Day 2 began earlier than I had hoped – 3.57am. The following hours involved rolling around in bed hoping to go back to sleep, checking the weather forecast at various locations on our route (which included a mixture of sun, rain, snow and thunderstorms) and trying to find highlights of Ulster’s win over Edinburgh on Saturday.
I eventually clambered out of bed at about 7am and made my way to the bathroom. I bumped into an unshaven Ryan and was impressed with his overnight facial hair growth. I encouraged him to grow a beard – when else was he going to get such an opportunity to experiment? He thought about it for a while, even brought it to committee (Lucy and me (but mainly Lucy)) but I found him shaving in the RV 30 minutes later and that was the end of that.
There was much to work out today – how to stop the Merc/Benzo/Dingy/Yute from running out of battery, how to get some internet access on the road and how to turn a corner in the RV without getting stuck and either unhooking the Benzo while blocking traffic and inviting the attentions of a local security guard or waking up a fellow camper and asking her to move her pick-up (both of which happened to me on Day 1). All of these things were successfully achieved before lunchtime.
The afternoon was spent eating up the miles (250 in total). Ryan and I shared the driving from Oregon, through Washington and finally into Idaho in some difficult windy conditions with tumbleweed blowing across the road.
We arrived in Post Falls and pulled into a local RV park for the night. With our power and water hooked up, beers were being drunk within 10 minutes and dinner within 45 minutes of arrival. We ate and drank and talked for most of the evening.
We found some rhythm today and the daily rituals began to emerge…fruit salad, yoghurt, granola and maple syrup for breakfast, emptying the wastewater before setting off on the road, hooking up to fresh water and electricity, beer and chips (i.e. crisps) on arrival to our evening campsite, Lucy’s ipod playlists filling the airwaves in the van in the evening and the daily chores in the RV (note Ryan and Malkie cleaning up after breakfast).
3.57am seems like a long time ago. It’s been a long day but slowly and surely as we inch our way across this vast country we’re finding our rhythm.
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