Chapter One...the journey begins

(R-L: Sassy-Frassy, and yours truly, in the driver's seat; Savannah Kay with a cup 'o goldfish; Bekah chillin' with an icee)(**Please note the beloved tele in the back...we are loaded to maximum capacity. This information is very important for the chapters to come.)

(Sweet caboose, huh?)

On Friday morning, we open our eyes and spring from our camper beds to begin our last day in beautiful Monterey...and begin our journey to the heartland of Manhattan, Kansas. We were looking forward to our trip because sleeping in the driveway was a far cry from adventure. Little did we know that adventure was one thing we would get plenty of in the days to come. We collected Rebekah from school at lunch, and had lofty plans to depart around noon. At nearly two, and after a very tearful goodbye to our best buddies, the Stroms, we embarked on our journey.


Now on day one, we decided to travel to Bakersfield, California. Jeremy had stayed in the R.V. Resort there when he made the trek from Arizona to California in October. After a bit of discussion about our route to Bakersfield, I'll have you know that Lindz relented and followed Jerm on his route to our destination of the day.

It was unseasonable warm in Monterey. In fact, I would venture to say it was the hottest day we had witnessed during our stay in California. Jeremy gave me a little ring a ding on my cell phone from his steamy truck. It seemed the air conditioner was no workity in Big Blue.

Jeremy spent the next five hours with the windows down, sweating like a maniac. I spent the next five hours staring at the rear of the camper which is how I noticed that the right blinker light and the brake light were not working. After a quick pit stop on the side of the road, Jeremy replugged the unplugged light cord and we headed on. About an hour later I noticed a recurrence in the lack of lighting, only now the cord had drug the ground and was in need of repair or replacement.

In addition to the camper light issue, my regular headlights were not working. I had to drive with my high beams on, blinding all who drove in front of me. Our new GPS, fondly named LOLA, informed us that there was a Camping World just down the street from our final destination. We cruised into the Camping World parking lot just 15 minutes before closing, to purchase a replacement cord for the camper. Then we high-high tailed it to our spot at the resort. After a dinner at the resort restaurant, I checked into my college class via the complimentary Internet, and Jeremy took the girls to the pool.




We ran that AC all night, and slept like babies. Day one down, and a to do list for the morning. Our early morning mission...replace the camper cord and repair the AC in the truck. We had scheduled a stay in Flagstaff, Arizona for Saturday night. We had a 9 or 10 hour trip ahead of us, but the hum of the AC was all we could think about right now.