So, we have the old Mirada all fueled up and ready to finally hit the open road. It has been about 3 days for my wife to pack everything the kids and her could ever need about 3 hours for me to do the same. In her defense she is packing for the entire family and I throw in some shirt, pants, underwear and deodorant. The kids have a backpack bursting at the seams with toys, tablets all charged up, and their excitement is through the roof. They have been looking at the camper in the driveway for the last 3 days expecting me to come home form work and say “lets go” at any time now.

 We eagerly get on the road early Saturday morning after throwing some food down our throats and drinking as much coffee as my body can consume. We are finally headed on our main vacation for the summer, it has been well deserved but it is coming with some concerns. After all we are driving a 1999 Coachman Mirada 300qb pulling a 1993 Jeep Wrangler YJ. I recently replaced the AC compressor on the Mirada and all I can think about was “did I add enough oil in the system” with images of the compressor locking up and us being stranded on the side of the road dancing through my head. Even with all the worries, I was so ready to get to the beach and start enjoying some good food and some relaxation. 

We hit the open Highway and set the cruise at a blistering 65 MPH and off we went. It was not but maybe 5 min into the trip when Killian starting asking if we were almost there. As funny as it was, I totally understand that he is just so excited to go camping. I remembered a time with my father camping around Killian’s age, there was nothing I would rather have been doing. The world was so big and everything was so exciting and peaceful all at the same time. I am so blessed to be able to share these same feelings and memories with my children.

The plan is to make it to Cabela’s in Acworth Georgia and stop for the night. As I am getting older more than 8 hr. drive in a day is just hell. The first day went smooth, had a lot of time behind the wheel traffic running pretty smooth but I could definitely tell that I had not adjusted the brake cable on my ready-brake properly. When we were in Tennessee mountains driving, we have a few hard-braking events and the Jeep was pushing the camper down the road. You could feel the brake screaming in pain as I had to give more and more pressure on the pedal.

At this point the worry about the AC compressor had faded, the worry about driving the old equipment had faded and I just wanted to stop for the night. That when we rounded a corner and seen stopped traffic on the highway……. ugh I just want to get to Georgia. Well here come the handy dandy GPS telling us to get off the highway, drive through town and we can bypass all this traffic. Thank you, little magic box that knows all. Off the highway I go, Kaitlin has a few words to say making good sense that we should just stay on the highway, but why would I listen to my wife, this little device knows all. So, off the highway I go and almost immediately we see a sign for a low bridge, as a matter of fact about 6” lower than what our RV is. We here I am, already off of off ramp trying to bust a U turn and get away from this low bridge. We did manage to get turned around, but there was no on ramp for us to get back onto the highway. So now here we are trying to figure out how to manage our way through town safety to a highway. Knowing that there is at least one low bridge in the town, I am sure there are more, we cautiously move through town listening to this stupid GPS guide us along. The boys in the background screaming and yelling as they are playing with each other, not having any idea that mommy and daddy are having a nervous breakdown in the front seats.  We are now driving up huge inclines on roads just wide enough for the camper when we come to an intersection and here the GPS say, make sharp right turn……. oh, screw you google maps. Well we manage to make the turn but my nerves are through the roof and the line of cars behind me have had enough of this Illinois RV that has no idea where they are going. We make our way down the hill and thank you Jesus there is the onramp to the highway. I learned my lesson, I will listen to my wife……. maybe.

Even with the stress of that, we made it safely to Cabela’s followed the signs for RV parking and set up for the night. The parking lot has plenty of light, nice large spots, and even had water hookup to top off your tank. I of coarse went inside and checked with the manager to make sure it was fine for us to stay the night, we got the green light. Did some shopping, bought my favorite orange slice candy and went out to make some dinner.

Now up to this point we have not turned on the generator therefore we have not run the overhead AC and let me tell you what…….it is freaking hot in the camper. So, we fired up the generator and turned the AC on high and immediately evacuated the camper, letting it cool off. We got the boys scooters out of the back pass through storage and let them burn off some energy riding in the parking lot of Cabela’s. Killian grew bored of it pretty fast any wanted to play in puddles and in the mud, Jameson being the little dare devil he is, wanted to ride all over the parking lot and ride through the mud and the water. We let them burn off energy long enough for the camper to cool and the thunderstorms to move in. We got the boys in the camper, made some freezer meal you cook on the stove in a pot. Put on one of the boy’s favorite movie and laid down for bed. That night was a lot of tossing and turning as Kaitlin kept thinking the cops was going to come and make us leave. I kept tossing and turning, just could not get comfortable without being at our final destination.

The morning came, the boys woke us up as soon as the sun hit their face. We made some breakfast, made some coffee, adjusted the Readybrake properly, I guess I should have read the directions stating it needs 2” of vertical play, and off we were again. The final push to Florida. I must say it was a breath of fresh air to wake up in the morning and feel……cold. It was freezing in the camper. It was also nice to hear the generator still running, we have a lot of issues out of the genny, usually once it runs for a few hours it dies and will not fire back up until it cools off, but not this day, it was running like a brand new one, signing to us all night long.

The next day was long with the hot summer sun shining through our large front windows baking us in the beautiful brick we love so much. We have made it to Florida and seen the gorgeous welcome center with all the palm trees waving in the wind, Killian once again asking if we are there yet and as I look down at my GPS it happily reminds me that I am no where near the beach and still have 4.5 hours to go. I respond to Killian that we are closer than we were last time he asked. This prompted him to start asking if we are almost there every 5 minutes because in his mind, if he does not ask we do not get closer.

We got on the Florida turnpike and let me tell you if you do not have a Sunpass, get one. You can go online and have one shipped to you already pre-charged. There is a ton of tolls and with the Sunpass you can go through without worry and not have to deal with it later. Not to mention you can also use it anywhere that EZ pass is accepted. We got the Sunpass that is suction cupped to the window and can be moved from one vehicle to another. Makes it easy to move from RV to Jeep as needed.

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