Boot Camp and Escapade!

6.26.13 – 7.6.13

Gillette Wyoming – Escapees Boot Camp

Our drive from Custer to Gillette was short and our setting up camp fairly uneventful.  The Escapade and Boot Camp were held at a huge complex somewhat like a fairground.  However it is called a CamPlex and it had parking and hook ups for thousands of rigs there. There is also rodeo grounds and many buildings to provide areas for meetings, get togethers and class rooms.  After we set up and had lunch we checked in for our Boot Camp.  There were probably 50-60 other participants.  After a brief introduction the overwhelming information came at us like a machine gun! I haven’t learned so much in three days since college. All the information was great but also somewhat frightening. By the end of that day Sean looked at me and said, were just parking it and not going anywhere!  Besides basic systems and maintenance that are needed with a rig, a HUGE emphasis was placed on safety. Along with learning about safety came all the horrific possibilities of what could happen if you weren’t safe. Tire blowouts, fire, fire and more fire, traffic accidents, etc. You get the picture. After each horrific possibility, they would tamper it down a bit and say how wonderful RV’ing is and how low these possibilities were but how you needed to know the worst case scenario so you would be prepared.

After three full days of frightening education, we graduated! Much more knowledgeable but yes, much more wary! 

During this period we got to meet many other people who are embarking on this journey that we have chosen. All but one or two were quite a bit older then us but all were friendly and interesting. We met our neighbors next to our rig the first day and as it turns out, Donna and Michael are from Arlington, TX and were only living 5 minutes away from us in a KOA for a few months while they were finishing up their jobs! We spent a lot of time with them and had a great time! They will be heading back to Arlington later on this year and we are going to get together again then. We quickly found out that the thing to do is make business cards with your personal information on them and hand them out to people so your not constantly trying to write down peoples phone numbers, email addresses etc. We will make our own when we get back to Texas.

After graduating from Boot Camp, we had one day, Sunday, June 30 to get laundry, shopping etc. done before the Escapade started. It was nice to take a breather as we felt as if we were going 90 miles an hour every day.  We also enjoyed watching as each day more and more rigs rolled in. They were almost all HUGE, beautiful and very pricey! We walked every day and looked at all of them in sort of awe. It would be easy to get rig envy but I love our fiver and the very best thing (and I doubt many could make the same claim) IT IS PAID FOR!

The next four days were as busy as the first three.  We woke up early every morning, exercised one way or the other and had breakfast then we headed out to the area that had all the buildings.  We attended more classes on varying subjects and also shopped the vendors.  After graduating boot camp we had to buy different smoke detectors (RV fires burn hotter and faster then traditional house fires and different smoke detectors are far more sensitive to that), fire extinguishers, halogen light bulbs for all our lights (pricey but so much nicer and will last forever!) and a few other things.  The evenings were spent having happy hour with our neighbors, dinner and then we would go to the evening entertainment briefly to see if our number was drawn for the many prizes they had. We never won and frankly the entertainment was for an older generation and we never stayed too long. Plus, we were exhausted!

We learned a lot more things but some of it was a repeat of what we had already learned in boot camp. One sort of sad thing we learned after attending a class on traveling in Mexico is that Mexico does not have the type of diesel fuel we need in our truck (any diesel engine made after 2007) and if we were to use it, we could destroy our engine!  Escapees host a rally into Mexico every year and we were really looking forward to attending but not if it means destroying our truck. However, the rally is set up to be about 400 miles and we should be able to do that on one tank of diesel fuel but what if you hit head winds and you use too much fuel? It was suggested to put an extra tank on our truck for that emergency.  We also plan on wintering in Rocky Point for a month or so next winter and did not know about this gas issue. The good thing about Rocky Point is that the border is not too far and we could go across and fill up but that would be a hassle too. The gas mileage we get in this truck has pleasantly surprised us. The mileage has been as high as 18-20 mph without the trailer and 8-12 with the trailer, depending on hills and wind.

At the end of the Rally there was a huge banquet.  There were almost a 1000 rigs in attendance at the rally and of course probably double that in participants.  The people who started the Escapees in 1978 are a couple named Kay and Jim Peterson. Jim passed away this past year but Kay is still going strong. She attended this years Rally and spoke several times. She is a tiny little spitfire and funny!  After the banquet we got our photo with her and told her we were second generation Escapees. Her daughter asked us to send the photo to her at headquarters so who knows, maybe we will get in the Escapees magazine! 

After the banquet we went back to the rig to get ready for the fire works.  Two couples that are traveling the U.S. but are from the U.K., joined us. They were quite interesting and I wish I had spent more time with them.  Maybe down the road somewhere….One interesting comment they made was about how many long hours workers in the U.S. work and how little vacation time there is. In the U.K. it is typical to get 6 weeks off a year and only upper management jobs work 40 hours per week. Most employees work less then the typical 40-hour workweek. I like the way they think! Unfortunately it started to rain very hard so we went into our respective rigs and saw what little of the fireworks we could from our window. 

6.5.13

The next day started early, again! We got the rig ready to travel and then we had an appointment with Smart Weigh. This is a mobile weight management program that Escapees provides (for a fee) that weighs your rig to make sure you are not overweight and that you are carrying the weight asymmetrically.  This is one of those huge safety issues that can cause all sorts of accidents and mechanical problems. (fire, fire, fire! It is now are greatest fear) Sean and I were both nervous about it though we were pretty sure we were ok.  Our fears were alleviated and we now know that if we need to, we can carry more weight if needed. Also, our truck is more then adequate to tow our fiver. Sean did a great job figuring out most of this before we ever bought the truck by doing his homework. He also replaced our tires with much better ones that should stand the load.

We traveled from Gillette to Estes Park Colorado. A friend and ex co-worker is getting married here and we decided we could attend since we were in this part of the country.  We have lived in Colorado for many years and we came to Estes once but we were not prepared for the huge holiday weekend crowds and narrow roads! They weren’t that narrow to us before but you start towing this monster and suddenly EVERYTHING is much smaller!  After a brief panic moment of whether or not we would make a turn to get to our RV park, we got here and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Then Sean had to back in, which he did with no problems and we began our usual task of leveling the RV. For some reason, we just couldn’t get it to level. Sean had to hitch up three times and maneuver the rig before we finally got it right.  I just have to add here, Sean did not get mad once! Frustrated, but never angry! I think every woman should send her husband to Afghanistan for a while. It seems to really put a perspective on life. I am so thankful for his new outlook on life and that he came home safe and sound. Besides his ability to finance our new way of life, his time there has been an eye opener for both of us. We are both grateful the opportunities and renewed look on life.

Yesterday we got up early to go out to breakfast, grocery shop and see the Stanley House. This is the mansion that the Shining was filmed at. It was beautiful but I had another movie magic disappointment, as there was no maze! I guess that was put in digitally. The we went home and did a 12 mile bike ride around the whole town. We also stopped and watched even bigger rigs make that turn we were so worried about. One was a triple pull. A truck pulling a large fifth wheel, pulling a tow car! That is crazy but they did it. I suspect they have been towing a bit longer then us.  Last night we attended my friend and co-worker from Anza Elementary wedding. She moved to Colorado the year after I left Sahuarita and met her fiancé. It worked out nicely that we were in an 8 hour drive.