Day 1 is in the Books

Hi peeps,

Day 1 of my latest adventure is complete! Cricket and I pulled into our campsite about an hour ago, and we're both vegging out on the couch right now. Cricket has decided to snuggle up on my jacket for a nap - that's what I get for not hanging it up!

The day went pretty much according to plan, which is remarkable, especially considering that it's still 2020! There should have been at least a 30-car pile-up, right? But no, 2020 let me have a pass today, evidently.

I had planned to leave at 7 am, and ended up pulling out of the driveway at 7:15 - not bad! Traffic was light for most of the drive, with just a little back-up in New York City. I took the upper deck on the George Washington Bridge, always a spectacular view.

I stopped for a fill-up (both for me and for the RV) in Newark. My lunch was good, but the RV fill-up wasn't so smooth. First I pulled up to a very obvious set of pumps, all brightly labeled "DIESEL". I need diesel, so seems perfect. I swipe my card, and a prompt comes up on the screen asking for a membership number. I'm pushing buttons, trying to figure out how to avoid that question, when an employee sticks his head out of his booth and yells, "Ma'am, you can't fill up here. Trucks only!". Oh. Well that explains that. He points to another set of pumps, and I head in the direction... until I see the big DO NOT ENTER signs. So I stop and turn to the guy in the booth, but he's got his window closed, and is not paying me any attention. I spend a few seconds looking around, when finally he realizes what's going on. With passive-aggressively large arm/hand signals, he assures me that I should indeed go right through where it says DO NOT ENTER.

Now, you know me. I am a rule follower. I don't like when I'm doing something wrong, and this feels wrong. Especially after I go through the first DO NOT ENTER sign, only to encounter a second DO NOT ENTER sign a few feet further along. Dang it. My instinct is to turn around and go the other way, but that's just not an option when you're driving an RV with a car in tow. So I soldier on.

OK, so I made it through all of the DO NOT ENTER signs, with only a couple of people giving me dirty looks. Or probably not. That's more-often-than-not just in my head. If George was with me, I'm sure he'd be assuring me that they were just admiring how shiny the RV and car are (Thanks Geo - they do look good!).

Anyways, I finally make it to the regular-people gas pump (as opposed to the "Special" truck pumps), and breathe a sigh of relief. It's a full-serve station, so I tell the guy "Fill her up!". He swipes my card, and says, "Your card was declined".

What? Wait, I paid that bill. Didn't I???

Yes. Yes I did. I'm sure of it.

But no use telling him that. He's been standing out here in the cold for hours, pumping gas for people who are perfectly capable of doing it themselves, except for the stupid laws in this state that require a fully-trained Petroleum Transfer Engineer to do the job. That's right. In New Jersey, it's illegal to pump your own gas. I have no idea why. I'm sure some idiot ruined it for the rest of us, and now this guy is apparently ticked off by that, or tired of idiots who try to use bad credit cards, or something, but either way, he doesn't give a rat's ass about weather or not I paid my bill. So I take the high road, and whip out another card.

And you should have seen the look on his face a minute later when he said, "Ma'am, that one got declined too". Priceless. The man was done with idiots like me who can't figure out how to pay for their gas, his face said. I seem to have been the final straw in a bad day for him, and he was totally done with this issue.

So the pressure was on. I needed diesel, or my day was going to end far too early and far too short of my cozy campsite. I started digging for another credit card, but after two cards had failed, from two different banks, both of which should have been perfectly good. I had little faith that the third card would work. I had to pause for a minute to think: What do people do when they can't use their cards? Hmmmm... something... I vaguely remember...

OH RIGHT! CASH!!

I whipped out my wallet, and had a bad moment when I realized that I hadn't gotten to the bank like I meant to. I know, I know. I can hear so many of you yelling at me: DON'T TRAVEL WITHOUT CASH! I meant to get the cash, but it was a busy week.

Now, luckily, I had $25 in my wallet, as it turned out. Rare for me to have cash, but I sold something on FB last week, so... luck was on my side. Of course, it was all ones.

Imagine how happy my "friendly" Petroleum Transfer Engineer was when I handed him a wad of ones!

So that was my big excitement for the day. Now, no need to worry about the fact that I am now traveling with no cash and no cards. I tried one of my cards here at the campground, and it worked out just fine. Evidently it was just something wrong at that station, although Grumpy Gus the Petroleum Transfer Engineer would probably argue with that. And don't worry, I'll stop at a rest area ATM tomorrow and get some cash. It's all good.

OK, well, my uneventful day has turned into a longer blog post than I intended, so let's get to the FAQ section of today's post:

Q: Where are you staying tonight?

A: At a campground just south of Philadelphia. I'm not sure if I'm actually in NJ or PA right now, but definitely one of those.

Q: What's the temperature there?

A: Not much different than home. It was 33 when I left home this morning, and 41 when I pulled in here. No snow on the ground, BTW.

Q: How far did you travel today:

A: Approximately 322 miles.

Q: How much time did you spend traveling today?

A: 8 hours, including about an hour of breaks. I took 2 breaks, and each ended up being about 30 minutes. Because Cricket had to sniff ALL of Connecticut before she could pee the first time, and then ALL of New Jersey before she could pee the second time. I don't blame her. You know I'd be exactly the same if I were a dog.

Q: How did Cricket do today?

A: Well, she's not a fan of the RV right now. The road noise is quite a bit louder than a typical car. Plus there's a lot of things in an RV that rattle and clank on bumpy roads (I'm looking at YOU, New York). But she settled in by afternoon, and now she's catching up on her napping. So it's all good.

My stomach is rumbling, so it must be time to go cook dinner. I'm planning to be back on the road around 7 am tomorrow morning, and will hit North Carolina before the day is over. Look for another update tomorrow afternoon!

Peace and Love, peeps.

Kimba.