ROLLING

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Slipping through San Franciso in the early hours of the day was a relatively simple task, despite the feeling I was driving a sixteen-wheeler, instead of a small Class C motorhome with only six wheels. The Golden Gate Bridge tugged at my heart, as it always did. The memories ... a friend who had thrown her life from it, the glories of watching fireworks there, showing it off to friends who visited, the endless trail of ships under it ... the singularity of it. It represented the doorway to a new life for me, and I crossed it with both trepidation and delight.

Heading up Highway 101 was not new, it was a path to the wonders of Northern California which I had often traveled on vacations, so I made my way to Interstate I-5 as I headed into Oregon. There was a feeling of pressure, a need to hurry, as if there were to be only the normal two or three weeks of vacation available for travel. I forced myself to stop at the fairly frequent rest stops along the way. Walking about, checking the oil and water levels, napping, making coffee ... stalling; however, soon the pressure inevitably returned and I would hurry back to the road, driving hard, my hands clenched on the wheel.

South of Eugene, OR, I left the highway to seek out the 250 acre ranch of friends. After wandering a few back roads, I found the ranch and made my way a couple of miles to the house. My friends offered me the choice of parking the RV by the house, or at a barn a mile away, which had electricity and water. Of course, I took the barn. This was my first "set-up" - hooking up the RV to water and electric. The electrical hook-up went fine, but I couldn't get the water to run through the hose connected to their water. After much frustration and thunderous curses, I discover there was a plastic cap on the connector, which I had neglected to take off! RATS!! I still have that little blue cap pinned to the wall to remind me to THINK about what I am doing before I go crazy about it.

Exhausted, I climbed (awkwardly) onto the bed over the cab, and fell into the black hole of sleep. In the morning I awakened to a rocking of the RV. My first thought was EARTHQUAKE !, but it was too irregular for that. For the first of many, many times, I found that sliding over the edge of the bed to search for the ladder with my feet, on a FULL bladder, would be a daily challenge! As soon as I had taken care of that, I peeked outside. I was surrounded by cows and calves! Some of the cows were scratching themselves on the RV, which caused it to rock with their enthusiastic attentions. That was probably my first of the countless belly laughs which were to be among my gifts on this long adventure.

In the peace and solitude of the ranch, I searched through my maps and the Good Sam Campground Directory (see link). My mind told me I was free to wander whichever way my whimsy led me, but I found that I HAD to have a goal. A life of planning trips to specific places, on a specific schedule, was too deeply engrained. So I set a general plan to drive east, stopping to see friends as I traveled, and ending up at my brother's in Roanoke, Virginia. That was a little more comfortable for me. Yet, the pressure to 'get going' remained. In less than two weeks, I left the ranch and headed north again on I-5.

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