On Thursday evening , the 21st of May we loaded the two old dogs in the Big Box on Wheels and prepared to pull away from the house.

As we pulled away from the curb we blew a fuse. Our GPS stopped working (remember I told you that the GPS lady is not my friend….).    We pulled over 10 feet from our house and changed the fuse.

The GPS working again, we pulled out of our neighborhood and headed for I-87.     As we entered the on ramp we saw that there was heavy traffic and a long back-up.    In fact, traffic was at a dead stop due to an accident closing part of the road between exits that were ahead of us.    Too late for us, not like we could flip around or drive across the median so we just chugged along.  One and one half hours later we had gone 8 (yes, e-i-g-h-t ) miles.   At that point the traffic did start to flow and we both said “all good now”.

Uh huh.   Not so much.  Just wait…

We finally got on I-90 headed toward Syracuse at 6:45 pm.    We maneuvered the BBoW through the toll plaza and got up to speed.   Tarra ( our 11 year old female border collie) started to whine.   We stopped at the first rest stop (17 miles) to walk both dogs.  They were both confused and not ready to do their thing so back into the box we go.

On the road again.   Tarra starts whining.   We stopped at the second rest stop.   Both dogs go and we think that finally we’ll get going.

Off we go and yep,you guessed it Tarra begins to whine again.   Constant whining.  I check her over to make sure nothing is physically wrong with her.   She seems fine except for the whining part.

We drive on to the sound of her whining for a couple of hours and by now it is 10:30 so we decide to stop for the night.   We’ve spent as much time stopped as we have driving.   Tarra is still whining.    We pull in to yet another rest stop ,park in a sea of 18 wheelers, put one slide out and get ready to settle in.

We discover we have some type of electrical issue, tv’s and things won’t work.    I take a sleeping pill and wish I had a margarita to wash it down with.

We were awakened at 5 am by the 18 wheel alarm clock next to us.    Dave walked the dogs, fed them and went to find coffee because our kitchen outlets weren’t working either.     I took pictures of our first nights “home”.

As we get on the road, we blow another fuse and the GPS goes out again.    We drive to the next rest stop (perhaps I should have titled this “A Scenic tour of I-90 rest stops between Albany and Syracuse)  to call our dealer (RV dealer not drug dealer although by this time I could have used some).

Albany RV advised us to stop at Buffalo RV to have the problem diagnosed.   A  little detour but not bad and I was happy that our problems would be fixed.

After an hour or 3 they had replaced the 12 volt outlet that shorted out and figured out how to get the TV to come on.    We decide to head out because we are are due in Columbus sometime before Christmas.

Buffalo to Columbus should take approximately 5 hours.    It took us 9 because of the whine (yes, she whined the entire time and we stopped at every rest area)  but we made it around 9:15 pm.    28 hours (give or take) after we left the house.

Very happy to see the kids and grand-kids and to take a shower .

We’ll take off tomorrow evening and head through Indiana and beyond.   Either that or we’ll be camping at the first rest stop.   We’ll see.

Stay tuned……