Days 1 & 2 - Hammer Down

 Beaufort, SC to Lookout Mountain / Chattanooga, TN to Lawrence, KS

The eve of this amazing journey would be one spent collecting, compiling, organizing, and staging all the things I figured we would need for two weeks in the wind. There's an anxiety to it, as though not having every little knickknack on board is going to somehow ruin the adventure, like we're not going to drive right by thousands of retail centers along the way... After all, we are touring the United States, right? Capitalism's very own Mecca? None the less, the gear was gathered and by 11pm I was in bed, but those wheels were already spinning... As such, sleep would be sacrificed over an alter of apprehension. That's to say, I didn't get very much sleep at all.

When the light began to shine through my window at dawn, I was long since awake and beginning to think about the RV arriving to the house. I'd set it all up through the rental site to be delivered, so the convenience of not having to move gear two and three times was at least a relief.

Big Booty Judy, the name of the thirty-two foot RV Camper, came pulling down the lane a few minutes before 9am, and my adrenaline spiked in anticipation!

The owner, Jim is his name, parked the vehicle and went right into walking us through it all - a veritable compendium of do's and don'ts and enough one off work-arounds that memorizing any of it before shoving off would be impossible.

Never the less, we finished the walk through in about 45 minutes and the moment Jim and his ride drove off, me, Conor, and K9 began loading out the RV with all the afore mentioned gear, stacking plastic totes in the belly of the beast like a Tetris game. Minutes later, both sweaty and eager to get down the road, I twitched Big Booty Judy's ignition key and the considerable Triton V-10 engine roared to life! We were off and running!! 

Helpful of course is the crew... K9, my 81 year old Father in Law, gets on better than a lot of folks his age, I think. This vacation was his brain-child, I simply took care of the logistics and execution. And then of course there's Conor, my ever curious thirteen year old son who's been as excited for this trip as anything he's ever done, and that's saying something. And finally our dog, Moultrie, who's ever under foot but all the same as excited as the rest of us. 

A motley crew of men we most certainly are, each in his own phase of life, this vacation represents something far greater than leisure. The bond between us is forged in the fires of both grief and the rebirth of family. As such, this trip serves to further strengthen what we already know we have while simultaneously creating a legacy of togetherness that will be with each of us 'til our respective end of days. In that sense, we are unbreakable, the road offering salvation and an opportunity to remember why we're here at all, and how we've become who we are.  

The drive to Chattanooga was relatively uneventful save for our route taking us through Atlanta on a Saturday afternoon. My work takes me through this city frequently and each time I'm there it serves as a reminder to be grateful for my home in Beaufort, SC, because what Atlanta represents to me is only one thing - traffic. Traffic in my own car, in an Uber, a colleague's car. Traffic... Throw in a 32' rental RV that I'm only just becoming familiar with and Atlanta's traffic becomes an anxiety filled expedition through twelve lanes of madness surrounded by countless drivers full of angst and rage for having to drive in it every day. "Unpleasant" is the word I would use...

Once through it though, smooth sailing! That is of course until I had to park this RV and do all the things that Jim taught me during the walkaround and explanation of the vehicle.

Recalling his instruction as best I could, there is simply no substitution for "doing". That's to say, you can tell me how to do something a hundred times, but I won't commit it until I actually do it. Well, getting setup on Lookout Mountain meant more than a few follies in remembering all the hookups, the order of things, flashing buttons and specific sequences, though we eventually got set up and settled in to relax.

Suffice to say, I was absolutely exhausted given the lack of sleep, the anxiety filled ride through Atlanta, and finally arriving to a campground to get setup after about ten hours behind the wheel. Two beers and a bite to eat was about all I could muster before turning in.

The following day we had reservations at another campground in Lawrence, KS - a little better than 500 miles. And while our route would take us through Nashville, St. Louis, and Kansas City, we ran into almost no traffic... Sunday driving at its best.

These last two days have been a grind. Anticipation, learning, anxiety and the like, but I knew that to be the case when we started. The whole idea being to hammer down the road and get West into the Rockies, where the drives will be far shorter, and the scenery far more interesting. 

Today we complete this part of the journey, making our way to Colorado Springs to visit with K9s sister, Kathy, another eight plus hours in Big Booty Judy. But after that, our vacation really starts!

Thanks for reading - and stay tuned!