An adventurous Cross Country Trip To Florida

By Rita

It all starts at our little very old but cute house. We cleaned up the house really well and loaded up the van. Our dog Frankie was puzzled about all that we were doing but he was being patient. When we finished everything in the house, we showed the house to our landlord, Janice. She was very happy with what we did with the house so she gave us our deposit back. We were very happy about that.

We left the house to go to Lisas house for the night. Next day on July 21^st, we spent the day rearranging the van and just spending time with Lisa and Bentley, the dog. One of the things we worried about on the van, was too much weight and being over loaded with stuff. So it was possible that there would be problems with the van. Our dog Frankie was having a good time at Lisas house playing with toys. He was comfortable about what was going on around him. We left Lisas house on Friday, July 22^nd at 4:00am to start our Adventure. Bentley, Lisas dog was unhappy about us leaving, she was whining and looking for us. I am sure Bentley Miss having us around.

We start driving and everything seems to be doing well. Our dog Frankie is enjoying the trip. After an hour of entry into California, The van starts acting up. The first sign was smoke coming from the engine area, we thought it was a fire but fortunately it was not. Robert found out, one of the bolts in the transmission oil pan was loose and some of the transmission fluid was leaking out. Robert fixed the bolts, tightened them up, put more fluid in transmission. We took off again slowly onto next town named Mount Shasta, stopped at a gas station to make some phone calls. We called Lisa to tell her what was going on. She also told us about how Bentley was unhappy about us leaving their house.

Frankie enjoys getting out of van to walk around area to relieve himself and stretch out. He is happy as always.

We did see a very pretty Mount Shasta mountain. There was still a lot of snow on the mountain. It was very cool to see the mountain.

After our little break to let van cool off. We took off on a long road of more mountains which was not really good for the overstuffed van. The van did a lot of shifting to low gear and starts smoking on front on some areas of travel. It was blazing hot during our travel which did not help the van at all. Sometimes we were worried that we would be stranded in middle of nowhere.

From Mt. Shasta to Reno, Nevada, it took us 12 hours to drive across due to van keep shifting to low gear. Roads there in Reno were little too weird so we just kept on going pass the town and took I-80 to next town named Winnemucca. We stopped in Winnemucca around 11:30pm after driving for nearly 20 hours. While we were driving toward the next town, the van kept shifting to low gear. When we finally arrived at the town, we went to a car dealer to find out what was going on with the van. The car dealer told us. The vans transmission is over heating due to an overloaded van. He warns us to be careful because if we tried to keep on going too quick for the van, it can damage the van beyond repair.

After the van cooled off, we took off to next town called Battle Mountain. The van seemed to be getting worse with shifting to low gear. We spend the night at the rest area. I let Frankie out of van to take a run around with me. He really enjoyed that after a long ride in the van. At night it was very windy so we were doing something adventurous, we got all things for dinner out to the picnic table and made our sandwich, pudding, fruit and ate dinner during the strong winds. It was not easy because we had to hold everything and same time eat.

We always be sure to give Frankie a lot of water. If he gets too hot than we spray water on him to cool him off.

Next day on Sunday, We left to go to next town to Elko, it took us few hours to get there because the van was having hard time going through mountains and it seemed like it was getting worse.

When we finally get to Elko, we found a campground to stop to rest for the night and let van cool off. The Camp ground had a policy of no pets on grass area, so Frankie had to stay in a tent most of the time. Although I did take Frankie out to gravel areas few times where he could walk around and relieve himself. Frankie had fun playing with toys in the tent. At first we were thinking we would leave in the middle of night but than we changed our mind and decided to give the van more time to cool off. Next day, we called Roberts mom to tell her we were planning on taking off. She said whoa hold on to your horse, dont try pressure the van to keep going on even more higher mountains. It would damage the van. She suggested we find a storage unit to unload the van to make lighter load. We searched around for a storage unit but unfortunately they were all full. We were scared that we would be stuck in a town that we dont want to be in. I suggested that we call my mom to see what she could do for us.

