28 Days and 6200 Miles....

Written 8/25/10

Two years ago I took my first RV trip. I landed in Albuquerque and rented a 32' RV...  in NOVEMBER !!  Needless to say, this 10 day excursion was filled with adventure and crisis...  I'm not a good driver and November is not the month to go camping in high altitudes....  The adventures are chronicled here...in previous posts.

This year I decided to do a road trip to Minnesota!  Me and the doglet - Coco Chic, an adorable toy poodle that is like my perpetual 2 yr old.

I rented an SUV since my BMW convertible would not hold all the stuff I needed for a 4 week journey to the heartland; the capital of "doncha knooow?" and "youbetcha"!  The SUV was loaded to the brim with "stuff" for me, for the dog and lots of extra's from my house in an effort to pare down a bit and dump the good stuff I no longer use on somebody else!  I could barely see out the windows.

DAY 1
My journey began on a Wednesday at 7am - having been up all night packing and putting final touches on getting all my hurricane preparation done.  That means shutters installed and moving any loose object out of the yard and into the house or garage. All my I was pretty tired but excited to begin this new adventure.  I had never before embarked upon a trip of more than 350 miles.  Minneapolis (Edina) was 1,765 miles from Boca and I would be alone the entire way.  I had not pre-planned any stops, hotels or other and we were just going to "wing it" all the way!

I began the drive with lots of loose ends with business deals so I kept pretty busy on the phone for several hours. I had continuous attention from my good friend, Carole, who checked in with me to see progress and keep me from falling asleep.  I finally checked into a hotel at 11pm - 16 hours of driving on day 1.  Understand that 16 hours of driving with a dog requires extended pit stops for gas, water, feeding and other necessities.  Coco Chic is a great dog but it takes nearly 30 minutes for her to find the perfect blade of grass upon which to do her business.  Sometimes she spends 30 minutes and doesn't do ANYTHING at all.  So my dog companion, who rode nearly the entire 1765 miles on my lap, slowed me down a bit.  I should probably mention that as I drove north toward Georgia and Tennessee, the temperature began to rise from 88 to 101 degrees!  ugh.  Walking a dog for 30 minutes in that heat was torture.  I don't know how people live in that temperature!  It was hot and icky sticky everywhere.