WE NEED TO CHANGE THE RV. HDT RV. HDT Rally. RV Travel. RV Fulltime Living. RV COUPLE

She broke the door. I did not. Oh this isn't a WD-40 issue? I don't think. We come in there they're gonna want to inspect us. That's right and she's gonna say sorry I can't unlock the door. Okay David where are you taking us? Looks disgusting. Two gentlemen just stopped by to take a look at underneath the skirt. In English what what were they saying? We're not sure if this is a pull through or what it's supposed to be so we're gonna circle back around. Are we a truck or are we an RV? We are a truck today. What do you do on the family farm? That was horrible. Welcome back. All right we are back in the U.S. of A. The lower 48. We are in Bowbells, North Dakota. According to David's app we're supposed to follow the water tower to the city park where the campground is. You know campground is a very loose interpretation of what this might be. Well it's not like we've been in a lot of campgrounds since this trip. Period. The last six months. Yeah. David found this really nice city park with these camping spots but they're really tight and they're not very level and we're trying to fit. There were some gentlemen that was filling up with the water and they told us about a really nice rec area that's on a lake and here it's 20 bucks and at the lake it's 10. So I think we're gonna go try the lake. Well the bad news though is we are going to be backtracking about 10 miles. So option one did not work out at the Bowbells city campground. It's very tight spaces so we're gonna go to this other spot. It's by a lake and it's a north gate dam recreation area. You know it's not a dam recreation area it's an actual dam I guess. Taking us a little bit back north so we're backtracking a little bit but hopefully it'll be nicer. One of the guys there that was getting water said that they had the bigger sites so we'll see. Gotta be flexible in this lifestyle. Get with or without electricity. Electricity is $10. Since we're saving $10 a night we're gonna splurge the extra five and get electricity. I guess so. Got our site for the night. I think this recreation dam site will work out just fine and $10 a night and 30 amp hookup. That's pretty cool. We have entered through the cab and David is going to attempt. He's tried to. Yeah so the lock, this lock, this bottom lock, deadbolt is fine. It's this top lock and it's not moving and it's not moving. It's got a lot of play in it and it's not moving. I put some WD-40 in there and okay that wasn't really all that exciting. I heard something click though. I did too. All right now lock it. No. Yeah. Well this isn't the first time someone's been locked into a camper. It's not the first time we've been locked into a camper. Really? All right well that was kind of uneventful. Two hours later we're free. We're free. Well I haven't fixed it. I've just mainly got it to a point where yes we can I think get in and out of here. We're at our Harvest Host location for the night. It's nice in South Dakota. We're unique. We're in the back of a insurance company building but it's really nice. It's shaded. It's warm outside so it's near 80 but we're in the shade and it's really nice and we're next to a diner so I don't know Saturday night I might take Sondra out. Be over there somewhere. Complex and camp. Well it says campground straight. Yeah. Well actually the signage is pretty good. The signage is really good. Yeah. Got our site. We're gonna head over. This is really nice. Look at all the nice grass they have. Oh I know. This is fancy. Do we even want to know how much we're paying a night for this? Yeah it's like 37. You're kidding. A night? Wow. Yeah. Some long sights I think. Yeah. We're not sure if this is a pull through or what it's supposed to be so we're gonna circle back around and then pull in and then David's just gonna park the jeep on the road and then we're gonna park right here where it's a little bit more level. You just couldn't help yourself could you? I know it's gonna get dirty and buggy. Well we are staying at a city campground and they actually allow RV washing. You can't do mechanical stuff on your rig. This is the Missouri River and I am currently standing in Nebraska. That is Iowa and about five miles north is South Dakota. Our stay in Nebraska was short crossing over the Missouri River back into Iowa or is it South Dakota? I think it's Iowa. So this is kind of the confluence of three states. Yes and the Missouri kind of separates all of them. My first thought is they're on that boat but it's 80 degrees outside so it's probably pretty warm out there. And one day away from getting home but in the meantime we're gonna be stopping here at this Passport America campground. Pony Express RV Park. But this