Christmas was over, mom had mostly recovered from her second hip surgery and the weather forecast promised some brutal cold headed our way this weekend - everything said: "time to hit the road".
I had started and moved the coach every 30 days while it was in storage, but I had never tried to start the engine cold soaked in the '20s with no block heater. Luckily, it was no problem. There was the matter of stowing an awful lot of stuff that had made its way over to mom's condo over the past few months so we couldn't get a really early start.
We hit the road by noon and only had a 143.5 mile (84,352.8 total) trip planned to our first stop on our flight south. Point Mallard City Park in Decatur, AL (near Huntsville, AL) was just a short couple of hours away. We both almost immediately noticed an unfamiliar noise and spent most of the drive trying to figure out what it might be. Something was rattling in the wind or at just the right road speed, but we could not see anything when we pulled over to check. Something else to add to the "to-do" list.
Everywhere the highway cut through rock, weeping groundwater would form icicles reminding us just how cold it was outside.
You have to love the Alabama welcome center adorned with a Saturn I rocket. Quite the attention getter and much more noticeable than some old billboard or highway signage.
All-in-all our first day back on the road went well after a three-month break. What did not go well was the water situation. I learned the hard way you do not want to mount your water pump at the low point in your plumbing array. I was able to fill the freshwater tank, but we could not use city water pressure or the pump (too long of a story for the blog), so we had to use gallon jugs for water inside the coach. It was amazing just how much the lack of running water affects your quality of life in an RV. The brutal cold (teens and twenties) kept me from even considering any repairs.
Joani planned three nights in Decatur with the intent of day tripping to a museum in Birmingham to pick up a new ASTC pass. Unfortunately, the museum was closed due to holiday hours for several days spoiling that plan. Instead, we did a little shopping and just tried to stay warm!
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