Dallas (point 1) - gearing up

Saturday morning was an exciting time as the time had come to pick up the new Chev. It was driven to our hotel by one of the guys from Classic Chev and as he needed to return, we (he) drove back to Classic. By the way, I'm sure "Classic" was "meant" to be. Ken, Steve, Ashley and the people there have been great, but the clincher is the suburb (or city) - Grapevine. Just knew it was meant to be!

Time for me to to drive solo on the way back. It's funny and pleasing, but as I was here three months ago and drove for a week, I slipped quickly back into driving on "their" side. However, I have to get used to the length (22 feet - just under 7 metres) and the turning circle of a Mack truck. Other than driving over the kerb a couple of times, I'm now getting the hang of it.

We're using a Tom Tom for guidance and have downloaded Homer Simpson's voice for navigation instructions. Ironically his humour and the way he provides guidance has been fantastic - on the occasions I've taken incorrect turns, his droll voice and tones and relaxed "ummm" cause me to relax as well. If he's not stressed, why should I be!! After giving about 10~15 instructions, he will say "can I hear a thank you" and you find yourself responding with the "thank you". I'm sure it will become annoying as the weeks go by, but for now it's still fun.  

After returing to the hotel to pick up Grace and the girls, we drove to United RV at Fort Worth to meet with Phil and look at our 5th wheeler for the first time. It's fabulous - bucketloads of room but very nerve wracking to think I have to pull this goliath around North America. The formal introduction and explanation to how everything works is to be given on Monday so we'll return then - apparently this will only take a couple of hours.

Sunday - not much to do today other than to try to stay cool and get the body into Texas time. The weather here, in a word is HOT. For the past few weeks the daytime temp has not been below 100F (38 C) and tomorrow is expected to be near to a record 109F. Off to Wallmart in search of pillows, sheets etc that will be needed to spend our first night in the Fiver, and on our return the girls opened their Distance Ed books for the first time.

Monday, a BIG day for me as this will finally be the day I have to tow the goliath. I have had ongoing apprehension about driving 58 feet of vehicle (Chev + Sierra hitched up) up a dead end street or cul-de-sac. Anyway, Mike commenced showing us around the Sierra around 9.30 and by the time Grace & the girls had finished putting away our 16 (or so) "travelling lightly" bags plus what we bought in Wallmart, it was just after 5 pm - so much for the 2 hours and you're away!

My apprehension grew as did the time of day - 5 pm is the beginning of peak hour and if I found it necessary to have to swing across 3 or 4 lanes of freeway because of an exit.....

Grace found it most amusing to film my instructions and first attempt to connect the Chev to the Sierra - thought she might make a few dollars on Funniest Videos.. Unfortuantely for her, it all went very smoothly. OK, no further delay or procrastination...away we went. To be honest, it feels no different to pulling a caravan and the hitching up is certainly easier. Just have to remember to swing very, very wide on RH turns.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find that other drivers in Dallas courteously gave way when I was trying to change lanes. I subsequently did make mention of that to Kevin at DFW and he said it's probably due to our having Florida registration plates and we would be perceived as tourists...little do they know!

The 23 miles from United RV to The Vineyards (the beautiful RV Park we're staying in - can't seem to get away from the wine scenario) went quite smoothly except when I pre-empted one of Homer's instructions and I turned 250 metres too early. That caused us to go up a relatively narrow street, turn right and go back to the (3 lane each way) highway we should have been on. My heart beat increased when he told us to turn left then immediatley right - that meant crossing 6 lanes in about 100 metres - Grace said she felt like crying and I could feel the heartbeat through the veins in my head!

Mike (United's instructor) did tell us that size is good, so when we had a break that seemed appropriate, off we went...delighted to say, safely across and right - thanks to those who assisted us by slowing and not displaying the bird!! Drove the remainder safely to The Vineyards and are parked in a "Pull through" site, no reversing required.

On Tuesday I dropped Grace and the girls off at Walmart to do some serious shopping for all our essentials in the Sierra and I went back to DFW to have a tonneau cover fitted. Several hours later I picked them up and we needed most of the truck's 8' of length to store the goodies and return them home to the Sierra.

Wednesday (today) has been very good. A huuuge night's sleep aided by a tablet, cool weather (mid 20s) with some rain and a great chance to sit indoors for the girls to catch up on their school work.

I'll post photos later as we have a little more shopping to do. I also need to re-plan this first part of our trip leading up to the ship cruise from Seattle. Yesterday we found out that the weekend we need to be in Seattle for the start of our cruise is also their Labor Day holiday weekend - flights and accommodation may be in short supply