is wow this is a really pretty entrance. Very scenic. Very scenic and the pond. I see lots of geese. Might have to go over there and get some pictures. A little wildlife withdrawal. Yeah so they're all on the beach there and all swimming back over there. Are you missing something? Yeah what's wrong with this equation here? I have only one other time actually used the extra that I have packed. So how many extras do you have? Two more links. You're assuming that you have two more. We didn't lose one at the on the dumpster highway. That's true. We almost lost one but a very good Samaritan camper stopped us. You haven't seen Orion yet. Literally it is I think six months almost to the day that we've seen Orion. Our fifth wheel trailer. Our home. Are you nervous? I'm very nervous. Well you know it's funny because we first got into Curiosity from the outside. Curiosity looks so small and then the other day I was looking at Curiosity and I thought gosh it looks big. This is a big unit. So I'm nervous from the standpoint of looking at Orion and thinking okay how big is this thing going to be? I mean what kind of you know monstrosity are we going to be dealing with? How big does it look now now that we've been used to Curiosity and Curiosity seems kind of big now. Yeah. So it's going to be interesting but yeah we're haven't seen it yet so we're getting ready to head that way. I wonder if this is the secret 55 footer. Oh it could be but it's not Matt Black. Not yet. Recognize some of these trailers. Andrews. That is Orion's big brother and there's Orion. Oh my gosh. Okay we are here obviously at Spacecraft. Behind us is Orion. He's so big. I'm starting to get nervous like oh my gosh am I gonna remember how to do everything. Man I mean it is it is big. It's really big because we've been used to this. So this is big but all right it's uh ready so let's and let's go inside and check it out and then we're going to start the move process again. Yeah we'll get our steps in today. Yes definitely. All right here we go. I'm so nervous. All right. Welcome home. Wow this place is huge. Oh man. Oh my god. Wow. Yeah this place is okay I this is big. I now understand why when people walk in here they look at this place and say wow this it's huge. I mean this is huge. It's nice. But really nice. Nice. Oh my gosh. Are you gonna want to get back into Curiosity and do another month trip anywhere? I don't know. It's gonna be a while. Yeah this is nice. Oh look at my kitchen. It's kind of as we left it. Yeah. With a few improvements and some fixes but now the work begins because we've got to move back in. Yeah and we don't have the grandkids to help so. It actually might go pretty quick. Yeah it might actually go pretty a lot quicker this time. Yeah. Oh yeah this is nice. Yeah let's do it. Let the transferring begin. So we first moved in here about four and a half years ago. I honestly thought there was a method to my madness and I thought oh this makes perfectly sense where everything goes but not so much. So having to relearn some things and this is making me a little bit nervous because when we start getting everything hooked up and buttoned up I hope I remember everything. Well we just finished offloading everything out of Curiosity and we're headed to Alabama to pick up Voyager. Well as you can see we are still in Curiosity. Yep nothing's changed much so we we moved everything in to Orion but after talking with the spacecraft there's a couple things that they still need to do. Yeah. And we thought it best if we weren't inside Orion. We did sleep in Orion last night. That was nice. That was really nice. I guess after being in Curiosity and Curiosity's awesome but man there's some things I sure didn't miss in a ride and I didn't realize how much I would miss them. We're gonna head to our daughters and see the grandchildren. Yeah. For a few days. Just a couple. Yep and then we're going to jump back in Voyager, our truck, and head back out to Missouri and we'll pick up Orion and then we'll be off. Start our next adventure. That's right. All right the fleet shuffle has begun. Curiosity is going to get a deserved break. A few little battle scars. We'll get that taken care of but overall did a great job and now we got to make room in our daughter's driveway. Well I could tell Jordan's been in the driver's seat of Voyager all summer because when I got in my knees hit the steering wheel but she did an awesome job taking care of Voyager. Not bad for sitting for almost uh in one place for six months. Okay well I've got the truck out and David's gonna back in Curiosity. Well you can tell we're back in civilization. Oh yeah. What's the first thing? First place we visit? Well besides our daughter's house. Yeah but we still haven't seen her yet. So