We finally got our 5th wheel on Friday the 26th of September. It was delivered up to Mille Lacs where we had our travel trailer sitting -- we were swapping the old out for the new one. It came right at dark so we got to set it up for the very first time -- not knowing what we were doing- in the dark. Thankfully the guy that delivered it made sure we got everything set up correctly before he left. Of course we found a few things that needed fixing and decided we needed a few more accessories installed so we brought it back to the dealer on Monday. It was in the 30's that morning as we were trying to load it -- stiff water hose, very stiff electrical cord, etc and our first attempt hitching up the 5th wheel to the truck. We had been shown once at the dealer, needless to say it took us a while to hitch up. We did it and cruised to the dealer with the new truck getting a fabulous 8 miles to the gallon.
We got the 5th wheel back on Wednesday and hitched up again and pulled it to Wild River State Park so we could be closer to the house. We finished up moving into the 5th wheel on Friday the 10th and turned over the keys to the house on Saturday. It was pretty wild getting everything out of the house and what we needed packed up in the 5th wheel in those 10 days. Along with wrapping up cancelling services, changing addresses, etc. We also battled the Asian beetles which were thick at Wild River State Park and many of them rode all the way to New Mexico with us.
We finally hit the road on Monday the 13th. We brought the boat to the park and in the large bus parking lot in the picnic area we hitched it to the back of the 5th wheel -- after getting it parked so we could just back up to it - hoping that the hitch would be the correct height -- hadn't had a chance to really check it out. We lucked out and the boat trailer only needed a slight lift up on to the hitch. The backup camera on the 5th wheel pointed perfectly at the hitch and you could also easily see the boat. Thank goodness for video technology. Of course we did all of this in the pouring rain.
We were in rain until we were at the South Dakota border. What a way to start triple towing, on busy freeways with it raining and of course the wind picked up. We got a fabulous 5 miles to the gallon. We stayed in Sioux Falls 2 nights so we had time to get our new South Dakota drivers licenses. You get your actual new card while you wait. We are now officially South Dakota residents.
We decided to take our chances on US highways instead of interstate freeways. This was a risk because we weren't sure we would find big truck stops to get fuel. We took US 83 down from the west part of South Dakota through western Nebraska and Kansas. We stayed one night in each state and had great steak dinners. All we saw was range land with cattle grazing, or corn as far as the eye could see in all directions. The wind wasn't too bad -- only gusting to 25 miles an hour so we got 6 miles to the gallon.
Our luck ran out when we hit Oklahoma and decided to cut across the Oklahoma panhandle on US 54. It was a terrible road and had no fuel stops we could fit into and we tried hard -getting caught having to go through a mobile home park because we couldn't get turned around -- boy did we get strange looks - our train going through their park. We got into Texas and had to park in a large parking lot and unhitch to get fuel.
We finally got into New Mexico and stayed in a little KOA -- it was 70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. Asian beetles were bad here too so we added more to our collection.
Final stretch -- Saturday morning we are now on I-40 thinking its going to be easy sailing -- freeway, truck stops, rest areas -- everything a US highway doesn't necessarily have but there was road construction. The worst road construction on a major road I've ever seen. They had everyone going all the way over to the shoulder of the road beyond the grooved part-- you know the grooves that tell you, you are running off the road -- and there was at least a 3" drop from the tar to the dirt -- if the boat trailer tire would have hit the drop, it would have flipped the trailer. Jim had ten miles of white knuckle driving through that nightmare.
We headed south on I-25 at Albuquerque (which I can spell now). I saw my first roadrunner pop out of the brush and onto a dirt frontage road along the freeway. It was warm, not much wind except for areas that were posted as having gusty winds and the scenery along the way was beautiful. Lots of pretty colored "hills" maybe they were mountains ,not sure what counts as a mountain, and we got glimpses of the Rio Grande all the way down to Truth or Consequences.
The park we are in is beautiful. Desert gardens all over -- we have the boat parked next to one -- I'll try to take pictures. Going fishing -- that will be my next post.
