The first time moving the trailer in 9 months was truly a monumental effort.
Months of planning went into this to ensure everything went as smoothly as possible. The week leading up to the move was jam packed, wrapping things up and getting ready to hit the road full time. There were a ton of things that needed to be checked off the list.
- Take the last load to the storage unit
- Dump run
- Cat to vet for chronic kidney disease bloodwork
- Sell my Nissan Rouge
- Errands (groceries, pet store, RV maintenance supplies, etc)
- Oil change for the truck
- AC maintenance side quest
- Batton down the hatches and get everything ready for movement
The AC side quest was maybe the most frustrating. I thought “You know, I ran the AC for months and never serviced them, I should get on the roof and clean the coils before I need to turn them on again. It will be a quick task that I can check off the ever growing maintenance list before we hit the road.” I should have known better. The moral of the story was every time I think I have a job I can complete within an afternoon I end up needing 2-3 days.
Here is a fun preview of what I uncovered when I took off the metal panel to access the ac coils. If I had a dollar for every time I started a project and uncovered mold… I would have at least 5 dollars.
Anyway, back to the point of this post.
The week leading up to departure was definitely stressful. Tuesday Dan started to feel a bit under the weather and by Wednesday, there was no mistaking it, he was sick. I avoided the funk for a few days but by Friday it was starting to hit me as well. We were scheduled to move on Saturday and there was not much we could do about the timeline – we needed to hit the road. Rain or shine, sick or health. Shine and health being the preferred duo, but we ended up with rain and sick.
Saturday – Moving Day
We woke up at 7am and I had worked until 1am the night before trying to wrap up and get everything ready.I figured we should be able to hit the road by 9am … 10am at the latest. Oh how wrong I was.
It was cold and raining. Not to mention the 5th wheel had not been moved in about 9 months. I traded in the original truck from a 2500 to a 3500 and in doing so got a different hitch. I was also parked in a tight spot that required blocking traffic in both directions to hitch up. No pressure.
After a lot of frustration and some frozen fingers I think we finally pulled out of the spot around 12:30 pm, only 3.5 hours behind schedule. Perfect, this was going exactly as planned.
The drive was only mapped out to be 2.5 hours so I figured we would knock it out no problem.
We took a 30 minute break at the first rest stop we encountered to eat and recoup from the hectic morning. Once the cold medicine was kicking in again we proceeded on to some really fun windy roads with one lane bridges. We finally arrived at our spot around 4:30 pm. Luckily it was much easier backing in and unhitching than it had been hitching up earlier that morning. That is, until I went inside.
When I opened the door to the trailer and examined how the interior was doing, things were looking rougher than I would have liked. The lampshades I picked out for the kitchen pendant lights didn’t travel well and had broken. I was focused on making sure they didn’t bang together and break that way so I did not think about them needing to support their own weight. The inner ring of the shade is still securely attached to the outlet but the rest of the shade is gone. One of my plants had fallen off the wall which meant there was dirt everywhere. Oh, and the glass plate from the microwave was also on the floor, but at least it wasn’t broken.
Once most of the mess was cleaned up it was time to see what kind of internet connection I could scrounge up. I have been using T-Mobile Internet for a few months with an Omni channel antenna and had no issues but considering I had no T-Mobile service on my cell up until this point, I was skeptical. I had checked coverage maps before we left and purchased a cell hotspot router with 2 sim slots so we could use whatever provider has the best service. Neither T-Mobile nor AT&T had any reception. By this point it was almost 10pm and we were exhausted. The campground was fairly remote, if you didn’t catch onto that with the lack of cell service, so the only thing to do was go to bed and drive 90 minutes (one way) to the closest big town.
I had been resistant to Starlink due to the high cost of equipment, monthly fees, and dependency on an unobstructed view of the sky, which means no trees. But with not a bar of cell service in sight I had to give in and give satellite internet a try.
So, Sunday Dan got up and drove to Salem to get the equipment we needed to keep our remote jobs that are funding this adventure. I stayed back to finish cleaning the mess from the day before and wrap up a few other projects. By the time he was back, it was late afternoon and we were exhausted all over again. As soon as I started to set up the Starlink, I was having issues. We were surrounded by trees and did not have a clear view of the sky. I fiddled with it for a few hours and eventually it was dark and time for bed.
Before work on Monday morning, I climbed up on the roof and found a spot that was actually getting decent signal. I had no way to actually mount it to the roof, so I looped some velcro around the kickstand and tethered it to the AC unit. “I’m sure it will be fiiine,” I thought. “Just my $300 satellite receiver velcroed to the roof.”
Once that was settled it was time to clock in. That day I had multiple video calls without interruption. I was hesitant about it being on the roof but hey it was getting great speeds and only dropping for a few seconds here and there. Then I noticed a little yellow warning icon on the corner of my computer monitor.
⚠️ Weather Alert. Gale warning. ⚠️
The National Weather Service has issued a warning of sustained winds having speeds in the range 34–47 knots (39–54 mph)
You have to be freaking kidding me.
So the next morning I am back on the roof, getting the Starlink down so it doesn’t go flying off the roof in the gale. The next best spot for it was the picnic table. The connection technically worked but was dropping consistently between 2 and 30 seconds. It doesn’t sound like a lot until you are trying to come up with new phrases to say the internet cut out. “Sorry, I dropped there for a moment.” “Can you repeat that?” “Sorry, I think I cut out for a few seconds there.” “Ok, can you hear me now?” “I missed that last part.”
During all of this I was also still getting sick and by Tuesday night it had hit me like a ton of bricks and I was down for the count. Not only were there no big stores, there were also no pharmacies in this town. So Dan took another trip, this one 30 min south, to Lincoln city to get to the closest one. How do people survive in this town? It’s just beach, bakeries, and breweries.
Have I mentioned the truck needed new brakes? Oh yeah. The truck needs new brakes, like yesterday. Thankfully we are not the first people in the campground to require some auto work so the local mechanic stopped by on Thursday, left his car and keys for us, and took the truck to his shop. He returned it promptly in a few hours with a fresh set of brakes. 10/10 service if you ask me.
We are only here for two weeks and this first week has been exhausting. Maybe in the end it’s a good thing this is such a small town. I do not have the energy to do much of anything and do not want to go explore in the cold rain.
Rest this weekend, travel again next weekend.
Midlife Millennial Adventures 