Breaking in haRVey

Thank you for reading our travel blog!  We are excited to share our inaugural RV adventure with you - with this crowd of pseudo crazies, something interesting is always bound to happen.

We finally have day one in haRVey under our belts.  For those of you wondering what happend to the Lucky Leprechaun, well, the kids unanimously vetoed the name as "stupid - so, back to the drawing board.  Many names were thrown around with Sydney dubbing every single suggestion as "so stupid" until haRVey was thrown out.  That name was met with a "well, it doesn't completely suck".  Thus, haRVey the RV was born.

Now on to the RV it self.  I haven't toured in many, but this thing is suh-weet!  Full bedroom "suite" in the back with shower and bathroom, a couch/diningroom table turns into a bed, a regular couch that turns into a bed, and a full queen over the cab.  Plus, a 42" flat panel tv that rises out of the kitchen counter (full kitchen with fridge, stove, microwave) with the push of a button.  In order to accommodate all of this travel bliss, this thing is 31 feet long.

Yesterday's journey involved picking up haRVey from his resting place in Rolling Prairie, Indiana where Damon's dad graciously housed him for a week.  We spent the first hour freaking out about every sound - wondering if this thing is road ready.  Almost went off the road when the the fire extinguisher somehow dislodged itself and went rolling across the floor.  Loudly.  Did I mention we picked it up from the factory with 29 miles on it?  Lots of noises as haRVey gets broken in.

We drove to Plainfield to pick up three very happy kids and then took off for Des Moines.  We did not have any "grey water" on the first day, so we have been unable to experience going to the bathroom on the road, which, for those of you who have ever traveled with baby bladder probably know, is the most exciting part of this trip for me (& Damon).

Kids appear to be loving the experience - the ability to walk around (yes we know that is illegal mom), sit at a table, cook dinner while rolling, and sleep fully stretched out is awesome.  Personally, I tried to lay down in the back bedroom and was lulled to sleep until we hit a big bump and I literally caught about 6" of air - with a nice soft landing. 

Damon's experience has not been quite as exciting as ours - he has done all of the driving so far.  The highlight of his first day was nearly wetting himself after a large rock hit our windshield - yes, we've already cracked the windshield.  Hope insurance covers that...

And the question most everyone is probably curious about - what is the gas mileage on that rig?  Well, we are pleased to say that we are rocking about 7.5 mpg.  I've never been so anal about a 5 cent difference in price and we are carefully monitoring the AAA website to see which states and where we should be filling up.

Shout out to the Iowa Clines for letting us park the rig last night, letting us use indoor plumbing, and giving us coffee this morning.  We love you!

We generally end the blog with a "quote of the day".  For yesterday, we have a short conversation of the day:

Donna:  What are you doing?
Sydney (16): Trying to help [my friend] figure out what she should wear tonight - she is hanging out with a boy she likes.
Donna (sarcastically):  Probably something low cut and slutty
Sydney:  We'll yeah, but we need to be more specific.  Sparkles or no sparkles.

Aaahhh - teenagers.