Turtle Expedition 1.0

A journey of discovery has begun.

We put our fifthwheel into storage after moving out of it for the third time in a year. We then moved into the pickup camper with our stuff and cats. We did the transition at the Barnesville campground and that went smoothly.

 Our idea is that we want to go with a minimal amount of stuff we think we will need. That way it would eliminate the moving of stuff from one camper to the next and vice versa. We hate to transfer everything back and forth all of the time. So if we figure we need something for this new camper we will just go ahead and buy it and keep it in that camper. Hopefully after this journey of discovery we will be able to move just our clothes and cats.

When we got to Barnesville we had to unhook the pickup camper because we still had to move the fifthwheel into storage. That went well. Then we had to get the pickup camper back in the pickup to move into Lisa's mother's driveway. That meant that we had to get the pickup camper back on to the truck. It took us 45 minutes to get that done. You really don't have a lot of room to work with when you are talking about sliding that thing into the back of the pickup. We are talking about an inch to inch and a half on each side of the box. Also trying to back in straight so that it doesn't scrape along the side rails. We finally got it on but then it wasn't square in the front. Ugh! So I went about halfway forward and then started over finally getting it. There will definately be a learning curve on this but we can do it. I hope to cut the time down to at least half of that with more practice.

So all in all we have gone from the dealer in Ham Lake Minnesota,

to Barnseville

and then to Fergus Falls.

We leave out of here on Sunday, scratch that, Monday, Tuesday at the latest for bigger and better destinations. I promise.

Turtle?????

"So how and where do you shop for turtles? Because this is all I could find on Amazon." I said.

"Besides, he looks freaky and anatomically correct"

Never have I ever shopped for turtles so I had Lisa explain it to me. "First you have to prepare the truck. Once that is done you can shop for turtles." I must have had a dumb look on my face so she elaborated even more. "Take everything out of the back of the truck and lay down some plywood for a nest."

"Like this?" I said. "Are we getting a giant Land Tortoise after all? That would be cool."

"KEEP IT UP!" She yelled. "I'm going to slap you so hard you will have a scab on your lip so big, it will take two hands to pull off! Shut up about the tortoise! We are getting a turtle!"

"Okay, okay" I said. "Sheesh." 

We both got on the World Wide Web and searched with our engines high and low to find the perfect turtle. Most where too far away to visit but we did find some down near the cities. So road tipping we went. First stop Ham Lake Minnesota. They had a nice turtle and they where a turtle dealer. Then we stopped in Albertville Minnesota and looked at a couple of others. We went home and slept on it and the next morning we committed to the turtle in Ham Lake.

Turtles waiting for owners.

We decided on the one hiding in the back row.

Turtle getting fitted on "The Beast".

We went to the dealership in Ham Lake. They are a Lance dealer so we felt like they knew what they where talking about. We had to have tie down brackets installed on the truck. That took one day. We got there at 9 on Wednesday and got out of there at 3. They really had a problem with the install. So it took longer than it should have.  So the next day we went back to pick it up and get a walk through.

Lisa posing with the turtle.

We needed special swing out brackets because we have a dually. They didn't get delivered until that day so again we spent longer than we wanted to there. So after a total of 10 hours at the dealer we finally got our turtle.

It's turtle time!

It is a 2010 Lance 992 pickup camper. This thing has 2 slides in it so that it is pretty roomy as far as pickup campers go. We have a home, the fifthwheel and now we call this our vacation home. We are hoping to take some trips to areas of the country we have wanted to go to but didn't want to take the fifthwheel. Like the east coast or west coast for example.

We are pretty excited about traveling like this. In fact we are going to try it out in Colorado for a month or two to get used to it and to see what else we need for it. A journey of discovery I call it. Then we will get our fifthwheel out of storage and put that in storage and head south to Texas for awhile. Until we are needed in Florida. 

So it has been a busy time for us but we are looking forward to the next adventure.

Turtle Shopping?!

"Turtle Shopping?!" I said.

"I hate turtles. Have I ever told you about the time I was attacked by a turtle? It would give you nightmares for a week. I was biking in Lanesboro and stopped to tie my shoe. I looked up and ten feet away I saw a turtle with rabies staring at me. Foaming at the mouth. We locked eyes and I knew that the end was very near. My life flashed before my very eyes. It let out an awful roar and then it charged. It was the longest 2 hours of my life, but I got away."

"Besides, do you know how dumb I would look walking a turtle on a leash in the campground? Not to mention the amount of time it would take to do that. Why not get a Tortoise? At least they are land animals." I said.

" A tortoise will live longer than both of us. They live to be 150. So who would take it after we are dead? Sheesh! Do I have to think of everything?" Lisa said. "Besides, that is not the kind of turtle I was thinking about."

Re-Discovery in Progress

Well as most of you(6) know who are regular readers that we have had a difficult year. Being off the road more than being on the road. So many events have taken place in the last year and now we see an end in sight. When I say an end, I don't mean that we are calling it quits and getting off the road. No, far from it. We see an end to events that will actually let us pick up where we left off and start traveling again.

With all of this down time, it has made us wonder if we could do it better or differently or more funner(my editor hates it when I talk like that). Maybe we need to reinvent ourselves? Find our strengths and build upon them. Eliminate our weaknesses and overcome our faults. Sounds like Dale Carnegie, right? Maybe. So we disconnected from the world, went on a soul searching retreat and brainstormed for an entire weekend. In lay-mans terms, we drank lots. On a side note, I am available for motivational speeches if you need it.

This is what we came up with for reinventing ourselves. Lisa decided to stop shaving her legs and armpits, braid her hair and wear moo-moos and listen to a lot of John Denver. To get in better touch with nature is what I am thinking she is trying to do. I on the other hand went for a more spiritual approach.  I grew a goatee, bought a French beret, Birkenstock sandals and some capri pants and became a regular at open mike night at Scooby's Poetry Club and Hydrocolonic Juice Bar.

Try as we might, it just wasn't working for us.

"Your armpits smell!"

"Well your goatee smells!"

"We need to get in touch with ourselves" Lisa said. "Let's try Yoga!"

"Are you not thinking about my arthritis? My calcification in my foot? What did John Denver do to you?" I said.

I said no and she said yes. So we went to Yoga classes. I did my best but everytime I would see Lisa in the downward dog position, I just couldn't help myself.  Needless to say we got kicked out of 3 different Yoga classes.

"So, now what do we do?"

"I know," Lisa exclaimed. "Let's go turtle shopping!"