The Schooler's

Howdy from Cloudcroft, New Mexico on Day 2 of our RV Adventure.  We've logged over 700 miles in these first two days.  After getting off to a typical Schooler start for any road trip (several hours later than expected), we put in a really long first day to Carlsbad, New Mexico.

By really long, I mean something past 8 hours.  I didn't pay close attention when we left - trying to slip in to vacation mode quickly.  On the way out of town, we stopped by the McDaniel's to drop off an order of Krispy Kreme's (delicious).  Let me start with some of the basics.  We're rolling in a rented 2008 Winnebago View.  Ours actually looks just like the one in the photo.  For the really die hard detailed people, ours is floor plan 24J, which has a nice bed above the driver's seat, a dinette that slides out (or "1 slide out" in RV jargon), and a lot of other bells and whistles.  The storage space is remarkable.  The Winnebago folks really used the space well, and we've packed almost every square inch!

I put a lot of work up front into the itinerary, and made reservations along the way.  I used a combination of Google Maps, and RV Park Reviews to figure map where we'd go, how we'd get there, and where we'd hitch this thing up along the way.

Our first stop was the Carlsbad KOA, which was not the closest location (we had to backtrack to the Caverns today), but all the reviews we're right - this was worth a little extra time.  The family has never stayed in a KOA before.  I made my first RV trip with the Floyd's circa 1988.  I was young, and my best friend's family took my on an adventure through New Mexico.  This drive and planning brought back a lot of great memories from that trip.

Today was our first National Park - Carlsbad Caverns.   Amazing.  No, really amazing. Our photos don't really do it justice.  Luke was a trooper for about 1.5 hours and then decided he was ready to get out of the backpack and do some walking on his own.  Thankfully they have guard rails, and he only fell a couple of times.  Unlike his big sister, he does not like to hold his Dad's hand while walking.  He is a character.  Rebecca and Christy invested a lot of time in reading and learning before our trip, so Rebecca would understand a little about geology, desert plant and animal life, how caves are formed, etc.  She's wicked smart.  She was also a great guide, and enjoyed blazing our trail with my Petzl headlamp.

So, after two pretty full days on the road, here are my first observations, and some statistics for my friend Marcus (I'll clean these up with more time - I haven't put my Excel skills to work yet)... 

(1) Google Maps - totally Rocks.  I down loaded it for the Blackberry Curve, and use it all the time.  I can simply update the directions feature when I get the question, "how much further" and I get an accurate mileage and estimated time.  Yes, I have Google Latitude, so if you really want to be like Big Brother, and see where we are, you'll have to send me an invite - and I'll have to turn it on.

(2) You don't have to run the generator on board all day - just to power the AC in the back and/or watch movies.  Yes, not exactly like the days of riding in the jump seat in the green Ford Grand Torino station wagon.  That was the Schooler family truckster back in the day.  We were the Griswolds way before the movie, and we traveled all over without video games or a DVD player.  How did we survive???  Better question, how did our parent's survive???

(3) Related to the point above - liquid propane is~ $3.50 a gallon when we filled the tank back up today from the generator - ouch.

(4) We've filled up the tank on this RV three times and are averaging just over 10 mpg.  I was very happy to see 11.5 mpg today.  I'm hopeful it will get better.

(5) Christy was really smart and planned ahead a few meals so we've been eating pretty well, and making use of the cooking conveniences in this thing without having to start at scratch.

(6) Christy also had the brilliant idea of using shelf liner to help stuff stay where it should stay, and we used the extra on the counter and table to help while driving.

(7) If you're trying to sleep and you hear/feel the road bumps that warn you you're going off the road - you are instantly awake.

(8) One of the adults in our family evidently is susceptible to motion sickness.  It isn't me.

(9) I know how to hook up an RV and leverage a "full" hook up spot for electrical, water, and sewage.  Yes, sewage - fun times.

(10) Spending 4 years driving the bus at Texas A&M University continues to pay dividends.  I met Christy - yes little known fact we were both trainers for Bus Operations - and thanks to all that experience - backing this thing up a hill with a little turn - piece of cake!  The camera in the back does help a little too.

OK.  That's a pretty good start.  Check out our pictures, and for our friend's who've been to this site before, I had to scrap my old posts and start fresh.  I'll get to the "About Us" section soon, and you can expect some very witty blogs in the coming days, months...