Time Zone: Central
Today's Weather: 54ºF, overcast
Length of Tour Stop: 7 days/6 nights
Next move: tomorrow night
Saturday is laundry day. Jonathan goes to play the matinee, I find a coin-op laundry and try not to drop the socks on the nasty floor. This park is relatively bare-bones so I'm not expecting much. At least it has a laundry room. I hope the dryers aren't full of dirt like they were at Grandma's RV Camping in Louisville, KY.
When we left Appleton, WI last Sunday night we thought we were leaving winter as well. And then it snowed on our first night in the St. Louis area. We had one frigid, sunny day and one night of spectacular lightning and thunder that made Yoda pee out of fright. The dogs are still not quite adjusted to the exposure one feels living in an RV. With the shades down and the heaters on we can convince ourselves we're in a cozy little cave, but the noises of the night are still present in a way they never are in a house unless your house has some serious insulation issues, or a tree fell on it, or it's been lightly bombed.
We've been productive here in St. Louis, which is a great relief after the exile of Appleton; up there we were forced into company housing at the Candlewood Suites because no RV parks in a 50 mile radius were offering water hookup given the deep freeze gripping the region. We'd only just picked up the dogs in Kentucky (thank you, Mom and Ally, for driving them to Ohio!) so it was pretty traumatic for the beast-citizens of the RV, who had barely adjusted to their new digs before we put them through the patience test that is hotel living with dogs.
The return to a hotel was only slightly less traumatic for the humans. We've gotten spoiled with our fully stocked kitchen, our mini-office, our fireplace and recliner and sofa, our wardrobe and closets and toiletry cabinet. And most of all, NO PACKING AND UNPACKING. Or, as I came to call it when we were moving from hotel to hotel every week, REPACKING. Shuffling stuff from bag to bag, getting it down a hall, up a flight of stairs, into a car, into a trunk, under the bed, under the sink, under our feet. Yes, we do have to hookup and unhook the RV from site to site, but so far that is a thousand times less tedious than jigsaw-puzzling everything into a suitcase and then realizing you've got three more unsquishable objects to accommodate. There were a few moves where I had multiple paper bags hanging from the bell cart, containing things like iPads and teapots. Unsquishables are the enemy when you live out of a suitcase. The RV welcomes all things with open (but locking) cupboards.
As with all Harebrained Schemes, this one originated at night and beer was at hand. For a good long time I thought we were kidding, imagining our way around the structural difficulties of building a castle on a cloud. It was only when we got up the next day and I said, "So what's the plan for today?" and he said, "Home Depot," and I said, "What do we need from Home Depot?" and he said, "All the wood and hardware to build the deck," that I realized while I had been imagining, he had been making solid plans.
Stay tuned for a week or so to find out. Deck work is temporarily suspended, as we're in the middle of a five show weekend and it's Moving Day Eve. We pull up stakes and hit the road after the last show tomorrow. Construction will resume upon arrival in Charlotte.
Miles Driven with RV: 3287.5 miles
Days Lived in RV: 60 days
Camps Overnighted in RV: 9 RV parks
States Camped in RV: 6 (TX, AL, TN, IN, KY, IL)