Day 0: A year of planning out the window!

Goooood morning, Campers! 

It’s Silver Cliche’ here with you again. It’s 8 AM Saturday as I start to write this and today is supposed to be Day 1 of the “trip to everywhere” (formerly known as MOART 2021... the Mother Of All Road Trips). But we couldn’t wait and we are already traveling. Yesterday we rolled 460 miles north to Louisville, Georgia to get a jump on the trip.

There is an ongoing discussion in the Airstream community and probably among enthusiasts of every brand of RV and every form of home-away-from-homeism. At its core, it is an exercise in introspection and a quest for self-understanding wrapped in the human need to declare one’s purpose in life. It’s as old as human migration and as fresh as the exploration of space. It was immortalized in the question posed to George Mallory before his ill-fated attempt to reach the summit of Mt. Everest in 1924. “Why are you going there?”. Among RV’ers, the simplest breakdown of responses creates two distinct groups. There are “campers” and there are “travelers”. The former are focused on being “there”, the later on getting “there”. Campers have somewhere they want to be. Travelers have somewhere else they want to be. When George Mallory replied “Because it is there.”, he clearly planted his flag in the world of campers. 

We threw out our plan and left a day early for a previously unplanned destination because we had somewhere else to get to. We proudly declare ourselves to be travelers! We are doing what travelers do... going places.

Those of you who have traveled with us before through these pages probably knew that already. After all, we are the only people I know who booked four nights in Yellowstone then after three nights asked “Isn’t there somewhere else nearby we could go to?”. Campers would have planned an even longer hike for their last day then cooked their fresh-caught trout over a campfire which they started with hand-whittled kindling made from deadfall they collected on their hike. We hate that.

So we left yesterday, drove 460 miles and dropped the trailer jack at 10 PM then cancelled our long-standing reservation for tonight at O’Leno State Park in Florida. I hate to disappoint those of you who were looking forward to a report on the latest lichen discoveries at O’Leno. Instead, tomorrow we will gather data on the 6 1/2 hour drive from Louisville, Georgia to Mobile, Alabama. With luck we will find a famous barbecue joint somewhere near Albany or Auburn for a lunch stop. Of course, on a Sunday in the Southland we’ll have to fight the Baptist after-church crowd for our share. 

So, what’s the attraction here in central Georgia? Well, Mrs. Cliche’s brother lives here and our dogs love getting to run free with his dogs on the acreage. Free running at home is never an option. Oh, have I forgotten to update you on the dogs? I apologize. You may recall that we chose to add “Cliche’” to our name because we are a retired couple from Florida roaming the country in our Airstream with a small dog pack. Initially that was our tiny chug (half Chihuahua, half Pug) “Romeo” and the two, old Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers “Kailey” and “Gracie”. The old girls passed in 2016, but Romeo is going strong. Joining the pack for his first long trip is “Zachary”, an 80 lb. Golden Retriever/Labrador Retriever mix. Here’s a shot of us in our campsite today:

The “photo of the day” is Zach sitting on the new bed looking out the window at the pond and waiting for the opportunity to run in the grass alternately chasing and being chased by the two Catahoula Leopard Dogs who live full time here at doggy Disney.

And his hero shot when the longing expressed in the morning shot above was fulfilled in the midday sun. Run Zach, run!

Well, we’ve got somewhere else to be and it’ll be a long day tomorrow to get there but we plan to intercept day two of our planned itinerary on day three of our journey. I’m sure it won’t be long before we break from the plan again. Adventure awaits.

Later...