Travel, Day 1: Maine to New Hampshire
We've been on the road now for a few days now, and we've stopped to stay with a family member in Toledo, Ohio until the end of the week.
The first day of travel we left central Maine and reached the southern Maine coast right around sunset. We got to watch the waves roll in on a small beach in Kennebunkport and see the colors spread across the sky as the sun went down. It was the most beautiful sunset I've seen in awhile.
I was terrified during most of the drive on the first day--I had all kinds of fears: the trailer detaching and flipping over on the highway or wheels falling off and smashing into the windshield of another car. I couldn't believe we were actually doing what had only been an idea and a dream: pulling a trailer on a cross-country trip with the intention of living out of the trailer and a tent for the next five months. I'd read about other people's experiences doing just this, but it seemed unreal that we could now be doing it, too. It was a fantasy come to life.
We left the beach and headed for a nearby Walmart over the New Hampshire border that allowed rvers to overnight in the back of their lot. We ran into traffic and an unexpectedly closed exit, got turned around and lost, and reached the limits of our endurance. With the help of the gps, we took a convoluted trip around a gigantic collection of superstores and eventually we landed at the Walmart, where we spent our first night. We tried to decompress with a visit to a nearby steakhouse, walking in the dark through areas that were clearly not planned with pedestrians in mind, but found there would be a half-hour wait for a table. We'd forgotten it was Friday night and everyone in the nearby suburbs had congregated at the neighborhood chain restaurant to unwind. We needed food and soon, so we reluctantly wrenched ourselves away from the smell of cooking steak and walked back to the Walmart parking lot. I've already forgotten what we ate instead, something from Walmart. We made up our beds and I was asleep shortly after eating.
Before we left our home I downloaded an app that locates Walmarts on a map and provides information from other users about whether each store does or does not allow overnight camping for rvers. This has proved to be incredibly useful and I highly recommend it: http://www.allstays.com/c/wal-mart-locations.htm. It also gives phone numbers of individual stores so you can call and confirm whether or not you'll be welcomed, and provides an overview of nearby facilities.
We'd been unable to find winter home for one of our cats so we brought her along with us. We have plans for her to stay at a relative's home but for now, she's a nomad, just like us. She's fifteen years old and has proven to be remarkably adaptable. She slept with M. on one bed on that first night, and the dog slept with me on the other. That makes two adult humans, a dog, and a cat co-habitating in a thirteen foot long trailer. Oh, and that thirteen feet includes the length of the trailer hitch. So, yeah, cozy.
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| S. on the beach |
The first day of travel we left central Maine and reached the southern Maine coast right around sunset. We got to watch the waves roll in on a small beach in Kennebunkport and see the colors spread across the sky as the sun went down. It was the most beautiful sunset I've seen in awhile.
I was terrified during most of the drive on the first day--I had all kinds of fears: the trailer detaching and flipping over on the highway or wheels falling off and smashing into the windshield of another car. I couldn't believe we were actually doing what had only been an idea and a dream: pulling a trailer on a cross-country trip with the intention of living out of the trailer and a tent for the next five months. I'd read about other people's experiences doing just this, but it seemed unreal that we could now be doing it, too. It was a fantasy come to life.
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| Photo by Mike Lewinski |
Before we left our home I downloaded an app that locates Walmarts on a map and provides information from other users about whether each store does or does not allow overnight camping for rvers. This has proved to be incredibly useful and I highly recommend it: http://www.allstays.com/c/wal-mart-locations.htm. It also gives phone numbers of individual stores so you can call and confirm whether or not you'll be welcomed, and provides an overview of nearby facilities.
We'd been unable to find winter home for one of our cats so we brought her along with us. We have plans for her to stay at a relative's home but for now, she's a nomad, just like us. She's fifteen years old and has proven to be remarkably adaptable. She slept with M. on one bed on that first night, and the dog slept with me on the other. That makes two adult humans, a dog, and a cat co-habitating in a thirteen foot long trailer. Oh, and that thirteen feet includes the length of the trailer hitch. So, yeah, cozy.
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