we haven't seen our daughter, the kids, nothing but the first place we go to is Whataburger. Yes. Let's go. Say hi Sokka. Hi. Well it has been a little over six months since we've loaded the Smart. Yeah we're hoping muscle memory takes over. Yeah. Voyager, we got everything packed up out of Curiosity and put in here and we're heading back to Space Dock to pick up Orion and been watching David and he keeps looking down at the display. So how does it feel? I know for me I am loving this big windshield. I did not realize how much I miss this windshield. So how do you feel Yeah so it's really nice. It's nice being up high. It's nice having all the visibility with the mirrors and the big windshield and stuff. It's it's it is different. You know it's a little floatier. Yeah the air ride's nice going over those bridge transitions. Yeah the air ride's really nice and these seats are really nice. Yeah. So yeah and you know just the placement of a few things. You know the rear camera is different here than it is in Curiosity and the display setup is a little different. You know cruise control and yeah. I can't see the fuel gauge in this one. Yeah that's right. It's kind of hip but it's yeah it's nice. It's just I'm reacquainting myself with the layout of everything. Entering Missouri. First time in over six months. Are you gonna remember how to do this? Barely. Man I had to think for a second. It's uh. Well the pumps are the same. We're still using the same pumps but. Yeah but I didn't use the TSD card as much in Alaska. Yeah. As I do down here with this. Now you have to unlock the fuel cap. Unlock the fuel cap but I will say that I can let this thing flow at full power. Oh yeah. Well Voyager and Orion are reunited and of course we couldn't have picked a more difficult way to get everything hooked up. You see there's this big ditch right here so we have to come in and come in at an angle and hook it up crooked and then get out and try and void the other trailer that's next to us. You know it's absolutely amazing what you forget when you go on vacation. So we have a lock on our pin on the trailer like anyone's gonna be able to steal the trailer but um anyhow um we cannot remember which lock unlocks the kingpin. And with all these keys we cannot get the kingpin unlocked and even the key with the kingpin. Oh so I didn't see you take it off. No it's still on there. What? We have the key. The key goes in. Yeah. But it doesn't turn. So that but the one labeled kingpin. Yeah that's the one that goes in but doesn't turn. So I went and checked the truck and. Oh in case you had the key in there. Well I've got a kingpin lock in the truck. A lock itself? Yes this key works on that lock. I think they spacecraft put another kingpin on their same make and model that ours is and I think they've locked it. I think it's their lock. Oh so yeah. So we're stuck here? Well I'm gonna call. Oh darn I'm gonna just have to go back to the scrapbook store. Yeah I'm gonna give them a call and tell them and they'll get it off. Okay. Yeah all right uh all right just just just got off the phone with them. It is their lock. Oh shoo. Yeah yeah. So you're not going crazy. They got like 50 of these. Yeah I'm not going crazy. I thought I was but I'm not. So they're gonna in the morning gonna come unlock it and then we'll be free. And on our way. And on our way finally. Man. Well we couldn't have found a more challenging way to hook up on our first time in six months but we got the truck backed in and now David's going through and checking all the airlines. And the caps. And the caps. Yeah I gotta take the caps off. Yeah. So I know we did not forget to close the slide. We found as we were getting everything ready on our departure procedure we found a cabinet issue. One little item. Just yeah so they're addressing that now and hopefully we'll be on our way. All right well we got out of space dock. So far so good. Smart hasn't fallen off. Orion hasn't come undone. That's right. All is right with the world. That's right. All the gauges are reading where they should. Remember you've got a big old long trailer behind us. You don't have the jeep anymore. No kidding. It's uh it's a little longer than the jeep but there is no mistaking driving this versus Curiosity. It is so different. Yeah. In a good way. Is it really? Yeah. Really? So we had a few windy days in Curiosity. Now we're getting some we're getting broadsided with Orion Voyager. How does it feel? Oh man this is really nice. I mean it's tracking straight. I'm not being pushed around. I'm doing the pushing. Yeah. This is yeah I can really appreciate our bulk and heft. So this is when being heavy is good. Yes it's really nice. Smooth ride. I'm enjoying not hearing the dishes rattle in the back and all these