2 Fat People in an RV

[Nuiloa]

For those who asked - I'll give a quick rundown of this summer's road trip.

BTW - the title is the name of the blog my brother and I started to document our adventures.

Some background: I bought a mint-condition 1998 Winnebago Chieftain, 34-feet long, with only 46K miles on it. The cost to fix it up and add a tow bar to it, plus the extras I had to repair on the road, brought the total cost to under $35K. The repairs were mainly to the plumbing (faucets and washers went) and I needed new batteries and blew a tire.... thankfully not all on the same day.

I also towed my little Toyota. This was the start of the adventure: I'd never driven anything bigger than the Toyota and have never towed anything. It didn't take long to figure it out, though. Braking on long, windy hills was always a bit nerve-wracking.

My brother (who has a severe lung disorder) flew out from Ontario, to help me drive the Beast east. We had a great time. We visited a lot of small towns in Idaho, Montana, SD, ND, WI, MN and MI. Of course we visited Yellowstone and the Little Bighorn Memorial (which, BTW, was one of our favorite tours). We also visited a bordello in Wallace, and the Corn Palace in Mitchell, and we had the best sour cream raisin pie in the world in a little place called Murdo (which has a skeleton walking a T-rex skeleton at the freeway onramp!)

Considering the price of gas in Canada ($~5-6/gal), the cost of gas in the US seemed like nothing ($4.79 in WA down to $3.39 in SD). I also took out a membership in Passport America, which let us stay at RV parks for an average of $20/night. We ate most of our meals at "home".

I figure the cost of travelling by car, plus motels and 3 meals a day, would have cost at least as much, if not more, than travelling in the RV. I absolutely loved it!

If someone would just flatten out the Rockies, life would be perfect. Man, those hills are high!

 

[travelover]

Sounds like a great trip. Did you say bordello?

 

[Nuiloa]

Yep - in Wallace, ID. Great little town!

The accounting system would put many to shame. Each "lady" was assigned a lockbox that had a slot in it.

When the customer came in, he could read through a menu of (ahem) services available and the "estimated time of completion". They even had a grid showing the Canadian Exchange Rate! The lady would then write his selection in a ledger, punch a time clock, deposit the punchcard in her lockbox, set a kitchen timer and they'd be on their way. If the timer went off before the gentleman did, a kitchen maid would be despatched to the room to inquire if an extension was required.

At the end of the night, the madam would then check the punchcards against the ledger and make sure everything balanced. A very elegant system

 

[bbbamI]

Yep - in Wallace, ID. Great little town!

The accounting system would put many to shame. Each "lady" was assigned a lockbox that had a slot in it.

When the customer came in, he could read through a menu of (ahem) services available and the "estimated time of completion". They even had a grid showing the Canadian Exchange Rate! The lady would then write his selection in a ledger, punch a time clock, deposit the punchcard in her lockbox, set a kitchen timer and they'd be on their way. If the timer went off before the gentleman did, a kitchen maid would be despatched to the room to inquire if an extension was required.

At the end of the night, the madam would then check the punchcards against the ledger and make sure everything balanced. A very elegant system

Good gawd....there are so many 'puns' in your story....I'd need a basket.....

 

[frayne]

Yep - in Wallace, ID. Great little town!

The accounting system would put many to shame. Each "lady" was assigned a lockbox that had a slot in it.

When the customer came in, he could read through a menu of (ahem) services available and the "estimated time of completion". They even had a grid showing the Canadian Exchange Rate! The lady would then write his selection in a ledger, punch a time clock, deposit the punchcard in her lockbox, set a kitchen timer and they'd be on their way. If the timer went off before the gentleman did, a kitchen maid would be despatched to the room to inquire if an extension was required.

At the end of the night, the madam would then check the punchcards against the ledger and make sure everything balanced. A very elegant system

Sounds like piece work to me !

 

[omni550]

Local News | Tourists Get A Look At Idaho Bordello | Seattle Times Newspaper

says the bordello closed in 1988 (even though prostitution in ID was outlawed in 1973).

However, they were quite civic-minded...buying the high school band uniforms in the 1950's and a new police car in 1982.

omni
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19960916&slug=2349555

 

[haha]

Wallace and Kellog were the heart of Idaho silver mining, and Kellog for many years had open prostitution. When I was living in Spokane in the late 60s Wallace prostitution was going strong.

If it is back, it's a surprise to me.

