The trip to everywhere
Evening, Campers! It’s Silver Cliche’ here with you tonight writing from home in Vero Beach.
It’s looking like we will shove off in 30 days. So, it seems time to offer some insight to the preparations that are underway and a preview of the trip.
It was almost six and a half years ago that we bought the Airstream. We’ve made some enhancements over the years and that’s enhanced our comfort and convenience when living the trailer. However, we’ve always kept an eye on being able to return to the original, factory configuration. This year we’ve pretty much dropped the restoration clause. In a real sense we are making the Cliche’ our own now.
I wrote from Lewisville about the battery system upgrade. It’s a great addition to allow us to live off grid. That’s the major mechanical system enhancement. Other upgrades are for livability. We’ve dumped (literally!) the RV queen sized mattress from the original design in favor of a full sized queen from Nectar. Those of you who are not RVers may not know that the “RV” in RV queen means it’s too short and too thin for a good night sleep. In the years we’ve been traveling in the Cliche’ we lost our 35 pound Wheaten Terrier, Kailey who slept in her own bed on the floor but gained an 80 pound Golden Retriever/Labrador cross, Zachary, who believes he is entitled to the center of the bed including a pillow for his head. Now we can add “too narrow” to the RV queen descriptor. To address that point, the new queen for Mrs. Cliche’ and me has an adjacent, custom-made dog mattress that is 11” of foam 2’x6’. The smart money is on the idea that within three days of our departure Zachary will be on the Nectar and I’ll be in the dog bed.
To add comfort and convenience we’ve added a portable washer and spin dryer that rides perfectly in the shower and two new recliners. It’s likely that we’ll add a built-in dresser where we’ve had a small couch that has only ever found service as a place to drop clothes. A bunch of electronics round out the changes. Most significantly, a wireless network with a spiffy exterior antenna to connect to Verizon and a security camera to allow us to monitor the trailer and the dogs while we take excursions. Our son the techie is working on a way to store a ton of movies on a file server so Mrs. Cliche’ can stream onboard in the event the cell connection can’t be maintained in our most remote campsites.
Phew! That’s a lot of modification!
For now let me tease that our upcoming trip now has a name. Thanks to a couple of people (are you there Colt and the Gutter Guys?) who innocently asked “where are you going?”, I have a stock answer. “Everywhere”. This is going to be “the trip to everywhere”.
The plan is simple. 1. Head west. 2. When you run out of land, head north. 3. When you run out of US states, head east. 4. When you reach an ocean, head south. 5. If you see someplace that looks like where you started, you are done. That’s over 10,000 miles and over 100 nights.
Soon I’ll start giving a week-by-week preview of the trip and pics of the enhancements described above. I hope you’ll share the excitement if the prep and anticipation of the adventure with me.
Until then...
