Day 1:

Let's start with day 0: the day before:

The day before we left, we hooked up the camper to the van.  I backed the van to the camper.  In the rear-view camera I saw the kids crank the winch.  Round and round it went.  But the foot didn't go down.  4 screws later we had a cotter pin broken into 4 pieces floating in a goop of grease.  Thankfully cotter pins come in standard sizes at Lowes: "This looks about right" and "This is pretty close also"

I reattached all the pieces (it's important not to have too many or too few) and the winch is as good as new.  I also have an extra "This is the right size" cotter pin and a couple "This is a bit big but might work" in my toolbox in the camper.

The day started at 3:37AM.  This first day was going to be the longest.  The family travels well in the early hours.  Sometimes they stay awake but are quiet, watching the empty highways, but most of the time they drop off to sleep again and I get to put miles between us and home.

There was 1 exciting moment on the trip.  The highway shrank down to a single lane and it was being routed to the other side of the divided highway because of construction.  The truck/U-Haul trailer in front of me causally drifted into the cones and hit one causing it to disconnect from its base and fly up and out of the way.  The truck corrected to the middle of his lane and continued on.

We had sandwiches packed for lunch.  My wife said she and the kids picked out a good spot for lunch...

So, now you know... If you leave at about 4AM, you can have lunch at Hershey.  We parked in the first spot for RVs, went on the Tour of Hershey which is a short ride in a amusement car on a track, and had lunch.  As long as you are out of there in under 3 hours the parking is free.

We were not planning this last stop.  I didn't realize we were so close.  In fact our route took us right past the entrance.

I was in California on a business trip that morning.  I watch America go from peace to war in about 2 hours, watching the coverage from the hotel TV.  This stop was to pay a little respect to the people on that day.

We arrived at our campsite at about 6PM.  I don't remember the exact time.  I do remember that I backed the camper into the spot on the first try.  I did have to back up 6 more feet to be more level, but I got it done.  The second miracle was starting the over to make french fries.  The oven has a pilot light that must be lit first.  Push and turn the knob to Light Pilot, put a flame in the right spot, heat up the element and now we have an oven.

That, my friends, is the end of day 1.