Wednesday, July 8- Saturday, July 11

This third trip in the RV is to help the kids move from Florida to Virginia and a theme of 2 hour delays!!!  The RV would be where we slept, ate our meals, and the best transportation for our granddaughter and their not one, not two, but three cats!

Our plan was to begin our drive from Ohio to Florida mid to late morning.  W-e-l-l, that did not happen.  You see when we were packed and ready to head out the RV equalizer system would not retract the levelers!  Every light was blinking and we didn’t know why.  We were reading the manual, which by the way was useless.  Dave is calling the repair department where we bought the RV and I’m googling why won’t the equalizer system work?

To make a long story short as I’m sure you get the idea of the frustration, Dave finally talked to one of the mechanics who helped him locate the reset switch.  Once that was found, the equalizer lifted the levelers.  Of course, this cost us 2 hours of drive time. 😩

The drive for the rest of the day thank goodness was uneventful!

We stopped for the night at the South Carolina Welcome Center rest area.  We tried to get a decent night’s sleep.

We were on the road early Thursday morning and we were making good time.  We were just outside Jacksonville, Florida when a pick up truck pulled up beside us and motioned for Dave to put down his window.  He said we had a flat tire and needed to pull over immediately.  Dave did and we were on a slight slant so we couldn’t tell which tire was flat.  We got off the highway at the next stop and saw that it was the back inside tire that was very low!  Dave asked at the truck stop repair center if they could fix the tire and it is too small of a tire for them and they sent us to an auto shop across the street.  We go there and they don’t repair RV tires!  They gave us the name and address of an RV repair shop that was a couple of exits farther down and wasn’t out of our way.  This guy doesn’t do tires but he did put air in the tire and after losing about 2 hours we are on our way again.  He suggested we check the pressure of that tire when we get to our stop this evening.

Tonight we are staying at an RV park that is about half an hour from the kids house.  We get set up and our son picks us up and we head to their place to help finish the last bit of packing that we can and have some dinner together.  The moving company had left earlier in the day with all of their furniture and boxes.

On Friday morning we are up early to check out of the RV park and head to the kids house.  We park the RV out front while the kids head to close on the sell of their home.  We babysit the baby and also help load what still needs to go into the cars and RV.  Everything is loaded including the 3 cats who are closed off in the back part of the RV where they would be safe.

By late morning we are on the road.  The RV is the leader, then I’m following driving one of their cars which is completely full except for the driver’s seat and Ryan’s taking up the rear driving his car which is completely packed and pulling a small U-Haul trailer.  We are definitely quite the sight heading North.  Our plan is to drive until 8:30 PM, pull in to the nearest rest area, have dinner, relax and get some sleep!

You know how the best laid plans work out.  As I’m following the RV, I notice that the tire that was low yesterday looks very low.  When we stop for gas and lunch, Dave checks the pressure and it is flat no air at all.  So we have to call and get the warranty service to get a mobile service there to pull off the flat tire and put on the spare.  When the tire change was finished we were ready to get on the road again.  The kids did a cat check and the youngest of the cats, Stella, couldn’t be found.  We are all searching for her.  Well, after quite a while, she was located and our daughter-in-law, Amy, was small enough to grab her and pull her out of the tight corner she had pushed herself into.  There is a little opening under the bedside built in and she had squeezed herself into that space.  What a scary moment for all of us.  The cat was fine but panting!

Again we lost at least 2 hours sitting in the RV waiting to get the tire replaced and locating the missing cat!  Thank heavens, the man who was sent was quick and did a great job and the cat rescued.  At least there weren’t any accidents or construction closures to slow us down.

Saturday morning we are up and ready to go and on time.  We made sure all of the cats are in the front of the camper so we can pull in the back bedroom slide.  Next is to bring in the “living area” slide.  We check for all 3 cats to move them to the back and one is missing, Luna!  Oh no, not again!  We are searching high and low.  She is nowhere to be found.  Our granddaughter is enjoying a break from her car seat

Our best guess is that she climbed somewhere under the bed through an opening where the slide goes in and out!  Dave and our son, Ryan, take the bed apart and still don’t see the cat.  Ryan takes his phone and reaches as far as he can where the water tank is located below the top of the bed area and we can’t remove it.  With his phone he is stretching his arm under there and snapping pictures.  A photo shows her stuffed up in by the boards and the water tank!  Now they are trying to coax her out!  Again after much effort they grab her.

We can now tell you where every crevice is that a silly cat could climb into!   They proceeded to stuff towels, boxes, and anything they can to block where a cat could get trapped again!  Needless to say we had planned to leave by 7:30 and it was about 9:30 before all of the cats were safe and our caravan began to head to our final destination of Ohio, another 2 hour delay!  The rest of the day was uneventful.  Whew!

Everyone was going to stay with us until midweek when we would caravan to their new location in Virginia.  What will happen on our next adventure?????