Kate Drives...Everyone Lives

Did you see my Facebook post asking for prayers?  Thank you for praying!!!  Your prayers for God’s grace were answered. 

Today was the day I was to drive the RV from northeastern Oklahoma to Dallas, Texas.  With four kids.  Without Travis.  Have I ever driven the RV before, you ask?  Technically yes.  When we first got the Flyer I drove it from our dear friends’ house (the Totten’s) to our house (about 3 miles and 5 turns away). 

We knew Travis would have meetings for two days over this trip.  As we discussed where he would fly in and out of we contemplated the idea of me driving the RV to pick him up from an airport.  “Sure.  I’ll do that,” I said.  “I would like to practice driving it a little bit.  Maybe I could drive for awhile on our way down to Oklahoma while you are in the RV.”  I thought that was a good idea.  I’d feel better about driving this monster with four kids by myself if I had some behind-the-wheel drivers education.

That brings us to the day before we left.  It’s Friday, 7:45am.  My kids are at my mom’s (with our house going on the market they are no longer allowed in my house).  I’m in the living room working on my Bible study.  I realize I have to bring something out to the RV.  I get out there and hear the ear-piercing refrigerator indicator telling me that we have run out of propane.  The propane is used for cooling the refrigerator/freezer and for heating the RV.  So now my food is warming and the rest of the RV is freezing. 

Travis is sleeping so I return to the living room to continue working on my Bible study and I text Travis the problem.  He’ll see it when he wakes up.  Within minutes I hear footsteps walking out the garage.  Then back in.  Then Travis is standing next to me handing me the keys.  “We need propane – like now.  And I have a conference call in 15 minutes.  You’ll have to go get it," he informs me.

What?!  I was hoping my drivers training would be WITH HIM IN THE RV!!  Plus, we had recently gotten snow!  The roads weren’t completely clear.  I was still sliding around in my mini-van.  Ughhh!  I relayed my concerns.  “You’ll do fine.  I have confidence in you,” he tried to comfort me.  He sent me on my way. 

Travis gave me three options of places I could go to fill up the propane tank.  I chose the one with the least amount of city streets and turns.  Of course, it was the farthest away.  Northfield, Minnesota…The Big Steer travel stop.  I drove 35 minutes on mostly major roads – well cleared.  All was going well…until I arrived at The Big Steer and they told me they don’t fill RV’s with propane. 

What!?!  My misinformed husband inadvertently sent me on a wild goose chase.    I looked at the time…9:00am.   The only necessary chore on my list for the morning was to get to Target.  I had to purchase a twin bed skirt and be home to meet the photographer who was to shoot photos of our home for the MLS at 10:00am.  I needed to find a place with propane, but I didn’t have time to traipse all over greater Minnesota.  I called a gas station in New Prague (a town on my way home if I take the back roads).  They have propane for RV’s!!!  Yes!  Twenty minutes later I was at the Super America in New Prague.  “Hi!  I called a few minutes ago about filling my RV’s propane tank.  Can someone help me?” I asked.

“Well, we have propane, but let me see if someone knows how to use the tank,” the cashier said.  They had propane, but all 3 women (the only three on-duty employees) did not know how to fill a propane tank.  Now it’s 9:25.  I have just over 30 minutes to get to Target then home.  Propane is going to have to wait.  I haul this beast to Target – take up the back half of the parking lot, get my bed skirt, maneuver my way out of the windy, narrow roads of the Target parking lot (who knew they were so curvy and narrow!!!), and make it home just seconds before our friend, Teri, met me there.  She took pictures then I took on the city streets toward Shakopee to get the tank filled.  I made it.  Nothing exploded.  I didn’t crash into anyone or anything.  And I got over two hours of behind-the-wheel training.

You’d think with that kind of training, today’s journey from Grove to Dallas would be No Big Thang.  And it wasn’t, until about 15 minutes before departure time.  My heart started to race, adrenaline pumping.  I had to take deep breaths…typical of me when I’m about to do something outside of my comfort zone.  

We drove for over six hours today.  For all six of those hours I only saw the road and my side-view mirrors to make sure I was keeping the RV positioned between the lines on the road.  I drove 60 miles per hour in a 75 mile per hour zone.  (Yes, I, Kate Wilson – formerly known as Leadfoot or Iron Ankle – drove 15 miles per hour under the speed limit!!)  I hadn’t even gotten to Tulsa and my right hand started cramping.  By the time we were in Fort Worth both hands were cramping.  I washed my hands before dinner and noticed a layer of black film on my palms – steering wheel remnants.  Even my jaw hurts I was clenching it so hard.

Last night Travis warned me, “You are going to deal with some wind tomorrow.  So remember, you’ll have to drive the RV more like a boat than your mini-van.  It will kind of…float.  Don’t over-correct it.”  What?!  At this point I’ve driven a boat less than I’ve driven an RV.  That tidbit was not helpful. 

After six hours of driving in the wind I now know what he was talking about.  It was so windy, the RV was floating all over the place!  Driving the RV today was a lot like driving in a snowstorm (for six hours!). In the end, nobody honked at me.  Not a single rude hand gesture (at least none that I noticed – my eyes were on the road, you know).  In fact, every time we stopped I got compliments on my cute kids or people asked if I was driving that ‘rig’ – and they said it was cool.   

Although I didn’t spend much time in conversation with my children today, I do have one cute-kid story…

Someone was hungry and wanted a snack (so everyone was hungry and needed snacks).  I offered maple venison sticks and Cuties or bananas.  Of course the venison sticks were a HUGE hit!  (Thank you Justin and Kami Ellingson.)  Taite and Calla both grabbed a Cutie.  Taite bit into his to open it.

Taite:  “Yuck!!  Mom!  Can I have an orange peeler or something?  This tastes terrible!”

Me:  “Sure.  Grab a spoon to open it.  Just this morning I read the Cutie box and it says ‘Coated with vegetable resin or beeswax to maintain freshness.’  That can’t taste good.”

They went back to get a spoon to open the Cutie.  Then Lincoln walked up spitting and showing me his cutie with a small bite out of the rind.

Lincoln: “Mom!  I do not want to eat this!  It has ear wax on it!”

That was just what I needed to help me relieve some stress today.  I’m definitely going to need a massage after this. Oh, and the weather is fabulous here.  Warm and in the 70’s.  Warm weather, a massage and some laughs – the perfect remedy to a crazy day.