Meet Gracie. A 2021 Forest River r-pod R202. We got her at Dave’s RV. Hubs had done research and determined that the r-pod would be a nice size for us and three dogs. You see, we wanted to see our grandkids cos it’s been over two years. COVID pandemic and all.. We were not going to fly. WE thought and thought and finally decided — Road Trip! It was the only way to take our dogs too. We’ve enjoyed being home with them. And Max is a Lab with issues. But that is for a different post.

Anywho, as we looked at other campers (or do you call them rvs or travel trailers?) on the lot at Dave’s, they all felt too small, poorly configured, or just not for us. One step into Gracie’s energy and we knew. This was the one. She had had one owner. And now, she is ours.

We are traveling across the country with 3 dogs while pulling a travel trailer. For so long I kept saying ‘No” let’s not buy a travel trailer. At the time there was no remote work. I commuted at least 2 hours a day and was pretty exhausted by the time I got home. The rest of my evenings were spent cooking, cleaning up, trying to grab a moment of quiet time for myself and taking care of dogs.

We now have remote work/telework/WFH(work from home) and I just gained two hours in my day, not to mention the opportunities to take three minutes during the day to load the washer or switch loads or 10 minutes to fold and put away. My work did not suffer at all during this time, in fact, by allowing myself to take care of necessary tasks, my anxiety level dropped significantly. It dropped again since I did not have to worry about whether my dogs were ok or should I have left them in the house because it’s raining or the temperature dropped.

I digress. Travel is the subject of this post.

Today we drove to Dallas to get a camper shell installed on Big Blue. It is about a five-hour drive one way. We took the dogs. Sigh. Portia π is a great traveler. She gets comfy and settles in. Suzy does pretty well though she does like her pets as she rides. Max. Well Max has high anxiety. Whines and stress yawns. I’d like to say he’s doing well with “settle.” I cannot say that. Yet. He is better though.

On one part of the journey home, there was smoke hovering over a lake. It reminded me of “Smoke on the Water.” Who did that song, Hubs asked. Looked it up since I’m pretty terrible at that trivia. Deep Purple. Play it, he said. Towards the end of the song, Max freaked out. High alert and trembles. It took a bit to calm him down. Never did understand what triggered that reaction.

All in all our first long trip with dogs went fairly well.

This blog began as a project for a class as I was getting my Master’s Degree. I posted some about classes and other daily life. And then I graduated. And then I got a promotion.

Fast forward to COVID. March 2020 work went virtual. Forboth Hubs and me.  It was an easy adjustment for me. I’m an introverted recluse. My work, from any office, is conducted primarily by phone, text, chat or video chat. So the switch was pretty easy.

Fast forward again. We’re still dealing with COVID in a different way. We still work from home. We still stay home a lot. And we have not seen our grandkids in two years. UGH!!!

So this is the year of the travel trailer. Rather than fly to the Seattle area, or drive and have to stay in motels, we bought a 2021 Forest River R-pod R-202.