Tuesday, June 28 #solTuesdays
Every time I got in a car with one of my parents, we took the back roads to get where we were going. They both said it was faster and avoided more traffic. Let me tell you, sometimes it seemed we drove out of our way, just to take the “quicker” route.
As an adult, sometimes I go the back roads, but I’m just as likely to take the highway. It often depends on how much I am paying attention and thinking about which way I want to go. (I often navigate by habit….)
When you are driving (or navigating) a 33 foot motorhome, you’d better be paying attention to where you are going! We are in the process of figuring out which GPS/ trip system will help us choose better roads. There are ones out that you can input the size of your unit, and it will avoid roads that won’t work!
What I need to find out is if these will still recommend roads that you might FIT on, but don’t really want to drive. Snaky, serpentine roads are not fun in a motorhome, especially when they are narrow, or have lots of blind curves or hills. Last weekend we drove from our home to a state park about 2.5 hours away. The 2 hour part was fine. The last 30 minutes, not so much. We wound our way back & forth, curve after curve. (When I say we, I mean Greg was driving and I was frantically searching for a better way to go when we left, as I know many state parks do not have adequate internet for us to search on before we left!)
It’s really hard to turn one of these buggers around unless you find a large parking area, so on we went. Before we arrived I had found a different route we could use to go home and took a picture of it on my phone. (As I suspected, the internet didn’t want to work while we were there AND my phone wasn’t doing much either.) According to my phone’s map program, the trip home would be about 15 minutes longer since we were going out of our way to get to a highway sooner and avoid the winding road. We disagreed with the map since our speed on the “cow path” had to be so slow. Sometimes the fastest route isn’t the shortest!
Luckily that was the almost most stressful part of our trip. Stay tuned for the next installment with the most stressful part. : )
WhereWeRV 
Oh, dear! I hope I am not going to hear about a breakdown! Driving twisting roads is hard enough in a car; I cannot imagine it in a long RV! Glad you arrived and hope you could relax before there was “the more stressful” part. Nice photos, too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The last half hour may have been a bit taxing, but the pictures show it was well worth it. I love putting my GPS in a tizzy and having her tell me that she is rerouting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your Slice left me feeling very stressed (a good thing!), but left me wondering so much about your adventures. I can’t wait to learn more! Loved the photos, especially the kayak — a happy place for me. Have a blast and keep Slicing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Navigation and driving is always so stressful! Your pictures at the end made me relax a bit and I’m sure they did the same for you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love how I can hear your voice in this story! I’m sorry for the stress – but the pictures are amazing and I am so glad you are slicing!!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m slicing because you inspire me!!
LikeLike
This is one of my retirement dreams. I still have to wait for my wife to retire, though. Meanwhile, I’ll be taking notes on your successes and…challenges. Looking forward to the next installment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If one of you is retired, you can work around that person’s schedule for a while. Greg is going to work for 6 to 12 months so we see what my pension is like before he stops. So, we planned a bunch of weekend and long weekend trips for August and September!
LikeLike
It took me a couple of years to come to the realization that if I wanted to be in a beautiful campground in the middle of nowhere we would have to DRIVE TO the middle of nowhere., and those roads are not always the best. Unless we are on route, we really don’t want to camp along a highway, right?
LikeLiked by 1 person