Tomorrow is Moving Day, Ready or Not

Location: New Rockdale RV Park; Mansfield, Louisiana

All "necessary" preparations have been made to hitch up and pull out tomorrow morning. Notice I put necessary in quotes. That's because I didn't finish my to-do list. I took a second and third look at the list and prioritized it into things that absolutely needed to get done, like greasing the hitch, stowing stuff away, etc. The second priority was things that would be nice to do but I could still travel even if I didn't do them. To be honest, that second part is a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be at first. 

I emptied my tanks and took on about 3/4 of tank of fresh water. I also threw away my sewer hose and fresh water hose. They have been sitting in the weather for 10 months. Yep, I've been stationary for 10 months!! Anyway, I threw away those old hoses, even though they were still usable, and bought new ones. I also installed a Valterra valve on both of my tank pipes. My black and galley valves were leaking a little bit every now and then. I was surprised a couple of times when I removed the cap to empty my tanks. I haven't traveled with these valves in place yet so I don't know for sure if they will stay or vibrate themselves loose. I'll know by tomorrow afternoon. If they work, it is a very cheap fix instead of replacing the existing valves.

My plan if to leave about 9 or 10 in the morning before it gets too hot and humid. My next campground will be Kiamichi Park on the banks of Hugo Lake near the city of Hugo, Oklahoma. It will be about 200 miles. It is a Corps of Engineers campground and I plan to purchase my Annual Senior Pass there and use it immediately. The pass costs $20.00 and I will save that much in the two days I'll be camped there. The Pass is good at all National Parks and Monuments as well as half price on COE campgrounds. 

A thunderstorm is blowing through as I write this post. So far, just thunder but no rain. Another storm blew through yesterday while I was away from Liberty. I could tell the wind had been strong because pine needles were sticking to the side of Liberty. As soon as I got in and turned the A/C lower, the power went out. It was out for about 5 hours but luckily the storm brought cooler weather and with my two exhaust fans going, it wasn't too uncomfortable. But today, my TV isn't receiving any over the air TV channels. I tried a DVD and it worked, so the TV is working. I'm afraid the winds my have damaged my antenna but I won't know for a while since I'm not climbing up there to see before leaving tomorrow. While traveling, TV is not important to me and I've gone weeks and weeks without it being turned on. If it's broken, I may wait to have it looked at when I get back in the fall. 

I know I'm forgetting something in the way of preparing to leave, but since I can't think of it, it must not be important. If I remember it, then it will move up in status and become important. I'll take my time hitching up tomorrow since it's been so long since I've done it. Hopefully I'll remember all the steps. If I get to Oklahoma and not have Liberty with me, then I'll know it's time to hang up the keys for good. 

On one of my many breaks from preparing for the trip I put together my travel stats since I started fulltime RV'ing back on April 11, 2014. That has been 4 years and 2 months. Since then, I've towed Liberty 35,372 miles and passed through or camped in 45 states. The states missing are: Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota, Rhode Island and Delaware. I've camped in 203 campground with 105 being state/federal/county. The miles traveled between campgrounds is an average of 175 miles. Sometimes, all of those places are a blur and other times they are clear as bell. I sure am glad I began this blog because it is just like my external memory.

I'll end this post with one of my favorite quotes from a movie. The movie isn't a favorite of mine, but this particular quote is a good one for RV travelers.

"I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain."


Pictures in the next post, I promise. :)

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.