I'm riding in a giant can on wheels.

Picked up the RV this morning in Salem, Ma. You can't miss it. After watching an informational video in a smelly office with two nervous dogs. We signed the paperwork and were free to start the adventure! We moved all of the stuff out of the mini van and into the RV, which was a tad ghetto. But hey- this is an RV and we're out on an adventure so we got rollin'- Vin in the RV and me in the mini van, we still had to drop it off in Cambridge at the car rental place. Dropping off the car was not as simple as one might think. We had a big ass RV to think about on these narrow Boston street afterall... After a slight run in with a school bus, we both managed to make our way and dropped off the car.



So FINALLY! We're driving! We get on 90 finally and we're going in the right direction. WEST.

The wind was blowing at 30 mph and let me tell you- it made for a noisy ride, as well as the constant rocking back and forth. I passed the time by reading the newest issue of Marie Claire and making shims out of paper towels and jamming them into the noisiest spots.

We pulled into Syracuse (let's go orange!) to spend the night and Ursula and Jim's place. Had some Thai food and caught up. After a few glasses of red wine.. I'm tired.

Top 'o the Mornin' at York Beach

Bright and early here on the Nubble in York, Maine.

Loading day was long. It started out sunny and nice out- 50º in March! Vin dropped me off at the airport and I picked up the rental car- which was actually a mini van. We met back and house and waited for the driver to show up to load our stuff up.



We're sitting drinking our coffee when this behemoth tractor trailer pulled up- it was HUGE and took up half the street. John the driver comes in with his assistant Dennis to survey all of the crap we have. (And really. At this point it IS all crap.) The loading commences and they start hauling stuff out. For the most part everything went nice and smooth. The piano proved to be the usual challenge. It wouldn't sit on the cart because the bottom part is a little warped (hey. it's 90+ years old.. we have to cut it some slack) They tried putting it on the cart, they tried wheeling it out, you name it. They even tried picking it up but no one wanted to pop a hernia. At this point I was getting more and more nervous with each attempt so I decided to go distract myself by vacuuming upstairs. Shem stopped by with Sylvia and we had a little visit with them while they moved the piano out of the house. Finally I saw them making their way up into the truck and breathed a sigh of relief. I had been enviosioning it either tipping over and going through the floor, tipping over and going through the porch, you name it.. I thought it.

Finally around 4 we started getting close to having hardly anything in the house. I kept cleaning while they kept loading. The flat bed which was being used to load the car and boat into the truck was supposed to be showing up and we wanted to see how they were going to get Vin's boat into the truck. We waited. And waited. Waited some more. The tow truck guy calls- they're running late. So we go back to loading. I took apart the trusty futon and chair to help move things along. Cleaned some more. Robin showed up to say bye and see the empty house. Which BTW was a little sad. It was a great little house.

At about 5.30 we realize that the tow truck is STILL not there and we have a half hour before we have to pick up the dogs from doggy daycare. John tells us we don't have to wait around so we start doing the paperwork, say our goodbyes and get in the mini van.

I forgot to mention. It was now 34º out and snowing. Yeah. Love that Vermont weather. Started out 50º and sunny... ended cold windy and shitty. Awesome!


We picked up the dogs, packed them into the van and head south. Pulled into York at about 9.30pm. Celebrated our departure from Vt with some champagne with Nick and Jess. I headed up and went to sleep with Suki, Sirius and Mike's dog Gretchen. We hunkered down and went to sleep.

Got up at 6am this morning and took the dogs out for a little potty action. It's really windy out still. Got a load of laundry running and we're meeting Jess for breakfast at 8.30am and then we head out to pick up the RV in Salem, Mass.

I have a bunch of pictures to add up but it's not letting me upload images.. so we'll try again later.

Vince's Roadtrip Update

So Meghan does not get all the credit for this blog. Wanted to fill in the blanks, but actually there's not much else to say.
We did really well in terms of packing quick, being organized and getting things done, even though my project manager might disagree on our efficiency.
The movers were great, and I really really hope they were careful with my boat. We left before it was loaded because the flatbed driver was "busy doing something else".
Nice to come to Maine before heading west. Although I think the dogs are a little confused. Little do they know it's about to get even more confusing for them, because thier little home is going on wheels for 8 days.
We're on the way to get a bagel, pick up the RV, watch the RV training video, drop off the rental car, and head to Syracuse so Meghan can buy a new sweatshirt.
From NY, we head west on 90 to Indiana, near Notre Dame, so Meghan can buy another new sweatshirt.
From Indiana, we head to Nebraska, and we'll probably look for cheesy t shirts for Meghan to buy along the way.
Nebraska to Wyoming via Rt 80. Heading up to Laramie where our Komfort KOA Kampground is located.
From Laramie, we'd like to check out Yellowstone, via West Yellowstone, but the roads may be gnarly for the RV, so that's optional.
Wyoming will lead to Idaho, Pocatello to be correct. I'd love to spend some time out there before we head to Oregon.
I also wanted to head to Bend, OR to take a look around. I know there's a good brew pub there, and I actually have a fishing buddy who lives there. Or at least he used to. He took me down the Deschutes river for trout one year in a drift boat.
So from Bend, we'll head over to Portland and drive to 7303 N Boston ave. I wonder what the neighbors will think of us living in the RV the first night.
The funniest part of the whole trip will be dropping Meghan off at a world class advertising agency, where she just landed a great job at Wieden and Kennedy, in a 25 foot Class C RV with two little dogs co-piloting.
We'll keep y'all posted along the way.

VRL