Part 2 - Road Trip
We both quit our jobs in October of 2017, taking a leap of faith that a traveling job would be as good as it seemed.
Obviously, living in a camper meant that we would have to head South for the Winter if we wanted to be comfortable and not risk any damage to our new camper-home. So Scott took a travelling job in the Microbiology lab at Banner University Medical Center of Tucson. The contract started on October 27th of 2017.
We left Peoria on October 22nd, late in the evening, with our camper in tow. We drove at night to avoid traffic and any chance of overheating our tow vehicle's engine. Our route would parallel Old Route 66 all the way to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Illinois wasn't going to let us go without a fight though. It started to rain, the wind kicked up, and the camper began to sway back and forth badly. About this time, I saw police lights flashing behind me, and realized we were being pulled over.
"I pulled you over 'cuz you were swerving back there". Then I had to explain to him the physics of hauling a large camper...with a tiny truck...in the wind...on a wet road. He saw the wisdom of my argument (aka...realized I wasn't drunk) and let us go on our way.
One last challenge from Illinois right before we crossed the Mississippi River. A battery light illuminated the dashboard. After a bit of troubleshooting, we discovered that the alternator was failing to charge the battery. Lucky for us, Scott put in a new alternator before we left and kept the old alternator as a back-up. After a quick change in the parking lot of a Walmart near East Saint Louis, the truck was happy again and we were ready to roll on through St Louis to I-44.
We stopped for dinner at Denny's somewhere in Missouri at a random truck stop. Dinner was more amazing than it should have been, especially when compared to the junk food we ate in the truck. We were stuffed, and the strange smell coming from this RV across from us, made us decide we needed to get some sleep for the night.
It was a cold night and the animals were cuddling up.
We didn't make it much farther into Missouri the next morning when our dashboard flashed the dreaded battery light again. After pulling over at a truck-stop, and with no other option, we were forced to call a local roadside assistance company to bring us another alternator. This time, we opted to go up from the 105 amp to 130 amp version. Alternator #3 installed, and we were on our way to Oklahoma.
All I can say about I-44 through Oklahoma...don't do it!!! The tollways were a nightmare! In fact we gave Oklahoma a new name...O-Fuck-lahoma...due to how much we hated driving through there. So we drove on through Amarillo, Texas, and we made it to New Mexico. We were happy to find some amazing New Mexican food at the Silver Moon Cafe in Santa Rosa.
We took a slight detour off the interstate to go through Roswell and encountered steep grade, mountain highways that our rig was not equipped to handle. The transmission temperatures were dangerously high and the truck would not allow us to go more than 20 mph through most of the climbs. Leaving the interstate in a mountainous area is a novice mistake that we will not make again.
The drive from Las Cruces on I-10 West was a beautiful drive (minus the Immigration checkpoints) that took us through sandy, barren desert that gave way to the lush vegetation of the Sonoran Desert as we neared Tucson.
Stay tuned for our review of Tucson and Desert Trails RV Park.
Here is a link to our previous article.
Part 1 - In the Beginning
The next article:
Part 3 - Star-i-zona.
Obviously, living in a camper meant that we would have to head South for the Winter if we wanted to be comfortable and not risk any damage to our new camper-home. So Scott took a travelling job in the Microbiology lab at Banner University Medical Center of Tucson. The contract started on October 27th of 2017.
We left Peoria on October 22nd, late in the evening, with our camper in tow. We drove at night to avoid traffic and any chance of overheating our tow vehicle's engine. Our route would parallel Old Route 66 all the way to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Illinois wasn't going to let us go without a fight though. It started to rain, the wind kicked up, and the camper began to sway back and forth badly. About this time, I saw police lights flashing behind me, and realized we were being pulled over.
"I pulled you over 'cuz you were swerving back there". Then I had to explain to him the physics of hauling a large camper...with a tiny truck...in the wind...on a wet road. He saw the wisdom of my argument (aka...realized I wasn't drunk) and let us go on our way.
 |
| First gas stop of the trip. About got stuck here trying to get around other cars. |
One last challenge from Illinois right before we crossed the Mississippi River. A battery light illuminated the dashboard. After a bit of troubleshooting, we discovered that the alternator was failing to charge the battery. Lucky for us, Scott put in a new alternator before we left and kept the old alternator as a back-up. After a quick change in the parking lot of a Walmart near East Saint Louis, the truck was happy again and we were ready to roll on through St Louis to I-44.
We stopped for dinner at Denny's somewhere in Missouri at a random truck stop. Dinner was more amazing than it should have been, especially when compared to the junk food we ate in the truck. We were stuffed, and the strange smell coming from this RV across from us, made us decide we needed to get some sleep for the night.
 |
| The Cannabus. |
It was a cold night and the animals were cuddling up.
We didn't make it much farther into Missouri the next morning when our dashboard flashed the dreaded battery light again. After pulling over at a truck-stop, and with no other option, we were forced to call a local roadside assistance company to bring us another alternator. This time, we opted to go up from the 105 amp to 130 amp version. Alternator #3 installed, and we were on our way to Oklahoma.
All I can say about I-44 through Oklahoma...don't do it!!! The tollways were a nightmare! In fact we gave Oklahoma a new name...O-Fuck-lahoma...due to how much we hated driving through there. So we drove on through Amarillo, Texas, and we made it to New Mexico. We were happy to find some amazing New Mexican food at the Silver Moon Cafe in Santa Rosa.
 |
| This place had the BEST food!!! |
 |
| A little beer to go with my chili peppers. |
We took a slight detour off the interstate to go through Roswell and encountered steep grade, mountain highways that our rig was not equipped to handle. The transmission temperatures were dangerously high and the truck would not allow us to go more than 20 mph through most of the climbs. Leaving the interstate in a mountainous area is a novice mistake that we will not make again.
The drive from Las Cruces on I-10 West was a beautiful drive (minus the Immigration checkpoints) that took us through sandy, barren desert that gave way to the lush vegetation of the Sonoran Desert as we neared Tucson.
Stay tuned for our review of Tucson and Desert Trails RV Park.
Here is a link to our previous article.
Part 1 - In the Beginning
The next article:
Part 3 - Star-i-zona.
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