Ha

 

[Mulligan]

You are a brave one driving that big rig and car in tow up in the mountains! Something happened to me as I got older and now it is a real struggle for me to drive up in high rugged open terrain. I get this sensation of taking the car off the cliff, I know it would happen for sure with an RV. I couldn't even walk across the Royal Gorge. My brain was saying go, but my feet locked up and wouldn't move. I have turned into a wimp, when I was younger I had no problems with this.

 

[Nuiloa]

It was no picnic for me either, Mulligan. On the interstates, it wasn't so bad. I had a really hard time with the Anaconda Pass in MT. It was named after the snake for a reason. Most of the turns were at 30 mph - but that is for a car. In a MH, 30 mph on those turns is like being on a racetrack on 2 wheels! Never again!

Oh yeah...and for you RV drivers out there: Hwy 2 in WA is a nightmare - single lane, twists and turns and a 6% downgrade for miles. No wonder my brakes were burning!

 

[Nemo2]

Yep - in Wallace, ID. Great little town!

The accounting system would put many to shame. Each "lady" was assigned a lockbox that had a slot in it.

When the customer came in, he could read through a menu of (ahem) services available and the "estimated time of completion". They even had a grid showing the Canadian Exchange Rate! The lady would then write his selection in a ledger, punch a time clock, deposit the punchcard in her lockbox, set a kitchen timer and they'd be on their way. If the timer went off before the gentleman did, a kitchen maid would be despatched to the room to inquire if an extension was required.

At the end of the night, the madam would then check the punchcards against the ledger and make sure everything balanced. A very elegant system

Aw...I'm a sucker for romance...this brought tears to my eyes.

 

[Dreamer]

I agree with Mulligan that you are indeed a brave one. I could not do it either. Sounds like you had a fantastic trip.

 

[stargazer08]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who has an acquired aversion to mountainous winding roads. I can't imagine doing them in an RV towing a car!

Hubby and I just completed a 5011 mile 11 day 10 state road trip from southern Illinois to San Francisco and back. I firmly believe seat belts were made to keep people like me from scrambling in their seats while going down winding mountain roads with no guardrails. I have never felt the sheer terror like I did on Rt. 120 heading east out of Yosemite smelling the burning brakes. Thank gawd we only hauled the U-Haul trailer to SF. It probably didn't help that the first day driving we had a pick-up truck in front of us blow a front tire while going 75mph in Nebraska. It fishtailed left the road and flipped. Thankfully nobody was hurt. All I could think about on the downhill mountain roads was blowing out a tire and going over the edge down the 2000+ foot sheer drop.

Kudos to you Nuiloa for driving a beast like that through mountain roads.

 

[winger]

We spent a night in Wallace a couple weeks ago. We were on our way to Glacier National Park. I would have stayed to check out the town, but DW has become obsessed with reservations this trip. She currently has reservations at each of the next 3 stops on the way back to Texas. It's hard on the driver/mechanic/daydreamer.

Love the ranger presentation at Little Big Horn.

 

[REWahoo]

We drove up the Moki Dugway on our current RV trip (the RV wasn't attached at the time ). DW refused to ride back down, so we took the long way home adding 50 miles to the trip. On the positive side, we were able to visit the Natural Bridges National Monument along the way.

 

[brewer12345]

You are a brave one driving that big rig and car in tow up in the mountains! Something happened to me as I got older and now it is a real struggle for me to drive up in high rugged open terrain. I get this sensation of taking the car off the cliff, I know it would happen for sure with an RV. I couldn't even walk across the Royal Gorge. My brain was saying go, but my feet locked up and wouldn't move. I have turned into a wimp, when I was younger I had no problems with this.

I would have been spooked driving the RV towing the car. However, it depends on the rig. With a pickup towing a 16 foot trailer this summer, goin over the continental divide, forest service roads, etc. required attention, but was never really scary or problematic.

 

[Mulligan]

We drove up the Moki Dugway on our current RV trip (the RV wasn't attached at the time ). DW refused to ride back down, so we took the long way home adding 50 miles to the trip. On the positive side, we were able to visit the Natural Bridges National Monument along the way.

l like the pictures. Unlike your wife, I have no problem being the passenger, its the driving that gets me white knuckled. Unless the driver starts mentioning he has the problem, too, then I would say lets got the extra 50 miles!

 

[Nuiloa]

We drove up the Moki Dugway on our current RV trip (the RV wasn't attached at the time ). DW refused to ride back down, so we took the long way home adding 50 miles to the trip. On the positive side, we were able to visit the Natural Bridges National Monument along the way.

My brother would have persuaded me to do that one. He does not have an ounce of common sense. I will add this to my list of highways to avoid at all costs.