Picking up Charley

Friday, May 16 — Today we brought Charley out of winter hibernation down at Pontiac RV and drove him back up to Ehrhardt’s RV in Des Plaines for de-winterizing and some other work.  Although we’ve had a few summer-like days this spring, today felt like winter all over again which was just plain cruel, for we’ve already had enough of this particularly harsh winter!

Donned in cold-weather clothing still, we easily made the two-hour drive down to Pontiac and started to pack in the beginnings of what we will need to live in Charley full-time for two years – clothing, bedding, some kitchen items, etc. We drove back up to Chicagoland were we dropped Charley off in the good and capable hands of Tim & Dave and the crew at Ehrhardt’s. We reviewed with them some of the work we want to have done on Charley including installing the Blue Ox towing system we need to use to tow our car, installing a mud flap to cut down on mud & rocks being sprayed off the back of Charley and onto the front of our “toad” (towed vehicle), installing a bike rack, and performing various other little tasks to get Charley ready for our two-year road trip. The pace of what we’re doing is now starting to pick up as there is a lot to do now in a short amount of time. Ready or not, our “launch” is just two weeks away!

Fred packing in his clothes into one of his three drawers