Trip Two: Alachua -> Birmingham

Day two started a little rough with our previously mentioned trip to the Gainesville Tire Kingdom for a replacement inner dually tire, but once we got it installed we were set to roll out.

Our second trip from Alachua, FL to the Hoover Met Complex RV Park in Hoover, AL was 434 miles.

This trip was much smoother in that there were no vehicle issues but it was also much longer and included driving through inclement weather on rural highways and through a couple of busy city roads.

There were lots of new firsts! We experienced:

• A brutal thunderstorm near Ft. Benning, GA that forced us to drive at about 40 for about an hour
• Our first stop and fill up at a truck stop (Loves)
• Our first white-knuckle city driving (Columbus, GA)
• Our first quirky mechanical issue in that not all of the jacks fully auto retracted, which left it dangerously close to the road. I'm glad we caught it w/o any damage.
• The first time I've ever seen a kid trying to ride a motorcycle while also carrying a chainsaw during a rainstorm. Good luck!
• First technology casualty. My monitor fell off my desk and the legs broke off when they got caught in the slide out. It's now held up with a ramen box. Now that's engineering at work!

We pulled into Hoover around 8:30pm after driving for nearly 10 straight hours. I decided that was WAY too much driving for a single day. I think we've settled on a sweet spot of 275-300 miles per trip and are going to try and avoid exceeding that moving forward. Two straight days of getting unhitched and hooked up in the twilight sucked.

Hoover, Alabama was lovely when we arrived, though!

Lovely sunset and awesome neighbor Matt welcome us to Hoover

Pretty view from the table

First and foremost, the Hoover Met Complex is an amazing facilities.  It includes an enormous RV park (over 170 spots) with full hookups, lots of green space and reliable wifi.  It's also a meeting place for sporting events of all sorts, so you get an opportunity to meet a lot of really interesting people.  So far we've seen baseball, soccer, lacrosse and tennis tournaments. 

Parking easy mode

The dogs also really love it here as there are nicely forested trails and walkways all around the park.

Ronin doesn't do selfies. Too many things to smell.

Deirdre and I decided to go ahead and stay in Hoover for two full weeks in order to rest up, get settled in and get used to working in the rig. There is a nearby Target as well as several restaurants and grocery stores, so we were able to start to make the camper feel like our own.  We have a lot of work to do...

Day one of full timing was daunting. The unboxing is real

Not a Marie Kondo approved system of organization

Warning! Contents in overhead bins may have shifted in transit! I hit myself in the face with a mechanical keyboard. It's okay, I still love it

Screw this mess... let's have brunch at Avondale Common House!

Work spaces constructed. Commence commerce!

The dogs settled in quickly

Ronin has decided to start wearing Deirdre's clothes. Should we be worried?

My new grill is fully assembled and works great with the aftermarket griddle that Deirdre picked up on Amazon. Unfortunately, I can't say I recommend the Cuisinart rollaway gas grill as the pre-assembled pieces came from the factory (China) assembled backwards and requiring a bit of confused reverse engineering to successfully assemble. I was disappointed.

Got my gaming situation sorted out with a Razer Blade 15 Base, headphones, wireless keyboard and wireless mouse on a Rain stand. I can now get back to my all-important digital dinosaur taming.

Ronin is right back into his routine of demanding "RICE CAKES!!!" at exactly 8:00pm.
He's such a character. 

Hmm. Can I help you?

On top of a sweater on top of a throw on a leather chair.
As I said, professional dog of leisure

our AeroGarden herb situation is starting to sprout!

I'll post again once we get everything set up and really start to get settled in. So far we are absolutely loving our new home. See you all again soon!