Onward to the Goat Farm

We left Charleston on a Saturday morning in January. At that time, there was a massive snow storm dumping a couple of feet of snow. It was even snowing in Charleston. Eric took a few photos and posted them on facebook to tease all our friends back home. It was both cruel and funny at the same time. See this below? That is our snow in Charleston! :)

It was the first time we were packing up on the road, securing our things and preparing the RV for a long road trip after living in it. It took a lot longer than we anticipated - maybe twice as long. Also, there is an unspoken rule - common curtesy really, that you don't do outside activities at the RV park during quiet time. So we had to wait until 7 AM to do the prep work outside. We had to empty the tanks, disconnect all the hoses and roll up the electrical cord, take in the slide out, remove the chocks, connect to the truck and do all the checks to make sure we were road ready. On the inside of the RV there was a lot to do too. We had to take down and secure all of the decorations, the appliances like the coffee pot and air fryer, take my desk and screens apart, turn off the fridge, water pump, fan and lights and generally make sure things are secured for the trip.

Once all of this was done, Eric casually asked me to get in the truck and just pull the RV forward a bit, I guess one of the chocks was stuck and it was the last thing keeping us put. So, I jumped in and gave it some gas. I had never driven the RV before and I had a sneaking suspicion Eric was tricking me. But, since I knew it, he wasn't really tricking me, I was just playing along cause it was more fun. Hahha! Eric freed the chock, tossed it in the back of the truck and jumped in the passenger seat. He said, ok, now we can go. I reluctantly put the truck in gear, Eric walked me through all the checks as I sat there in gear, with my foot on the break, nervously waiting to move. Then, I just went for it. Hit the gas and drove that sucker right out of the parking spot, onto the campground road, around a giant u bend and out to the exit of the RV park where I promptly put the truck back in park and switched seats with Eric! It was great. I did not smash anything up, or break anything. That was a huge success - I was very happy with that and even happier to turn the wheel back over to Eric.

The ride down 95 was smooth! it was not busy on the highway and there was plenty of space for us to get comfortable maneuvering the RV. We approached Jacksonville, took the 295 interstate to Rte 10 west and were headed straight toward Tallahassee! Only 3 hours left to go. Somewhere along the way on I10 I gave driving another shot. Eric pulled over on the shoulder and we switched seats. I drove for the next 50 miles (one hour!), when it was time to fill up - Eric said, pull over on the shoulder and we will switch. Well, I was feeling all sorts of confident and said, "no, I will bring us into the gas station."

So that's what I did- pulled off the exit, up the ramp, into the gas station and to the pump! It was such a great victory. Until that day, I really didn't have the mental capacity to take on the responsibility of driving the RV. It's 13,000 pounds of steal, aluminum, all of our worldly possessions, gasoline and propane. You have a lot in your control behind the wheel of the truck pulling the RV. I was not ready to do that while we were preparing to leave - it was literally just too much for me. I was very happy to have conquered that task on the way to the goat farm.

We arrived in Tallahassee about 3 PM and still had about 30 minutes on the drive until we arrived at the farm. We were chatting and filling the time, just trying to keep our nerves in check and we took the final turn into the farm road and were met with the longest, windiest, bumpiest road in the history of the world. It took about 20 minutes just to navigate the road into the farm! I was sure that everything in the RV would be on the floor broken when we parked. LOL. Once we got to the gate to the farm, Eric put the truck in park and jumped out so we could take pictures at the sign. We were so excited and a lot anxious.

But we jumped back in and continued on, there was another 400 - 500 feet of sandy, bumpy road to navigate. Well, as you can guess, we made it. We arrived to the parking area for the farm, a very small parking area considering the size of the rv we were towing. One of the farm residents, another work camper named Cindy, greeted us and welcomed us with happiness and joy. It was such a wonderful feeling. We were excited! Eric and I got out of the truck and chatted with Cindy. Everybody decided the best short term solution on where to park our house was right there in the parking lot next to a portable pop up shed. Here's the greatest thing about that - in order to get the RV into that spot, Eric had to back that thing in! He cannot back up the trailer, it is one of those crazy overwhelming things that we could not spend enough time on before leaving to master so here we were learning on the spot. Gratefully, there was another work camper nearby named Zach who offered to help Eric and walked him through the maneuvers to back the RV up. It took about 10 minutes and the RV was in the spot perfectly! It was so so exciting. I felt so much joy that we had arrived!

While Eric was parking the camper, I stood with the farm's owner and Cindy and chatted, in those minutes I managed to step in one massive pile of dog dookie! I didn't realize it, and when it was time to go into the camper and start settling in, I tracked in all the POOP! Let me just say this, we have been tracking POOP into this house every single day since then. At first, it really grossed me out and now it is just a part of life. I am a master sweeper and mopper at this time.

A little later, Eric and I took a walk around the farm to get our bearings. We walked down to the lake and through the forest and out to the goat pen. I finally got to meet a real live goat! It was awesome. I was too unfamiliar with animals to feel comfortable going in the pen before someone had a chance to give us a tour so I just petted them through the fence. It was very cold - maybe in the 40s - so sweaters and coats were still needed.

Over the next few days, we got our bearings, stocked up on groceries and worked on settling into this location, meeting the goats, and exploring!

Then the morning came where it was time for Eric start his goat farm duties! And it was on that day - Eric became a goat farmer :)!

It was several months in the making. It felt a little surreal and pretty damn exciting! I mean do you know me - everything is exciting!

The next blog post is going to be a list of the things have done since this! I know it's a lot and I'm long winded - hahah. I have so much to share and I am trying not to overwhelm you, or me quite frankly.

Bye for now.