My wife and I became travelers the first year of our marriage. I told Maddie stories of my adventures as a missionary in Belize and she decided to wanted to see everything first hand. So we gathered our finances, took a break from college, and went to spend a month in Belize.
Since then we’ve had something of a travel bug and have had many adventures as a result. We’re a hybrid of home bodies and nomads. We’re as likely to spend the weekend inside watching tv as we are to go four wheeling around Santorini.
With the lockdowns on borders and restriction of travel at the beginning of the year squashing our hopes of going back to Europe we had to get creative. After some careful consideration we decided full-time living on the road in an RV was the way to go.
We both have remote positions that we worked our way into to give us the freedom to travel and build up our savings. We sold our car, bought a truck, bought a 5th wheel, and were ready to hit the road after we did a few renovations.
Then we found the mold.
Lurking in the fibers of the carpet was a layer of black mold that had crept its way under the bed and into the floor. As we started pulling out all of the carpeting we discovered water damage climbing up the walls and rotted wood in various parts of the 5th wheel.
Our travel plans were set back for months as we had the damage fixed and recovered from the financial setback. After the repairs were completed we worked hard for three weeks to get it renovated and road ready.
My wife has an eye for design and between the two of us the crumbling 5th wheel looks like a home.
Things were pushed forward as the first winter snows started to settle into Utah. Waking up early one Saturday morning we avoided several inches of snow as we drove to Las Vegas. And for that week in Las Vegas it was great, the 5th wheel was ready, I had learned to tow the single largest object I’ve ever pulled in my life, and we were settling in.
Then things started breaking.
During our drive to Phoenix the hitch holding the 5th wheel to our truck bent into a snarled mess that barely held together with twisted metal. I’m extremely grateful we were pulling out of a parking lot and not traveling 70 mph an hour on the highway when it happened.
Thanks to the kindness of strangers we were able to spend the night at a saloon in Kingman, Arizona. As we were settling in for the night one of the slides broke. The large metal arm pushed against the aluminum siding like some alien creature struggling to break free from the chest cavity of its host. We spent the night cramped inside a 5th wheel we couldn’t open fully.
The next day we made it to Phoenix without any trouble, until we arrived of course.
Parking it next to a family member’s home our 5th wheel was assaulted by a large pine tree. Our 13-foot-high 5th wheel offended the proud tree and it promptly latched onto the ceiling of our home. The branches snarled into the A/C unit, antenna, and anything else it could get its sharp claws on.
My wife had to drive the 5th wheel for the first time while I walked on top holding the branches aside.
Getting it parked we found the top had been scratched and marred by the branches. Deep gouges were left in the roof’s membrane exposing the wood beneath.
Traumatized by the vicious attack our 5th wheel started leaking fluids (thankfully one of the gray tanks and not the sinister black tank…though that would come later…).
The hot water heater would no longer light, the slides couldn’t come out, the foul liquids began seeping out, the roof was no longer resistant to the elements, we couldn’t access our fridge, we had to step over our couch to access the back, and the landing gear wouldn’t lift our trailer.
We were a single week into our journey and nothing that broke was related to the things that had been fixed.
And after spending $200 on a new motor for the landing gear we discovered the reason it wouldn’t lift is that the stabilizers in the back were down. Basically our landing gear was trying to lift the entire 16 thousand pounds of the trailer because it couldn’t rotate in the back like a seesaw. No wonder it wouldn’t work.
Then the foul smelling waters started seeping out.
At this point I think both Maddie and I were considering abandoning the entire idea. We’d put far too much money into the trailer already and things were breaking down all over the place. We were tired, frustrated, behind on work, I was growing behind on my writing, and we were stressed beyond belief.
But we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. We did research on what we could fix and Maddie scheduled appointments for what we couldn’t do. We both worked hard to catch up on work and get some finances rolling in while we purchased parts to replace or band-aid solve things.
As this post comes out we have a perfectly functioning hitch, the water heater is working again, we’ve managed to hold back the black waters with a new exterior valve, and repairs to the roof and other parts of the 5th wheel are under way.
I think the reason Maddie and I are weathering this as well as we are is because it’s not our first foray into the unknown. This isn’t the first time we had a hairbrained idea, did enough research to get started, and then jumped in without quite knowing what we were getting into.
In the last couple of weeks I understand more about my home and how it functions than I would if we lived in a simple townhome in southern Utah. If the water heater goes out again I know how to fix it, if something goes wrong with the landing gear I know what to check for and how to replace the broken components.
The unknown is terrifying, as a fan of dark fiction and horror it’s something I’ve studied and enjoyed time and time again. It’s a concept I’m trying to master in my own fiction. But from personal experience I know that while the unknown is scary, it can hold tremendous rewards for those who preserver.
We could have stayed in Utah. Used our finances to rent out an apartment or put down money on a house somewhere. At this point it certainly sounds less stressful and would have been cheaper.
But we wouldn’t have learned all these things over the past couple of weeks. The little skills and knowledge that comes from building a desk or taking apart a reduction gearbox. We wouldn’t have had great burgers at a saloon in Arizona, bonding even more as a couple during the long drives, driven the Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas, or visited the Farmer’s Market in Phoenix where we had amazing pizza and a mini mixed berry pie.
At the beginning of the year we had no idea how to drive a 5th wheel, how the different parts worked, where we were going, how we could afford it, or what we were going to do if something went wrong. Now we’ve driven it across two states, learned how things work, found ways to raise the money, and discovered that we lean on each other, trust in God, and roll up our sleeves when things go wrong.
I’m sure we’re going to have more problems going forward and I’m going to have a far more in-depth understanding of this home than I ever cared to. But I also know we’re going to see and experience things we’d never be able to sitting on a couch in an apartment that we’d be renting.
We still don’t fully have an idea of where we’re going. But honestly that’s half the fun.
