A Day in the Life

Nick Woodland 7/28/2023

Mornings are leisurely for us. I wake up before Wendy these days, which is unusual and I like it. She used to be the first one up by hours. It is nice to see her sleep in. I go outside to the outdoor kitchen and brew up a cup of coffee. I use the backpacking canister stove and my pour over, even though I have a range and electrical outlets inside. I like the process. I sit and enjoy the cup while I look around and try to get my bearings, which is getting harder and harder to do.  

Today being a travel day I begin to pack up the fold-out table, the camp chairs, the Camp Chef and any odds and ends left outside: towels hanging to dry on the awning or any available surface, shoes, helmets, water guns, cups, etc. 

I hear Wendy stir and she comes out to make a cup of tea. I let her enjoy the cup while I begin to load the bikes: two on the roof of the Tahoe, two on the trailer tongue-mounted rack. I lock them up there. Teagan’s bike goes inside, so I wait on hers while we finish packing: clothes to put away, appliances (kettle, toaster) to store, shoes to stash, dishes to put away, guitar case goes from the couch to the bed (and later from the bed to the couch), books in the cabinets, produce in boxes that sit on the floor.

I go back outside and extend my telescoping ladder to climb onto the roof with my squeegee to clean the tops of the slides of any debris and excess water. Wendy retracts the awning. Teagan brings in the slides. Sienna and Ava get the car ready with chargers and water bottles. Teagan’s bike goes inside now…we are getting close. I can bring up the stabilizers and store the blocks, unplug the 50-amp cord if we’ve plugged in and stow it. Time to back up and begin hooking up. Safety chains attached? Lights working? Steps stowed? Water heater off? Pass-through doors closed? I check off each one on the Tahoe’s internal checklist screen.

Finally we are on the road! Oh, but wait, we have to go to the RV dump station. That takes another 15 minutes to dump, flush, rinse, treat, and top off the fresh water tank and then re-stow all the gear.

Once we are on the road, we settle in. I drive, checking my mirrors, my rear view cam, my fuel consumption and economy, my tire pressure, my navigation app, my mileage, and so on. Teagan settles in to ‘Stranger Things’ on Netflix, Ava’s on Pinterest, Sienna edits her vlogs, and Wendy books future campsites, pays tolls online, researches lesson plans and future/potential entry fees, ticket prices, and so on. Our in-car hotspot – ‘TheCooperBus’ – gets its workout. If you are ever on the road and your phone searches for wifi and finds TheCooperBus you will know we are close!

Today goes a little differently as we have planned to meet a friend that Sienna met online. Yes, it’s true. We let her cultivate on online friendship. It started with us leery and played itself out to the point where they became real friends, offering each other friend advice and supportive feedback on life troubles. When this trip idea started gaining speed she even asked us if we could maybe meet her in person on our trip. She lived in Rochester. That could actually work, I thought to myself, as I knew we were going to Niagara Falls. Fast forward to today and here we are planning to meet her family in Canandaigua, NY at a water park. 

We end up having a wonderful time with her, her twin sister and her mom. Her mom at one point asked Wendy and I point blank to tell us the story of how this whole thing started. I can tell she does not quite get it. Whenever Wendy and I are asked this, we begin a long winded recital of all the things we think people want to hear. Now, I think the best and most succinct answer would be this: ‘it was something we decided we wanted to do and so we did it’. But instead we talk about the difficulties of two parents working full time jobs, the rat race, the social calendar juggle, even the dangerous roads in Bailey without batting an eye that we now live on the road, and so on. I think I’ll try the first answer next time someone asks.

Sienna had a blast with her new friend. But of course it has to come to an end, and quickly. We still have an hour drive to our camp today.

Before leaving, as we are saying goodbye, her friend’s mom says to us, ‘Good luck!’ and then she pauses and adds, ‘Wow.’ She says this in a way that makes me feel, for just a moment, that she understands the full gravity of what we have done and what we are doing.

They head north back to Rochester and their house and their lives and we plunge on into the unknown and directly into a monster thunderstorm plowing its way north across Lake Geneva. Not ten minutes out and I can barely see the road. The trailer is being buffeted by the unpredictable gusts of wind. Trees sway wildly and red brake lakes come and go ahead in the driving rain. I have a hand on the wheel and a hand on the trailer brake control. We drive through it but have to turn south in Geneva, NY and plunge right back into it. We punch through the back end of it and the rain relents and my knuckles turn red again. 

We drive through gorgeous wine country with the land steaming like its breathing. Rain slicked grape vines, full of fluorescent green growth arcing up to reach the trellis above, flank the roadways. The lake shimmers in the late day sun like burnished metal. It is far below the road and I think it must be a deep lake. We get routed on to a side road that skirts a town. A temporary sign at the turn says ‘Absolutely No Trucks’ and that knot in my stomach comes back. I’ve begun to realize that I am best suited to follow any instructions regarding trucks. Shit.

We make it to Watkins Glen State Park by 7pm and I am worried about our site. When I booked it, there were no other sites and the online description said it was only a 30 foot driveway. My rig is 52 feet all together! Watkins Glen has narrow roads and the right turn up into the park is about all I can handle without driving into oncoming traffic to make the turn. The site turns out to hold our camper fine and once backed in – with much help from Wendy and several in-and-outs – we settle in.

Ahhhh. Breath. Relax. Feel the inertia and momentum of the day begin to subside.

But hey! the work is not done! There are stabilizers to put down, slides to put out, leveling to be done. The outdoor kitchen must be opened up and camp chairs set up, the roll-top table has to be set up. We have to plug in to electrical, fire up the water pump, the water heater. Don’t forget to switch the fridge back to electrical so we don’t burn through our propane. Open the windows, it’s so hot in here! Get the appliances out of the stow away box so we can get to the produce at the bottom that we need for dinner. We still have to make dinner!

‘Daddy? Where is my phone? Mommy? Mommy? Why does Teagan get another Vitamin Water? Mommy, I’m hungry.’ Oh boy, I think need some ibuprofen. ‘Wendy, where’s the medicine bin?’

No rest for the weary.

But there are rewards, aplenty.