and moved our temporary home I checked that everything in the house was secure and we hadn't forgotten to pack anything.
Richard was taken quite some time but he eventually came in and informed me that he would have to take the battery (the 3rd one) back to Canadian Tire for replacement as it too was dead. This was the beginning of this years adventure. He returned with the replacement, hooked it up, started up the RV and moved it to the street ready for us to take our leave. It was about 3:00 or so when we finally set out.
We had no real plan other than to get as far from home as we could that first day. By about 10 - 10:30 Richard had had enough driving for the first stretch; we were in Estevan. We had not quite made it to the border as hoped. We found the local Walmart and pulled into their car park for the night. Engine turned off, battery disconnected we discovered we had no power to the coach. No problem we would run the generator; that started fine but would only run for about 5 minutes before it too quite. The adventure had begun; had the mice eaten through wires during the residence in the RV?
Having RV problems is nothing new to us; having had a 1972 Winnebago Brave before this RV we were not new to breakdowns and motor home adventures. We learned at the beginning of our RV days that you always add extra travel days for unforeseen (not sure that that's the correct term to use) breakdowns. The question was; do we want to do anything about this current turn of events? Not really, well not at the moment. We pulled out the emergency lights and went to bed.
The plan for Monday was to drive as far as we could. Not much of a plan but it worked for us. There were no new mishaps or surprises for us on Monday and we happily listened to our audio book as we traveled on I94. We made it to Menomonie, just outside Eau Claire, found the nearest Walmart and once more parked for the night. Still not having any power once the engine was turned off and the vehicle battery disconnected; we munched on what was at hand and then headed for bed.
The next day we set out on our last leg of travel for this first part of our vacation. For Christmas Richard got himself a GPS and we discovered that this small piece of equipment was worth it's weight in gold. It directed us away from major delays and kept us moving in the fastest most efficient route to Greenfield. We were really looking forward to using this small piece of equipment once we were within reaches of Milwaukee and hence Greenfield, our destination.
I have to say this was the most relaxed either of us have ever been on a trip to visit with the Koch family; we would have stress from the breakdowns, various mishaps and reading maps to guide Richard through the traffic. We took the lack of power calmly; I did not have to tell Richard which lane to move too or which junction or exit to take, that was all left to the GPS. This was the first time we had arrived at Laura and Aaron's home not over loaded with stress from an adventurous drive.
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