weird sounds. You know I just want to keep my head stuck in the sand. I don't want to know what's gonna think. We made it to the rally and we found a parking spot. Everyone is nicely spaced but of course you know this is the first time backing in and you know we can't do it easy. We have to make it hard on ourselves but at least we have our headsets on and they're charged. So we're gonna David's gonna make a back in S-turn. Let's see how he goes. But this is a momentous occasion today. Why is that? Yeah well it's not our anniversary. No. It's because Sondra got up before sunrise. I did but it's because the event coordinator here Steve he is wonderful. He's a good friend of ours and we don't have the soda machine set up yet in Orion because as soon as we cross the border it's been boom boom boom trying to organize the fleet. Exactly. So he brought me two diet cans of diet coke last night when we went over to say hi to everybody and okay well that's what did it for me. Yeah. So we're here for him. So Sondra got up and we're gonna have a little breakfast this morning attend a couple of the seminars this morning and just kind of say hi to everyone. That's really why we came. Yeah. Just to say hi to all our friends and we realized a lot of these people we've known for over 10 years. Yeah man a long time and we didn't think we knew a lot of people here at the rally because it's been a turnover but actually we do know quite a few people. So we're gonna just enjoy a little bit of time and then off to a family reunion after this. Are you ready for me to start dumping the tanks? Yes. For our boondocking? Yes. Yes. Go work. All right I'm dumping. I love my system. It's cold and windy and you can do all that from inside. I can do it inside. That's exactly right. Well then maybe you can help me do my things. No I'm busy dumping. Supporting Stossel ways to go. Yeah. I definitely don't want to go down that road. There's my uncle. Okay well that means the mailbox is on the correct side. Well we only come here about once a year once every other year and we messed up made the wrong turn. We should have come in from the other direction because this is going to be really sharp to get in here. And there go the cousins. Oh you should. Oh piece of cake. I thought it was worse. I thought it was too. I thought there was like a ditch or something. Yeah maybe he cleaned it up. This is the right farm. Yes this is the right farm. Okay well we are boondocking at my uncle's farm and we have not run. We intentionally turned off the auto gen start for the six months and so we're going to try and run it. It's again been six months and it is not turning on. Not good since we're boondocking. No. Yeah yeah we're running at the voltage I should. It's obviously getting some voltage because it's we're hearing it trying to start. So the good news my uncle does have a 30 amp plug so if we need to plug in we can but we knew we wanted to run the generator to exercise it and this is why. Yeah I'm not getting any of that. So no error codes. There's no error codes being displayed. So David had a good idea, a good thought. The voltage sensor on the AGM batteries is actually on the one in the back and because of the 40 plus feet there could be some line loss so he's going to measure the voltage on the battery up here just to make sure that it is seeing it is at 13.3. It's reading 13.2 exactly what the other one is. Okay so well that's a good thought we just got to eliminate the variables. So here at the farm it's time to hook up. We got the 30 amp right here which is really nice. So let's get the cord and oh you gotta be kidding me. Oh man that's, I'm, wow, about eight feet short. No generator, no 30 amp cord, no problem. I'll hook up the 20 amp and with our hybrid system we can still power everything. So always have a backup to a backup. All right so what do you do on the family farm when it's a beautiful day and it's in the fall? Family walk to the closed pool on the farm is yielding forensic evidence of some wrongdoing in the pool. Who drowned who? Oh it might be a gangland thing or something. All right not Field of Dreams but it's harvest time in Kansas. So we're out there we got our chairs and we're going to watch them. All right so this is the chopped silage. It's just basically they take the entire corn stalk and chop it up in this huge chopper and you can see the corn in it and it's moist and then it'll eventually get compacted down and turn brown and ferment in about two weeks. This will be ready for dinner time. Kind of looks like one of our Asian chopped salads. So this farm's been in the family since the mid-1800s. My great-grandfather came out homesteaded it. A nice five days and yeah enjoyed it. Heading out now and on to the the next chapter.