Now that the Sixth Trip North (TN6) is in the books, it is time to look back. First, the statistics:
- 7 hops in 12 nights
- 2,020 truck miles
- 1,577 tow miles
- $862.89 in campground fees (including $165.20 in lost deposits)
- 226.9 gallons of diesel fuel consumed (8.9 miles per gallon)
Highlights:
- No breakdowns. No disasters. Not even any near-disasters. The worst thing that happened was dinging the truck in Dumfries VA – the result of looking the wrong way when backing the truck into the site trying to make room for a visiting car. The damage to the truck is minor and cosmetic (and do we really care about cosmetic damage to a 16-year-old vehicle?). The RV damage? A scratch so small that I would have to point it out to you.
- Seeing Jett’s kids and grandchild. The pandemic has isolated both of us, but Jett more so than me. It was a relief to see family again.
Lowlights:
- While there were no truck breakdowns, worry over the state of the truck dominated the trip. The “fun stuff” of the last 4 hops was eliminated, as was one of the hops, in an effort to get to MA before anything bad happened. The start of the trip was delayed for 3 days by truck issues – fuel line problems and replacement of the turbocharger hose. Traveling will not be fun until we once again have a tow vehicle that we can trust.
- The only RV issue was the discovery, on a cold morning, that our electric furnace was not functioning. I will have to look into that.
I guess the summary would be “smooth trip, but not much fun.”
Because of the delay at the start and the concern over the health of the truck at the finish, the actual itinerary diverted greatly from the plan.
