We have been in Indiana picking up and accessorizing our new Rockwood Mini Lite 2506FK. Starting today, we are on our way west, back home again from our fourth trip to Indiana in 2024. When we get there, we will be ready to stay home for a spell and rest our weary sitz bones. 

A new trailer for Tony and Peggy

We arrived in Goshen with the Mini Lite 2205S on Sunday. Monday morning we towed the 2205S for the last time, to Wana RVs in Shipshewana Indiana. After some paperwork, Wana was kind enough to pull the 2205S into the bay next to our new Rockwood Mini Lite 2506FK so we could move all our personal belongings from one trailer to the other. 

While we were moving our things, the crew at Wana set up our hitch. We had to buy a drop hitch because the one we had was for the Ram 1500. The Ram 2500 is quite a bit taller! 

I worked inside while Tony worked on the outside items. He moved everything from the front passthrough to the rear passthrough. He swapped bumper caps and moved the stinky slinky. He moved the propane accessories and water hookup elbow. 

I packed up our foldable crates as organized as I could. The pantry filled one, the little pantry filled one… See what I mean? Then Tony helped me carry them to the new trailer. I tried to make as few trips as possible, to save my knee from further injury or pain. It took us a couple hours, and items were in fair disarray, but we got it all moved in and then finished up the paperwork. The tech crew at Wana helped us tremendously by swapping the mattresses for us. 

Side note: after two and a half years, we are glad we got the RV queen mattress, even though it was not what we said we wanted. We’ve been filling in the gap at the head of the bed with pillows in the 2205S, and now we have an RV queen and the mattress is just right. 

A few days in Elkhart

We hooked up and as Tony pulled out of the bay, I stood in the yard and took a short video. Then I hopped in the truck to warm up! 

We drove straight to ABC Upfitters to drop off the trailer.  Because the trailer would be occupied with receiving a lithium and solar upgrade, it was unavailable for camping. Therefore, we stayed in a hotel. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday Tony had appointments to review RVs. I went with him on Tuesday, but on Wednesday I borrowed an empty office at ABC and worked on editing the podcast. It was my first attempt at editing video. How did I do? (Episode 282 for reference). It was sprinkling part of the time on Tuesday, but it was raining pretty steadily on Wednesday. Tony got drenched and arrived at ABC so cold! 

Our ABC family was so accommodating in letting me use their office all day. The wifi at our hotel was not very good and we were fairly nervous about getting the podcast ready on time!

More Power!

ABC installed solar panels, a 460-amp-hour lithium battery, and a 3,000-watt inverter, along with the parts needed to make all those parts power our travel trailer. We will be talking and making videos about this in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned!

Oh NO, Snow!

Thursday it snowed - though lightly- all day long. The roads stayed clear but snow stuck to the fields and lawns. Knowing that was coming, we decided not to even attempt to start our drive home on Thursday. We did change hotels, so we were closer to the ABC facility. Friday morning we got up early, had our Holiday Inn Express breakfast, and picked up the trailer. We gave hugs and hooked up and got on the road. 

Day one - three meals in three states

So we had breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express in Elkhart Indiana. We usually limit our days to 300 mils with the travel trailer, but we really want to get home so we decided to get through St. Louis, about 400 miles away. 

We stopped in one of our favorite little towns on Route 66, Atlanta Illinois. There is an American Giants museum that gets better all the time. There is also a restaurant famous for the owner’s wife’s pies. The Country Aire restaurant also boasts an American Giant named Lumi, a waitress holding one of those delectable pies. We had lunch and intended to have pie but we got so full that we couldn’t fit in any desserts!

We made it through St Louis and booked a site at the St Louis West/Historic Route 66 KOA Holiday in Eureka Missouri. We got in just before dark, and got set up. We decided to try to make the whole trip without winterizing, so that we don’t have to worry about freezing before we have time to winterize when we get home. Therefore, we are planning to only book campgrounds with shower houses. I’ll talk more about that in a few days.

Once we had the trailer set up, we warmed up our leftover spaghetti and garlic bread that we had delivered to our hotel last night. Then we test-drove the dinette and got some work caught up. 

One down - three to go

So, day one of operation: get home is under our belts. It rained a bit the first few hours, then stopped raining but we never really got any sunshine. I anticipate more of the same tomorrow. We plan to get through Oklahoma City tomorrow, another 400-ish miles.