My mom told us to rent an u-haul with a trailer for the rest of the trip. My mom paid for the rental of u-haul and trailer for all way to florida which was very nice. We are very thankful for what she did for us. Of course we will have to pay her back money in the future when we are doing better with our budget.

We went on to the u-haul place to get the truck. We started loading up the truck from the van. Than we loaded the van on the trailer. We were giving the van a nice long break.

It continued to be blazing hot and the sun never seemed to stop shining on us. It was about 100 degrees for most of the trip before the weather started cooling down.

The U-haul truck and trailer are all loaded up. We take off from Elko Nevada. From Elko Nevada to Wendover Utah there was a lot of mountain we went through. We said to each other, going through those mountains would have destroyed our van for good if we kept on using it.

We were happy we rented the u-haul truck, although there were few problems with the truck. The floor was too slippery because it was a rubber floor that was cleaned and sprayed with armor-all. Also because the truck had so little in it, the heavy trailer with the van on it would push the truck really bad when we try to stop or slow down for a turn. It was still much better than destroying the van though.

When we arrived in Utah, We stopped at a rest area That had a nice view of the salt flats, I took some pictures and Robert got a sample of actual salt from Utah. Frankie even accidently try a little salt and did not like it. When you look around the salt land, it looks just like a dried up ocean.

When we got through Salt Lake City, we went through even more mountains and construction. All the work was slowing us down.

It took us about four hours and half to get across Utah to Wyoming. From Wyoming to Nebraska, it took us about seven hours to drive across. The drive was smooth and quiet which was good. We did stop at a KOA campground at Rock Springs, Wyoming for few hours to take a shower and nap. I took Frankie for a nice long walk too. I also had some time to play basketball. It took us 8 hours from beginning of Nebraska until we got to Lincoln, Nebraska.

There are a lot of nice rest area stops on I-80 in Nebraska.

Frankie was getting tired of traveling which is normal. So we let him out a lot when we stop at rest areas to let him walk around.

When we finally arrive Lincoln it was about 3:30pm on Wednesday, July 27^th. We arrive at my moms house. We were all happy to see each other. Frankie was surprising a very good boy at my moms house, because he a male dog he is more likely to mark around the house to mark his territory. He never did any of that at all at my moms house. Frankie was good about being patient with people petting him even he did not know who those people were. We were very happy with him.

We checked out garage sales with my mom during mornings. We went to visit my dad and my grandparents. We ate at Runza restaurant two times. It a very good place to eat. Mom also took us shopping for some things we needed for our life in Florida. We had a little party at my mom with family and friends two nights in row. First night we had grill steak and chicken dinner. Next night we had pizza dinner. We had a great time there at my mom house. After thanking everyone for all they did for us we left Lincoln on Saturday morning July 30^th at 4:00am.

We went through Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi and to Florida. It took us about 2 days to go across those states. When we got into Mississippi it started raining really hard and the closer to Florida we got the harder it rained. The weather was very hot and humid. Road crews were also working on the road in all this rain and one time it started raining really hard and all the cars ahead of us had to stop quick for the road crews, so when Robert had to try and stop the truck fast to keep from hitting the semi truck in front of him the trailer was so heavy it was just pushing the truck on the wet roads, so to keep from hitting the semi truck Robert drove the truck off the side of the road into the grass and then back up on the road a little ahead of the other cars. We finally got to  Florida on Tuesday, August 2^nd. We met with Roberts mom and dad, Barbara and Bob and were happy to see each other.

It took us long 12 days to travel. It was a long fun hard adventure for us. We stopped at only two campgrounds, five truck stops, ten rest area stops and 30 gas stations. With the van shifting to low gear, we had to make about 12 stops to let the van cool off. We also rested at my moms house for 2 days which gave us a break. We spent about $900 on gas, $100 on fast food restaurants. We stopped at Mac Donald, Hardee, Arby and food from gas station. Although we had food with us, we ended up not eating all the food we brought. Hope you all enjoy my story.