Flashback Friday– Our Beginners’ Story, Jan 2004

      The Hurley Travels blog is still alive! The silence for a month or so is only temporary while we've been percolating some new ideas.  For now, how about "Flashback Friday?"  This is an idea that came to us as we were looking back over these last seven years of fulltime rving. We have a million experiences in our personal RAM.  99% are fantastic memories.   Hopefully, our recollections will stand the test of time.  But we do know that those that we've shared on this blog over the past four years are handy when we want to refresh them. But that instant recall isn't available for the first three years. So....abracadabra! Flashback Friday was created.  We plan to post on Fridays about a place, a person or an event in those first three years. It will be fun revisiting.  Hope you enjoy going back with us.

     What would be best as the first Flashback Friday? Beginning at the beginning with a beginners' story seemed appropriate. Some of you have heard it, but we'll put it here for posterity anyway.

     We were on what we considered the trial run for the fulltime lifestyle.  Our agreement was that if this three to four-month period impressed us, we would return in the spring to our Indianapolis home and sell out and hit the road.  We had purchased our fifth-wheel and dually a few months earlier and planned to leave Indianapolis after the Christmas holidays.  Jerry even went through the winterizing process since the weather can be nasty in the December/January time frame. This winter is a vivid example of that. 

     We were already Escapees members and had become familiar with the parks and learned a lot online in the discussion forums.  We even had one Escapade (a gathering of hundreds of rvers to learn and share) under our belts from the previous September in Elkhart, Indiana.  But, neither one of us had a great deal of “rving” experience.  A total zero in that area would be a better description. But we had grown up in Indiana's sometimes zero temps.   So we felt confident in planning this winter getaway. We made a plan to go as far as the closest Escapees park in Heiskell, Tennessee, that first night in mid-January.  At that point it would be safe to  clear the anti-freeze out of the lines and be ready to proceed on to warmer winter climates.

     Although a snow storm did threaten to keep us in Indiana and the temps were in the teens, we got out of town that morning and were in our park and settled into a spot before dark.  Before too long the campground host came around to tell us that it could get unusually cold over night,  possibly in the 20s, and we should be sure to take precautions with the water hookup.  So, of course, we listened and did so.

     Remember that I mentioned we had both been attuned to freezing problems?  Well, when we got ready to pick up in the morning to continue our travels, there it was.  We had shut off the water for sure.  But....our hose was still attached to the spigot.  Neither one of us had thought to detach it.  Now we had a rock-hard frozen, totally unbendable hose to detach and store somewhere inside our rig before we could leave.  We were both quite embarrassed, but as soon as it warmed up we were laughing and have been ever since. 

     What's your silly, embarrassing or ridiculous rving story?  I know we aren’t the only ones who found themselves in a similar situation.  We would love to hear your “flashbacks.”

     Thanks for visiting Hurley Travels.  Talk to you later.