Day 1 – Get away

As Greg would say, it’s get away day. Noelle went to pick up Victoria from woodlands camp and I did some last minute activities. Checked air in all tires, washed the Lexus, bought a few last minute essentials, and put a small amount of water in the camper for emergency potty breaks. Jimmy and Jane arrived and threw their stuff in the RV. Noelle arrived shortly after with girls – time to go. We’ve spent the last month packing the camper and ordering an obscene amount of things from Amazon and are finally ready to go. We grab a few other essentials like hamsters and dogs, pull out the RV, and we’re off.

First leg of the trip has us traveling to Newnan to pick up some cargo and hand off some cargo. We’re grabbing my Dad’s 1974 Jeep that I’m going to tow behind the RV. We’re also using my 2007 Lexus GX470 to tow my brother Nathan’s recently purchased by Jayco trailer. This is where the adventures begin. We needed to install a new tow bracket into the Lexus and adjust it so the trailer is balanced. The problem is none of us know how to do this so we just start beating on things to pull it apart as we’re figuring out how it’s supposed to work.

We made one critical mistake in this process – there’s a little screw on the back of the adjustable tow hitch that puts tension on the pins that hold it together. We didn’t realize the function of that and thought the pins were just fit in really tight and beat them with out with a hammer… And bent the threads all to hell. That’s a problem because you need threads to not be bent to hell to be able to put the nut back on to secure it. We tried in vain to fix the bolt, but Dad ended up making a run to Lowes to acquire some new bolts. He found some perfect matches, and we put it all back together and figured out how to get it nice and level. The caravan is now loaded.

We handed dad’s wife Elizabeth our two dogs – Sophie and Ellie and two hamsters – Hammy and Barry. Thank you for watching the pets Elizabeth! We’ll try not to kill your husband…

Took a few last pictures, and we’re on the road. We had Dad and Ryan in the Lexus with camper… Me, Noelle, my two daughters Lydia and Victoria, and Jayne and Jimmy in the RV towing the Jeep. We’re headed for Arkansas to visit my sister Becky and her family.

Heres the second real test of the trip – gas. We really don’t know what to expect for gas mileage hauling all this equipment. I knew it would be really bad when Ryan said they were down to a quarter tank in what felt like 20-30 minutes of driving. Dad has a Kroger credit card and has a million points for gas discounts, but you have to be able to find a Kroger gas station.

I’m not sure if everyone is aware, but they have these cool things called gauges built in to most cars. These gauges tell you when you are getting low on gas. Some even have lights that tell you when you are getting REALLY low. These are unheard of concepts for the Hodgsons. I was at about a half tank and I see dad put on hazards and pull over on the highway. Out of gas .5 miles from the next kroger gas station. Luckily the Jeep has a full 5 gallon tank strapped to the back of it.

Filled up once after about 175 miles. We’re both getting about 8 miles per gallon. 5000 / 175 miles/ 2 cars * $3 a gallon… That’s a lot of stops and a lot of gas. We’ll look into electric rvs for the next trip. 

Most people make mistakes and learn from their mistakes. They run out of gas once and they vow to never make that mistake again. Hodgson’s are different. Guess what happened 176 miles later? Ran out of gas .5 miles from another Kroger gas station. It’s going to be an interesting trip…

Rest of trip was fairly uneventful. The main bridge going across the Mississippi had a crack in it, but Google maps is smart and rerouted us to an uncracked bridge. Dad did pull to the side of the road one more time after dark. Thought he was out of gas again. Walked up beside the lexus to yell at them and they hit the gas and pull off narrowly avoiding running me over. They did not realize I was still following them… They just wanted to check their directions to next kroger gas station… They were confident they could make it there, so we headed on to the destination. The Kroger they went to was closed… Paid full price for gas. I think someone is trying to teach us a lesson here…

We made it to Becky’s at 11:15 and parked in front of her place. We’re pooped. More eventful first day than we had planned, but thankful we made it. Got to keep an eye on the rv. It’s been making some strange noises on acceleration. Plan is to rest tomorrow and hang out with family.